CSS/Michigan City street running 9-13-2020

Give us a run down of what you saw, post pictures if you'd like...any info is welcome.
GP30M4216
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CSS/Michigan City street running 9-13-2020

Unread post by GP30M4216 »

My brother and I met up on Sunday, September 13 to capture a day's worth of action along the South Shore street running in Michigan City. Some day soon, utility flags will go up, buildings will start to be demolished, and the scenes will never be quite the same as the double tracking project starts to take shape. From mid morning through mid afternoon, we caught 6 South Shore trains, a South Shore Freight, a new NIPSCO switcher, and the horns from two Amtraks, which no one lost any sleep over missing. Here is our report.

A top of the morning swing by Carroll Avenue yard yielded most of the CSS fleet's freight power east of the bridge, with a single pair of GP38-2s on one of the sidings near the diamond....being tied down. Train 503 EB, at 10:20am was the first on our schedule.
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We caught it on 11th Street right at the historic Michigan City depot building. As part of the double track project, the existing historic Insull-era depot will be demolished, but the facade will be carefully disassembled, and then reassembled in approximately the same place on the front of the mixed-use commercial/depot/parking garage building which will rise on that block in the future. In the preservation field, we call that a "facadectomy." It's a preservation method of last resort. But, the facade will be retained and the first story will become a waiting room again for South Shore passengers while retaining a bit of look and feel of the historic nature of the station site. As the sun began to eat away at the morning clouds, I snapped another photo to detail the building.
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Next up was supposed to be Amtrak 365, the Blue Water, scheduled to hit the 10th Street diamond at about 10:30. We waited, and waited. The Amtrak train tracker was down, so we couldn't get a good update. Eventually, we decided to cruise around to scope out other possible CSS photo locations for later in the day. The Blue Water has been running with a typical consist of 6 Horizon-Amfleet cars, with a SC-44 Charger on each end. Also to note, Amtrak presently offers no service to the Michigan City or Hammond Whiting stations. The single Wolverine and Blue Water round trips do not stop at either of those stations. On the upside, hopefully the pandemic will kill the Michigan City Michigan Central depot demolition project (which was to make way for a high rise condo tower on that site). The Blue Water finally showed up over an hour late, but we missed it investigating our next query:

Instead, we noted the recent completion of a new segment of the Calumet Trail, from the county line west of town along US-12 east into downtown Michigan City. It's a wonderful new access point along the NIPSCO yard, angling directly along the South Shore interchange track behind the houses, providing great views of the cooling tower and the new switcher based there. With the powerplant scheduled to close in the next year, we definitely had to get photos of this switcher beside the landmark cooling tower before it, too, becomes a photographic piece of history.
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Our next stop was Carroll Avenue Yard, where we found the earlier sighted GP38-2 pair missing in action and suspicious squealing brake sounds from up the old NKP north of the diamond. They were rearranging cars for an upcoming freight move! I was bummed to have missed the freight units switching around the diamond site to get there. Meanwhile, CSS Train 603, scheduled at 12:20pm was next up. We caught it right at the Carroll Avenue diamond as it arrived at the platform. The last car, #106 stopped right on the diamond, making for a nice photo opt of this rear car with CSS Freight caboose 1916 in the distance in the yard.
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Next, with the diamond clear, a short five car freight backed slowly across the diamond, a consist of 5 covered hoppers. CSS 2001 doesn't yet have the roof PTC setup, making for a nice clean shot. They cleared up the diamond and wye track....and sat.
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We headed back to 11th Street to catch our next scheduled event, Train 506 WB, at 12:52pm, using the craftsman style house at Washington Street as a nice backdrop.
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We ate lunch in the car, thinking the freight might follow the WB passenger train. Nothing came, so next up was CSS Train 605 EB, at 1:45pm. This was led by coach #40. We caught them again at the 11th Street depot, opting for some interesting detail shots of the cars in front of the building and cars beside a vintage embossed steel "4" sign used for car loading.
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It was after this eastbound train cleared the diamond at Carroll Avenue that the freight received the signal to head west down the main. Having setoff two of its five covered hoppers at GAF, we caught them first at 11th Street station, then again near Manhattan Street where they were waylaid by an EMS/Fire Truck situation in front of a house on 11th (photo 3). Once the emergency vehicles cleared, we saw them one more time for great photos navigating the S curve between 11th and 10th Streets, and then clunking over the Amtrak diamond, picking up immediate speed and hustling off toward Burns Harbor.
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Amtrak 352 EB was next up on the schedule (around 2:!5pm) but we opted instead to investigate the western portion of the Cal Trail near the county line crossing, where a pair of Union Pacific GE's were idling away to take coal empties back west (photo 5 & 6). They were both facing eastbound - where would they be able to wye power to get it facing the correct direction? The trail would provide much better afternoon views of a westbound facing train :)
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Two more CSS passenger moves rounded out our afternoon. Train 505 EB, scheduled for 3:15pm, was first up. By this time, an eastbound was in difficult light on the streetrunning, but a quick detour down York Street with its wonderful brick pavers allowed for a delightful profile shot of lead car #45 cruising down the street.
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Last of the day was Train 608 WB, due at Carroll Avenue at 3:40pm. We saw them at the west end of the 1th Street streetrunning, where they angle off the pavement near Kentucky Street. It is so pleasant to hear the horn echoing down the street, cheerily in sync with the flashing of the ditchlights, glaring off the rails long set into asphalt.
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I hope you enjoyed! Get there while you can, because once it's gone.....you know.

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AARR
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Re: CSS/Michigan City street running 9-13-2020

Unread post by AARR »

Thank you for posting GP30M. I always enjoy pictures of the South Shore's GP38-2's.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

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