(Update: Adam St Germain posted a question about how the LS&MS route was moved. There is a lot of information and maps in the comments. Too much for me to copy. Please access the Facebook link.)
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| 1957 Chicago Quadrangle @ 1:250,000 |
LS&MS = Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, this became New York Central's main route into Chicago.
Lawrence Smith commented on a comment I made concerning a Sanborn Map on a photo of Hohman Junction: "Dennis re NW Indiana, if u can locate Sanborn Maps covering he Gary lakefront b4 they relocated the LSMS/BO tracks S to accommodate the new steel mills, I'd be impressed."
I responded with a couple of comments. By the way, Gary Indiana was created by US Steel in 1906 as the company town for the new steel mill that they built on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.
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| Comments on a share Sanborn Map link USGS link |
The topo map at higher resolution. The 1900 map doesn't go any further east.
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| 1900 Toleston Quadrangle @ 1:62,500 |
The following post was the result of that experiment.
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| USGS post The USGS link Lawrences' link |
Some maps from a link from Lawrence's link:
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| ckpcpqq comment on thread |
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| ckpcpqq comment on thread |
A more accurate, but harder to read, map than the 1889 map. The location of where the Indiana Harbor Canal will be dug is obvious.
The yellow line on the image below shows the old B&O route, and it has been abandoned. The B&O then continued West to their freight yard that was west of the South Side Steel Works. And passenger trains continued northwest to use the IC for access to downtown Chicago. US Steel paid B&O to move their tracks south.
The blue line is the old LS&MS route. It did not have to be moved to clear the land for US Steel. In fact, that route was moved north. The east end of the old route is abandoned and the west end became the EJ&E City Track. So why did the LS&MS also move? One reason is that the mayor of Gary convinced the railroads to elevate their tracks through Gary. (This made Hammond mad because a wilderness town got elevated tracks but they didn't. And they had been clamoring for elevated tracks for many years.) I agree with people in the reference cited by Lawrence that the LS&MS moved their route as a power play to get good access to EJ&E's Kirk Yard and to block B&O's access. Access to EJ&E's Kirk Yard was access to the railroad business of the steel mill.
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| Satellite plus Paint |
An interesting tidbit. (Is the CI&S the railroad that used the southern most bridge over the Indiana Harbor Canal entrance?)
Since this is a traffic magazine, I thought they might address another issue that I found. These were the days of strong opposition to giving any rebates. They had been made illegal and companies were prosecuted. In the records of the 1911-1912 Congressional investigation of U.S. Steel, one of the testimonies covers the fact that U.S. Steel's Chicago Lake Shore & Eastern (CLS&E), under lease to the EJ&E, has higher rates than the line immediately paralleling it - the LS&MS' Chicago Indiana & Southern (CI&S). It does not come out in the testimony (I think because the person giving it is a rate expert) that U.S. Steel, through its lease, has control of both lines. Why are there two different rates? I have a theory which I can't prove. Remembering that rebates are illegal, with U.S. Steel having all of this traffic to offer, if they route the traffic to the connecting long haul carrier via the CLS&E, they get a kickback on the rate. The Gary mill also sells rail and is in competition with other mills selling rail. Then it would be an inducement to give a lower rate to the railroad buying the rail so you route it out of the plant via the CI&S - which U.S. Steel is leasing anyway. There's no illegal rebate, but you get the effect as if there was one. If the long haul carrier complains that routing non rail traffic via the higher rated CLS&E gives them a lower part of the total charge, all U.S. Steel has to do is say fine - we'll ship it via the other carrier - and they can use their connections between the LS&MS, B&O and PRR to pick and choose. I'm just guessing because that is all I can do at this point, but it's all part of the odd things I have found in connection with the relocation. I want to find an article that explains why the LS&MS main was relocated when it didn't have to be. [keithr comment on IndianaRailroads]
Another side note. The first topo map I looked at was the oldest map at 1:250,000, which was 1953. But then I noticed the railroads labelled Conrail and N&W. That is more like the 1980s. That is obviously a mistake. But I could not find a way to report errors. Fortunately, they also had a 1957 map, and that was good enough for my needs and what is at the top of these notes.
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