There is no news linkage because I am pushing all the known data I know, you can search out any data you want.

The university of Notre Dame in South Bend uses coal for its electrical generation and so on. A rail line connecting it served loaded coal cars right up to its system and drop dumped the coal into its system. Some time in its history Notre Dame switched from rail car to Dump truck deliveries and rail car hoppers are spotted somewhere south of town and transferred to truck to the campus where coal is piled up over the rail line and trucks pick up and dump coal into its system.

Bob Harris came along with a named company called the Chicago Lake Shore and South Bend railroad and proposed getting the rail line re-connected and deliver coal by rail again activating the now inactive (but still owned by the Norfolk Southern), negotiations were ongoing then suddenly the project hit the news about activating the line, all the news wires, TV stations everything was talking about it.

It seems the biggest opposition is the City of South Bend about the project, they wanted to be able abandone the line and the could install sewer lines where the rail line is.

Bob Harris and the CLS&SB went to court and won the case the rail line could not be abandoned because the judge rules Notre Dame could choose to return to rail car deliveries.

The current problems and issues right now is, you can drag up Google maps and follow the rail line and it shows a direct rail connection, but however inbetween the trackage is torn into by land owners but other areas the rail line is fairly intact, but areas of the line have been asphalted over at roads.

Norfolk Southern does not seem to have interest in the line, Notre Dame for some reason had to switch to truck delivery when the rail line really is still... ahem... there!

By conversations with Bob Harris says theres the issue with politics with South Bend trying to get the rail line goings and he is now just about dead in the water trying to get the line going.

His other proposal was to use the former South Shore Orange cars to deliver football fans right into the campus on the same rail line. I thnk its a very cool idea, and he would have even installed electified overhead and run the coal runs with an electric steeplcab locomotive he has stored away.

Really cool ideas there, but politics seems to have run off all inspiration to persue the effort, and in the end, there seems to be a deadline on the Note Dame line, if its not activated by the end of 2010, it might be abandoned.

Dunno what to do or think here, but I figure this crowd here could dig and find solutions.

Thanx in advance.

Why was rail delivery of coal into Notre Dame changed to truck delivery? What I have heard is that there was a derailment of a coal train on the branch and Norfolk Southern incurred quite a bit of costs in repairing the track. They asked Notre Dame if they had any objection to bringing in the coal by truck and Notre Dame said that they had none as long as they had the option to change back to rail if the truck deliveries did not work out. NS made a deal with a trucking company to transload the coal from a different spot in South Bend and deliver it to a coal pile location near the ND campus. The rail line was never abandoned, and NS never sought abandonment, but the cost of the truck transloading and delivery was deemed more economical to NS.

BTW, Notre Dame has continued to hold on to its Porter diesel, and also a self-propelled crane. The diesel had been used to spot private Notre Dame owned hopper cars (the university had two) onto ND's power plant unloading pit. Front end loaders now take the coal from the coal pile and dump it directly into this unloading pit. There have been no indications that the University has any plans to donate, sell or scrap the Porter.

Les

So Notre Dame was not motivated enough with the adventurous concept to return rail service by an entrenpenour?

At this point it will get more costly to return rail service every day its not brought back because a lot of track has to be restored.

Bob Harris knows his stuff.. From him, as the fellow who tried to bring the line back.

Close, but it was Conrail that had the derailment (1996); NS approached UND about truck delivery after Conrail showed little interest in repairing the rail line and resuming service.
Have a Fine Evening!

Bob

Bob certainly would know about which railroad had the derailment and I appreciate his correction.

Les

I don't know enough about the project to say for sure, but I would bet that any project which has spent so much time with courts and lawyers has a stink to it. It is too bad because on paper, it seemed like a good idea. Essentially, not making peace with the NIMBYs delayed the project, and I wonder if financing could be raised. Perhaps it should be a museum type operation over the scenic track on the northeast end of this branch, while trying to save at least the rights to operate trains over the rest of the line.

Along with Bobs cars in storage in East Chicago were the best cars of the failed NPS project. Now, apparently, they are destined for East Troy per this piece in the Hicks news:
http://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2010/08/trip-report-east-chicago.html

Bob had plans to create a museum in the former industrial park just east of the Bendix station where the South Shore switched. There isnt wire there but the poles still exist you could quickly rehang wire there in a sec.

Really, everything seemed cool until it hit the news and suddenly theres all kinds of squawk about the line going on. Not exactly the angle I expected, a lot of negatism toward it. Just an innocent short line no more than a few miles long making coal runs to the University.

Big duh from me.

Were these recent articles? I cannot find a link. The old situation had to do with an old folks home which had mowed over sections of the ROW and complained about the possibility of train service. I wondered if it was just a matter of someone being PO'd for one reason or another. Which, along with eager lawyers, is one of the basic problems of our modern legal system.

I just surveyed the line and will have a full report later when I have time. Google Earth/Maps seems to fairly accurately reflect the reality on the ground. Basically the encroachments on the ground are:

* Entire line heavily overgrown, except east of the retirement community (the campusy thing the rail line cuts through).
* West of the river almost every crossing is paved over (not torn out).
* Just west of the bridge the line cuts across an industrial building; rails are removed and grade cut away for a couple hundred feet.
* Somebody has fenced off a block of the line. The fence is notched to fit over the rails.
* Through the retirement village, they have 2-3 new pedestrian crossings where they created an earth berm 1-2 feet high above the rails. I presume that's so their structure won't damage the rails.
* The railroad bridge is heavily fenced off to keep kids out of it.

The rail is absolutely excellent stuff in excess of 100 pounds throughout, with even some 131. No problem hauling coal on that.

The tracks into Notre Dame proper are intact, and they even have a historic coal-lifting derrick and locomotive and hopper sitting there unused. The street is dark with the tire tracks of coal trucks shuttling between the coal pile and the plant. Basically Notre Dame is transloading twice. Can you say "dust"? If Notre Dame had wanted to end rail service, they would have certainly ripped out all that the moment they could. That would seem to affirm the notion that it wasn't Notre Dame's idea.

There are several varieties of "old folks home", and this one appears to be an active living community with possibly an assisted living facility onsite. This means these folks are highly mobile, driving their own cars off to 1000 adventures.

If I were starting a venture on that line, I would focus on either the section east of the retirement home, or between it and the bridge - and get something - ANYTHING - speeders! - hauling the public so you can get revenue coming in, rally volunteers and reverse the public perception of long abandonment. Then open up the line one block at a time while simultaneously working to get the coal business back. Electric would help because the "green" will appeal to students and the "old-timey" will appeal to the retirees, who will definitely remember the orange South Shore cars. What would not be effective is to sit around theorycrafting about how to make the business work.

My sense of this is that NDU doesn't really care as long as they get their coal but they care about ruffling feathers so they'll bend to whichever way the local politicos do and that's currently with the NIMBY's. In other words they see no reason to waste neighbor-relational and political capital on something they don't care about. They have bigger fish to fry. (Especially on Fridays. LOL) But they'll keep their rail unloading equipment thankyouverymuch up until such time as the line is ripped up. (I wonder if they'll speak up then, just in the sense of preserving all options.)

Maybe someone should rustle up some interest on those whose streets the coal trucks rumble down though if these are major thoroughfares they may be a drop in the bucket anyway. But that would be a start. Then start working the environmental aspects of transloading dust, diesel exhaust vs. clean, quiet electric trains just a couple times a week or whatever it would be.

Steve

Gentle readers,

There is a new post (by shameless me, of course) on just this subject that may be of interest. It's titled "Generations," and I hope you check it out.

Even I have to have doubts about bragging so, but it may be important.