If you think you’re dreaming about ghost trains running at night along the unopened West Lake Corridor route, you might not be dreaming.
On Monday, the South Shore Line began running a two-car train along the new rail line to start testing and conditioning, so bugs can be worked out before passenger service is set to start in March, President and General Manager Michael Noland said Tuesday.
“We’re doing that for the next three days,” he said, running a train at night to limit traffic disruptions.
The start of passenger service was delayed after three of the four transformers along the route were found to be damaged, Noland said. The cause still hasn’t been determined.
But that won’t stop the railroad from testing the new rail line and starting to train employees on it.
Noland said the transformer at the north Hammond station is working, and another transformer has been cobbled together with a variety of parts. A third transformer, a 45-year-old oil-based transformer, is being recommissioned.
“We can do almost everything that is necessary,” he said, with the equipment on hand.
The new route is eight miles long, and the industry likes to have transformers every three miles for reliability, but the existing route has far fewer. Can a single transformer be used to power a train along the entire route? “We do it every day,” Noland said, between Michigan City and South Bend, where there’s a 10-mile stretch of tracks between transformers.
The railroad has begun a 10-year program to renew and supplement substations along the existing line. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to go every three miles,” he said.
What’s worked for 116 years still works, Noland said.
The new system being tested this week is software-based, so it’s a chance to see how close theory comes to practice. Already, a few bugs were noticed Monday, so they can be corrected, he said.
The trains are running in a low power mode, taking longer to pick up speed after leaving a station. “To simply test a two-car train, we can do that with one transformer in north Hammond powering the system,” Noland said.
A train with more cars and fully loaded with passengers would require more power, especially to quickly get to 60 mph after leaving the station.
Noland, who announced his retirement last month and is waiting for his replacement to be hired, said he wants to make sure the new rail route is up and running as soon as possible. Doing testing and training now means when the new transformers are installed it won’t take as long to finish getting everything commissioned and revenue service started.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
