Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad: "The South Shore Line"

Last revised: October 20, 2026

The Chicago, South Shore & South Bend is the railroad behind The South Shore Line, the orange interurban between downtown Chicago and South Bend, and the one that kept a passenger schedule into the present. It began on December 2, 1901, as the Chicago & Indiana Air Line Railway. Scheduled trains reached Michigan City on July 1, 1908, and Hammond on September 6, 1908. Samuel Insull's Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad was incorporated on June 23, 1925, bought the property on June 29, and in 1926 put the line on 1,500-volt direct current so its own cars could run through to Randolph Street.

The passenger trains are now the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's. The freight railroad kept the 1925 name and the reporting mark CSS. Anacostia Rail Holdings has run that freight company since 1990, with diesel locomotives. The last electric freight trip was motor 803 on January 31, 1981. Passenger service stayed under the trolley.

South Shore Line R-2 boxcab 703 with a short freight at Hammond, Indiana, on October 12, 1956. Author's collection.

On this page: At a glance · The Air Line · Lake Shore · Into Chicago · Insull's railroad · The orange cars · Freight motors · Street running · Diesels · NICTD and the freight railroad · Gary, September 11, 1960

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad, incorporated June 23, 1925. Reporting mark CSS
Predecessor	Chicago & Indiana Air Line Railway, December 2, 1901. Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend from July 30, 1904
Opened	South Bend to Michigan City, July 1, 1908. Through to Hammond, September 6, 1908
Into Chicago	Kensington & Eastern to Pullman, April 4, 1909. Own motors to Randolph Street, August 29, 1926
Power	6,600-volt single-phase alternating current, and 700 volts in Gary, Michigan City, and South Bend, until the 1,500-volt direct-current plant of 1926
Owned line, 1953	69.5 miles, Hammond to South Bend. The passenger route continued into Chicago on trackage rights
Slogan	The South Shore Line
Last electric freight	January 31, 1981, motor 803
Today	NICTD runs the passenger trains, still at 1,500 volts. Anacostia runs the diesel freight railroad under the same corporate name

The Air Line

Frank and James Seagrave of Toledo controlled the Chicago & Indiana Air Line. Their idea was an electric freight and passenger railroad from the Toledo lines they already had, west through Indiana to Chicago. The company they incorporated on December 2, 1901, started smaller than that map. In September 1903 two cars were running the 3.4 miles between East Chicago and Indiana Harbor. Grading east of South Bend stopped when the 1903 panic dried up the money, and the Seagraves' interest in the company went with it.

The directors voted a new name on July 30, 1904: the Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend Railway. James B. Hanna of Cleveland took up the project in 1907 and built it as a Chicago-to-South Bend railroad. The first scheduled piece, South Bend to Michigan City, opened on July 1, 1908. Michigan City to Hammond followed on September 6, 1908. That December the railway began calling the service the South Shore Line.

The South Shore Line logo. Author's work.

Lake Shore

The builders chose Westinghouse single-phase alternating current, 6,600 volts on the open line. William D. Middleton records 700 volts in the streets of Gary, Michigan City, and South Bend, where a trolley at transmission voltage was no place for a city. The cars carried the transformers that stepped the high voltage down to the motors. That equipment made them heavy, and the weight spent the money the high-voltage plan had been meant to save on substations. A power plant at Michigan City fed the line.

The railway was in trouble almost from the opening. Passenger revenue fell short of the bonds. Two head-on collisions in 1909, one of them at Shadyside on June 19 between eastbound car 73 and westbound car 3, brought an order for a block-signal system the company then had to install. Freight, which the early managers had left almost untouched in a district full of mills, began in 1916. The first freight motors were Baldwin-Westinghouse boxcabs 505 and 506.

South Shore Line car 108 crossing the St. Joseph River on LaSalle Avenue in South Bend on July 9, 1960

South Shore Line car 108 crosses the St. Joseph River on LaSalle Avenue in South Bend, Indiana, on July 9, 1960. Author's collection.

Into Chicago

Hammond was the wrong place to end a railroad that wanted Chicago passengers. On April 4, 1909, service reached Pullman over the Kensington & Eastern, an Illinois Central subsidiary, and riders changed there for Illinois Central suburban trains. An agreement of May 25, 1912, let South Shore trailers be cut into Illinois Central trains and hauled by steam into Randolph Street. The South Shore motor cars still stopped short of the Loop. Single-seat service waited until the wire matched the Illinois Central's suburban electrification.

W. Donald Allison, writing in Trains in May 1953, put the railroad's own line at 69.5 miles, Hammond to South Bend. The passenger route was longer because it used the Kensington & Eastern and the Illinois Central the rest of the way to Randolph Street. An August 1952 public timetable is on the South Shore Line timetable page.

Insull's railroad

Samuel Insull, the London-born utilities man whose companies already included the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee and the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, looked at the Lake Shore when its bondholders wanted out. The Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend went into receivership on February 28, 1925. The Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad was incorporated on June 23, 1925. The closing was June 29, 1925. Insull's group took the construction debt from the Cleveland Trust Company against an appraisal of $6,463,076, committed $2,500,000 to the property, and held 60 percent of the stock.

The rebuild was a heavy railroad laid on an interurban grade. New ballast, 100-pound rail in place of the original 70- and 80-pound, new ties, high-speed turnouts, and a signal overhaul came first. The electrical change was the one that opened Chicago. Through 1926 the 6,600-volt alternating-current line came down and a 1,500-volt direct-current plant went up, the same voltage as the Illinois Central suburban electrification. Eight substations fed it: Hammond, Gary, Michigan City, New Carlisle, Ogden Dunes, South Bend, Tee Lake, and Tremont. South Shore motors began running into Randolph Street on August 29, 1926.

Official 1969 system map of the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend Railroad

An official 1969 system map of the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad. Author's collection.

Pullman steel cars, parlor cars, and dining cars followed, the parlors and diners in 1927. Leslie Ragan's poster Moonlight in Duneland advertised the result: limited trains, electrified all the way, leaving Illinois Central's Randolph Street station, with dining cars and parlor cars. The railroad also fielded the Shore Line Motor Coach Company to feed the trains. Indiana Dunes State Park opened in 1925 on the lake shore the posters sold. The national lakeshore came later, authorized in 1966. Ronald D. Cohen and Stephen G. McShane tell that campaign, and reproduce the posters, in Moonlight in Duneland.

Moonlight in Duneland poster by Leslie Ragan for the South Shore Line

"Moonlight in Duneland," by Leslie Ragan. The poster sells limited trains from Illinois Central's Randolph Street station, electrified all the way, with dining cars and parlor cars.

Insull's utilities collapsed in 1932. The South Shore entered bankruptcy on September 30, 1933. A plan of reorganization was in place by early 1938, and the railroad came out of that bankruptcy still following the operating pattern he had set: steel cars into Chicago, and a freight business that was no longer an afterthought. By 1950 the freight was worth $3.5 million a year.

The orange cars

The passenger cars, the freight motors, and the later diesels are part of the company record below. The 800s and the R-2 boxcabs have their own locomotive pages for the specifications.

The Air Line's first cars were two Brill two-truck streetcars, numbered 1 and 2, built in 1903 for the East Chicago line. The 1908 interurban fleet was wooden: Niles coaches and combines, and Kuhlman trailers. A few secondhand Santa Fe coaches arrived about 1917. The Pullman and Standard Steel cars of 1926-29 took over the passenger work and were numbered from 1 in a series of their own. During the Second World War, when the company could not buy new cars, Michigan City shops lengthened cars in that fleet and added seats.

Chicago & Indiana Air Line

Numbers	Builder	Type	Built
1-2	J. G. Brill	Two-truck streetcar	1903

Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend

Numbers	Builder	Type	Built
1-24	Niles	Multiple-unit coach	1908
75-77	Niles	Multiple-unit combine	1908
101-110	G. C. Kuhlman	Multiple-unit coach trailer	1908

Chicago, South Shore & South Bend

Numbers	Builder	Type	Built
1-25	Pullman	Multiple-unit coach	1926-1927
26-40	Standard Steel	Multiple-unit coach	1929
100-110	Pullman	Multiple-unit combine	1927
111	Standard Steel	Multiple-unit combine	1929
201-212	Pullman	Multiple-unit coach trailer	1927-1929
301-302	Pullman	Multiple-unit diner	1927
351-352	Pullman	Multiple-unit parlor-buffet	1927
353-354	Standard Steel	Multiple-unit parlor-buffet	1929

South Shore Line Pullman coach 1 at Michigan City, Indiana, on August 9, 1960

South Shore Line coach 1, built by Pullman in 1926, at Michigan City, Indiana, on August 9, 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

South Shore Line combine 100 being washed at the South Bend shops on June 25, 1960

South Shore Line combine 100 at the shops in South Bend, Indiana, on June 25, 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

Those Pullman and Standard Steel cars carried the passengers into the 1980s. Nippon Sharyo then built cars 1-44 in 1982 and 1983, the order that replaced them. NICTD has added cars since. The 1-44 series is that first replacement fleet, and the table stops there.

Freight motors

Carload freight started with boxcabs 505 and 506 in 1916. Under Insull the railroad bought Baldwin-Westinghouse steeple-cabs, 80-ton and 85-ton machines numbered in the 1000s, delivered from 1926 through 1930, and one more, 1014, in 1931. Two smaller 1927 steeple-cabs, 1005 and 1006, went to the Niagara Junction Railway. Four more Baldwin-Westinghouse steeple-cabs came from the Illinois Central in 1941, numbered 901-904. They had been built in 1929. The 1000s could switch the industries and move a modest train. Mill tonnage on a railroad that still ran in city streets asked for something larger.

South Shore Line steeple-cabs 1008 and 1002 with a short extra at Burnham, Illinois, on September 24, 1955. Author's collection.

In 1949 the railroad bought three General Electric 2-D+D-2 freight motors from a cancelled Soviet order and numbered them 801-803. On the South Shore they were the 800s. The Milwaukee Road later ran the same design and called those locomotives Little Joes. Allison wrote in 1953 that an 800 could take the tonnage the dispatcher handed it and cruise at 45 miles an hour. They were freight motors. The orange multiple-unit cars kept the passenger trains. Weights, horsepower on 1,500 volts, and the disposition of each unit are on the 800s page. Two survive: 802 at the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pennsylvania, and 803 at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Chicago South Shore and South Bend 2-D+D-2 number 802 at Michigan City, Indiana, in August 1950

Chicago, South Shore & South Bend 2-D+D-2 802 lays over at Michigan City, Indiana, in August 1950. Gordon Lloyd photo.

South Shore Line 800 number 801 at Broadway Station in Gary, Indiana, in February 1963

South Shore 800 number 801 parked by Broadway Station in Gary, Indiana, in February 1963. Rick Burn photo.

In 1955 the New York Central sold the South Shore ten class R-2 boxcabs. Seven were rebuilt at Michigan City for 1,500-volt overhead and numbered 701-707. They are Alco-GE C-C locomotives of 3,000 horsepower, built in 1930 and 1931, and the South Shore shop moved the cab door to the side and put pantographs on the roof. The class came off the roster on April 19, 1976. The New York Central half of the story, and the specifications, are on the R-motor page.

South Shore Line R-2 boxcabs and motor 803 at the Michigan City shops in June 1960

South Shore Line R-2 boxcabs and 800 number 803 at the shops in Michigan City, Indiana, in June 1960. The R-2s had come from the New York Central in the latter 1950s. Author's collection.

South Shore Line 800 number 803 in freight service at Clark Road in Gary on January 24, 1964

South Shore 800 number 803 in freight service at Clark Road in Gary, Indiana, on January 24, 1964. Rick Burn photo.

Numbers	Builder	Type	Built	Notes
505-506	Baldwin-Westinghouse	B-B boxcab, 72 tons, 680 hp	1916	First freight motors, for the Lake Shore
1001-1004	Baldwin-Westinghouse	B-B steeple-cab, 80 tons, 1,600 hp	1926
1005-1006	Baldwin-Westinghouse	B-B steeple-cab, 53 tons	1927	Sold to the Niagara Junction Railway
1007-1010	Baldwin-Westinghouse	B-B steeple-cab, 80 tons, 1,600 hp	1928
1011-1013	Baldwin-Westinghouse	B-B steeple-cab, 85 tons, 1,600 hp	1929-1930
1014	Baldwin-Westinghouse	B-B steeple-cab, 80 tons, 1,600 hp	1931
901-904	Baldwin-Westinghouse	B-B steeple-cab, 97 tons	1929	From the Illinois Central in 1941
701-707	Alco-GE	C-C boxcab, 3,000 hp	1930-1931	New York Central class R-2, rebuilt at Michigan City. Retired April 19, 1976
801-803	General Electric	2-D+D-2, 273 tons	1949	The 800s, freight motors. 803 last ran January 31, 1981. Specs on the 800s page

Street running

Like a good many interurbans, the Lake Shore had laid its track in city streets, and the Insull railroad inherited it. In East Chicago a weekday parade of trains made the street a bottleneck for the town and for the dispatcher. A bypass was in service by September 1956. The photograph of 801 on the new main at East Chicago, on the 800s page, is dated September 22 of that year.

South Shore Line coach 32, a 1929 Standard Steel car, crossing a street

South Shore Line coach 32, from the 1929 Standard Steel order, stops at Hammond, Indiana on January 27, 1964. Marty Bernard photo.

Michigan City kept the trains in 11th Street. South Bend kept them on Orange Street and LaSalle Avenue, across the St. Joseph River, until the line was cut back west of downtown on July 1, 1970. The LaSalle Avenue photographs of 1960 and 1969 are that street railway in its last decade. The east end of the passenger line later moved to the South Bend airport, on November 21, 1992.

South Shore Line Train 15 at the 11th Street station in Michigan City in September 1963

South Shore Line Train 15 at the station on 11th Street in Michigan City, Indiana, in September 1963. Rick Burn photo.

South Shore Line car 107 on Orange Street in South Bend while R-2 703 switches on January 27, 1964

South Shore Line car 107 rolls west on Orange Street in South Bend on January 27, 1964, while R-2 703 switches Royal Adhesives & Sealants. That street track has since been abandoned. Roger Puta photo.

A pair of South Shore R-2 boxcabs with a boxcar on Orange Street at Huey Street in South Bend on May 10, 1964

A pair of South Shore Line R-2 boxcabs, ex-New York Central, with a single boxcar on Orange Street at Huey Street in South Bend on May 10, 1964. The locomotives are at the industry switch for H. B. Fuller, a few hundred feet back. Author's collection.

South Shore Line car 104 on LaSalle Avenue in South Bend in the summer of 1969

Chicago, South Shore & South Bend car 104, built by Pullman in 1927, on LaSalle Avenue in South Bend in the summer of 1969. Gary Allen photo.

South Shore Line line car 1100 beside a fan trip led by car 107 at Tamarack, Indiana, on January 24, 1965. Rick Burn photo.

Diesels

The Chesapeake & Ohio bought the South Shore on January 3, 1967, for the freight, coal and steel through the mills of northwestern Indiana. Unit coal trains were more than the 1,500-volt plant could feed as one consist, and the assigned power had to split them. The parent sent cow-and-calf sets and then GP7s. The railroad's own new road freight locomotives were ten EMD GP38-2s, 2000-2009, order 79633, serials 79633-1 through 79633-10, delivered in January 1981. Electric freight ended when 803 made its last run on January 31, 1981. Two SD38-2s, 804 and 805, built in 1978, joined the freight roster secondhand.

Model	Builder	Numbers	Horsepower	Order	Built
GP38-2	Electro-Motive	2000-2009	2,000	79633	January 1981. Serials 79633-1 through 79633-10
SD38-2	Electro-Motive	804-805	2,000		1978. Acquired secondhand

NICTD and the freight railroad

The Indiana General Assembly created the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District in 1977 to keep the passenger trains. The district subsidized them while the Chesapeake & Ohio still owned the railroad. In September 1984 the Chesapeake & Ohio sold the property to the Venango River Corporation. Venango was in bankruptcy in 1989. NICTD began operating the passenger trains in December 1989 and bought the passenger assets in 1990. Anacostia took the freight company at the start of 1990. It is still the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend, mark CSS, and it still handles the mills, the coal, and the interchange with the Class I railroads. In 1996 that freight company bought the Kensington & Eastern from the Illinois Central. The passenger trains remain 1,500-volt direct current, into Millennium Station. The freight on the same line is diesel.

Gary, September 11, 1960

One day on the railroad, in the pictures below, is Gary on September 11, 1960: the orange cars, the depot, the yard, and a trailer laid up at Randolph Street the same day.

The South Shore Line depot in Gary, Indiana, on September 11, 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

South Shore Line coach 17 at Gary, Indiana, on September 11, 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

South Shore Line coach 38 at Gary, Indiana, on September 11, 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

The South Shore Line yard at Gary, Indiana, seen from the station platform on September 11, 1960

The South Shore Line yard in Gary, Indiana, from the end of the station platform on September 11, 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

South Shore Line coach 30 and an express trailer at Randolph Street Station in Chicago on September 11, 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

Sources

William D. Middleton, South Shore: The Last Interurban (Indiana University Press, 1970; 1999 edition). The 700 volts in Gary, Michigan City, and South Bend. The Insull rebuild, the steel cars, and the freight motors. Car orders in the tables follow this account and Middleton's Traction Classics: The Interurbans, Extra Fast and Extra Fare (Golden West Books, 1985), as the previous page credited them.
Norman Carlson, ed., Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad: How the Medal Was Won (Central Electric Railfans' Association, Bulletin 124, 1985). Through service, Michigan City to Hammond, on September 6, 1908. July 1, 1908, is the South Bend–Michigan City opening given with that date in the published chronology.
W. Donald Allison, "The Railroad With Orange Trains," Trains, May 1953. Owned line, Hammond to South Bend, 69.5 miles. The 800s at about 45 miles an hour on a freight.
Corporate dates used here: Air Line incorporation December 2, 1901. Name change voted July 30, 1904. Streetcar service, East Chicago to Indiana Harbor, September 1903, 3.4 miles. Receivership February 28, 1925. New company June 23, 1925. Closing June 29, 1925, on an appraisal of $6,463,076, with a commitment of $2,500,000. Kensington & Eastern service to Pullman, April 4, 1909. Illinois Central trailer agreement, May 25, 1912. Direct-current through service to Randolph Street, August 29, 1926. Bankruptcy petition September 30, 1933, and reorganization by early 1938, as in the historical sketch of the Chicago South Shore & South Bend collection at the Indiana Historical Society.
Chesapeake & Ohio purchase, January 3, 1967. East Chicago bypass in service by September 1956. South Bend street track cut back July 1, 1970. South Bend airport station, November 21, 1992. NICTD created 1977. Venango River Corporation, September 1984, bankrupt in 1989. NICTD passenger operation from December 1989 and purchase of the passenger assets in 1990. Anacostia freight company from the start of 1990. Kensington & Eastern bought from the Illinois Central in 1996.
South Shore 800s. Motors 801-803, the January 31, 1981 last trip of 803, GP38-2s 2000-2009 on order 79633, and retirement of the 700s on April 19, 1976. R-motors: ten New York Central R-2s sold to the South Shore in 1955, seven rebuilt as 701-707, 3,000 horsepower, C-C.

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