NYC's Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad

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Fort Wayne, IN, is my hometown. So when I came across a Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad map, I had to investigate. It was incorporated on January 5, 1880, with the assets of the then bankrupt Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad (FWJ&S). The FWJ&S built the railroad during 1869 and 1870. The FW&J became part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad in 1882 and then part of the New York Central. (Wikipedia, AbandonedRails)

I remember as a kid seeing a NYC locomotive on static display when we went to Lawton Park to swim. This surprised me because I thought the railroads that went through Fort Wayne were the Pennsylvania, Nickel Plate, and Wabash. I researched the topic and discovered that NYC had a branch that went to Fort Wayne from the mainline through Waterloo, IN, where you can still easily see the land scars and tree lines of this abandoned route.. This railroad also answers the question of what used to go North/South through Angola, IN. And why there is a NYC caboose that is preserved a little east of Angola (above picture). This remnant is now part of Indiana Northeastern.

I remember the bridge that used to cross State Street in Fort Wayne and the crossing gates on Coliseum Blvd. (IN-930). That crossing lasted longer than the one across Washington Center Road because of the industrial park that is north of Coliseum Blvd. From AbandonedRail we learn:

This line was abandoned in two segments. The first was between Waterloo and Steubenville. The NYC removed the diamond at Waterloo in mid-1960s just before the Penn Central merger. The remainder of the line was abandoned by Penn Central, with the tracks being removed in the early 1970s. Only small parts of the line in downtown Fort Wayne were used for local traffic until the end of Conrail. Finally, Norfolk Southern abandoned the rest and pulled the tracks right after the split of Conrail property between NS and CSX.

The Fort Wayne yard was north of 4th Street and west of Clinton Street.

Update: In another posting, Bill Nimmo commented that the LS&MS Facebook Group has a lot of photos and discussion about this railroad. " it has been more developed, especially as to the locations to the north of fort wayne such as angola, fremont, waterloo and so on."

Ron Saalfrank posted
Fort Wayne, 1868.
Stan Follis You can zoom in to read the street names at the Library of Congress version of this map! 👍 😃 https://www.loc.gov/item/73693381/