Saturday's 8:40 round trip between downtown Chicago and South Bend.

Will you have to be bused through the new bypass and ride trains on each side?

@Number 90 posted:

Will you have to be bused through the new bypass and ride trains on each side?

Tom,

Today (Sunday) is the last day passengers will be on steel wheels all the way for quite some time.  The double track work begins tomorrow and buses will be used for a portion of the route.  Yesterday we boarded at Hammond, Indiana and rode in the car with the docent.  Interesting.  We had the half hour layover in South Bend and returned to Hammond.  Both ways we noticed photographers capturing the moment.  Not a big deal on the national scene, but it will improve service and times in northern, Indiana. 

John

It seems like its been a lifetime since I rode the South Shore

John M.

Years ago I attended the retirement celebration for my major professor and mentor at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI. Inasmuch as I'm a railfan, I decided to make the trip from Chicago to South Bend (and return) via the South Shore. I  rented a car at the South Bend Airport for the "last leg" of the trip to Berrien Springs. I was surprised that the South Shore still hung the catenary along portions of the route from trackside telephone poles, not steel stanchions.  Functional, but frumpy.

That pleasant trip brought back memories of undergrad days at AU in the late 1950s when fraternity brothers and I frolicked at Indiana Dunes State Park.  When I attended a Stan Kenton concert in South Bend in those days, the South Shore terminus was in downtown South Bend; in the middle of a street as I recall.  Now the terminus is at the South Bend Airport.

Mike M.

Last summer I took the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago for a railfan weekend. I took the Wolverine to Michigan City, then Uber'ed over to Carroll St station for CSS&SB back to Chi-town. It was great doing the street running, But I did notice all the signs on houses and building bought to rebuild the line.

Thanks for this post.  It brought back fond memories. A group of us from                    NE Pennsylvania calling ourselves the Anthracite Adventurers used to travel to NAVY-Notre Dame football games via Amtrak (in older times in private varnish) to Chicago.  After a day of enjoying the big Midwest city we arose early and walked to Randolf St. and rode the South Shore to South Bend for the game on Saturday. Once we returned to Chicago on the same route for a Sunday Bears game.  The ride, especially the street running, the was one of the highlights of our sojourn. I do miss those trips.  I did, however, ride it to and from a game since then with my wife when she was in Chicago for a professional seminar. Perhaps I'll return someday.

I recommend a ride on the one-of-a-kind, colorful South Shore to any railfan's bucket list.

Earl   

Fond memories for me commuting on the South Shore from Miller to Randolph back in the '90s. Great conductor on the last train of the night out of Randolph. "Hegewisch. Hegewisch next. Hegewisch. Hegewisch." He'd wake me up if I had nodded off before Miller. I'd give him some auto racing magazines for his son.

He was working, and I was commuting to Chicago, on the first revenue train that ran over the new track arrangement that replaced the gauntlet bridge where two trains had collided in January 1993.

I'm hazy on the details close to 30 years later - one night the last train out from Randolph was annulled - mechanical problems? I think we were at Hammond. We got off the train. Don't remember if they fixed whatever the issue was, or sent another train.

Never took the train in the other direction. A shame.

David

Back in the late 1970's, I made a trip to Chicago to photograph trains, and included a ride on the South Shore, out to Hammond, to take photos at State Line Interlocking.  I also shot some slides of the orange, steel, South Sore cars there.  The prize of that day was finding a South Shore Little Joe, switching -- yes, switching -- in the yard.

I knew that it would be my last classic interurban ride, with the gear noise under the floor and all.  But, even though the original equipment is all gone, I'm thrilled that the South Shore is still running, and even more thrilled that it is vital and is planning to keep on running!

Thanks for your post, Rattler.  It's got my interest up.  Next time I go through Chicago, I'll take a day to have another ride, all the way to South Bend,  on the South Shore.