Saving the Fourth District! (Partially)

Korry Shepard
9 min readJan 5, 2021

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In 1981 Indiana Sugars had been around in some form for 60 years. It was a small, privately owned sugar refinery but large in business. It depended on Wabash Railroad for its deliveries of raw materials until Norfolk & Western took over Wabash in 1963. From ’63 Norfolk & Western did great business with Indiana Sugars until July of 1981. That is when Wabash and Norfolk & Western Railway filed an application with the ICC to abandon 42 miles of the line as well as discontinue 5.77 miles of trackage rights over B&OCT. Indiana Sugars found out about this via public notice. It’s president and founder, Maurice Yanover, was livid.

Maurice Yonover was born in Kiev, Russia in 1907. He and his parents, Morris and Martha Yonover, immigrated to the US in 1922 when Maurice was about 13 or 14. It is unknown why they moved here. Perhaps they were escaping the organized massacres of Jews called ‘pogroms’. Yes, eradication of Jews was happening way before WWII. In one 1919 instance of a ‘pogrom’, 20,000 Jews were robbed and murdered in two days.

Old man Morris Yonover.

While in America Morris started a grocery and cigar store business at 1550 Delaware Street in February 1923. Young Maurice started helping his father in the store. By 1925 Maurice was the manager and by 1929 he was the president of his father’s business, Yonover Packing Company — 537 E. 5th Avenue (SW corner of 5th & Virginia). In 1931 the Yonover men opened a grocery warehouse, Indiana Wholesale Food Supply Company, at 301 Virginia. Skipping a lot of history, the company would eventually occupy property located at 911 Virginia Street, adjacent to a lumber yard, by end of the 1940s. Indiana Sugars was the new name in 1976. The business had been served by the railroad ever since the 1940s. The railroad was the life blood of the company. They had a fleet of delivery trucks, 100 in total, which delivered fructose and other sugar products to 12 states.

Back to being livid. Old man Maurice did not like this move from Norfolk & Western at all. Not only did Maurice not like it, the Director for the United Transportation Union, Patrick W. Simmons, didn’t either. Simmons alleged Norfolk & Western would put the Gary District’s crew in danger of losing their jobs. They were based out of Calumet Yard in Chicago, IL. Abandoning the district would cause a massive change in railroad operations in the area. Simmons stated Norfolk & Western omitted key facts from their abandonment application, including but not limited to revenues and costs “as operated” instead of “as predicted” or “as assumed” and the deletion of revenue and costs from other traffic on parts of the line. Simmons alleged Norfolk & Western would put an undue burden on other railroads, reduce its service to the public and likely end up increasing certain unavoidable costs of operation for everyone else. Norfolk & Western employees would have to uproot and relocate to other places in order to hold their current positions and ranking. He requested a hearing be held in which Norfolk & Western would have to present more tangible evidence.

Maurice Yonover also wanted a hearing. Yonover will now be represented as Indiana Sugars. Indiana Sugars contested that Norfolk & Western failed to show just how much the company would be inconvenienced in its abandonment application. The abandonment would place a tremendous financial burden on the company that would have immediate effects on their ability to operate and have a “real significant and materially adverse effect upon the continued economic viability and continued profitability”.

There were a number of businesses on the list of significant users of the line but Indiana Sugars was by far the largest user — with nearly a thousand cars being delivered or picked up on average annually. In previous years a significant portion of Norfolk & Western’s traffic was Indiana Sugars traffic. Sugar was delivered via railcar directly to the company. The sugar came from great distances, particularly from the west. Not only did Indiana Sugars deal with sugar, but they distributed large quantities of salt and other wholesale foodstuffs to various retailers throughout the US, directly competing with other suppliers in those areas. Indiana Sugars was completely reliant upon Norfolk & Western railroad to simply operate. Inbound traffic was the majority of Norfolk & Western’s service. In 1980 alone Sugars’ received 55,000 tons of sugar by rail, not counting the other raw materials. That counted for half of their raw materials deliveries. On top of that, Indiana Sugars’ outbound orders were slowly increasing. The trucking industry just didn’t have the ability to be the sole deliverer of the large amount of raw materials the company needed in order to process their products on an annual — or even daily — basis.

Sweet, sweet sugar. I swear that’s sugar.

Norfolk & Western suggested Indiana Sugars use trucking companies — the majority of which had no ability to transport 200,000 pounds of sugar, had no airtight containers, did not work for the food retail industry at all and only specialized in moving steel, iron and cars. Therefore, none of those businesses could serve as a viable alternative to rail. Indiana Sugars had its own fleet of trucks operating under the subsidiary company Crown Warehouse & Transportation Company, Inc. Even with their own fleet they could not be able to handle the massive amount of traffic necessary to facilitate their operations.

Norfolk Southern switching at Indiana Sugars, MLK Drive. 2017.

Next was the issue of alternative rail service, which I had always wondered about. Norfolk & Western suggested eleven alternative rail carriers. Out of the eleven, only four were thought to be somewhat suitable as far as Indiana Sugars was concerned. Even with the four, they concluded that Indiana Sugars would significantly exceed their ability to deliver.

Indiana Sugars talked to Indiana Harbor Belt about continuing service along the Gary & Western high line. However IHB was unable to significantly alter already existing switch points, construct new switch points or reconstruct already abandoned and ripped up switch points from off of the high line in that area.

N&W is labeled “C” (gone). IHB “B” (gone). EJ&E “E” (remains). IHB ‘high line’ is curved “A”.

There were two switch points directly adjacent to Indiana Sugars on its south side. The first, on the north side of the high line and directly visible from Indiana Sugars’ southernmost property line, had been torn out. This switch point used to have a track that dropped off the high line, crossed Virginia Street and accessed an industrial park. The second switch, on the south side of the high line just yards apart from the first, was newer. It crossed Indiana Street/Martin Luther King Drive. It basically sat abandoned in place as both the Lavino plant and the chemical plant adjacent to it were shut down.

IHB ‘high line’ is “A” (curved track). Indiana Sugars, N&W main line and siding tracks shown.

Though IHB operated upon the high line (every blue moon) the branch was owned by Conrail. Conrail had a deep desire to totally and completely abandon Gary & Western and had already begun the process by this point in time. They cared less about Indiana Sugars and their problems with Norfolk & Western. Therefore IHB could not be depended on to help in any significant way.

The “J”! EJ&E.

Second was Elgin, Joliet & Eastern. EJ&E had no direct connection to Indiana Sugars, nor had it ever. EJ&E operated alongside Chicago, South Shore & South Bend at the ‘City Track’. The City Track ran under the Gary & Western just north of 5th Avenue. There was a turnoff that left the City Track, crossed the South Shore main line with an OWLS diamond, crossed 5th Avenue and accessed the Walter Bates/Union Drawn Steel/Gary Screw & Bolt industrial park at 7th & Alabama. That’s where it stopped. Ironically the industrial track behind these businesses extended southeast until it almost touched the Norfolk & Western main line.

West of this point sat Gary Screw & Bolt, though by this time it was called by a different name. Screw & Bolt was served by Norfolk & Western until the very end of the 1970s. The turnoff from the main line to the factory was ripped up. Screw & Bolt was still in operation in 1981, but had ceased receiving traffic from Norfolk & Western for the past two or three years. Norfolk & Western was unwilling to reconstruct its former turnoff at Gary Screw & Bolt for Indiana Sugars and EJ&E’s use.

Gary Screw & Bolt. Orange-EJ&E. Red-IHB. Green-N&W. Last two are gone. Blue-North & East.

Indiana Harbor Belt had an interchange turnoff at Gary Screw & Bolt. This IHB interchange track was far longer than Norfolk & Western’s. It twisted behind Screw & Bolt’s south side and turned past its east side before meeting up at EJ&E’s industrial track — the same track I mentioned previously. Lots of people debate if EJ&E and IHB ever interchanged here. They did, so stop arguing.

Operated as bad as it looked.

Norfolk & Western told Indiana Sugars that South Shore Freight had a direct connection with EJ&E and IHB. That was certainly incorrect. South Shore had a direct connection with EJ&E via the City Track at the interchange point called Goff. In theory South Shore Freight could have used the 5th Avenue turnoff to access the Screw & Bolt after doing some maneuvering and if the turnoff was electrified — but there was no direct connection at the industrial park with EJ&E and IHB anymore. Modern-day South Shore diesels couldn’t have reached Indiana Sugars that way.

There were zero viable options available at the time. Indiana Sugars had to use Norfolk & Western. The company had financially assisted Norfolk & Western, properly utilized its rail network, crews and equipment. Its continued service was simply a must. As far as I’m aware, there were no other businesses along the line that absolutely needed Norfolk & Western but for Indiana Sugars and it put up the greatest fight it possibly could. However, Indiana Harbor Belt was still seen as a possible plan B. The ICC tried to force this point upon the company, citing accessible “link points throughout the territory”.

US Interstate Commerce Commission. Abolished in 1995.

While this may have been the case, the ICC did not consider the needs and nature of these other link points, especially IHB — which was solely dependent on Conrail’s cooperation (they never got it). They also dismissed the company’s concerns about materials delivery, stating that the company would only be “merely inconvenienced” by the loss of rail delivery. They also did not take into consideration the obstructions between some of the rail lines and Indiana Sugars. There are wide swamps, other industries and in some cases entire neighborhoods in the way of connecting Indiana Sugars to other rail lines. Such conditions could not possibly be seen as feasible, yet the ICC did just that. Indiana Sugars ripped the ICC apart, accusing them of being negligent in their duties and not taking their complaints seriously (in so many words). This is the point in the paperwork where the lawyers from each side go back and forth with legalese for page after page after page. There is also page after page discussing railroad routings and the like. A nerd like me enjoyed reading it. But for you I’ll skip to the good part.

On October 17, 1983 Indiana Sugars got word that they were successful at forcing the ICC to reopen Norfolk & Western’s abandonment proceedings. It was ordered that the abandonment of 5.77 miles of track rights along the B&OCT would be dismissed. Norfolk & Western also agreed that discontinuing service to Indiana Sugars would not be “in the interest of the shipping public…” and they were to cease plans to abandon the 7 miles of remaining Wabash track within the City of Gary. The decision became official October 21st. Two months after this decision, Maurice Yonover died. He was 76. His legacy still lives on in his family members, who have taken control over Indiana Sugars and have made it as successful as it has ever been.

R.I.P. Maurice Yonover.

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