Nope, they are the same. My bad. I went looking for a ship canal rather than a location and wound up looking at the canal just east of Kirk Yard.
Rich
See the āEJSā at the corner of the diagram? It was drawn by Ed Spodobalski for Rails Northeast and he included a page of explanation. I might be able to find that if youāre interested.
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I do see he āEJSā at the corner of the diagram, and I (we) would be extremely interested in that page of explanation. I hope you can find it and post it.
Thanks so much.
Rich
Iāll second the request on behalf of the ānon-Chicagoā community
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LOL. Atta boy! 
Hereās the whole article. He wanted to be complete, so he included RR-drawn maps and timetables that arenāt much use.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oOsJUsiwSlaUvqqJIZPMmX1VBeXZvXYm?usp=sharing
As you see, RNE was a worthwhile magazine, a definite labor of love by Bob Reid. No advertisements; dunno if he would have liked some. Maybe Bill Metzger knows, if heās still around.
In 1982-83 it ran two articles by Rick Erben, a towerman in electrified territory. Likely the two best I-was-there articles ever to appear in a railfan publication. I scanned those too, if your conscience permits you to look at them. Probably no one left to complain about copyright violation.
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My conscience wonāt bother me: this is a railfan forum and I donāt intend to profit from the authorās work.
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First Erben article
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Jp3hvqaY7MIuvOyFO3KaF7jULB_3nZGa?usp=sharing
Second
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19Rp9WYIibpBdwGJOMvBLAed4GS1nGMDw?usp=sharing
Hereās another exceptional feature. RNE had plenty of stuff that wasnāt outstanding, but where else could you see this?
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1y2Sjs4KHu4szw3vvpjRrnxarrd55z1fu?usp=sharing
(Yes, he calls it the Edgar Thompson Works, and thereās an āitāsā that should be an āitsā. Reid once bemoaned RNEās lack of a Rosemary Entringer.)
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Thanks timz for that gold mine of information.
Given the title of this thread, NYC-PRR Parallel Mainlines in Chicago, Ed Spodobalski has this to say about where the parallel lines began.
āFor the most part, the main lines of the NYC and PRR paralleled each other from Gary (Clarke Jct.) for the entire length into Chicagoā.
Thatās a whole lot different than Whiting Indiana as the point of separation.
This just adds to my confusion when I thought that we had it resolved.
Rich
If you want to read about Conrailās relocation of its main lines to Chicago from Gary including a new connection between the former NYC and PRR mainlines, read 01.pdf and 02.pdf. Good stuff.
Rich
"āFor the most part, the main lines of the NYC and PRR paralleled each other from Gary (Clarke Jct.) for the entire length into Chicagoā.
He just meant they were roughly parallel ā he wasnāt claiming they were next to each other. Compass-north of Englewood they were a quarter-mile apart, just about parallel.
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OK, in which case, we are back to 117th Street in Whiting. But my quest is to find the spot where the parallel, next to each other, mainlines split off from one another.
Rich
Would it not be clear from a study of Historic Aerials photos where the contending alternatives would have been?
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Possibly, but the challenge from old aerial photos is to pinpoint the exact location. Not easy.
I did find this statement:
Lake Junction east of the current Hammond Station is where the PRR headed straight southwest and the NYC turned slightly north. It is amost impossible to see now and the road through Whiting, Gary, etc where the PRR ROW once was is now āPennsylvaniaā street.
On this older forum thread:
Rich
Here is a topo map for the Calumet area in the ere just prior to the PC merger:
And here is a topo map for the Whiting area:
I 'thought" we determined that the first āvisualā block from one main line to the other was the huge Columbia Malting (Falstaff) facility which occupied the real estate between the Pennsy and NYC mains.
What else are you possibly looking for or why do you not accept that as the answer?
Just as curious as you areā¦ Ed
Youāre getting a little testy,Ed.
I was simply responding to new information provided by another poster.
Go back and look at my reply yesterday where I acknowledged that 117th Street in Whiting is as close as we are going to get to the exact spot where the two lines split.
Rich
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Heās not getting testy ā heās just wondering what exactly you want to know. You havenāt explained it well.
See the bridge over 100th St?
It carried NY Central next to PRR. Just SE of there, PRR had the slight curve southward that you still see, while NY Central continued straight for a couple thousand feet. So thatās where they quit being right next to each other, until they got back together for a bit in Indiana.
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I see that and I am working up a reply to that effect but I am sitting at the doctor ās office.
Have you checked the Barriger pics? Dunno where else to look, but you might as well try these
Lots of the Barriger negatives got scanned backwards, so be alert for that.