Obscure: Erie commuter service to Rochester, Indiana

[Otto Vondrak]

Can anybody tell me anything about the Erie Railroad's commuter service to Rochester, Indiana? All I know is that it ran out of the old Dearborn Station. When did it stop running? Anyone have any timetables showing the service?

Any resources would be appreciated. Been coming up with a lot of dead ends.

-otto-

[Tadman]

I'll put my ear to the ground, but this is pretty darn obscure. I'm from Northern Indiana and a current Chicago resident, and I've never heard of such service. Not to mention, Rochester is a tiny farm town that is definitely not a bedroom community. It's funny you post this today - I drove through Rochester yesterday on US-31 and had a good chuckle about "who the heck would live here"... I can't imagine ridership was ever there.

Edit: no mention in "Death of an American Railroad", the story of the EL failure.

[Otto Vondrak]

I'll put my ear to the ground, but this is pretty darn obscure. I'm from Northern Indiana and a current Chicago resident, and I've never heard of such service...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearborn_station is the only place I have seen it mentioned.

-otto-

[njmidland]

Otto,

I do remember reading about this somewhere, but I think it ended before WWI. I also remember it might have been operated by the Chicago & Western Indiana which the Erie partially owned and which also operated Dearborn and the trackage to the IN state line.

[Otto Vondrak]

Otto,

I do remember reading about this somewhere, but I think it ended before WWI. I also remember it might have been operated by the Chicago & Western Indiana which the Erie partially owned and which also operated Dearborn and the trackage to the IN state line.

I figured this was a pre-WW II service... But the C&WI had their own separate service that ran until 1964 between Dearborn and Dolton, Illinois.

[erie2521]

The January 1907 Official Guide lists four locals each way on the West end. They are between Dearborn and Hammond, North Judson, Huntington and Marion. The pair between Dearborn and Hammond are the right times to be called a commuter train. The pair between Dearborn and North Judson are the right part of the day but not real commuter schedules. The Huntington and Marion trains are not even close.
I wonder if someone has confused Rochester, IN with Rochester, NY which did have a decent commuter service. Ted

[Tadman]

Here are a few pics of the C&WI train from Dearborn to Dolton - you could be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a picture of a North Jersey Erie train.

http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=167121&nseq=21
http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=318962&nseq=2

Also, the above poster's comments make sense. After a few days of thinking about Otto's question, I cannot make heads or tails of Erie operating a commuter train to Rochester, IN, and I consider myself somewhat of an expert on Indiana commuter trains.

[Otto Vondrak]

I did not know C&WI had Stillwell coaches!

[Otto Vondrak]

Also, the above poster's comments make sense. After a few days of thinking about Otto's question, I cannot make heads or tails of Erie operating a commuter train to Rochester, IN, and I consider myself somewhat of an expert on Indiana commuter trains.

So, are we calling this one "BUSTED?"





-otto-

[Tadman]

I think so. I'd love to know about this operation if it did exist, so I'll keep my ear to the ground.

[paulsamuels]

The Erie Railroad did operate a commuter service out of Rochester, but Rochester, NEW YORK. In fact it was an electric service of cars that looked more like trolley cars than railroad cars. They collected current from catenary wires via pantographs located in the center of the roofs rather that at each end of the car.
Ref: http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/ny/htm/erie01.htm

[Otto Vondrak]

The Erie Railroad did operate a commuter service out of Rochester, but Rochester, NEW YORK. In fact it was an electric service of cars that looked more like trolley cars than railroad cars. They collected current from catenary wires via pantographs located in the center of the roofs rather that at each end of the car.
Ref: http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/ny/htm/erie01.htm

Way too familiar with that operation... Went to school in Rochester, NY... But this is definitely not the Chicago-bsaed operation I am searching for.

[JasW]

The 1910 OGR reveals that Erie did indeed run a "local" train originating daily in Rochester at 4:30 a.m. and arriving in Chicago at 9:35 a.m., and another train leaving Chicago at 4:45 p.m. and terminating in Rochester at 8:15 p.m.:



From the Chicago arrival and departure times, I suppose one could call that "commuter service." Talk about extreme commuting, though.

You might want to inquire further on the talk page of the person who put that info on Wikipedia (it turns out it's the person who created the Dearborn Station article -- the info has been there since the beginning):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Gerard_Czadowski

Someone else challenged him on including the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway and Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad as using Dearborn Station, noting that these were interurban streetcar lines that never entered Chicago. He never responded, and that info was subsequently removed.

[erie2521]

Guess what, there was such a service! Not much but enough to rate a little time table. Go to:
http://www.railfan.net/lists/mplist.cgi ... to&year=05 and scroll down to February 26, 2005. There you will find a four page timetable for suburban service between Chicago and Rochester, IN for the year 1900. It includes schedule and fares. There were three trains each way and it is possible that the middle one was a mixed train. Nevertheless, the first page does label it as suburban service. Ted

[erie2521]

Postscript: When I posted the last message, the ? in the email address got changed to ... so change it back to a ?. Ted