Constructed in the 1860s, the Fort Wayne, Jackson & Saginaw Railroad joined its namesake cities and later reorganized as the Fort Wayne & Jackson. It was leased to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern before being absorbed by the New York Central Railroad System. The railroad terminated just south of its yard between Clinton, Calhoun, and 4th Streets and ran north to Auburn and Waterloo, Indiana through what is now Glenbrook Square. Before the railroad, 4th street was a city park and horse track that was donated to the railroad in the 1860s.
The railroad directly served numerous local businesses including Superior Iron and Metals, the General Telephone Company, a lumber yard, a paint supply house, and supplied the coal for the City Light & Power Plant. The LS&MS built the Cass Street Depot next to the Wells Street Bridge in 1889 and its 1913-built freight house extended the railroad’s service far beyond the mainline to businesses on Wells Street and immediate neighborhoods.
The railroad yard changed numerous times throughout the years, at one time boasting two wooden roundhouses, a freight car repair shop, engine servicing facilities, eight yard tracks, a freight derrick and brick platforms. Interestingly, passenger service was discontinued in 1943, but tickets could still be purchased at the freight house for trains departing the Waterloo station north of Fort Wayne.
As the railroad retired its steam locomotives and wound down operations at 4th street in the mid-1950s, additional property was purchased by Superior Iron and Metals, which dismantled the yard over time.
In 1962, on a nearby spur which connected to the City Water Treatment Plant, a steam locomotive numbered 765 (renumbered 767) was placed on display in Lawton Park at 4th and Clinton Streets. At night the locomotive was illuminated, creating a striking gateway into downtown.
OmniSource maintained a scrap yard at 4th street until 2000, at which point the spur fell into disuse. With all other facilities, buildings, and rails by this time demolished, the railroad’s lone freight house remained the only evidence of the substantial industry that thundered over 4th street until it was demolished in October, 2010. Only the Cass Street Depot remains.
Headwaters Junction 