The ''Calumet'', also commonly called the ''Valpo Local'', was a

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

route operated by Amtrak between Chicago and Valparaiso, Indiana. Despite Amtrak's mandate to provide only intercity service, the ''Calumet'' was a commuter train. Transferred from

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

in 1979, the full route was shared with Amtrak's '' Broadway Limited'' until 1990; the ''Calumet'' was discontinued the next year.

History

The service first ran August 30, 1869, by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

on its Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, its main line from Pittsburgh west to Chicago. It was formally called the Chicago–Valparaiso Accommodation, but was usually colloquially referred to as the "Valpo Local" or "The Dummy". From April 1, 1871, until January 1, 1920, the

Pennsylvania Company The Pennsylvania Company, later known publicly as the Pennsylvania Lines (west of Pittsburgh) was a major holding company. It included the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, the PRR's main route to Chicago. It also owned but did not oper ...

operated the line. After that it returned to direct operation by the Pennsylvania Railroad until February 1, 1968, when the PRR was merged into Penn Central Transportation. By that point, the route operated as a rush-hour commuter service, with two trains traveling from Valparaiso to Chicago at 5:55 AM and 6:35 AM and two trains returning from Chicago to Valparaiso at 5:00 PM and 5:40 PM. With the May 1, 1971, startup of Amtrak, all Penn Central intercity trains were taken over by Amtrak, but Penn Central continued to run commuter trains in several metropolitan areas, including the Valpo Local. The bankrupt Penn Central merged into

on April 1, 1976, which continued operations until 1979, at which point Amtrak took over. The route was also served by the daily '' Broadway Limited'' to New York City, and on October 1, 1981, the daily '' Capitol Limited'' to Washington, DC, began using it. At first the Valpo Local was served by two daily trains, the ''Calumet'' and the ''Indiana Connection''; the ''Indiana Connection'' was discontinued first. Due to Conrail's desire to abandon part of the former PRR main line, the ''Broadway Limited'' and ''Capitol Limited'' were rerouted respectively onto the former

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

and New York Central Railroad lines on November 11, 1990, leaving about half of the ''Calumet'' route with no other service. Amtrak announced that it would discontinue the ''Calumet'' on December 31. Representative

Peter J. Visclosky Peter John Visclosky ( ; born August 13, 1949) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1985 until his retirement in 2021. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was the dean of the Indiana congressional del ...

introduce
H.R. 5660
to require Amtrak to continue operations until July 1, 1991 to allow time for the State of Indiana to consider subsidizing the route. The date was changed to May 6 and the mandate was included i
S. 3012
, an amendment to the Independent Safety Board Act of 1974, signed into law November 28, 1990, by U.S. President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

as Public Law No. 101-641. Indiana decided not to pay the required $1.5 million per year ($ in adjusted for inflation), and the weekday-only ''Calumet'' last ran Friday, May 3, 1991. Commuter service from Chicago into northern Indiana is still provided by the South Shore Line, operated by the

Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District The South Shore Line is an electrically powered interurban commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago and the South Bend International Airport in ...

over its own alignment, whose closest stop,

Dune Park station Dune Park is a station in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, located north of the municipalities of Chesterton and Porter. It is used by South Shore Line trains, and serves as the headquarters of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transpo ...

, is from Valparaiso, closer to

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. The

ChicaGo Dash ChicaGo Dash is an express bus service between Chicago, Illinois and Valparaiso, Indiana. The distance between the City of Valparaiso and Downtown Chicago is about 54 miles. It is jointly run by the city of Valparaiso and the Valparaiso Redevelop ...

express bus to Chicago, which operates during weekday rush hours, has for its Valparaiso terminal a parking lot adjacent to Franklin House and former rail station. On August 1, 2004, the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad started freight operations over the old route of the ''Calumet'' and beyond. A study was conducted in 2017 to assess the return of service to Valparaiso, with the new service potentially running as far as Fort Wayne and northwest Ohio.

Station stops

The ''Calumet'' and ''Indiana Connection'' were assigned numbers between 321 and 324, with odd numbers running westbound and even numbers eastbound. Trains made the following station stops (some of which closed prior to Amtrak's takeover of the route):March 3, 1971 and April 30, 1972 timetables
/ref>

References

External links

1990 timetable
{{Chicago Rail Former Amtrak routes Valparaiso, Indiana Pennsylvania Railroad west of Pittsburgh Transportation in Porter County, Indiana Railway services introduced in 1869 Passenger trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad Railway services discontinued in 1991