Northern Indiana Railway CERA Bulletin #132 is about a well maintained and partially modernized railroad but keeping much
of its past. The streetcar and
interurban system were centered at South Bend. Unique in traction, one
interurban route paralleled the South Shore interurban side-by-side for miles.
The Northern Indiana Railway -CERA
Bulletin #132 is about the almost forgotten South Bend, Indiana electric
streetcar railway that started in 1885 and died before the next spring. The second company started in 1890 with
horsecars. It was electrified in 1895. The new
company build an electric rail line joining
the cities of South Bend and Mishawaka. Then
electric railway bought the streetcar lines
in Laporte, St. Joseph and Elkhart and joined them together.
Thus, these streetcar lines became part of a larger interurban
system. The line then pushed north into
Michigan to Niles and St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. In Michigan the trains met
with steamers that carried people across Lake
Michigan to Chicago and Milwaukee.
The interurban passenger cars, handsome
wooden 60-foot railroad-roof combines, equaled anything on better-known
systems. Most were replaced in the 1930 modernization, but the new lightweights
had only four years here and ended up on the downstate Indiana Railroad.
Northern Indiana Railway – CERA
Bulletin #132 explains how, Via Winona Service at Goshen, Northern Indiana, NIR interchanged freight trailers with systems all over Indiana and
Ohio. The railroad was
able to interchange freight as near to Chicago as interurban
box trailers could travel. For a time, the
railroad ran through passenger cars to
Indianapolis.
The
publisher of Northern Indiana Railway – CERA Bulletin #132 is the Central Electric
Railfan’s Association (CERA) was formed 1938.
The CERA encourages the study of the history, equipment, and operations
of urban, suburban, interurban and main line electric railways. This book is published by the
organization. A number of those publications
are available on this site. Meetings are
also held monthly by the organization in Chicago, IL. More information about the CERA is available
at www.cera-chicago.org/.
Historians,
rail enthusiasts and the general public alike, will delight in the pictures and
information in this volume Northern Indiana Railway CERA Bulletin #132. The book is full of maps and photographs of
the properties and car drawings.