Monday, February 27, 2017

PRR's 55th Street Yard and H. Mueller Barley Elevator

South side of yard: (Satellite, Pennsy's engine servicing facilities used to be on the southeast part of what is now a Norfolk Southern yard )\
Grain Elevator: (Satellite, it was on the east side of the tracks)
Bob Lalich commented on Alexander Gerdow's posting
PRR passenger steam locomotives were serviced at 55th St Yard. The roundhouse was on the north side of "The Boulevard". Freight steam was serviced at 59th St Yard. This is a photo of 55th St roundhouse.
[I believe we see the top of the skip hoist for the coal tower in the foreground.]
1938 Aerial Photo form ILHAP
Pennsy's (originally Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway) yard would be on the east side of this complex. The C&WI ran along the western side. Below is a closeup of the engine servicing facilities.

1938 Aerial Photo form ILHAP
David Daruszka commented on Alexander Gerdow's posting
55th Street engine facilities.

Bob Lalich 1968 Flickr

CNW Transfer - 40th St 5-86

CNW ran a daily transfer to Conrail's ex-PRR 55th St Yard. At this time, the junction was still controlled by the ex-C&WI Metra dispatcher located in a trailer at 47th St.

Mark Vogel: wow....B&O CPLs and PRR PLs in the same photo...
the pieces are here...: why would there have been B&O CPLs here?
Bob Lalich: The C&WI had CPL signals in several locations. They were used for block signals on the mainline and the home signals at the new lift bridge over the Calumet River. Maybe they got a good deal?
d.w.davidson: Also worthy of mention was the BRC's limited use of CPL signals, too. I suspect the decision to employ CPL signals was made before the C&WI "spun off" the BRC in 1963. Another Chicago railroad that dabbled in CPL signals was the C&NW, who attempted to replace some of the old disc signals at Lake Street Interlocking with CPL dwarf signals in the late 1980s. They didn't last long and were soon replaced by LED signals. Knowing the Cheap & Nothing Wasted, Bob's theory about a good deal is probable. On my early days on the railroad, the C&NW also used second hand ex PRR position light signals for wayside indications in connection with defect detectors.
Bob Lalich: Doug, the CPL block signals were installed on the Mainline in roughly the same time frame as the BRC lease buyout. Your idea makes sense.
Ian Contreras: Oh my oh my! CP518 nowadays. This is absolutley fantastic to see how this has changed over the years. Thank you so much for sharing, Bob.

Bob commented on his Flickr post
d.w.davidson: Oh yeah, baby, now we're talking. Check out the South Side Elevated bridge to the Stock Yards and the semaphores on the PRR signal bridge, What do you think, 1908 -1920 time frame? It's amazing the 41st Street connection between the PRR and the CJ survived as configured above until the 1980s.

Bob Lalich commented on a post
This is an old photo of [C&WI] 55th St station. It was actually located on 56th St. The grain elevator in the distance was adjacent to PRR's 55th St Yard. The elevator is listed in the 1923 PRR CT1000 document, but not seen in a 1938 aerial photo.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's comment
Good eye. I would have missed that grain elevator. Obviously it has been rebuilt as a concrete elevator since the wood one on the Sanborn Map.
The Erie grain elevator is in the background of the Barriger photo

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's comment
Making the text more readable. The elevator is on a 1929 topo map. But it is also on a 1953 map. It is gone by 1963.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's comment
Judging by the shadows, the 1938 aerial does have a grain elevator in the southeast quadrant of Garfield and the Pennsy tracks. So the topo map dates are in the right ballpark.

1 comment:

  1. Kinda cool to see your name on a post here. I love your blog!

    ReplyDelete