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1902–1930 — the disentangling this section stands on
Two different electric railways left South Bend northward and westward, and the record keeps them apart. The line that ran through Clay Township to St. Joseph, Michigan, was built by an originally independent company, the Southern Michigan Railway. The line to Michigan City by way of New Carlisle and La Porte — the line the earlier passes in this county sequence met at New Carlisle — was built by the Indiana Railway family that became the Northern Indiana Railway. The Central Electric Railfans' Association's history states the separation in one sentence: "A line into the State of Michigan was built by an independent company, the Southern Michigan Railway, a 1906 consolidation of the South Bend & Southern Michigan Ry. Co., and the Niles & Buchanan Ry. Co." The companies were run in conjunction — the same interests held controlling majorities in both, though they kept separate corporate entities and filed separate reports — and they did not become one corporation until 1930. Any account that sends the "Northern Indiana Railway's" Michigan City line through Roseland, or the Southern Michigan's cars through New Carlisle, has merged two railroads that the record holds apart.
Sources: CERA Bulletin 104, Electric Railways of Indiana, Vol. 3 (Central Electric Railfans' Association, 1960), the Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana sections, read in the Archive.org full text; Marlette, Electric Railroads of Indiana (1959), the company entries.