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 p ...

route operated by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Valparaiso, Indiana Valparaiso ( ), colloquially Valpo, is a city and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,151 at the 2020 census. History The site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the ...

. Despite Amtrak's mandate to provide only intercity service, the ''Calumet'' was a

commuter train Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are cons ...

. 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 bus ...

in 1979, the full route was shared with Amtrak's ''

Broadway Limited The ''Broadway Limited'' was a passenger train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) between New York City and Chicago. It operated from 1912 to 1995. It was the Pennsylvania's premier train, competing directly with the New York Central ...

'' 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 Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

west to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. 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 opera ...

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 The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

. 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

, all Penn Central intercity trains were taken over by

, but Penn Central continued to run commuter trains in several metropolitan areas, including the Valpo Local. The

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

Penn Central merged into

on April 1, 1976, which continued operations until 1979, at which point

took over. The route was also served by the daily ''

'' to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and on October 1, 1981, the daily ''

Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981 and was named after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'' which ended in 197 ...

'' to

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morg ...

, 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 The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...

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 introduce
H.R. 5660
to require Amtrak to continue operations until July 1, 1991 to allow time for the

State of Indiana State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

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 The Independent Safety Board Act (Pub. L. 93−633) is a 1974 law that ended all ties between the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Department of Transportation. It was created to avoid possible conflicts between agencies. Backgro ...

, signed into law November 28, 1990, by U.S. President George H. W. Bush 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 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 ...

, 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, 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 The Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad is a short line railroad offering service from Tolleston, Indiana to Crestline, Ohio, United States over the former Fort Wayne Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It began operations in 2004 as a div ...

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