Where is the NS Chicago Terminal yard for Elkart trains and trains from Bellview Oh

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I assume its Hammond IN? I know Barr Yard is the terminal for CSX so what about NS?

2

Got company coming?

3

The trains that originate out of Elkhart go to almost all of the yards in Chicago. The only yards that the Elkhart crews don’t go to are Corwith, CSX yards, and the CN yards. The long pool crews out of Toledo go to Park Manor and Ashland Ave. The NS yards are Calumet, Landers, 55th ST. Park Manor, Ashland Ave, and Cole Hour. Other yards that the Elkhart crews go to are Cicero, Proviso, Blue Island, Clearing, Michigan Ave, Gibson, Bensenville, Galewood.

4

You might want to take a look at my description of the NS Chicago - Ft Wayne line on Guide section. I am currently placing as much info as I know about the line.

The trains on this line generally are destined for:
Calumet Yard
EJE or IHB in NW Indiana - coal trains or auto racks
Landers Yard - all intermodal except 217/218 (Calumet) or the Triple Crowns, also Calumet.

I dont know if this line runs thru to any yard other than the above. If so, I would guess that 306/307 might go to BRC Clearing.

ed

5

So unlike CSX where many of there trains end up in Barr yard…NS trains from OH could end up anywere in Chicago inclunding many General merchandise boxcar trains? So I assume that NS contracts with the IHB to sort its Junk trains heading east.

6

I would think that the general merchandise trains are very similar to the Conrail days.

In that era, the western roads would run trains from their eastern classification yards to Conrail, bypassing classification in Chicago.

For instance, UP would run a train from North Platte to Selkirk Yard. They would also run a train from UP/Proviso to Elkhart and also one to Conway (Pittsburgh).
BNSF would run a train thru Streator to Kankakee to Elkhart.

I do not know the NS manifests, nor do I know of a website that has this info. The outbound manifests from Conrail in the final years included:

BHEL - Burns Harbor, In to Elkhart
BHIN- Burns Harbor to Elkhart to Indianapolis
BREL- BRC to Elkhart
BRPI - BRC to Conway
BRSE -BRC to Selkirk
CJEL -Chicago to Elkhart
IHCO- IHB to Columbus
IHDL - IHB to Detroit
IHEL - IHB to Elkhart
KAEL - Kankakee to Elkhart
PREL - Proviso to Elkhart
PRPI - Proviso to Conway
SFEL - BNSF Streator to Elkhart

You can sort of get an idea of what corresponding NS trains would still run and from where.

ed

7

Thank you…so now its a matters of just finding the Conrail to NS conversions.
I guess that Elkhart is nearest big humpyard owned by NS to Chicago