Video: Forgotten Chicago
Denny Anspach <danspachmd@...>
This is a great video, camera facing steadily west, apparently taken c. 1946-48 from either a PRR or (pre-GM&O) Alton passenger train about to arrive at Chicago Union Station. The string of FOM-liveried PRR cars is on the south leg of the wye formed by the Burlington main line arriving from the west teeing against the north/south PRR/Alton lines that will entering the station together. This handy-dandy wye (using the Burlington main line) was AFIK used by all railroads at CUS (save the Milwaukee) to turn their trains and still is by Amtrak.
In a relatively recent year, I was on board and actually at the helm of a Lake Michigan-bound yacht, the height of which required the very bridge across the Chicago River depicted in the video to be raised for clearance to pass under. I cringed when I noted that we had stabbed the outbound Amtrak Lake Shore Limited in the process! (the train crew on the ground was on the ground watching us pass by). The steel open platform Burlington cars (replete with hard turnover rattan seats) were THE standard commute cars on the Aurora commute lines. I spent a childhood lifetime on these cars, freezing in the winter, and roasting in the summer, ashes and the occasional spark from the antique CB&Q 4-6-2s ahead wafting in through the open windows leaving one commonly filthy when stepping off in CUS. The old tea kettles could really get up and move on this superb trackwork when allowed to do so. These cars were then rebuilt soon after the war by the Burlington with closed vestibules and some sort of crude cooling, as a recall, (to be then be themselves then replaced the beautiful and iconic Budd double deckers about 1952 onwards. One of the most odd, and most sad memories I have was an eastbound mid-day Chicago-bound commute local (with an RPO and baggage being worked) trailed by several open platform coaches stopping patiently at the Riverside, IL depot c. 1949, the motive power a recently demoted still handsome and shiny shovel-nosed EMD/Budd Zephyr locomotive nosed right up to the Riverside Road village grade crossing. How the mighty had fallen, and how fortuitous it was that the weather required no train heat (these locomotives had NO steam generators for train heat). In the background out of sight somewhere was a recently sadly-retired 4-6-2 itself now indirectly replaced by a brand new E-7. This has brought up a lot of good memories. Denny Denny S. Anspach MD Okoboji, IA
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Thanks for your phone detective work, Jim! I spotted some structural landmarks that are still in place today, their 1940’s, function long gone. The area at 22nd (Cermack Rd) as the track goes north to Union Station just before the crossing of the Chicago River looks pretty much the same. I believe Amtrak takes those rails now. Eric Lombard Homewood, IL
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 2:18 PM np328 <jcdworkingonthenp@...> wrote: Though I DID groan at the mention of Facebook, however I like Chicago history and so looked at the link to the video which did open.
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On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 2:18 PM np328 <jcdworkingonthenp@...> wrote: Though I DID groan at the mention of Facebook, however I like Chicago history and so looked at the link to the video which did open.
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np328
Though I DID groan at the mention of Facebook, however I like Chicago history and so looked at the link to the video which did open.
Some Googling of the names on the warehouses and buildings gave the following data: The train appears to be on the Pennsylvania Railroad Opening - Building in background at 00:7 seconds is Cuneo Press, https://www.rpwrhs.org/w/index.php?title=Cuneo_Press lists this at 22nd and Clinton near the Chicago river, so that is about where the video starts https://www.flickr.com/photos/86125374@N00/2828020279 read comments on the link. At 31 seconds it looks like the photographer is between Cermak Road and the South Branch of the Chicago River. (21st Street?) Google Maps lists this as PRR Bridge 463. Did you see the AT&SF Grand Canyon Line paint on the bridge? As we cross the river that could be Canal street bridge opened. At 1:14 it appears that this is the CB&Q line from the west coming on. Note the two nicely ballasted tracks under the signal bridge. How different it is today. At 1:28 into the video Crooks Warehouse, more here https://www.flickr.com/photos/52209513@N03/33910105995 and here http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2017/03/bnsfcb-chicago-commuter-train-yard.html Read the comment on second photo down by Bryan Howell , however the overriding gist is that we are looking at the Zephyr pit area by this time into video. Crooks Warehouse Terminal was listed as 14th Place which would put it, just north of the Q & PRR lines merging. Wish more of the Q engine facilities were visible at about 1:32 to 1:40, looking above the cars finds some notable markers. The presence of Pennsy cars is found by this link when Googling Crooks Warehouse Chicago https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/uic/59/0p0ww5w/ Where the video ends? Not sure if that is the fabled Roosevelt Road overpass at the end. Jim Dick St Paul, MN
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who says time travel is not possible? open platform commuter cars behind steam - them were the days!
On 8/22/2019 1:21 PM, Steve and Barb Hile wrote:
--
Tim O'Connor Sterling, Massachusetts
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Garth Groff <sarahsan@...>
Friends,
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
This is obviously shot along the CB&Q, as most of the equipment is theirs (I did note a PRR round-roof boxcar). The buildings seem vaguely familiar from my trips on Amtrak into or out of Union Station--some I think some of the structures still standing, though nearly all are empty. Yours Aye, Garth Groff
On 8/22/2019 1:25 PM, Scott wrote:
Cool video, so many neat modeling ideas in there.
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Scott
Cool video, so many neat modeling ideas in there.
Scott McDonald
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I do not belong to FB, but I could see it as this appears to
be a public site. Some good Burlington and HW Pullmans as well, pass by
quickly.
Steve Hile
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Bob Chaparro via Groups.Io Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2019 11:44 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: [RealSTMFC] Video: Forgotten Chicago Forgotten Chicago For those of you who have Facebook (Yes, I hear your groans of disapproval) here is a short film shot from a train passing through Chicago's rail yards and industrial areas in the 1940s: https://www.facebook.com/Charingx/videos/10155451305567465/ Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA
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Jon Miller <atsfus@...>
On 8/22/2019 9:43 AM, Bob Chaparro
via Groups.Io wrote:
Forgotten Chicago Interesting in the amount of old/older cars
one see's in the video. Too bad it couldn't be slowed down or
maybe it's just my old eyes. -- Jon Miller For me time stopped in 1941 Digitrax Chief/Zephyr systems, SPROG, JMRI User NMRA Life member #2623 Member SFRH&MS
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Forgotten Chicago For those of you who have Facebook (Yes, I hear your groans of disapproval) here is a short film shot from a train passing through Chicago's rail yards and industrial areas in the 1940s: https://www.facebook.com/Charingx/videos/10155451305567465/ Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA
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