Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad

The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is a Class III railroad in the United States.
Ownership.
The IHB is an independent railroad which is jointly owned by Conrail Shared Assets Operations (51%) and Canadian Pacific Railway (49%). These shareholders trace their ownership stake in IHB to previous mergers and acquisitions in the railroad industry. Conrail's ownership is traced back to the Penn Central Transportation Company and prior to that, the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. Canadian Pacific's ownership is through its subsidiary, the Soo Line, which inherited it from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as the "Milwaukee Road").
Route and facilities.
The line comprises of track— of single mainline track, of double-main track and of additional yard and side track—starting northwest of Chicago in Franklin Park, Illinois at the Milwaukee District/West Line, traveling southeast around the city to its headquarters in Hammond, Indiana.
The railroad's largest yard is Blue Island located in Riverdale, Illinois. The Gibson Yard, located in Hammond, Indiana, is arguably the largest automobile traffic switching operation in the United States. Other yards include Burnham, Calumet City, Alsip, Argo, LaGrange, Rose, Norpaul, Whiting, Michigan Avenue, and Lakefront.
Since the 1970s, the IHB has operated an extensive interlocking tower system including: East End, Osbourne, Calumet, State Line, Gibson, Stewart Avenue, Graselli, 55th Street and Argo towers. Switch tenders are located at North Harvey and Columbia Avenue. IHB also took over State Line tower from the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad.

Printing.
From 2007 until 2017, the Daily Mail & General Trust had a printing plant in Didcot.
Military.
The British Army's Vauxhall Barracks is on the edge of town. The regimental headquarters of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment RLC is based in the town.
Local government and representation.
Until 1974 Didcot was in Berkshire, but was transferred to Oxfordshire in that year, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire, becoming the largest town in the new district. Didcot is also the largest town in the parliamentary constituency of Wantage, which has been represented since 2019 at Westminster by David Johnston, Conservative.
Didcot is a parish but has the status of a town. It is administered by Didcot Town Council, which comprises 21 councillors representing the six wards in the town:
Health.
The district in England with the highest healthy life expectancy, according to an Office for National Statistics (ONS) study, is the 1990s-built Ladygrove Estate in Didcot. While the average UK healthy lifespan was thought to be 68.8 for women and 67 for men in 2001, people in Ladygrove district of Didcot could expect 86 healthy years. It is believed Ladygrove may have benefited from the local recreation grounds and sports centre.
Education.
Didcot is served by seven primary schools: All Saints' C of E, Aureus, Ladygrove Park, Manor, Northbourne C of E, Stephen Freeman and Willowcroft. Along with these seven schools based in Didcot, a further six local village schools form the Didcot Primary Partnership: Blewbury Endowed C of E, Cholsey, Hagbourne, Harwell Community, Long Wittenham C of E and South Moreton County. There is also a new primary, GEMS Didcot Primary Academy, in the Great Western Park area, which falls under Harwell Parish.
There are two state secondary schools in Didcot: St Birinus School and Didcot Girls' School are single-sex schools that join together at sixth form to host "Didcot Sixth Form". Recently, another two secondary schools have opened; UTC Oxfordshire (ages 14-19), in 2015, and Aureus School (ages 11-16), in 2017.
Arts and culture.
Cornerstone, a new 278-seater multi-purpose arts centre, was opened on 29 August 2008.
Didcot Choral Society, founded in 1958, performs three concerts a year in various venues around the town as well as an annual tour (Paris in 2008, Belgium in 2009).
Didcot Concert Orchestra, founded in 2017, performs three concerts a year at Cornerstone.
In November 2018, Rebellion Developments began setting up a new studio on the edge of Didcot, valued at $100 million, using the existing former "Daily Mail" printing works on Milton Road. The studio is planned to be used for film and TV series based on "2000 AD" comic series characters, including "Judge Dredd: Mega City One."
Sport and leisure.
Didcot Town Football Club's home ground is the Draycott Engineering Loop Meadow Stadium on the Ladygrove Estate, having moved from their previous pitch off Station Road in 1999 to make way for the new supermarket development. The club currently play in the 8th tier of the English Football League system. Most notable achievements include winning the FA Vase in 2005 and reaching The FA Cup 1st Round in 2015.
Didcot has three main leisure centres: Didcot Leisure Centre, Didcot Wave Leisure Pool and Willowbrook Leisure Centre.
Didcot has its own chapter of the Hash House Harriers. The club started in 1986 (the first run was on 8 April of that year).
Didcot Cricket Club's current home ground is at Boundary Park in Great Western Park.
Didcot Dragons Korfball club was founded in 2003. The club has two teams in the Oxfordshire leagues. They train in Willowbrook Leisure Centre in winter and Boundary Park in summer.
Didcot Phoenix cycle club was founded in 1973 and is represented by over 70 members who participate in a range of cycling activities including touring, time trials, road racing, Audax, cyclocross and off-road events.
The Didcot & District Table Tennis Association (DDTTA) was established in 1949 to promote the playing of table tennis in the Didcot area. It organises an annual league competition containing affiliated teams from towns and villages across south Oxfordshire.
Didcot Runners is an AAA affiliated running club that meets every Tuesday & Thursday for group runs and fitness sessions at Didcot Town Football Club. Its members participate in running races across the country.
The OVO Energy Women's Tour, a road cycling event, passed through Didcot on 12 June 2019. The race was halted for around 30 minutes on the Broadway because of a crash that caused the withdrawal of race leader Marianne Vos.
Parks, gardens and open spaces.
Didcot Town Council maintains the following:
Didcot also has a nature reserve, Mowbray Fields, where wildlife including common spotted orchid and Southern Marsh Orchid occur.
Notable people.
Didcot was the birthplace of William Bradbery, the first person to cultivate watercress commercially in the early 19th century. Didcot is also the birthplace of former Reading and Oxford United manager Maurice Evans and one of Reading's most-capped football players Jerry Williams. Didcot-born rower Ken Lester competed in the 1960 Summer Olympics at the age of 13 in the coxed pairs (as the cox), he remains Britain's youngest ever male Olympian. Figurative artist Rodney Gladwell was also born in the town in 1928. Air Commodore Russell La Forte was born in Didcot in 1960 and was commander of British armed forces in the South Atlantic Islands between 2013 and 2015. He was a member of the Didcot Air Training Corps (Air Cadets) as a child.
Matt Richardson, a comedian and television presenter known for hosting "The Xtra Factor", grew up in Didcot. The band Radiohead are from nearby Abingdon and recorded many tracks from their discography in a converted apple shed on the edge of Didcot, near the power station site. This included a number of tracks from "OK Computer" that has appeared frequently in critic's lists of the greatest albums of all time.
In popular culture.
Didcot's synonymous connection with railways was noted in Douglas Adams and John Lloyd's humorous book the "Meaning of Liff", published in 1983. The book, a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet", referred to "a Didcot" as "The small, oddly shaped bit of card which a ticket inspector cuts out of a ticket with his clipper for no apparent reason".
Didcot is referred to in Ricky Gervais' comedy feature film "": the song "Lady Gypsy" on the film's soundtrack tells of a romantic meeting "by the lakeside, just south of Didcot".
An electricity pylon on farmland alongside Abingdon Road (opposite Tamar Way) on the eastern edge of Didcot featured on the cover of US rock band Black Swan Lane's album "Under My Fallen Sky", released in November 2017.