The Water Level Route: Lake Shore & Michigan Southern to New York Central

1869–PRESENT · THE MAIN LINE

The first road to the bend became the great through route of the North: On 6 April 1869 the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana and its partners were consolidated as the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway — the Buffalo & Erie was absorbed on 22 June 1869 — and the line through South Bend became the southern shore of Lake Erie made into a railroad: the Water Level Route, Buffalo to Chicago by way of Toledo, Elkhart and the bend, the flattest and fastest path between the East and Chicago. It was the first of the city's trunk lines and it never stopped being the most important. In December 1914 the Lake Shore was consolidated into the New York Central, and for half a century the Central's crack Chicago–New York trains ran through South Bend — the 20th Century Limited among them, which passed through the city without stopping, as the station histories record. The succession after the Central is the standard one, told here in brief: Penn Central in 1968, Conrail in 1976, and in the 1999 division of Conrail the line through South Bend went to Norfolk Southern, whose Chicago Line it remains — the elevated railroad across downtown, and one of the busiest freight corridors in the country.

Sources:

1. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern's corporate record — the consolidation of 6 April 1869, the Buffalo & Erie absorption of 22 June 1869, and the New York Central consolidation of December 1914.
2. SubwayNut's South Bend station history — the 20th Century Limited ran through South Bend without stopping; the Lake Shore Limited travels its route.
3. The Conrail division record of 1999 — the ex-New York Central main line through South Bend to Norfolk Southern as its Chicago Line.