Sunday, September 16, 2018

Amtrak/Pennsy Passenger (Coach) Yard

(Satellite, it has been rebuilt as Amtrak's yard)

My photos of this yard

Notes of other railroad resources nearby are:

Bill Molony posted
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio train #2, The Abraham Lincoln, easing past the Pennsylvania Railroad's coach yard as it approaches Chicago Union Station - circa 1963.
An E7A-F3A-E7A combination powered the all-lightweight, 16-car consist on that day.
On the left is the PRR's all-private room Broadway Limited, waiting for its 5:00 PM overnight run to New York City.
Roger Dean Elliott 103-A on point.
[The photo is old enough that the B&OCT bridge is in the down position.]

A Roger Puta photo posted by Marty Bernard
The consensus of the comments is that this photo was taken from Roosevelt Road bridge.

Bill Molony posted
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio E7A #100 and E8Am #100-A, arriving at Chicago Union Station with a northbound passenger train - 1967.
Bill Molony posted
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio EMD E7A #100, leading a GM&O passenger train past the PRR's passenger train service tracks in Chicago - 1967.
Bill Molony also posted to the GM&O group and got more comments
Craig Willett With the equipment for the Broadway Limited in the background featuring an SP Pullman!

Glen Miller posted
Chicago 1972 (Sears and Aon Under Construction). The tallest and (then) second tallest buildings in Chicago. Originally the Standard Oil Building and later the Amoco Building, the Aon Center – at 83 floors – is now Chicago’s fourth tallest building. Originally clad in thin slabs of gleaming white Carrara marble that eventually buckled and cracked, the building was re-clad in granite in the early 1990s.
Architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) has proposed an all glass elevator shaft to rise up the exterior of the northwest corner of the Aon Centre. A pair of double-deck panoramic elevators will increase elevator capacity to the building while providing unobstructed views for riders. At a speed of approximately 5.7m (19ft) per second, visitors are expected to scale to the top of the skyscraper in just under 60 seconds
Paul Webb shared
Dennis DeBruler shared
This must have been taken from the B&OCT viadcut looking North. It is before Amtrak so we see intercity cars in the BN/CB&Q yard on the left and in the PC/Pennsy yard on the right. Of course, the BN yard is now BNSF, and the PC yard is now Amtrak. The viaduct in the background would be Roosevelt Road.

While looking for a more formal yard name, I came across the following interesting tidbit of passenger coach service in Chicago.

Public Health Reports

John Morris posted
This photo taken from the south side of the Roosevelt Road bridge captures a PennCentral mail and express train backing in at the end of its run. Although the merger has already taken place, this train is still very much a Pennsylvania Railroad style of operation of prior years. The red and white PC logo shown here was short lived and became all white. For me, the PennCentral was an unloved railroad and I prefer to focus my memories on the standalone New York Central, New Haven, and Pennsylvania Railroad years. In just two years the company was bankrupt - an era for everything in this photo was coming to a rapid close.
Gary Klockenga Southern and N&W head end cars in the background.
Dwayne Weber Most of the boxcars appear to be REA.
[Some comments about the what caused the PC bankruptcy. Someone commented that the Pennsy didn't back in at Union Station. John corrected him by explaining that this train is backing headend cars into the a yard so that switchers can deliver the LCL cars to the freight house, REA cars to REA [support buildings], RPO to the post office, etc. But the incorrect comment was deleted so I can't quote John's reply.]

One of six Rick Burn photos posted by Marty Bernard. Pennsy's yard is in the left background, CB&Q's commuter storage is on the right.

Wayne O'Shell commented on Joe's share
Chicago....from high above the city.........
[After the Pennsy yard has been rebuilt for Amtrak service.]

Bill Molony posted
Pennsylvania Railroad class S2 6-8-6 steam turbine #6200 arriving in Chicago with the Manhattan Limited on the afternoon of June 13, 1947.

William A. Shaffer posted

William A. Shbaffer posted
Chicago Yard (1978)
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
Jack Roberson You were level with the elevated steam pipes from the power plant. Maybe an air supply line also. Thanks for posting.
Dennis DeBruler The B&OCT Bridge was still down.

Mark Hinsdale shared four photos with the comment:
December, 1998
Some views of Amtrak's Chicago Maintenance Facility as seen from the 18th Street Bridge in late December, 1998. Some of those very same suspects (in different dress) can still be seen hanging out here in 2017...
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Mark Hinsdale posted two photos with the comment:
"Then & Now... The View From 18th Street"
Nothing is as constant as change.  Here are two images taken from Chicago's 18th Street Bridge, illustrating the Amtrak servicing facilities as they appeared in June, 1977, and again, 43 years later, on September 11, 2020.  There have been numerous track layout  modifications, new service and wash buildings built, and a whole host of other changes to the northward view here in the four and a half decades separating these views, not to mention the many additions and subtractions to Chicago's dynamic skyline.  I did my best to try and line up two images that were taken from as similar a vantage point as I could find in my files, using the Sears Tower on the left and the Continental Paper Grading Company (recently closed) on the right, as my guideposts. Hopefully it offers an interesting perspective from which to review and compare the two.  In the 1977 image  Illinois Central Gulf's ex Gulf, Mobile & Ohio outbound "Plug" to Joliet is passing the former Pennsylvania Railroad service facility, brimming with a variety of motive power common to the era.  Image 2 shows Amtrak Train #352 for Detroit and Pontiac, following the closest alignment to the first photo I could come up with.  June, 1977 and September, 2020 photos by Mark Hinsdale.
Walter E Pfefferle: What happened to the other tall buildings did they get tore down?
Mark Hinsdale: Walter E Pfefferle, mostly additions, not many subtractions. The brick and concrete building in the center of the 1977 view was PRR’s engine house, which still stands, if you look closely in the 2020 image it has been added on to and has been changed in appearance but still serves today. Most everything else that you see today has been erected since the 77 view.
Richard Koenig: Wow, fabulous capture of history here, really great: the Plug with its F3, the Amtrak SW1, an E, SDP40Fs, and a P30CH. And then all the buildings in the background, wonderful.
Rick La Fever: Look at difference in the atmosphere? 1977 Smoggy? 2020 Almost Clear?
Mark Hinsdale shared
Mark Hinsdale shared
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Nick Ulivieri Photography posted
Photogenic storms have been far and few between this year, but on Saturday, I went out to the 18th Street bridge in hopes of catching a shelf cloud - if the storm produced one. The radar looked pretty good, but you never really know what the storm front will look like until it arrives. And if you're not already in position to photograph a shelf, by the time you see one, it's probably too late to get out and snag a good photo.
Thankfully, the storm produced some decent structure - just as a BNSF train was rolling by - and I was able to capture the scene and scurry back to the car before the downpour started.
J.B. Rail Photog shared
[And the St. Charles Air Line is still out of service west of where CN/IC branches off. I've read that the this bridge is OK, but they are replacing an overpass east of it.]

One of the photos posted by Coal & Steel Railroad Photography

Thomas Manz posted
[Taken from the top of a tower of the South Branch Bridge.]

Timothy Leppert commented on a post
Union Station in Chicago had many sub-basements for systems. One Huge room had extremely old AC and DC switching for Electrical Power (see photo). But the coolest thing was 2 Mounted Steam engines (not Locomotives) that used steam from Edison's Power House (still standing) and turned DC generators for Depot Lights. PLUS, it powered a cooling system where cool air from the underground railroad (Blues Brothers) was pumped into the great hall for cooling. The City collected a fee for this.
William A. Shaffer posted
A Plethora of Equipment - Chicago Yard (November, 1978)
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
[Note the housing projects in the background.]

Robert Learmont posted
The old and new, sharing the house on 9 and 10 track at Amtrak's 16th Street Diesel Shop. 10-track is normally dedicated to the newer Siemens Charger locomotives and the small team of Machinists, Electrcians, and Pipefitter that are dedicated to maintaining them. It also has a specially rigged drop table for changing wheel sets on the Charger locomotives, which are very dissimilar underneath to the ubiquitous P42s, since they have separate motors and wheelsets rather than traction motor combos. Chicago, IL 2-24-2021.
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Track Nightmare shows more photos of the complex track work that is between Roosevelt and Polk.

Waldolf Urinse shared seven of the more interesting photos that he added March 3, 2018. The Flickr Album of the Amtrak Yard to which he added those photos.

Front-End Friday

Tom Rutkowski posted 26 photos from inside the yard.

Bruce Blackadar posted a few 1974 photos north and south of Roosevelt Road. Taylor Street still existed and the B&OCT Bridge is down.



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