The Porter Subdivision is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line owned by

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

in the

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, area. Formerly a part of the main line of the

Michigan Central Railroad The Michigan Central Railroad (reporting mark MC) was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in ...

, it now connects CSX's former

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

line and the

Chicago Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad The Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad is a short line railroad offering service from Tolleston, Indiana to Crestline, Ohio, United States over the former Fort Wayne Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It began operations in 2004 as a divi ...

from the east with the

Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is a Class III railroadSurface Transportation BoardThe Belt Railway Company of Chicago -- Trackage Rights Exemption -- Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Company January 9, 2002 in the United States. Ownership The IHB ...

towards

Blue Island, Illinois Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, located approximately south of Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,55 ...

History

The

built a line from

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, to

, opening in mid-1852, several months after the competing

Northern Indiana and Chicago Railroad The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the ...

(later the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...

's main line) was completed. The MC's path entered

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

near Michigan City, crossing the NI&C at Porter. From Porter it looped to the southwest and northwest, joining the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also ...

in the Kensington neighborhood of Chicago. Later the Michigan Central (and the Northern Indiana and Chicago's successor, the

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the ...

) came under control of the New York Central. Eventually the NYC started to operate most trains west from Porter via the LS&MS, and the MC became a secondary route. All passenger trains moved on January 18, 1957, ending service to local stations in Gary and Hammond. In 1968 the NYC merged into

Penn Central Transportation The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

, and into Conrail in 1976. Around then the diamonds were removed at Porter, physically separating the line to Detroit from the line to Kensington, which came to be known as the Porter Branch. After 1980

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

bought the line from Porter to

Michigan City, Indiana Michigan City is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City- La Porte, Indiana Metropolitan statistical area, which is included in the Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City Combined sta ...

, east of which they already owned to

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropol ...

, about 2/5 the way to Detroit. With the 1998 breakup of Conrail,

acquired the branch, by then only running from Porter west to Gibson, located in Hammond, Indiana, a junction with the east-west

and the north-south

Kankakee Line Kankakee may refer to Places * Kankakee, Illinois * Kankakee, Indiana * Kankakee Community College * Kankakee County, Illinois * Kankakee River State Park * Kankakee State Hospital * Kankakee Valley High School Geology * Kankakee Arch * Kankakee O ...

, transferred from Conrail to the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (3 ...

. CSX has

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may c ...

on the IHB to and beyond

Blue Island Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, located approximately south of Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,5 ...

, with various connections to other CSX lines including the

Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad is a terminal railroad in the Chicago area, formerly giving various other companies access to (Chicago's) Grand Central Station. It also served to connect those railroads for freight transfers, an ...

( Blue Island Subdivision). To the east, a connection existed at Tolleston to the Fort Wayne Secondary, also acquired in the 1998 Conrail breakup (though from the

). At Willow Creek, as part of the breakup, a new connection was built connecting CSX's ex-

main line (the

Garrett Subdivision The Garrett Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Ohio and Indiana. The line runs from Deshler, Ohio, west to Willow Creek, Indiana (in Portage), along a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B& ...

) to the Porter Branch. In 2004 the little-used Fort Wayne Subdivision was leased to the

. At Porter, despite the existence of a CSX line to the northeast – the ex-

Pere Marquette Railway The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...

Grand Rapids Subdivision – no connection exists across the

's ex-

Chicago Line. CSX has considered putting in diamonds, but has held off for now (they use NS west of Porter to reach their Grand Rapids Subdivision). Thus CSX does not currently use the Porter Branch east of the junction at Willow Creek, but the BNSF Railway and

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

use it via

to reach Norfolk Southern's Elkhart Yard in

Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of t ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Chicago Rail Junctions – Porter
CSX Transportation lines Rail infrastructure in Indiana Michigan Central Railroad lines