From the junction with the Nickel Plate, which continues east at Altamont (MP 169.5), where there is a 113-car eastward siding, a 112-car westward siding, and a 93-car bi-directional controlled siding, the NYC line heads southeast, leaving Yard Limits behind, CTC, maximum speed 79 mph for passenger trains, 70 mph for dedicated Flexi-Van trains, and 50 mph for freight trains, turning south-southeast, past Crane, a 112-car controlled siding at Rex, Stockwell, and Bell, a flat crossing with the former Clover Leaf and the start of double-track, current-of-traffic (Rule D-151), Automatic Block Signals, at Clarks Hill (MP 157.5), with a 60/40 speed restriction on the westward track, past a flat crossing with the PRR at Colfax (MP 152.5), and south past a 50 mph speed restriction between the Franklin Street an Main Street road crossings at Thorntown (MP 146.8), where the line turns just east of due south, past Hazelrigg, and then east-southeast.
Single track resumes at Conn (MP 139.4), now CTC, with a 20 mph speed restriction over handthrow switches, past a bridge over the PRR line to Indianapolis at Lebanon (MP 137.6), where there is a flat crossing with the Central Indiana Railway, past Knox (MP 137.1), Dale and Whitestown, turning south-southeast past Zionsville, a 200-car controlled siding at Glenn (MP 122.2), Rock Island, and Augusta, and south, past the start of Yard Limits at 30th Street (where there is a 40 mph speed restriction on the road crossing), to Brant (MP 112.4), where the former Peoria & Eastern trails in from the west-northwest, and the line turns east-southeast.