This used to be Michigan Central's hump yard that replaced their tiny, original yard in Chicago. The yard itself is now used as the vehicle mixing center for all of the Chicago trunk railroads. Specifically, it receives trains from auto manufacturing plants and sorts the cars into trains destined for a region of car dealers. It also does all of the engine servicing for IHB.
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| Flickr from John W. Barriger III IHB Album |
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| Jim Griffith posted Gibson Hump Retarders Roy Jennings: South hump
Gibson Yard hump showing car retarders.
Looking west?
Yes, looking west. The first tower is the Junction and to the right of it is 10 and 6 lead. Straight down is 18 and 26 lead towers. The Agency building is to the immediate left. These immediate air retarders were replaced with electric operated ones.
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| Jim Griffith posted Old Gibson Hump. Roy Jennings: South hump A tower. Rick La Fever: Once upon a time, US 41/IN 152 passed under the hump. Since the 9 Span Bridge was built in 1935, it had to be before that. Robert La Voie: Back when Hammond kept two horse drawn ambulances parked under the hill. Before the retarders were invented. Tim E Sullivan posted Gibson Yard car retarder Dale Pruim: Must be the South Hump. |
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| Comments on Tim's post |
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| Tim's calendar page, cropped |
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| Joseph Francis Jaeger posted Gibson Yard Round House, Hammond Indiana. Still in use today. Also right in my hometown. Rick Shilling posted Undated Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Roundhouse, Shops and Yard, Hammond, Indiana. Terry B. Carlson: Shows to be a 38 stall RH built in 1906 by the Chicago Indiana & Southern RR. It's now the Indiana Harbor Belt Yard and 25 stalls remain in use. I would guess this picture is not more than 5 years old. Location: 41.6037911,-87.466541 |
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| George M Stupar posted, cropped Hammond Indiana around 1984, IHB Gibson yard coaling tower. View northwest. Jim Griffith posted Gibson Coal Tower. Near the South Yard. Richard Fiedler shared |
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| Jim Griffith posted Gibson Roundhouse Employees by the old Coal Tower. [According to some comments, this was taken in 2004 right before they tore it down.] |
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| Mike Breski posted |
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| Mike Breski posted |
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| Satellite |
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| Jim Grittith posted Gibson Roundhouse Timothy Ramian: Had to fix dat bridge a couple dozen times easy, that's not counting the times before the new bridge. |
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| Michael Miller posted (Facebook has 2048 x 2048 resolution) Aerial photo of the Gibson roundhouse 1951. Michael Miller Collection |
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| Mike Breski posted Gibson Looking west, Indianapolis Blvd bridge overhead. |
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| Mike Breski posted This 1976 Photo of the Gibson North Hump was submitted by Judd Pease of S&J Custom Models. Thanks Judd. S&J does custom painting and super-detailing of models. |
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| Mike Breski posted It's 1950 and Fairbanks Morse 7112, an H20-44, switches the west end Photo courtesy of Charlie Stricker [I think this is Gibson instead of Blue Island because the bridge in the background looks like Indianapolis Blvd. instead of Halstead Street.] |
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| Mike Breski posted Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Archive - Enginehouse [A comment corrected his caption to indicate it is a coaling tower.] |
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| 1938 Aerial Photo of Blue Island facilities from ILHAP |
Update:
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| Jim Albin posted A pic of some of the guys from the roundhouse just before the tore down the coal dock. Rick La Fever What year did the coal dock go? Jim Albin ... It was in May 2004. |
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| Raymond Story posted Dennis DeBrulerhttp://jfarrfan.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx... |
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| Google Earth 9/5/2003 |
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| Google Earth 11/6/2004 |
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| Kenneth Pazdur posted Gibson yard turn table.... Aaron Doeing This is recent there is concrete in the hole. Tim Strisko And we moved that engine today |
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| Steve Miller posted, cropped Michael Miller Great shot. I didn't think they used that many stalls. |
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| Dillon Harrison posted, cropped A frigid evening in February of 2020, a full moon arose over the Gibson roundhouse in Hammond, Indiana. From this view, The left half of the house is 80% warehouse and office space, While the right half is all open bays. Looking dead east from track 1 on the pit. Stan Stanovich: …would this be the same engine facility where I parked an engine after delivering a vehicle train to the yard at Gibson in early 2009? Dillon Harrison: Stan Stanovich most likely, Yes. Most power brought in by auto trains are brought to the house for inspection and refueling. Stan Stanovich: Dillon Harrison …thank you Dillion, I delivered trains there a number of times in the 2008 - 2009 timeframe. It was only once that I placed an engine there. There was an adjacent crew room where we awaited our livery service ride “home!!!” |
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| Mike Breski posted Gibson Round House Jack Delano photo. [I found this photo, and the LoC does not mentioned Gibson. I think Jack's roundhouse has too many tracks to be at Gibson.] |
It did have more tracks than it has today because the northern arc of the roundhouse has been removed. But did it have enough to be Jack's photo?
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| Entity ID: AR1PK0000010132 on 1951-12-01 @ 1:28400 |
Jeff Barks posted two photos with no comments. Later he added "At the Gibson Roundhouse on track#1."
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| 1 [Obviously the coaling tower is in the background.] |
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| 2 [It appears the roundhouse is in the background.] |
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| Peter Zimmermann posted
CSX vehicle train "Q-244" rounds the curve from the Union Pacific to the Indiana Harbor Belt main line.
Q-244 runs daily between Louisville Kentucky and Hammond Indiana[IHB Gibson yard].
Dennis DeBruler Ford makes pickup trucks in Louisville and, according to a Trains Magazine article, Gibson Yard is the vehicle train yard for all of the Chicago area railroads. They will sort the rack cars into dealer or export destination trains. |
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| Kris Rumbut posted
Back in Black Gibson 11/09/18.
[This is the livery they had before they went mostly orange. They are going back to it. This is the best view I have seen of the autorack mixing function of the yard.] |
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| HalstEd Pazdzior posted Good to see autorack traffic flourishing again. Three separate pulldowns on the west end of IHB's Gibson Yard. 11/9/20 |
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| Connor Haubenreiser posted Neat roundhouse in Hammond, Indiana that I saw while flying over this afternoon. Anyone have more info on it? Kris Rumbut http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../ihbs-gibson... Jon Moore It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a train this way. What’s the purpose of the new tracks on the north side of the roundhouse? Mike Breski Auto switching is done at Gibson West End couple miles west of the Round House Ean Kahn-Treras Jon Moore North is facing the photographer in this photo as I am sure you know. That’s the IHB main from Homan Ave as far as I know. Further to the north (closer to the photographer) is the Shell Lead I believe. |
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| Ken Schmidt posted
Pulling around the connection from Gibson Yard, Conrail 6577 is heading to the Chicago line with a manifest in tow.
In July of 1990, the dismemberment of Conrail is only 8 years away.
Brad Sylvester Back when the coal tower stood west of the roundhouse. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Ken's post https://www.google.com/.../@41.6093443,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3 |
Ted Gregory posted two photos with the comment:
IHB Roundhouse.Built 1906.Hammond, INIt was built by the Chicago, Indiana & Southern.CI&S was jointly owned by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and the Michigan Central.Which in turn made up a good portion of the NYCPeter Conrad posted similar photos. Actually, the first is now from Ted and the second is from Peter.
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Peter's post Fortunately, a lot of the street car drivers seem to be railfans. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPoOvzxRU... |
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| Scott Millsap posted August 30th 1964 Gibson Tha West End |
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| Steven W Panek posted I was only expecting to get three trains in this photo but wound with five unexpectedly along the far west end of Indiana Harbor Belt's Gibson Yard in Hammond, Indiana. First is BNSF light power with the 5350 and 5159. Second is the IHB 3801 making a reverse move into Gibson Yard. The third train is the IHB 1502 leading an eastbound. Unexpectedly, fourth up is CP train 147 with the CP 8155 leading pulling up next to the IHB 3801. The fifth train is the UP 5559 with a cut of auto racks well behind the BNSF 5350 alongside Willow Ct on 3/6/2021. A chaotic time but worth it. |
Chuck Zeiler Flickr 1982 Photo of the west side of the coaling tower. (source)
Dennis DeBruler They did a good job of cleaning up the foundations. I can't find a trace of the piers. https://www.google.com/.../@41.6041248,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3
Tim Hager posted 23 photos of the Michigan Central hump. It shows what it looked like before they tore out all of the tracks and converted the yard to switching autorack cars.
Mike Breski Always wondered why they tore out all the track. From my understanding IHB had to pay CR for every car humped would guess it was a CR decision. Originally a Michigan Central Yard. Was the worst time for IHB I ever seen BI hump down switching out of the west yard. Great post.
Arturo Gross' 1996 Flickr taught me that you can get a good view from Columbia Ave. But the bridge does not allow pedestrians. :-(
Dennis DeBruler They did a good job of cleaning up the foundations. I can't find a trace of the piers. https://www.google.com/.../@41.6041248,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3
Tim Hager posted 23 photos of the Michigan Central hump. It shows what it looked like before they tore out all of the tracks and converted the yard to switching autorack cars.
Mike Breski Always wondered why they tore out all the track. From my understanding IHB had to pay CR for every car humped would guess it was a CR decision. Originally a Michigan Central Yard. Was the worst time for IHB I ever seen BI hump down switching out of the west yard. Great post.
Arturo Gross' 1996 Flickr taught me that you can get a good view from Columbia Ave. But the bridge does not allow pedestrians. :-(
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| Street View, Aug 2015 |
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| Street View, a little further South |
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| George M Stupar posted IHB Gibson Yard in 1984. View east from Indy Blvd nine span bridge at Hammond Indiana. [The gons give new meaning to weathering.] Dale Pruim: Gibson North Hump. You can see the East End Tower in the distance. Kenneth Oehrlein: I didn't know we had that many caboose's. Scott Dudzik: They could have been sold 8/10K, per caboose, great hunting/fishing shacks, or get a way's. 4K scrap into the mill per caboose........ |
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| Tim Starr posted Blacksmith and machine shops in the course of being built at Indiana Harbor (east of Chicago) of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad in 1914. (Pittsburgh Library) [Contemporary IHB yard names] |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Tim's post Would that be in the yard now called Gibson Yard, It was totally rebuilt to be a autotrain sorting facility for the Chicagoland region. Tim Starr: I've never written about the IHB, so I'm not exactly sure where these buildings were located. In my notes it says the IHB shops were planning to be moved from Michigan City to Gibson Yard in 1906, which doesn't explain these being built in 1914. Unless maybe it took a few years to finalize the plans? |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Tim's comment Gibson is a big yard. I can believe it took a while to implement the plans. I didn't know that the IHB went to Michigan City. My confusion is that I could not find these buildings in a 1951 aerial photo. Most backshops existed in the 1950s. This was the west side. [AR1PK0000010132] |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Tim's comment And this was the east side. [AR1PK0000010132] |
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| Noah Haggerty posted Two Indiana Harbor Belt cabooses sit at Blue Island Yard in Riverdale, Illinois in the mid-late 1970's. I believe the cabooses may be of NYC/PC origin. John & Roger Kujawa Photo, Thomas Dyrek Collection. [Blue Island Yard was an error. See the additional post below.] Ron Hull: In the late 60’s and early 70’s, Penn-Central crews switched the steel plants at Burns Harbor Indiana, Bethlehem Steel and Midwest Steel. Each crew consisted of five men: engineer, fireman, conductor and two brakemen. There were about 10 jobs at work around the clock seven days a week. Each job was a twelve hour job so they were held by men with a fairly high amount of seniority due to the fact that every shift there was four hours of overtime pay. Each job had a caboose of the type pictured semi-permanently attached to a first generation GP-type locomotive, for electrical power supply for interior lighting. Some of the conductors cooked on the oil stoves that were on the cabooses and some were even excellent chefs. I once had a full thanksgiving dinner on a transfer caboose while on duty at a Bethlehem Steel job. They were cozy retreats when the frigid winter winds blew in off of Lake Michigan. Fond memories of those cabooses. Bill Edrington: This type of caboose comprised Class N6A on Penn Central and Conrail. The NYC began building them at its Despatch Shops at East Rochester, NY before the PC merger, to replace the old wooden cabooses that were still used in local freight and transfer service. I didn’t realize the IHB had them, but it makes sense. Wharf Meteorologist: Also note one of the cabooses still has its running board attached...the other one has it removed. Seth Lakin: The cabooses were built by NYC’s Despatch Shops in East Rochester NY. The NYC had a “lot number system. Cabs IHB 1-15 were built in 1966 as lot 994. iHB 16-26 were built in 1968 as lot 152. The N-6a/N-9 were Penn Central designation for these cabooses. N-6a for the NYC and N-9 were constructed for Penn Central in 1968 using the same design. Noah Haggerty posted Two Indiana Harbor Belt cabooses sit at Gibson Yard in Hammond, IN in the mid-late 1970's. I believe the cabooses may be of NYC/PC origin. John & Roger Kujawa Photo, Thomas Dyrek Collection. Josh Biggers: That’s the west end of Gibson yard in Hammond. No doubt about it, Chad Malinovsky: Josh Biggers 100% |
1938 Aerial Photo of Blue Island facilities. When you cick on the blue lettering that gives you the Blue Island Yard aerial the picture posted is of gibson. Blue Island did not have a roundhouse or turntable. All pics on this article of coaling tower is the same one if you magnify the top pic you can count 7 verticle supports.
ReplyDeletestrike that about the aerial photo and blue island roundhouse
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