Could CPKC create a Chicago bypass for traffic to/from Eastern Canada?

The eastern half was indeed severed, but a pair of BNSF/NS trains moved via Streator/Kankakee/Schneider, In, the up the old NYC Egyptian line (to Cairo, Il) to the NS mainline at East Chicago, then proceeded east to Elkhart. This set of trains came off that routing about five years ago.

So, the initial route which extended east from Schneider to North Judson then Hamlet and finally to South Bend has been removed east of the NIPSCO power plant near Wheatfield, In. That power plant will convert from coal in a few years, as NIPSCO goes green. Whether or not the line will remain will be interesting. NS runs a local to DeMotte perhaps 2x a week…unsure what customer it services.

The previous BNSF/NS train now runs thru Chicago (10R eastbound and 33G westbound). My guess is it is combo of the old Santa Fe traffic from Streator and beyond plus the Twin Cities and beyond traffic…but that is just a guess. The boxcar type freight was dropping on the old Streator trains. The 10R eastbound currently sees about 80-100 cars on average.

The tight curves off of the BNSF to NS at Streator was an issue for intermodal trains with frequent derailments.

At one time in the late 60’s early 70’s the Penn Central / Santa Fe trains would make set offs at Hamlet for the old PRR line and then continue to Elkhart to hook into the ex NYC line. I believe they ran a couple of trains each way. I have old dispatch sheets for that line and could look up.

Ed

Indiana’s indot rail map shows a gap in the line between Schneider and the Illinois state line:

https://www.in.gov/indot/files/RailSystemMap_Med_StWide_11x17_RH_Final.pdf

I checked NS’s map, but it is dated 2016.

Ijust checked on Open Railway Map which shows the line west of Schneider as still intact as the NS Kankakee Branch.

The line is definately open and used from Schneider to Kankakee.

The primary uses are ethanol trains and the coal trains.