The Water Level Route: the main line along the south bank

1869–PRESENT · THE TRUNK LINE

The first road became the great through route of the North: On 6 April 1869 the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana was consolidated into the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, and the line through Mishawaka became part of the Water Level Route — Buffalo to Chicago along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana, the flattest and fastest path between the East and Chicago. Mishawaka stands at milepost 435.8 from Buffalo on that line: Osceola is the next station east, South Bend four miles west. In December 1914 the Lake Shore was consolidated into the New York Central, and for half a century the Central's Chicago–New York fleet ran through Mishawaka. The crack trains did not stop here: the record of the line's stations makes Mishawaka a local stop, and no source reached names a train of the 20th Century Limited's class calling at Mishawaka — at South Bend, the station histories record, even the Century passed without stopping. What stopped at Mishawaka was the local service that tied the town to Elkhart, South Bend and Chicago, and it is that service whose ending is dated in the passenger entry below.

The succession, and the line today: The New York Central merged into Penn Central in 1968; Penn Central's lines passed to Conrail in 1976; and in the 1999 division of Conrail the Chicago Line through Mishawaka went to Norfolk Southern, whose property it remains. The operating record describes the line through the city today exactly: two main tracks under CTC, Mishawaka a control point at mile 432.7, and at mile 437.5 — between Mishawaka and South Bend — CP 437, the junction where Canadian National's line crosses. Amtrak's Chicago–New York and Chicago–Miami trains run over this line through Mishawaka without stopping, as the Amtrak entry below states. It is the busiest railroad in Mishawaka and, unlike the town's other two lines, it never had a day without trains.

Sources:

1. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern's corporate record and station listing — the consolidation of 6 April 1869; the New York Central consolidation of December 1914; Mishawaka station at mile 435.8 between Osceola and South Bend.
2. ChicagoRailFan, Norfolk Southern Chicago Line operating record — two tracks, CTC in use; Mishawaka at 432.7; CP 437 at 437.5, junction with Canadian National; Amtrak passenger service over the line.
3. The Conrail division record of 1999 — the ex-New York Central main line to Norfolk Southern as its Chicago Line (carried in South Bend's Trains section and built on here).
4. South Bend's Trains section — the 20th Century Limited's passage through South Bend without stopping, as the station histories record.