The Grand Trunk on the north side

1871–PRESENT · THE CANADIAN ROAD

The second trunk line took the north bank: Mishawaka's city history carries the second railroad in one sentence: the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway "linked Mishawaka's north side to Chicago and Detroit." The geography is the town's own — the road ran, and its successor still runs, along the north side of the St. Joseph River through the city's northern ground, on its way from South Bend to Granger, Edwardsburg and Cassopolis. The sentence's dating does not survive the railroad's own chronology, and the conflict is printed whole: De Kever places the link "in the 1850s," but the Grand Trunk's predecessor in the valley was chartered by Indiana in 1866, its single track was built in 1871, it first operated as the Chicago & Lake Huron, and it passed to the Grand Trunk of Canada by 1879; the road completed its own Chicago route from Valparaiso in 1880 as the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway, and the Grand Trunk Western Railway united the system's American lines by 1900. The link to Mishawaka's north side belongs to the 1870s, not the 1850s; the city's history is printed with its date corrected by the record, not silently.

A listed station from the start: Mishawaka was a Grand Trunk station in the guides from early in the road's life: the compiled station lists carry Mishawaka at mile 231.9 from Chicago in the Official Guide of 1875, between South Bend (235.5) and Granger (225.1), and the road's own public timetable for Chicago, Port Huron and Detroit prints the station sequence east of South Bend as Mishawaka, Granger, Edwardsburg, Cassopolis. The town's manufacturers' directory of 1889 likewise gives Mishawaka, population 3,200, as standing "on the Chicago & Grand Trunk and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroads" — the page is carried first-hand in this build's Businesses section. The road's named Chicago–Toronto trains — the International Limited, the Maple Leaf, the Inter-City Limited, The LaSalle — ran through Mishawaka on their way between Chicago and South Bend; which of them, if any, still called at Mishawaka in the twentieth century is not established in the record reached, and the end of the Mishawaka call on this road is a named gap's note. The Grand Trunk's own passenger service ended everywhere on 30 April 1971. The freight line endures: the Interstate Commerce Commission's 1932 report already calls this trackage the South Bend Subdivision, and Canadian National's South Bend Subdivision it remains — Battle Creek to Griffith, single track through Mishawaka's north side, verified in the freight entry below.

Sources:

1. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — the Chicago and Grand Trunk "linked Mishawaka's north side to Chicago and Detroit," dated by the history to the 1850s (the conflict printed in the entry).
2. South Bend's Trains section and its sources — the Grand Trunk predecessor's Indiana charter of 1866, single track of 1871, first operation as the Chicago & Lake Huron, the passage to the Grand Trunk of Canada by 1879, the Chicago & Grand Trunk completion of 1880, Grand Trunk Western by 1900, the named Chicago–Toronto trains, the passenger end of 30 April 1971, and the Interstate Commerce Commission's 1932 "South Bend Subdivision," Battle Creek to Griffith, 140.56 miles.
3. Indiana passenger-station list SL 281 (compiled from the Official Guides and company timetables) — Mishawaka at mile 231.9 on the Canadian National's line, attested in the Official Guide of 1875; Granger at 225.1; South Bend at 235.5.
4. Grand Trunk Western public timetable, Table 1, Chicago–Port Huron–Detroit (Center for Research Libraries copy) — the station sequence South Bend, Mishawaka, Granger, Edwardsburg, Cassopolis.
5. Directory of Indiana Manufacturers and Buyers' Guide (1889), the Mishawaka page — the town "on the Chicago & Grand Trunk and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroads" (carried first-hand in this build's Businesses section).