Tracking the Last South Shore Line Dining Car
We are tracking the last South Shore Line dining car. Yeah, well, sort of.
Dining car service on the South Shore Line was short-lived, but the history of the equipment used is complex. There were two dining cars built for the South Shore Line – cars #301 & 302 – and both were non-destructively demolished and the steel harvested for the first six cars that were stretched and modernized after the United States declared war on Japan and Germany.
With the two South Shore Line dining cars both demolished, the question presented is whether there could be any dining cars that served the South Shore Line that have survived. There is evidence in South Shore Line company documents and contemporary photographic images that the South Shore Line occasionally “borrowed” dining cars that were used when needed for additional capacity or during service outages of the South Shore Line’s own dining cars.
The first “borrowed” dining cars likely did not fit either of these needs but may have been borrowed for the purpose of experimenting with deluxe services. Before the coming of the steel cars in 1926, the South Shore Line borrowed two dining cars from the Chicago and Alton Railroad.
Defective equipment may have led to a fire aboard South Shore Line dining car #302 in the summer of 1927. While car #302 was being repaired at Pullman Car & Manufacturing, Pullman gave the South Shore Line a loaner – Pullman dining car #3. [1] While the South Shore Line dining cars were in the shops for a “tune-up”, the Chicago Great Western Railway leased a dining car to the South Shore Line in autumn 1927.[2] A former employee remembered a dining car borrowed from the Norfolk and Western Railway.[3]
To meet peak demand for dining car service in the summer and autumn of 1929, the South Shore Line leased steam railroad dining cars including Fort Worth & Denver dining car #263. On Monday mornings, the leased dining car was set out at Michigan City to await the dining car train from South Bend. After the add at the double-track on 11th Street, the train would head to Chicago with two dining cars.
Double-diner trains included the Monday Fort Dearborn Limited departing South Bend at 7:05 am, the Friday St. Joe Valley Limited leaving Chicago at 5:15 pm, and the Saturday Indiana Limited leaving Chicago at noon. The leased dining cars were used on two Saturday trains: a dining car was added at Michigan City to the 1:48 pm and 6:48 pm departures. These two trains did not carry parlor-observation cars.[4] The 1:48 pm departure also carried a coach-baggage car.
Finding the Last South Shore Line Dining Car
Wooden and steel heavyweight steam railroad dining cars do not exist in the wild or in preservation in large numbers. Tracking the last South Shore Line dining cars was a challenge. But finding one still in existence was a multi-decade challenge. We started looking in 1994 and crossed paths with dining cars from East Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Salt Lake City, Utah. None found fit the provenance or the even the characteristics of the cars borrowed by the South Shore Line – until now….
Follow us on the Bob Harris Facebook page for photos and our weekly updates on the discovery and tracking of the last dining car that served the South Shore Line (well, it is the closest to a borrowed dining car that we could find; but it is real close – only the lettering needs to be changed).
As a reminder, you can comment on our Facebook page ( If you have any evidence of South Shore Line borrowed dining car operations that you would like to share, please, we welcome any verifiable actual knowledge. As a licensed attorney, I will object to hearsay.
You can also follow the progress of Restoring the Last South shore Line Interurban Car as well at
https://www.facebook.com/car73/
[1] L.J. Hile, Along the South Shore Line: Diners – Parlors, The Pantagraph, July-Aug. 1927, at 7.
[2] L.J. Hile, Along the South Shore Line: Dining Cars, The Pantagraph, Nov. 1927, at 5.\
[3] R.E. Jamieson, South Shore Line Passenger Traffic Manager, Address Before the Central Electric Railfan’s Association 10 (Sept. 29, 1962) (transcript in the South Shore Line Museum Project collection).
[4] Two-Diner Trains Set New Precedent, South Shore Lines Sept. 1929, at 1.; The Pantagraph, Sept. 1929, at 1.
We are tracking the last South Shore Line dining car. Yeah, well, sort of.
Dining car service on the South Shore Line was short-lived, but the history of the equipment used is complex. There were two dining cars built for the South Shore Line – cars #301 & 302 – and both were non-destructively demolished and the steel harvested for the first six cars that were stretched and modernized after the United States declared war on Japan and Germany.
With the two South Shore Line dining cars both demolished, the question presented is whether there could be any dining cars that served the South Shore Line that have survived. There is evidence in South Shore Line company documents and contemporary photographic images that the South Shore Line occasionally “borrowed” dining cars that were used when needed for additional capacity or during service outages of the South Shore Line’s own dining cars.
The first “borrowed” dining cars likely did not fit either of these needs but may have been borrowed for the purpose of experimenting with deluxe services. Before the coming of the steel cars in 1926, the South Shore Line borrowed two dining cars from the Chicago and Alton Railroad.
Defective equipment may have led to a fire aboard South Shore Line dining car #302 in the summer of 1927. While car #302 was being repaired at Pullman Car & Manufacturing, Pullman gave the South Shore Line a loaner – Pullman dining car #3. [1] While the South Shore Line dining cars were in the shops for a “tune-up”, the Chicago Great Western Railway leased a dining car to the South Shore Line in autumn 1927.[2] A former employee remembered a dining car borrowed from the Norfolk and Western Railway.[3]
To meet peak demand for dining car service in the summer and autumn of 1929, the South Shore Line leased steam railroad dining cars including Fort Worth & Denver dining car #263. On Monday mornings, the leased dining car was set out at Michigan City to await the dining car train from South Bend. After the add at the double-track on 11th Street, the train would head to Chicago with two dining cars.
Double-diner trains included the Monday Fort Dearborn Limited departing South Bend at 7:05 am, the Friday St. Joe Valley Limited leaving Chicago at 5:15 pm, and the Saturday Indiana Limited leaving Chicago at noon. The leased dining cars were used on two Saturday trains: a dining car was added at Michigan City to the 1:48 pm and 6:48 pm departures. These two trains did not carry parlor-observation cars.[4] The 1:48 pm departure also carried a coach-baggage car.
Finding the Last South Shore Line Dining Car
Wooden and steel heavyweight steam railroad dining cars do not exist in the wild or in preservation in large numbers. Tracking the last South Shore Line dining cars was a challenge. But finding one still in existence was a multi-decade challenge. We started looking in 1994 and crossed paths with dining cars from East Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Salt Lake City, Utah. None found fit the provenance or the even the characteristics of the cars borrowed by the South Shore Line – until now….
Follow us on the Bob Harris Facebook page for photos and our weekly updates on the discovery and tracking of the last dining car that served the South Shore Line (well, it is the closest to a borrowed dining car that we could find; but it is real close – only the lettering needs to be changed).
As a reminder, you can comment on our Facebook page ( If you have any evidence of South Shore Line borrowed dining car operations that you would like to share, please, we welcome any verifiable actual knowledge. As a licensed attorney, I will object to hearsay.
You can also follow the progress of Restoring the Last South shore Line Interurban Car as well at
https://www.facebook.com/car73/
[1] L.J. Hile, Along the South Shore Line: Diners – Parlors, The Pantagraph, July-Aug. 1927, at 7.
[2] L.J. Hile, Along the South Shore Line: Dining Cars, The Pantagraph, Nov. 1927, at 5.\
[3] R.E. Jamieson, South Shore Line Passenger Traffic Manager, Address Before the Central Electric Railfan’s Association 10 (Sept. 29, 1962) (transcript in the South Shore Line Museum Project collection).
[4] Two-Diner Trains Set New Precedent, South Shore Lines Sept. 1929, at 1.; The Pantagraph, Sept. 1929, at 1.