page_title: Waterloo station (Indiana)
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Waterloo station (Indiana) / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Waterloo station building in July 1991
context_page_description: Waterloo is an Amtrak train station in Waterloo, Indiana. Waterloo is a small town of under 2,500 people; the station primarily serves the vastly larger population of Fort Wayne, which is some 25 miles to the south. The station opened in 1990; in 2016, the former New York Central Railroad station building was moved and reopened for passenger use. The station has a waiting room and restroom facilities; it is open for only short periods before trains arrive.
context_section_description: In 1858, the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad completed its Northern Indiana Air Line from Toledo, Ohio to Elkhart, Indiana. A number of towns had been platted along the route, including Waterloo in 1856. The first passenger office for the town was merely a boxcar placed along the track.
  In 1883, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad built a new wooden depot, serving both the east-west Air Line and the north-south Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad. By 1914, both lines were under control of the New York Central Railroad. A freight derailment in 1957 destroyed a trackside bay window. Passenger service on both lines was discontinued in the mid-20th century, and the north-south route was abandoned altogether.
  The line passed to Penn Central in 1968 and Conrail in 1976. In 1984, the station building was moved 1,000 feet (300 m) east to protect it from Conrail's intentions to demolish it. The town renovated it as a community center.
caption: The then-unused station building in 1991, shortly after Amtrak service began
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