Industrial History: BRC/C&WI Bridge over the Sanitary and Ship Canal

Sunday, February 14, 2016

BRC/C&WI Bridge over the Sanitary and Ship Canal

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(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, Bird's Eye View)

Both Bridge Hunter and Historic Bridges called this a Chicago & Western Indiana RR Bridge even though C&WI must have sold this route to BRC decades ago. So I updated the title to reflect this history.

Marty Bernard posted
Which Bridge Is This?
There are at least four railroad bridges like this one over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on the south side of Chicago. Anybody know which one this is? Karl Miller took this circa 1985.
James Deeds: BRC bridge, pic taken from Cicero Ave bridge
Marty Bernard shared
Bob Lalich: I am nearly certain this is the BRC bridge. The Soo Line ran transfers to Clearing Yard at that time. The transmission towers corroborate the location. The Santa Fe and Illinois Central bridges are longer than this one due to the crossing angle. The fourth bridge is the Illinois Northern, which would not have had Soo Line trains running over it.

Larry Candilas commented on Marty's share
Definitely BRC bridge, once C&WI and actually had four tracks! Check out LoC info and Industrial History website.
Bob Lalich: Larry Candilas - at the time the bridge was built, BRC was the Belt Division of C&WI. To get more railroads to invest, BRC was spun off as a separate railroad in 1912. The tracks and property were leased to BRC with an option to buy, which was exercised in 1962. The bridge was built for 4 tracks but the outer pair were never constructed.

Dan Quinlan commented on his posting
This is the bridge & it’s always been double main! Actually looks like 4 tracks went over it at one time!! Old ties are on the outsides still. Motor mounts are still on center island underneath! Built to last!!

I took a couple of pictures from I-55 as my daughter drove, but they were "skunked" by a BNSF/Santa Fe container train. A photo of the Nerska Junction has another view of this bridge.

Update: I got up early to get shots with a morning sun, but those pictures turned out to be even worse.

The sky was clear. I still don't understand why the sky was so scuzzy near the ground.

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9am

Zaky Joseph posted
We turn back the clock to August of 1989. Here is Southern Pacific train LBCH-T (Long Beach, California to Chicago/Bedford Park , Illinois - trailers) . It has just exited trackage rights from the BN racetrack at 26th st., and is heading south on the BRC Kenton line, passing over the Chicago Sanitation Canal bridge. The train is about to cross the Santa Fe at Nerska and the IC (ex GM&O) at Lemoyne. Power for this train is a Denver Rio Grande and Western gp 40, a leased Santa Fe b 23-7, and a Saint Louis and Southwestern (Cotton Belt) b40-8.
Dennis DeBruler Thanks for explaining the bigger picture of why a SP train would be southbound on BRC tracks. Where did SP trains enter CB&Q territory to exercise their trackage rights into Chicago?

Zaky Joseph Dennis DeBruler from Kansas City, they SP would enter the Kansas City Terminal Railway after crossing the Kansas River, then head north, cross the Missouri River, where it would get onto Q rails: all the way to Galesberg, then the Mendota Sub to Aurora, then the Chicago Sub to the BRC connection at 26th st.

Nick Hart posted
Rolling down the BRC Kenton Line, a WSOR grain extra heads south through LeMoyne [Nerska] with a matching quad of SD40-2's. Crossing the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal and the former Santa Fe (BNSF Chillicothe Sub), the grain extra, designated as the T004X, is bound for BRC's Clearing Yard. Just behind me, they'll cross the former GM&O (CN Joliet Sub). Aside from a short wait here for cross traffic, the train made good time down the Belt.

Daylight WSOR movements in the area are quite rare, but from time to time, they do happen. Another note of interest, a grade crossing now stands today at this location.

02-09-17
Nathan Hess Does WSOR always use the Kenton to reach Clearing? I sometimes work at a mill near Cicero and rarely see a lot of movement.
Nick Hart Up ahead at Archer Avenue, they make a right hand turn onto the 59th Street Branch and pass locations such as Menard's Curve and 63rd/65th Street in Bedford Park.

Dave Durham posted

Dennis DeBruler commented on Dave's post
I did not know that this bridge used to carry four tracks. But a satellite image does show that the supports outside of the trusses still exist. https://www.google.com/.../@41.8209817,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3
Bob Lalich The bridge was built to carry four tracks but I believe there were never more than two.

James C Bradley posted
As the storms start to disappear, three Wisconsin Southern SD40-2s (WAMX 4219 leading) make a rare afternoon appearance running train T004 (Horicon to BRC Clearing) as they slowy head over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship canal and bang across the BNSF diamonds at Nerska Junction on their trip towards BRC’s Clearing Yard on the BRC Kenton Line in Chicago, IL. Taken: 4-18-19
[Now that I know to look for it, I can see the supports on the side of the bridge for the additional tracks. But this shows what I noticed in the satellite image, the embankments are not built for four tracks.]

Bing Owens posted seven photos with the comment: "Visited the Cicero Avenue Railroad Bridge today. An old swing bridge, but looks like the swing action has been disabled..."