City leaders say 144 trains go through Mishawaka a day

[signmasters]

City leaders say about 144 trains go through Mishawaka every day on the two tracks and the northside of town needed this underpass.

Groundbreaking Held for Mishawaka Underpass

Talk started years ago and the work starts in about two weeks

Wednesday the city broke ground on the new Mishawaka Main Street underpass.

City leaders took part in the ceremony Wednesday afternoon.

They will close the section of road starting on October 1st for about three weeks.

During that time they will move the tracks so they can build the underpass.

City leaders say about 144 trains go through Mishawaka every day on the two tracks and the northside of town needed this underpass.

Mishawaka Mayor Jeff Rea says, "The one problem on these northern tracks is no underpass anywhere. And so ultimately when it's stopped like it is right now, there's no where around it. There's no where to go, unless you go far enough west to South Bend or far enough east to get to the other end of the train. So it really illustrates that problem."

The project cost about 20 million dollars and should be complete in 2009.

There will be a meeting at John Young Middle School later this month to update residents on the next phase of the project.

Mayor Rea says the county may put in an underpass at McKinley, but not for about 15 years

http://www.fox28.com/News/index.php?ID=25266

[J T]

144 trains? Someone is definitely smoking some crack...or their clicker is broken.

Someone needs to send the town of Mishawaka a new one of these:

[GP30M4216]

Are they not referring to the CN mainline? Isn't this line only home to something like 25-30 trains in a 24 hour period? The NS line is far busier through Mishawaka, with maybe 80-100 trains daily.

[signmasters]

144 trains? Someone is definitely smoking some crack...or their clicker is broken.

Someone needs to send the town of Mishawaka a new one of these:

I was thinking the very same thing when I seen that on the news tonight, they should build a railfan park.

[J T]

I've been along that NS line a few different times for extended periods of time, and there's no way in hell they average 100 trains...unless most of them come during the night...or the traffic has greatly increased since the spring. Fostoria city officials claim "100-150 trains a day" and that NS line through Indiana is NOTHING like the frequency I saw in F-town.

CN? Hardly a dent to that 144 total.

[thomas]

typical goverment at work as some of you know, the best way to get something approved is greatly inflate the point of action or say it's to protect the kids.......the real reason for the underpass is a quick search for the weapons of mass destrution.

[signmasters]

typical government at work as some of you know, the best way to get something approved is greatly inflate the point of action or say it's to protect the kids.......the real reason for the underpass is a quick search for the weapons of mass destruction.

Or OJ's missing knife!

[~Z~]

In the past times I've been on the stretch of combined CN/NS line through South Bend, i've seen a train every 12 minutes on average...and that's during daylight hours.. if it stays at that pace, that's 120 every 24 hours.
Take that calculation with a grain of salt though

[Chess-e]

What about Vickers? How many trains hit those diamonds everyday?

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Are they not referring to the CN mainline? Isn't this line only home to something like 25-30 trains in a 24 hour period? The NS line is far busier through Mishawaka, with maybe 80-100 trains daily.

When you add together both the CN and the NS, you'll get something over 100...unless the NS has the tracks through South Bend OOS indefinitely for MOW work (as they have the last two or three times I've gone over to Arnold Street).

Although the number of CN trains is far less than the number of NS trains, I would believe that there are probably at least 20-25, if not 25-30 CN trains through here in a 24 hour period. The only problem with trying to go out to see them is that most of 'em run at night. Since about Labor Day weekend, I've been living a couple blocks north of the CN line through town, and as we've not had to close our windows much yet this year, the noise of the CN line is pretty clear up here. I'm pretty confident stating that there are at least 20-25 trains a day through here and very possibly more than that.


Signmasters- Thanks a lot for posting this article. I've heard all kinds of stories about when they're supposed to start that underpass, but I'm glad to see that it's really getting ready to go. With the progress on the new hospital moving right along, they're gonna need that overpass pretty soon.

[trainjunkie47]

In the past times I've been on the stretch of combined CN/NS line through South Bend, i've seen a train every 12 minutes on average...and that's during daylight hours.. if it stays at that pace, that's 120 every 24 hours.

I sat at Arnold Street for three and a half hours on June 14th this summer and saw exactly three trains, two on NS and one on CN.

[J T]

In the past times I've been on the stretch of combined CN/NS line through South Bend, i've seen a train every 12 minutes on average...and that's during daylight hours.. if it stays at that pace, that's 120 every 24 hours.

I sat at Arnold Street for three and a half hours on June 14th this summer and saw exactly three trains, two on NS and one on CN.

The other 141 trains showed up shortly after you left.

[SDavey]

I had a job interview in Elkhart back in July and when I said I like watching trains his response was, "Oh youll love it here then, we get about 500 trains a day through Elkhart." I said it was closer to 100 and he thought I was nuts.

The bridge along the NS at Ironwood Drive looked fairly new, does anyone know when that was put in. I cant remember if its in South Bend or Mishawaka since its near the town borders.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

The bridge along the NS at Ironwood Drive looked fairly new, does anyone know when that was put in. I cant remember if its in South Bend or Mishawaka since its near the town borders.

The bridge over Ironwood is in South Bend. The city line is along Logan/Hickory Street, which is less than a mile east of Ironwood (I think it's less than a mile, I'm pretty sure it's the next bridge over the river to the east). The NS bridge over Ironwood has been there as long as I've been in college, probably was installed in 2001 or 2002 (I've been down here since the fall of '03).

[amtrakjackson]

There are a *lot* of NS trains through Mishawaka after dark. In the past hour I've heard five westbounds leaving Elkhart and there are a pile of eastbounds on the way.

There are now more trains on the Chicago Line than in Conrail days, though CR ran theirs MUCH longer. West of Elkhart was busy during daylight, east was busy after dark.

[GP30M4216]

J T, try Elkhart in the hours just before and after dawn sometime. It may look a lot more like Fostoria than you thought! Plus there will be two big Amtraks coming westbound. Mid day seems to be rather slow

[DLM]

Built about 9 years ago. I rode an Operation Lifesaver train on the shoofly during the construction. Fun trip. In the cab of the Conrail E units from Elhart to Chicago and back. Our Conrail sales rep got us on the train.

[ra1508vh]

I'm amazed how traffic has increased on the old NKP line. I've lived with 2 blocks of the line my whole life, and I cant remember it ever being as busy as it has been the last severall years. Every 10-15 minutres a train goes through. I havent been around the NYC line lateley, but I know it is even busier. Since the merger, I havnet seen alot of general freight on the line, mostly intermodal. Has anyone noticed the same?

[sd70accsxt700]

Vickers on the CSX alone is about a average of 38 trains a day for a total of about 48 moves a day. Last I knew the NS was around 60 to 70 moves a day. So about 110 to 120 a day give or take.

Yea JT you missed a lot, all that go by Vickers make a appearance around South Bend, so on the NS figure at least 70 to 80 a day, acount all the coal trains to and from Michigan, plus a few freight, that head north, and dont come across Vickers. When I did 24 back in May, at Pine Junction I think we had 80 to 90 on the NS, cause all told, we had 171 movements past us.

[Norm]

I Every 10-15 minutres a train goes through.

That's about what was runnig when I was there (Ohio and Indiana) two weeks ago.