 Elkart, IN | Lake Shore Limited | Bryan, OH  |
| Capitol Limited | Toledo, OH |
Waterloo, Indiana is a small town of just over 2,000 people in Northeast, Indiana. The town is 37 miles due north (up I-69) of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Lake Shore Limited began running through Waterloo beginning in 1974 but did not stop. Waterloo became a stop on November 11, 1990 when Conrail abandoned the line through Fort Wayne. At this point in time the Capitol Limited was rerouted via the same route as the Lake Shore Limited west of Cleveland. The Broadway Limited, still in operation in 1991 which also ran via the Fort Waye route was rerouted to a different route and a station was established in Garrett, Indiana (about 11 miles southwest of Waterloo, slightly closer to Fort Wayne), the Garrett Stop was discontinued with the Broadway Limited in 1995. Until April 2, 1994 Amtrak offered a throughway bus connection to serve Fort Wayne. In 1995 when the Broadway Limited was discontinued, the Lake Shore Limited also began stopping at Waterloo. Today passengers need their own transportation the 37 miles up I-69 to reach Indiana's second largest city.
The station is an extremely simple, four car long platform that begins at the grade-crossing of Center Street and runs west with a small parking area between the platform and Lincoln Street. This platform is on the north side of the two-track Norfolk Southern main line. For passengers in the middle of the platform there is a small quadruple wide bus shelter and not much else. An ADA ramp also leads up the steep grade from Lincoln Street up to the platform. Lighting is provided by lamps on telephone poles. For signs the station has a few older blue pointless arrow Waterloo Indiana signs. More recently a modern Amtrak information panel was installed along with a LED variable message sign that was displaying the wrong time (an hour later so set to Atlantic Time) when I visited.
Across Lincoln Street from the station is the historic 1883 Victorian-area wooden green Waterloo depot. This historic station was moved and rededicated on June 24, 2016. Inside is a separate community room and Amtrak waiting room (requiring passengers to cross Lincoln Street to reach the train platform). The waiting room has wooden benches and even a modern Amtrak departures and messaging monitor, although it's opened and closed by a caretaker with signs on it saying "Train Station open 1 hour before boarding." Just east of the depot is a small modern parking lot designed for rail passengers. The original parking area along the station platform has been mostly destroyed and fenced off (sidewalks were improved as part of the depot restoration project) but cars still park on portions of the dirt between the platform and street. Originally using Amtrak funds and a TIGER grant, the town of Waterloo was planning to move the train platform to be next to the depot but the project was scaled back to just restoring and moving the depot due to the 2013 budget sequestration, reducing funding from $6 million to $2 million.
All Photos taken on October 13, 2017
