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1893–1989 · THE FRAME
The town's own plan states the frame, and the record agrees with it: the Town of North Liberty Comprehensive Plan (final, January 2015) describes the town as "located along two former railroad lines that have been abandoned," and notes that "the South Bend Amtrak Train Station is located approximately 15 miles away." No rail line serves or passes the town today, and none has since the Wabash corridor's abandonment closed the account in 1989. What the two lines were, in order: the Wabash's Chicago Extension, an east–west trunk built through the town in 1893 under the Montpelier & Chicago Railroad Company and run in succession as the Wabash's Fourth District and, after the Norfolk & Western lease of 1964, the Gary District; and the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa — the "Three I" — whose Knox–South Bend segment of 1894 made North Liberty the first community out of South Bend on the north–south line that became the New York Central's Kankakee Belt. The two lines crossed at grade in the town, the crossing the railroad record calls the diamond. Each road is taken whole in the articles that follow; the loss ledger that closes this section dates every ending.
Principal sources: Town of North Liberty Comprehensive Plan (DLZ Indiana, final January 2015), read first-hand; R. L. Polk & Co., Indiana Gazetteer and Business Directory 1916–17, North Liberty entry (ldsgenealogy transcription).