Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad
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The Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad (CNY) was a proposed high-speed electric
air-line railroad An air-line railroad was a railroad that was relatively straight, following a shorter (and thus, presumably quicker) route instead of a longer, winding route. In their heyday, which was prior to aviation, they were often referred to simply as "air ...
between
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
and
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 ...
. At roughly it would have been over shorter than the two primary steam railroads on that route, the
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 Midw ...
and
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 ...
. The promoters' vision proved wildly optimistic and, in the end, only a short
interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
route in the vicinity of
Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the ...
was built and operated. It was the most ambitious of several such proposals at the dawn of electric railroading, all of which ended in failure. The trade magazine ''
Railway Age ''Railway Age'' is an American trade magazine for the rail transport industry. It was founded in 1856 in Chicago (the United States' major railroad hub) and is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. History The magazine's ...
'' critiqued the project at the time it was announced in July 1906 and gave this damning judgment: "Speaking seriously, for the moment, about this fraudulent investment scheme one is in doubt whether to wonder most at the gigantic effrontery of the perpetrators, the gullibility of the poor dupes who will flood the mails with their subscriptions, or the carelessness if not cupidity of the newspaper publishers who seem to sanction the swindle by giving it publicity."


Definitions

Definitions of terms used in this article to describe the project, or parts of it: * Scheme. This refers to the proposed Chicago to New York express line. * Company. This was the ''Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad Company'' (CNYEAL), set up as a promotional and holding company. The construction was to be done by subsidiaries. The Company ceased in 1913. * Railway. This was the result of the first phase of construction by the first such subsidiary, the ''Goshen, South Bend and Chicago Railroad'' (GSB&C), comprising a fragment of the main line and a branch to
La Porte, Indiana La Porte (French for "The Door") is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States, of which it is the county seat. Its population was estimated to be 21,341 in 2022. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City-La Porte, India ...
. (In the US, the term ''railroad'' usually referred to heavy-rail steam lines and ''railway'' to light-rail electric
interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
s, although the promoters of the scheme wished to identify with the former.) The Railway ceased in 1917. * System. This comprised the GSB&C and two subsidiaries of its own, the ''Gary Connecting Railways'' and the ''Valparaiso and Northern Railway'' which together made up the second phase of the scheme. The three together formed a little interurban system to the east of Gary, Illinois. The last fragment of this only closed down in 1942. * Service. This was the public passenger service running on the GSB&C, from
Hammond, Indiana Hammond ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, and the only city in Indiana to border Chicago. First settled in the mid-19th century, it is one of the oldest cities of northern Lake County. As of the ...
to La Porte via Gary.


History


Background

The ''Air Line'' scheme was not the first proposed high-speed electric railway in the USA. In 1893 Dr. Wellington Adams promoted a
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
route with a maximum operating speed of . Adams believed the new railroad could be built in a year for $5.5 million ($ adjusted for inflation). Trade publications ridiculed the proposal, and it went nowhere. Elsewhere, global developments in electric railroading was proceeding apace at the turn of the century. In 1903, a railcar from
Siemens & Halske Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens. It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geo ...
and
AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...
reached on the experimental
Marienfelde Marienfelde () is a locality in southwest Berlin, Germany, part of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough. The former village, incorporated according to the Greater Berlin Act of 1920, today is a mixed industrial and residential area. Geography The Ma ...
Zossen Zossen (; hsb, Sosny) is a German town in the district of Teltow-Fläming in Brandenburg, about south of Berlin, and next to the B96 highway. Zossen consists of several smaller municipalities, which were grouped together in 2003 to form the cit ...
military railway outside
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. Commercial projects, however, did not progress. Proposed electric railways such as Berlin–Hamburg and Wien–Budapest proved too expensive. Several interurbans in the United States had made fast demonstration runs at the same time. In 1903 an interurban on the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railway covered the between
Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
and
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
in 34 minutes 39 seconds despite the loss of over 6 minutes in stops, and numerous speed reductions for steam railroads, trolley lines (tramways), and street and highway crossings. In 1905
Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...
mogul
Henry E. Huntington Henry Edwards Huntington (February 27, 1850 – May 23, 1927) was an American railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate ...
made the Los Angeles–Long Beach run () in 15 minutes in a private railcar at an average speed at was higher than for the projected Air Line trains.


Proposal

Alexander C. Miller (1852–1918) had been the chief dispatcher of the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...
before founding the Aurora Trust and Savings Bank in his home town of
Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...
(served by the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railway) and establishing the Miller Train Control Corporation to market his invention of a railroad signalling block system. In July 1906, he took out advertisements in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
newspapers for the Chicago–New York Electric Air Line Railroad Company, offering 20,000 $100 shares in this firm (the unit shares were later reduced to $25). The company avoided raising funds through bonds or the
money market The money market is a component of the economy that provides short-term funds. The money market deals in short-term loans, generally for a period of a year or less. As short-term securities became a commodity, the money market became a compon ...
, and relied entirely on selling shares. This was important later -there was to be no need to pay interest on capital. The form of the name -''Chicago'' before ''New York''- demonstrated the focus of the initial advertising campaign. The proposed physical characteristics of the project were impressive, and far ahead of contemporary practice: Quadruple track (later reduced to double) on a hundred-foot-wide (30 metre) right of way,
grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also r ...
not exceeding 1%, no
grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...
s, and a straight-line route which, at , would be shorter than other routes. Further, it was promised that there would be no curves requiring speeds below . Trains would run at an average , and complete the journey between Chicago and New York in 10 hours at a flat fare of $10. The motive power was to be electric locomotives powered by a
third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...
-there were no working prototypes of these yet. At the time the two fastest steam-hauled trains between New York and Chicago, the
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 Midw ...
's ''
20th Century Limited The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along th ...
'' and 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 ...
's '' Pennsylvania Special'' (forerunner of the more famous ''
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 R ...
''), each required twenty hours to make the journey. Part of the proposal was that the main line would avoid towns and cities on the way, but that these would be provided with feeder spurs or branches. Mentioned were
Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...
,
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
and
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 ...
(although the branch to the last named would have been lengthy).


Inception

The ''Air Line'' Company was set up to be a
holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
, with the actual construction done by a series of local firms established under state laws. The first, and only, one of these was incorporated under the state laws of
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
on 16 April 1904 and was the ''Goshen, South Bend and Chicago Railroad'' (GSB&C). It contracted the ''Co-operative Construction Company'' (formed for the purpose by one of the promoters named Jonathon D. Price) to begin work, and obtained the necessary land by having another promoter, Colonel Upshaw P. Hord, persuade local farmers to exchange land in return for shares. Construction began ceremonially on 1 September 1906 at
La Porte, Indiana La Porte (French for "The Door") is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States, of which it is the county seat. Its population was estimated to be 21,341 in 2022. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City-La Porte, India ...
, on the first of the feeder branches from downtown to a rural location dubbed ''South La Porte'' where the junction with the main line and the operating headquarters were to be. Miller cut the first sod there with a silver spade, and there was much junketing. However, serious work only began in the New Year. The branch took until 15 June 1907 to finish and open, and this slow progress was the first sign of problems. For the opening, the CSB&C bought two standard wooden combine
interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
electric passenger cars from the
Niles Car and Manufacturing Company The Niles Car and Manufacturing Company was an American manufacturer of railroad equipment, including many streetcar and interurban cars. It was founded in 1901 in Niles, Ohio and published catalogs showcasing their various cars. Niles speciali ...
. As a publicity stunt, their paintwork included destination names reading ''New York'' at one end and ''Chicago'' at the other. Down each side was ''Chicago Air Line New York''. The car barn built at South La Porte had a fascia reading ''Chicago New York Air Line'', and ''Air Line'' was to be the name used for the passenger service of the CSB&C throughout its history. Meanwhile, the promoters had begun the publication of a monthly periodical boosting the scheme, the ''Air Line News'', in October 1906. This dramatized every development in the construction work, for example: "A huge Vulcan steam shovel is already on the job, taking big bites out of hills that stand in the path of the straight and level speedway that is to be the Air Line". The editor was Charles Burton, a veteran Indiana journalist and former printer of the state's official publications. The project was trumpeted nationally, stock sold with great rapidity and, by the end of the year, the company had 15 000 shareholders and funds of $2 000 000.


Building the main line

The section of the main line that was actually built, , ran from South La Porte westwards to a location north of Woodville named Goodrum after George C. Goodrum, a major shareholder from
Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...
. There were three railroad crossings in this distance, over the
Pere Marquette Railway The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...
,
Monon Railroad The Monon Railroad , also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway from 1897 to 1971, was an American railroad that operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana. The Monon was merged into the Louisville and Nashville Ra ...
and the
Wabash Railroad The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary con ...
. Each of these was provided with a heavy girder bridge, approached by immense fills to keep the gradients down. The fill material came from two deep cuts on the route. The track was built to steam-road standards, allegedly with 85 pound (38.5 kg) rail and white oak ties -in fact, 60 pound (27 kg) rails were used. Every sixth tie was extra long to accommodate the future third conducting rail, although a trolley wire was strung to power the cars ''as a temporary measure''. Only a single track was laid, although there was space for a second. Investors were taken out to view these two portions of the line in operation, and the continuing work. However, further progress continued to be slow and the
depression of 1907 The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from ...
–1908 worsened the financial problems arising. The main line was opened to Westville Road (Route 421), just east of the Monon Railroad bridge, in June 1908. To generate some revenue, an amusement park called "Air Line Park" was set up west of the Pere Marquette Railroad bridge. This proved very successful, and thousands visited on weekends when a ten-cent shuttle service from La Porte was provided. This was to be the only public service on the main line for the next three years, running from La Porte to Westville Road and back. The eventual downfall of the ''Air Line'' scheme arose as a result of the capital expended on crossing Coffee Creek, a minor watercourse running west of the Wabash Railroad bridge. To keep to the advertised grade prescribed by the incredibly stringent engineering specifications, the GSB&C engineered a monstrous fill across the little creek's valley, 180 feet (55 metres) wide and two miles (3 km) long and containing a steel trestle for stability. The extent of this work meant that the line only opened to Goodrum on 1 November 1911. The immense expense occasioned by this engineering work, and some alleged (but never prosecuted or substantiated) accounting irregularities as well as other putatively fraudulent practices, led to the failure of the main line to extend beyond a dozen and a half miles through the Indiana countryside. The GSB&C only ever ran a total of on its own tracks, according to its official reports.


Gary and Interurban Railway

The GSB&C ''Air Line'' railway company quickly morphed into an electric railway system serving the new city of
Gary Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran *Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Unit ...
, and this process was underway even before the Coffee Creek fill was finished in 1911. Gary came into being when the
United States Steel Corporation United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...
constructed a new steelworks on a virgin site on
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 ...
in the spring of 1906, and when the city was
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
ted, three main streets were created wide enough to include reserve track streetcar lines. Hence, the streetcar service could use equipment of
interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
standard, and this was reflected in the name of the streetcar company founded on 18 July 1907, the ''Gary and Interurban Railway''. There was no initial official connection with the GSB&C, but the ''Co-operative Construction Company'' building the latter's main line was also responsible for its construction. The system opened on 20 May 1908, and by year's end had a spine route north to south on Broadway. This ran from the steelworks main gate at 4th Avenue to the city limits at the Little Calumet River bridge, and two crosstown routes ran west of this to the city limits—one on 5th Avenue and the other on 11th Avenue (10th Avenue from Broadway to 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 ...
bridge). The first major extension of the system was to
Hammond Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...
to the west, when the 11th Avenue line was extended via Clark Road, 9th Avenue, Summer (now 165th) Street and Sibley Street to a terminus loop on Calumet-State-Hohman. This opened on 8 February 1910. Unfortunately, as part of its franchise the streetcar company agreed with the city to limit fares within city limits to three cents for any ride, or ten for a quarter (25 cents). No provision was made for
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
.


Valparaiso and Northern Railway

Meanwhile, on 25 August 1908 the GSB&C incorporated an independent but wholly owned subsidiary company, the ''Valparaiso and Northern Railway'', to build two feeder branches connecting to the main line at Goodrum and serving Valparaiso to the south and Chesterton to the north. Again construction work dragged on, for the lines opened from Valparaiso to the popular recreational destination of Flint Lake on 4 July 1910, Chesterton to Goodrum on 18 February 1911, Flint Lake to Woodville on 7 October 1911 and from Woodville over a bridge crossing the
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 ...
line to Goodrum on 17 February 1912. The GSB&C was then given an east-to-north curve to connect to the new Valparaiso to Chesterton through line at Goodrum, while excavation continued to the west to the fourth railroad bridge which was to be over the B&O at a very skew angle.


Gary Connecting Railways

By 1911, it was obvious that the future of the GSB&C ''Air Line'' railway could only be secured by providing an immediate connection with the streetcar network of Gary. So, on 1 June 1911 a company entitled the ''Gary Connecting Railways'' was incorporated as the second wholly owned subsidiary of the GSB&C. It immediately began construction of a connecting line, beginning at Broadway & 11th Avenue, downtown at Gary, and running down Central Avenue to East Gary. This was opened on 6 January 1912. (East Gary used to be called
Lake Station Lake railway station is a station on the Isle of Wight serving the village of Lake, situated in a quiet residential area not far from Lake Cliff Gardens and the beach at Sandown Bay. Until the construction of an interchange station with the Isl ...
, but changed its name to East Gary in 1908. It changed its name back to Lake Station in 1977, owing to Gary having become a post-industrial slum.) The line was completed to Woodville on 14 August 1912, and made a triangular wye junction with the ''Valparaiso and Northern Railway'' at a spot called ''Woodville Junction'', just south of the latter's bridge over the B&O railroad and on the other side of the latter from Goodrum. An important aspect of this connecting line was, that the route ran along the authorised route of the original ''Air Line'' scheme from East Gary until it met the B&O railroad at a location called Babcock. It then hugged the south side of the railroad until it reached Woodville Junction. The direct skew bridge under construction over the railroad at Babcock was abandoned. This was the definitive indication that the dream of a Chicago to New York express line was finally dead. Also important was that the line crossed the
Michigan Central Railroad The Michigan Central Railroad (reporting mark MC) was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in ...
at Garyton (now part of
Portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...
) on the level. A junction curve was put in place for freight exchange, and the GSB&C invested in dedicated equipment in to develop a freight service. The completion of this line also allowed a Hammond to La Porte via Gary passenger service, beginning 5 September 1912. This became known as the ''Air Line'' service locally. In the same year, the GSB&C decided to shut its power plant at South La Porte and purchase electricity from a public source as this was cheaper.


East Chicago Street Railway

The last initiative of the GSB&C was the promotion of a streetcar company called the ''East Chicago Street Railway'' to serve
Indiana Harbor Indiana Harbor may refer to: * Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, a harbor and artificial waterway in East Chicago, Indiana connecting Lake Michigan to the Grand Calumet River * Indiana Harbor (East Chicago), the section of East Chicago located east of ...
. This subsidiary was incorporated on 23 July 1912, and opened from the end of the 5th Avenue line at Gary's city limits via Cline Avenue, 145th Street, Cedar Street and Guthrie Street to a terminus on Watling Street. This opened on 15 February 1913.


Gary and Interurban Railroad

Shareholders of the ''Air Line'' Company rebelled in 1911, and began a movement to purchase the ''Gary and Interurban Railway'' streetcar system in order to safeguard even a small part of their investment. This was successful, but the stock of the latter company was purchased with funds raised by the sale of 4% fixed interest bonds. When a controlling interest had been acquired, the ''Cary and Interurban Railroad Company'' was incorporated on 28 January 1913. This consolidated the GSB&C, the ''Gary and Interurban Railway'', the ''East Chicago Street Railway'', the ''Gary Connecting Railways'' and the ''Valparaiso and Northern Railway''. The ''Chicago–New York Electric Air Line Railroad Company'' was wound up, and the ''Air Line News'' abruptly ceased publication. This was the official abandonment of the great express electric railway scheme. The morph from an express electric railway project into a city streetcar and interurban system was complete, but was only to last intact for just under five years. A loop line was added from Indiana Harbor to Hammond, from 145th & Main, Parish Avenue, Chicago Avenue and Kennedy Avenue -this became important for the freight service of the GSB&C. Also added was a spur along Bridge Street in Gary to the gates of the
American Bridge Company The American Bridge Company is a heavy/civil construction firm that specializes in building and renovating bridges and other large, complex structures. Founded in 1900, the company is headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pitts ...
plant.


Gary and Southern Traction

The city of Gary had two other interurban lines, not part of the ''Air Line'' system but having trackage on it to access the downtown interurban station at 11th & Broadway and also to run on to the gates of the steelworks at the north end of Broadway. The first to open, in 1912, was the ''Gary and Southern Traction'' which continued the Broadway streetcar line to Lottaville (now part of
Merrillville Merrillville is a town in Ross Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 35,246 at the 2010 census. Merrillville is in east-central Lake County, in the Chicago metropolitan area. On January 1, 2015, Merrillville became the ...
) and Crown Point.


Gary and Hobart Traction

The other was the ''Gary and Hobart Traction'', which had an abortive opening with a gasoline car later in 1912 but was shut after a month. Electrification and permanent opening was in 1914. The route was along 37th Avenue from the Broadway line, through Froebel and New Chicago to terminate at 3rd and Main in
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
.


End of original railway

The refusal of the city to allow fare rises for journeys in Gary led to a shortfall in income which caused the ''Gary and Interurban Railway'' company to default on a bond issue repayment at the start of 1915. As a result, a receiver was appointed on 17 October 1915. On 1 January 1916, one of the original cars and the GSB&C's work motor met in a head-on collision in fog at Brooks just west of Air Line Park. The passenger car was telescoped and had to be scrapped, three people were killed and twelve injured. On 18 September 1917 the receiver oversaw the breakup of the G&I into its constituent parts, and their separate sale. The original ''Air Line'' company shareholders were finally wiped out. The GSB&C was capitalised at $7 000 000. Its assets, comprising the line, rolling stock and equipment, were sold for $75 000. This was an ''upset price'', meaning that it was the minimum acceptable according to a true valuation. Since the company was a statutory public service, for the next 24 days a shuttle was run from La Porte to Goodrum. After the required legal formalities, service on the ''Air Line'' railway ceased on 3 November 1917, and the tracks and bridges east of Goodrum were recovered for scrap.


Survival of system

The truncated ''Air Line'' system did, however, survive. The streetcar system became the ''Gary Street Railway'' in 1917, and continued to expand. in 1918 the line to the Sheet Mill and Tin Mill of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company was opened from 5th Avenue & Buchanan Street. In 1924, a line was opened to the National Tube Company plant via 5th Avenue, Virginia Street and 2nd Avenue. Later in the same year, the 5th Avenue portion of this was extended as another new line, to Lake Street in Miller. On the other hand, the Indiana Harbor to Hammond line was abandoned as unprofitable and this was the first contraction. The lines from Gary to Valparaiso and Chesterton went to the ''Gary and Valparaiso Railway'', which hence inherited what was left of the ''Air Line'' system. The Chesterton line was replaced by a bus in 1922.


Gary Railways

In 1925, there was a major consolidation of Gary's railways under the ''Gary Railways'' company which was owned by the ''Midland Utilities Corporation'' of
Samuel Insull Samuel Insull (November 11, 1859 – July 16, 1938) was a British-born American business magnate. He was an innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to create an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States ...
. All the surviving railways were annexed, except the Crown Point line which was bought out in 1928. Conversion of routes to buses began in 1933, with the Crown Point line beyond 45th Avenue. In 1935, the Miller line went and in 1938 the conversion of the whole system was begun. In that year the line between Tin Mill and Sheet Mill was closed, and the Valparaiso service cut back to Garyton on 22 October. This reduced the ''Air Line'' system to a stub. In 1939, the Hobart and Indiana Harbor lines went and the Fifth Avenue line cut back to 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 ...
station. Bridge Street and Tin Works were closed in 1940 and the stub on Fifth Avenue in 1941.


Final end

What was left at the start of 1942 were the Broadway, Hammond, Tube Works and Garyton lines. The last named terminated at a loop installed when the Valparaiso line closed in 1938, and the half mile of track before this was the very last section of the authorised route of the ''Air Line'' scheme to have a rail service. The final end of the ''Air Line'' saga came on 22 October 1942, when the last Garyton car returned to Gary in the evening. The outbreak of war saved the remaining lines for a time. The Hammond and Broadway lines were converted to buses in 1946, leaving a little shuttle service from 5th & Broadway to Tube Works. The last streetcar in Gary ran on 28 February 1948.


Route

The ''Air Line'' system before 1917 consisted of a main line from 11th and Broadway in Gary to La Porte, with two branches to Chesterton and Valparaiso. The ''Continuation'' line ran south-east along Central Avenue through Kimmel and Pine Street to East Gary, which it entered on Fairview Avenue. From Garyton, it took the authorised course of the original ''Air Line'' scheme through Garyton, Crisman, McCool and Babcock before following the B&O railroad through Eastman to Woodville Junction where the Valparaiso branch met in a triangular wye. The line turned north as the ''Valparaiso Northern'', and continued as the branch to Chesterton. This was a short distance, with no intermediate stops. The Valparaiso line had three intermediate stops at Wahob, Burlington Beach (for Flint Lake) and Vale Park. It terminated at Lincoln & Franklin without a loop but with a reversing wye on Lincoln. The ''Air Line'' service went round the north side of the triangular wye at Woodville junction, across the B&O bridge to Goodrum. Here, it had to reverse onto the original ''Air Line'' railway because the junction curve was north to east, with a station building in the angle. The main line then ran arrow-straight due east to South La Porte. After the notorious Coffee Creek fill (now obliterated by the Toll Road), stops were: Smiley, County Line, Westville Road, Brooks, Air Line Park and Door Village. Apart from the last, these each had a short spur with the junction facing east. South La Porte is no longer a named locality, the rural location being at the south end of the main runway of La Porte Airport. However it was the operational headquarters, and had a combined car barn and power house. Here also was a north to east spur from the Pere Marquette Railroad (now also abandoned), allowing freight exchange and coal delivery to the power house. The track from this spur ran down the side of the power house and car barn to the La Porte Branch where the junction faced the city, and cars exited the barn down this track and reversed if they were going in the Goodrum direction. A short connecting line ran from next to the barn to the main line, west to east. The La Porte branch turned north before State Route 39, from the east of the car barn to run into La Porte along I Street via what is now S 150 W. After stops at Andrews and Fair Grounds, it arrived at a terminal loop running round Lincoln, Monroe, Jefferson and Madison. On Lincoln Way was also the terminal loop track of the two lines of another interurban, the ''Chicago, South Bend and Northern Indiana Railway'' to Michigan City and to Goshen via
South Bend South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...
. The two companies were friendly, and exchanged freight here. Also, passengers for the ''Air Line'' used the CSB&NI facilities since the GSB&C did not maintain any in the city.


Equipment


Passengers

The GSB&C's little roster of rolling stock was subsumed into that of the ''Gary and Interurban Railroad'' in 1913. However, the company kept legal possession and so the stable was sold on with the line in 1917. The original two 1907 power cars obtained from the
Niles Car and Manufacturing Company The Niles Car and Manufacturing Company was an American manufacturer of railroad equipment, including many streetcar and interurban cars. It was founded in 1901 in Niles, Ohio and published catalogs showcasing their various cars. Niles speciali ...
in 1907 were numbered 101 and 102. This pair's original paintwork proclaimed the "Chicago Air Line New York". They were renumbered G&I 400 and 401 in 1913. To handle the traffic to the ''Air Line Park'' amusement ground, in 1909 three unpowered trailer cars were ordered from the
McGuire-Cummings Manufacturing Company The McGuire-Cummings Manufacturing Company was a streetcar and street-railway equipment builder based in the U.S. state of Illinois. It was originally based in Chicago, but had a subsidiary factory in Paris, Illinois, and in its last years it wa ...
and these were originally numbered 103, 104 and 105. However, two more power cars were purchased from the McGuire-Cummings Company in 1912, which were given the numbers 103 and 104 and also names: ''Ohm'' and ''Ampere''. The trailers became 105, 106 and 107. In 1913, these became G&I 402, 403, 500, 2300 and 2301. 400 was wrecked in the fatal accident at Brooks on 1 January 1916, when it met the work motor 3000 (see below). Its sister, 401, was sold to
The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company , also referred to as the Milwaukee Interurban Lines or TMER&L, is a defunct railroad that operated in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the largest electric railway and electric utility syst ...
. 402 and 403 were sold to the ''Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway''. 500 was apparently scrapped, but 2300 and 2301 went to the ''Gary and Valparaiso Railway''.


Freight

There were six box cars for freight, numbered 2000 to 2005. Three of them were from McGuire-Cummings, but 2000 to 2002 were second-hand from an unknown manufacturer and were apparently disposed of or scrapped in 1913. The M-C cars kept their numbers. 2001 was cut down into a flat car numbered 2002 in 1922, and the other two were scrapped in 1926 Number 3000 was a double-truck M-C work motor which could haul box cars, and this also kept its number in 1913. Its fate in 1917 is unknown. Finally, 1001 was an express freight motor cars, new from M-C and built for the job -not a converted passenger car. This also was sold to the ''Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway'', and survived into the Fifties. All this freight equipment was also bought in 1912.


Operations


Passenger

After the opening of the connecting line to Gary from Woodville in 1912, the ''Air Line'' service comprised a through run from Hammond to La Porte via Gary, and used the four cars 101 to 104. This was semi-fast, dovetailed to run in between local services, and had a 15-minute layover at the main interurban station at Gary which was at 11th and Broadway. The total time taken to get to La Porte from Hammond was two and a half hours. The
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 Midw ...
ran from Indiana Harbor, just north of Hammond, to La Porte in one and three quarter hours. At first, there were eight weekday return trips and nine at weekends. In 1916 this was down to six each way daily. At Woodville Junction, the service connected with shuttles running to Chesterton and Valparaiso. The former was a short ride, but the latter had three intermediate stops at Wahob, Burlington Beach (for Flint Lake) and Vale Park. Very limited services were offered from Gary direct to the two towns.


Freight

The GSB&C actively solicited freight traffic after 1912, when it bought an electric motor, box cars and an express car. By 1916, it had forty regular shippers. Before 1912, very limited less-than-carload (LCL) freight could be accommodated in the baggage compartments of the passenger cars. Dedicated local service was offered after that year from Indiana Harbor via Hammond, through Gary and Garyton to Woodville and then through La Porte to South Bend and Goshen via the ''Chicago, South Bend and Northern Indiana Railway''. Thus, the ''Goshen, South Bend and Chicago Railway'' could finally claim to serve the first city in its title -even though not with a passenger service. Freight forwarding to more distant locations was also done via the connections to the Pere Marquette Railroad at South La Porte and the Michigan Central Railroad at Garyton. The freight depot was opposite the passenger station at 11th & Broadway in Gary. The most important commodity was milk, because roads in rural Indiana were still unsealed and the interurban gave local farmers marketing opportunities in Gary which they would not otherwise have. In 1913 70 cans went to Gary daily, but in 1916 there were 270. After the GSB&C was abandoned in 1917, freight traffic on the Gary streetcar network mostly ceased.


Remains

Earthworks on the Air Line's right-of-way and some of the colossal concrete bridge abutments are still visible to this day, and much of the route is visible as property boundaries. The abutments are on the abandoned Pere Marquette and Monon railroad lines. ''Indiana Historical Bureau'' erected a historical marker in 1995 commemorating the scheme at CR250S & IN-39. The scanty ruins of the South La Porte power house cum car barn are extant near here, to the west of IN-39. If you go down south on S 150 W, continuing I Street from La Porte, you can find a track to the north of a farmstead, which is on the alignment of the main line to New York. It stopped right here, and got no further. At the other end, at Goodrum, ruins of a power house are in woods on the east side of IN-49 south of the Indiana Toll Road and near the junction with the N Calumet Avenue (the old IN-49). The Coffee Creek fill has mostly been obliterated by the building of the Toll Road.


Legacy

The ''Air Line'' project has been called the greatest fiasco of the interurban era.Middleton 1968, p. 29 However, the completed portion did become the progenitor of a successful street railway system after the initial financial woes. Also, several other interurbans to as high a standard as the Air Line – though at a much smaller scale – were built. In 1907, the
Philadelphia and Western Railroad The Philadelphia and Western Railroad was a high-speed, third rail-equipped, commuter-hauling interurban electric railroad operating in the western suburbs of the U.S. city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is now SEPTA's Norristown High Speed ...
opened its Upper Darby–Strafford line near
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
with maximum grades of 2%, no
grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...
s, and an absolute
block signalling Signalling block systems enable the safe and efficient operation of railways by preventing collisions between trains. The basic principle is that a track is broken up into a series of sections or "blocks". Only one train may occupy a block at a ...
system (Middleton 1968, p. 109). And after
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the railway tycoon Samuel Insull upgraded the interurbans around Chicago, and station-to-station averages as high as 70 miles per hour were frequently attained (Middleton 1968, p. 67). Parts of these lines are in use even today. In 1943, Commander Edwin J. Quinby wrote a lengthy history of the CNYEAL for the publication ''Electric Railroads'' and closed the report with the following:


Notes


References

* * * Crane, Mary (October 1946). "Chicago - New York Electric Air Line Railroad," ''
Trains In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...
'' magazine. * * * *


External links


Archives of the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago New York Electric Air Line Railroad Defunct Indiana railroads Transportation in Gary, Indiana Interurban railways in Indiana