Michael Maitland posted four images with the comment: "The Nickle Plate used to have an interesting route into Chicago, passing over the IC and connecting with the NYC on the waterfront. The ROW is still in and have heard about reactivating from time to time. Note the bridge still in over the IC main electrified line (now CN & Metra)"
Dennis DeBruler shared with the comment: "NKP's freight trains terminated in Calumet Yard, which Norfolk Southern still uses. This post shows how the passenger trains continued north to use the NYC tracks to access the Lasalle Street Station. This route, and the yard down by 94th Street, was abandoned when passenger service was terminated."
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| 1 Dennis DeBruler: Verson Allsteel Press Company repurposed the land in the roundhouse area. And Finkl Steel now occupies that land. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Pt6TevVztkjMgaLB9 |
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| 4 Dennis DeBruler: One of the many "bridges to nowhere" in Chicago. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7513406,-87.5974938,357m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu Michael Maitland: Dennis DeBruler Have an article from Trains magazine that shows the IC as having interest in the line so they could connect the main with the western main, allowing them to forgo the St. Charles Airline. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Michael's comment on the fourth photo Indeed, that is part of the CREATE P4 plan, https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2015/02/create-p4-grand-crossing.html. The new connection would allow Amtrak to avoid having to back in to Union Station. But it never got funded, and I think CN gave up on it because they have rebuilt some of the overpasses on the St. Charles Airline. Update: There is no connection between the former-Pennsy tracks and the CN tracks. So the new NKP route would be for Amtrak trains. The CN still would need the Airline route for its freight trains. That explains why CN has rebuilt the Airline route. |
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| Michael Maitland commented on Dennis' comment Interesting to see Create P4 ( think they are concentrating funds on 75th street) Do they still use the airline bridge or is it OOS. Recently read that Amtrak is looking into a curved north south bridge that would have to cut through the existing yard. The new grey gravel is from todays google maps, so not sure what is going on here. Dennis DeBruler: Michael Maitland I'm sure the 75th project has priority because they are finally working on that one. What I've read is that originally the bridge was OOS to simplify the addition of the underpass for the Wells Street extension. But then I read that the bridge is still unused because Amtrak damaged it and thinks the owners (50% CN, 25% UP, 25% BNSF) should fix it. But the owners think Amtrak should fix it. I've read about the new curved connection to the north, and I wondered what the proposed route was. That new curve would explain why they are not bothering to fix the current bridge because the new route would need a new movable bridge. |
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| Michael Maitland commented on his post And here is where is goes under the old NYC. The NKP bridge still in. Facing south, Dennis DeBruler: Michael Maitland Looking South: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7633463,-87.5975822,577a,35y,180h,39.26t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu |
Michael's work above kinda makes the rest of these notes obsolete.
Nickel Plate's freight trains terminated in Calumet Yard or interchanged with other railroads along 95th Street. But their passenger trains continued north until they met the IC tracks, and then they paralleled the IC along the east side. I put a red line along NKP's freight facilities and a blue line along their passenger facilities, but at this resolution you can barely see the maximum sized line. The segment just north of 95th Street is now an industrial spur. You can see a tree-line where it continued north from that spur.
The industrial area north of Pullman Junction used to be NKP's Stony Island Shops and Passenger Yard.
It then crossed the IC tracks with a bridge that still exists.
It then went north and under the PRR and NYC mainlines and then curved west and joined the NYC for access to Englewood and La Salle Stations.
Facebooked as a comment in Ed's posting.
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| Satellite |
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| 129 Nickel Plate overhead. |
It then went north and under the PRR and NYC mainlines and then curved west and joined the NYC for access to Englewood and La Salle Stations.
Facebooked as a comment in Ed's posting.
Update: Nickel Plate is an nickname for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. Note the preparation for the NKP line to the left of the middle of this photo.
Bill Edrington commented on a posting:
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| From Player With Railroads |
John Rehor's "The Nickel Plate Story" (Kalmbach, 1965) contains a good overview of NKP passenger stations in Chicago, starting with the IC's lakefront station at 14th Street; then the move to the joint LS&MS-RI Van Buren Street Union Station once NKP came under Vanderbilt (NYC/LS&MS) control; NKP's own station at 12th and La Salle Streets in the mid-1890s; back to Van Buren Street; then to Grand Central Station 1901-03 while the new La Salle Street Station was being built on the site of Van Buren Street; then, from 1903 on, La Salle Street Station.
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on a post concerning the bridge across the IC tracks. That bridge was part of the NKP connection to the NYC after the NYC+Pennsy elevated their tracks. You can still see where they went under the NYC+Pennsy. What amazes me is that the overpasses for the NKP for 75th Street Greenwood Ave. and 73rd Street still exist. |
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