The GSB&C actively solicited freight traffic after 1912, when it bought an electric motor, box cars and an express car. By 1916, it had forty regular shippers. Before 1912, very limited less-than-carload (LCL) freight could be accommodated in the baggage compartments of the passenger cars. Dedicated local service was offered after that year from Indiana Harbor via Hammond, through Gary and Garyton to Woodville and then through La Porte to South Bend and Goshen via the "Chicago, South Bend and Northern Indiana Railway". Thus, the "Goshen, South Bend and Chicago Railway" could finally claim to serve the first city in its title -even though not with a passenger service.