South Shore Deadhead move?

[Dan Cluley]

I spent a couple of days in the Michigan City-Dunes area last week and shot quite a few South Shore trains. Both Thursday & Friday morning I heard or saw an eastbound movement that wasn't on the schedule or the tracker. This was a little after the westbound fleet and seemed to be a train of bilevels.

Is this a regular movement? And where does it originate? I assume they can run with a smaller crew if they don't carry passengers and there isn't enough traffic to be worth the expense.

[justalurker66]

If it is the run I am thinking of it runs every weekday. It is one of the eastbound trains from Chicago to Gary. After terminating in service at Gary the equipment runs back to Michigan City as a deadhead. It has been running that way for at least a decade if I remember correctly. Not running in service allows the deadhead move to be delayed as much as needed as it is passed by westbound trains east of Gary.

[Dan Cluley]

Thanks, that makes sense. I didn't get that far west, so wasn't looking at the Gary trains in the schedule. Nice to have another regular train that isn't coming straight out of the Sun.

[9xs]

South Shore is running a PTC train tonight

Posted: Oct. 29, 2018, 12:28 p.m.General Message: . Due to the continued implementation of Positive Train Control, WB Train 424 will participate in a test run the evening of Oct. 29, 2018, which requires it to be placed out of service and will not carry passengers during its regularly scheduled run. Please be advised Tr 424 will be identified as Tr 6 on the SSL Train Tracker, which will not interfere with Tr 6 normal operations on 10/30/18.