On page 64 of September Trains is a photo of South Shore 102 stopping in Michigan City, in 1972. What appears to be an agent is driving a lawn tractor pulling a baggage cart in front of the single car "train". Is this baggage service?

My recollection is that the South Sore did not offer checked baggage service to passengers, but did operate a package express service.

The South Shore did have a number of "combine" cars, the "100" series, all motors. All were converted to mechanical A/C with sealed windows. This has had a deleterious effect on their preservation, as collectively they have done worse than South Shore cars on average.
http://www.davesrailpix.com/hicks/htm/hicks194.htm
http://www.davesrailpix.com/hicks/htm/hicks195.htm
http://www.davesrailpix.com/hicks/htm/hicks196.htm
http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/css111.jpg

Those baggage cars did a land office business on bundled newspapers, to the point that the South Shore had a special newspaper chute, like a long child's slide, down from their elevated station on the East Chicago bypass to the parking lot. The motorman would just grab the proper bundles and toss them on the chute. At Michigan City, the newspapers went on the baggage cart, which was pulled out next to the car in the street with a lawn tractor used as a tug. I have no idea if the tractor was owned by the railroad, or whether the agent brought his own to save himself the work of pulling the loaded cart back to the curb line.

I don't know if I ever saw any other sort of express the couple times I rode in the baggage section eastward (this provided the ultimate railfan window!) but I do recall that IRM used to have U4 valves serviced by the shop in Michigan City, and they got there by having one of the members who worked downtown drop them off at Randolph St. Monday morning.

I have a memory, and possibly a photo or movie, showing an automobile radiator being unloaded at Hammond, Ind. Presumably a repair shop in or near Hammond ordered it from a supplier in Chicago and South Shore package express was the best way to send it. This would have been in either 1971 or 1977. I remember thinking how ironic it was, considering that the proliferation of automobiles and motor trucks in the 1920's and thereafter was a major cause of the disappearance of all interurbans except South Shore. This in turn reminded me of the story of an interurban whose freight business was mostly rock products from an on-line quarry; a large percentage of the quarry's output was used by contractors building the local highway system.

Robert -

South Shore combine #108 was stored for a number of years at HVRM. Eventually its owner (Bob Harris) came in and scrapped the car. Bob told me one time that someone had given the 108 to him; he really never wanted the car. I recall that when I first joined the museum, one of 108's pantagraphs was in the "up" position, "reaching for the sky" so to speak. I thought it looked horrible that way, and I recall climbing up on the roof and lowering it into the locked down position. Bob did remove both pantagraphs, and various other parts from the car before it was scrapped.

Les

CSS&SB did buy 3 Indiana RR interurban Railway Post Office combines and used 2 as baggage or "Fast Emergency Package Service" trailers. I imagine that moving days at the university in South Bend would require their use. Here are those 2 with comments about their history and subsequent dispositions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8226029@N0 ... 51/detail/

Here's 503 lettered "Fast Emergency Package Service," what ever that means.

http://railfan44.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... id=1384823

I suspect it was a scheme to get around restrictions on competing with freight carriers and the Post Office. It was also good advertising.

When I got out of the Army in 1965, I worked for a while as a newspaper truck driver for the Chicago Daily News. Working the downtown area, I would take bundled newpapers to the various train stations for forwarding on passenger trains.

As a relief driver, on several occasions in the early evening, I took newspapers to the South Shore freight loading dock on Lower Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. There, I would toss the bundles up to SS baggage handlers, who would load them into an express trailer which was coupled to the back of a motor car. I remember going into the car and seeing mostly newspapers from all the Chicago dailies stacked up. These papers would have the destinations on the bundle wrappers, like Hammond, Gary, Michigan City, and so on. There were also other kinds of packages in the car, but I have no idea what they contained.

Was reading the issue today while flying. Noticed a couple of things about the photo. First, that's an International Harvester Cub Cadet tractor, not a normal lawn mower. It used the rear end assembly from a larger I-H tractor, I think the Farmall. More of a "garden" tractor, this would have had the power to tow a loaded baggage cart out into the street. Powered by a 1hp Kohler engine, they were loud but fairly tough.

Also, notice there appears to be a red light of some sort mounted on the hood of the tractor. Probably a warning device, especially at night.