The Kankakee Belt: the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa

1894–PRESENT · THE BYPASS

The fifth road was built to miss Chicago, and South Bend was its eastern anchor: The Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad built west from Streator, Illinois, to North Judson in 1881, and in 1894 it completed its line northeast to South Bend. The road's whole idea was in its nickname, the Kankakee Belt Route: a through-freight bypass that let cars move between the eastern and western trunk lines without entering congested Chicago, running from South Bend southwest through North Judson and Kankakee to Streator and Zearing. Vanderbilt interests bought the road — the New York Times reported the purchase on 29 December 1901 — and in 1906 it was combined into the Chicago, Indiana & Southern, which the New York Central consolidated in 1914; the Belt became the Central's Illinois Division. In South Bend its geography crossed the city's other roads: at Harris Street the Kankakee line passed under an interlocking tower across the Grand Trunk, in the industrial west side. Union Station's record of former services lists the Kankakee Belt Route among the station's trains — South Bend was the line's passenger terminus as well as its freight anchor. The Belt died in pieces under Penn Central and Conrail, which found South Bend over-supplied with routes: the tracks through North Judson were removed in 1983, and the line stands abandoned east of Walkerton. But its South Bend end never quite died — Norfolk Southern still works the local trackage of the Kankakee Belt in the city, with the remnants of two other roads, as the freight entry below tells.

Sources:

1. Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum, North Judson — the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa's construction from Streator to North Judson in 1881 and its completion to South Bend in 1894.
2. New York Times, 29 December 1901 — the Vanderbilt interests' purchase of the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa.
3. The Kankakee Belt Route's compiled record — the Chicago, Indiana & Southern combination of 1906, the New York Central consolidation of 1914, the Harris Street interlocking with the Grand Trunk, the 1983 removal through North Judson, and Norfolk Southern's present working of the South Bend local trackage.
4. Union Station's record of former services — the Kankakee Belt Route (North Liberty toward Zearing) among the station's departed trains.