A video that includes a 1947 description of the Proviso Yard operations.
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| One of several photos posted by Ray John David Daruszka Proviso turntable. The roundhouse was re-purposed for a trash collection company. Patrick McNamara ...and torn down in the early 90s... |
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| Patrick McNamara commented on Ray's post Proviso Diesel Shop, Roundhouse, Turntable c 1955 David Daruszka Somebody took a big slice of pie. Patrick McNamara There was a fire and that was the beginning of the slow destruction of the Roundhouse. Patrick McNamara commented on another post I'm the one who originally posted this - it was taken in 1955 by a company photog, as marked on the back. Purchased from Walter Feret at the C&NWHS booth at one of Bev Birk's old St. Charles Railroadiana Shows. |
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| Brad Parker posted Larry Miller III: Jack Delano photo. 1a34621 - A Chicago and Northwestern railroad roundhouse, Chicago, Ill. 1942 Dec. - Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection. Photographs. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. |
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| Ryan Bohm commented on Brad's post They still use the turn table and tracks are still visible in the parking lot. |
The yard is so big that it takes two aerial photos to cover it. Patrick's view is looking southwest because the roundhouse was on the north side in the middle of the yard. Note that most of it was still surrounded by farm land.
The rectangle building on the west end of the yard is the LCL freight transfer house. According to a video, the 21-acre building has 24 tracks, each of which can hold at least 36 cars. There are 72 tractors to pull 4600 trailers. In fact, quite a bit of the video deals with the operation in this building. Note that for LCL freight, there is paper work to be handled for each package. In this case, the waybill for a boxcar is a packet of papers.
The turntable and diesel shop still exist. How many of those diesels need work and how many are just being stored on the tracks for their next assignment?
What surprises me is that some major classification yards still exist. Only the yard in the south west area has been converted to an intermodal facility (Global 2). I thought most of the Class I railroads now take the few mixed freights that they still run directly to BRC's Clearing Yard. I was expecting to see long arrival and departure tracks to interchange unit trains with the other railroads.
The video also mentions an ice manufacturing plant and icing facility. I wonder if this is the plant and the refer track with the ice trestle alongside the track.
It appears that the above image is cropped and exposure corrected.
The consensus of the comments is that Jack climbed the light towers to get his shots of the yard.
Update:
John Smith posted four photos:
After Patrick McNamara posted the above aerial on one of my shares, I took a closer look at the photo we commented:
Dennis DeBrulerYou and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Chicago Railroad Historians. As I was taking a closer look at this photo, I noticed the hump yard tower. Then I noticed that there seems to be two additional towers on either side of the track fan-out. (What is the proper term for the downhill part of a hump?) I now wonder when retarders were automated. Using three towers makes me realized that there is a lot about hump hard control that I don't know about. My first though was that the hump operator could select a track, and relays could throw the appropriate turnouts for that track. But then I realized that would allow only one car at a time to roll down the hump. I believe there can be multiple cars at a time in the track fan-out. As someone who wrote programs all of his career, a program to switch the turnouts at the correct time to handle multiple cars rolling to different tracks strikes me as an interesting (challenging) problem.
Patrick McNamara I'll have my old friend Carl Shaver fill you in on the intricacies of being a Car Retarder Operator (CRO in C&NW parlance). The hill itself is 'the Hump,' a term that was also used when referring to the tracks, Yard 5, that contained the freshly marshalled cars that rolled down the Hump. Proviso's mechanical retarder system dates from its building (in 1927-28) - the tracks switches were automated sometime after that.
The rectangle building on the west end of the yard is the LCL freight transfer house. According to a video, the 21-acre building has 24 tracks, each of which can hold at least 36 cars. There are 72 tractors to pull 4600 trailers. In fact, quite a bit of the video deals with the operation in this building. Note that for LCL freight, there is paper work to be handled for each package. In this case, the waybill for a boxcar is a packet of papers.
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| 1939 Aerial Photo from IHLAP Tim Starr posted The roundhouse and car shop building stand out in this satellite view of Proviso (Melrose Park), outside of Chicago. The roundhouse was among the Top 20 largest in the country, built by the Chicago and North Western. (Illinois Historical Aerial Collection) |
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| 1939 Aerial Photo from IHLAP |
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What surprises me is that some major classification yards still exist. Only the yard in the south west area has been converted to an intermodal facility (Global 2). I thought most of the Class I railroads now take the few mixed freights that they still run directly to BRC's Clearing Yard. I was expecting to see long arrival and departure tracks to interchange unit trains with the other railroads.
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| Jon Roma posted This image was snapped by an unidentified photographer at Chicago & North Western's Proviso engine facility on August 4, 1969. The CGW's merger into C&NW had only taken place 13 months prior. Front and center is a former CGW F7A, still wearing its previous owner's attractive maroon paint. The locomotive was built at La Grange in June 1949 as the CGW 156. But by this time, the unit bears the C&NW road number 4103-A. The F7 would go on to wear North Western's classic English stagecoach yellow and apple green paint scheme as the C&NW 229 until the end of its career in 1975. To the 4103-A's right is C&NW 847, a GP35 delivered to the North Western in the mid-Sixties. The switch engine to the far right is more of a mystery: Under enlargement, the road number appears to be "62", but none of the C&NW diesel rosters I consulted show a locomotive with that road number. |
The video also mentions an ice manufacturing plant and icing facility. I wonder if this is the plant and the refer track with the ice trestle alongside the track.
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| 1939 Aerial Photo from IHLAP |
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| 1942 Jack Delano Photo |
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| Jerry Jackson -> Chicagoland Railfan Looking west, across Proviso Yard 1943. Jack Delano photo. The bridge is Wolf Road, which used to cross from Berkely to Melrose Park, IL. Burned down in the late 50's. |
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| Carl Venzke posted General view of the hump yard at Proviso yard, C & NW RR - Chicago, IL, Dec. 1942 - Jack Delano color photo. |
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| John Nawakowski -> Forgotten Chicago Chicago and Northwestern railroad yard, Chicago, Ill. 1942 (Photo-Jack Delano) |
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| Dan Crespo comment on John's posting About the same shot of the Proviso Yard by Jack Delano. The gorgeous "Yellow Gold" on some of the tracks accentuated on this one. That has to be the Wolf Rd. bridge there. [Tumblr has higher resolution and did not squeeze this picture into a profile format.] |
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| David M Laz posted The freight house at a Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yard. In the foreground [The freight house is in the background. The foreground is the icing ramp.] |
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| Jeff Knorek posted
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photograph.
The freight house at a Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yard. In the foreground are old cars used as living quarters for some yard workers and itinerant help; Chicago, Ill.
Delano, Jack, photographer, December 1942. This is a blow up of a portion of that image, excluding the sky. Delano obviously hadn't learned the rule of thirds...
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-fsac-1a34649 (digital file from original transparency). Call Number: LC-USW36-555 [P&P].
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| David M Laz posted 1942. “Proviso Yards, Chicago. A Chicago & North Western Railroad ... Now that is a roundhouse Thomas Leaton The photo looks Northward and slightly West. Lake Street/US Route 20 ran behind the roundhouse and the three water tanks. [1942 Jack Delano, LC-UCW36-527] Mike Breski posted Ron Tutt posted Tim Starr posted The Proviso roundhouse on the west side of Chicago in 1943, built by the Chicago and North Western. On my list, it was number 15 on the largest roundhouses in the US ranking at 430 feet in diameter, but tied for 2nd as far as the number of stalls at 58. (Jack Delano photo, Library of Congress) |
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| Stuart Pearson -> Chicagoland Railfan C&NW 3000Class 4-8-4 on the Proviso Yard Turntable. The Roundhouse was comprised of 56 Stalls. I once met a man who was a Freight Train Conductor who told me that he was in the Cab of one of these Locomotives when it came close to 100MPH while Pulling a Freight. David Janin posted H class at proviso I believe no date I would guess mid 40s Edward Kwiatkowski shared |
Michael Riha shared the Grève des trains - USA - 1946. album. The captions show the photo number in that album.
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| 22 David Daruszka C&NW Roundhouse at Proviso Yards, Melrose Park, IL. Terry L. Hunt Back when Proviso was out in the country. |
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Molly Reda-Schneider posted four images with the comment:
Proviso Rail Yards bordered by Melrose Park, Stone Park, Bellwood, Westchester....We lived so close (less than a mile) and when it was quiet at night, I could hear the Yard Talk as the Trains were switched.We had many a Hobo roaming the town...... No trouble from them, they were just looking for a meal. Our home, the first Home in the Town of Stone Park, the floor beams were actually timbers from the floors of Boxcars that were retired and torn down for scrap as newer rail cars that were able to carry the Heavy Machinery being produced at the (one time Buick Factory which became International Harvester), WWII war plant across North Av. (Rt. 64) were introduced.My Grandfather worked his day Job with Northern Illinois Gas Co. and in the evenings, tore down Boxcars at the Yards. Extra Pay and Lumber (that was hard to come by because of the War).Shown (circa 1943) are a Lithograph of the Yards and Photo's of the Roundhouse.
Molly Reda-Schneider: Click on the Link for more Photo's and a History.
Guy Lentini: Does not border Westchester though.
Motif Smith: I think Berkley would be the other bordering town.
Michael Q Quagliano shared
Tom Danza: It never bordered Westchester, a little of Berkley I think.
Terry Spirek: North Lake IL.
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| 2 Dave OKkema: We parked garbage trucks in that round house in the early 80s BFI |
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| 4 Tim Bostedt: Any idea what street that is? Molly Reda-Schneider: Mark Buck Click on the link that I provided in the original post and it will tell you all you want to know. Jeff Bloomdahl: That looks like Lake Street and the Proviso roundhouse to me looking towards the north/northeast |
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Jack Delano LoC: LC-USW361-588C&NWRR, towerman R.W. Mayberry of Elmhurst, Ill., at the Proviso yard. He operates a set of retarders and switches at the hump. |
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Jack Delano, cropped LoC: LC-USW3-012358-DChicago, Illinois. Looking toward the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad classification yard from one of the control towers at the hump |
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Jack Delano LoC: LC-USW33-014768Chicago, Illinois. Retarder operator in his tower at the hump in the Chicago and Northwestern classification yard |
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| Dennis Sayles posted Towerman operates retarders and switches at the hump. Chicago & North Western Railroad, Proviso Yard, Illinois, 1943 Shorpy American Historical Photo Archive: https://www.shorpy.com/node/2025 |
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| Martin G. Sorenson posted April 1943. "Switchman throwing a switch at the Chicago & North Western RR's Proviso Yard, Chicago, Ill." 4x5 inch Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.Randy Baran holy cow - i forgot they made kodachrome in 4x5 sheet way back when! |
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| David M Laz posted Michael Buckley Part of a switch man or brakemans job . Thru a lot of them in my 42 years as conductor for Santa Fe - BNSF . Bad in winter with ice and snow .Jerry Hund Love those Adlake switch lanterns. |
Neil Caplan posted four photos with the comment:
Neil Caplan Definitely won't be up there again then!
19th March 2006, a pretty special visit to UP Proviso for a group of British railfans as they let us go up the tower in the centre. The shots were all a little point and shoot and I should have taken more but hey, I shall never get to do it again!Kaleb Hazelwood They took the tower down this past spring.
Neil Caplan Definitely won't be up there again then!
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| Dennis Mize posted Eastbound 120 car freight nearing Proviso on 4/13/74 with a High-Wide shipment near the head end. C&NW's clearance desk was staffed by an officer and clerk each weekday issuing clearances on all shipments that were more than 16 feet high or more than 10 foot 6 inches wide (dimensions of a regular box car). Each clearance carried an HW-number. Each number was assigned to a particular origin and destination. Since many shipments were repeats, the same number could be used from that file number with the new car number and the measured clearances. C&NW's clearance officer had many route dimensions memorized and could get help from engineering on any new shipments where help was needed. This same desk took the phone calls from each autoplant (GM, Chrsyler, AMC) and created the Hot Car Lists for 2nd and 3rd shift to handle with Proviso. |
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| LC-USW36-531 General view of a classification yard at C & NW RR's [i.e. Chicago and North Western railroad's] Proviso yard, Chicago, Ill. [Testing Google resolution with a 7662 x 5873 photo: 2048 x 1570. Tested with a Facebook posting: 2048 x 1569.] |
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| Glen Miller posted December 1942. Classification yard at the Chicago & Northwestern Proviso Yard, Chicago. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. |
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| Carl Venzke posted CNW milk cars being rebuilt. [Photogrammar] |
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| Jim Arvites posted A 1943 view of the Chicago & North Western Railroad's Proviso Yard outside of Chicago. (Jack Delano Photo, Edward Jarolin Collection) |
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| Greg Mross posted BROC Alco #604 brings a transfer freight into CNW's Proviso Yard on a dreary day in January of 1986. [And a Chessie Cat and four Cascade Green BN boxcars.] |
John Smith posted four photos:
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| Bill Molony posted The Chicago & North Western Railroad's Proviso Yard at it looked in 1942. Dennis DeBruler The background on the left shows a dark smoke haze. Looking at a map and the angle of the yard, this smoke might be in the Goose Island and further north areas. Bill Molony posted Proviso Yard - 1942 Paul Meier Jack Delano photo? Mel Patrick yes Glen Olbermann Good old days, cold beer is always on the third caboose on caboose track. Homemade scotch in bushes by ice house on the north end. Bill Molony posted C&NW Proviso Yard - 1942. Jerry Hund: Definitely looking East from the Mannheim Rd. bridge. You can see Bellwood off to the far right. In twenty years much of these tracks were abandoned and covered with weeds. Still a big yard, but nothing like it was when this photo was taken. Chris Sosin: i believe that at one time, Proviso was the biggest yard in the US. Nhat Quan V. Do: Chris Sosin it was...until bailey yard took the honor... |
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| Jeff Carlson posted Hi all, Do any of you recognize this yard at all? This is a slide dated "06/1978," although there's a Kim Piersol photo of what sure looks to be the SAME train in Blue Island in 1976 ( http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=419436 ). I'm not sure if the two photos are of the same train, but it sure looks like it. My initial thought was Proviso, because of the pair of CNW Geeps visible in the background (upper right), and the number of CNW freight cars, but that canal on the left side is throwing me off. Thanks, in advance! Ken Carlson, photo DavidandLaura Greenberg Jeff Carlson, I am going with you are correct at Proviso taken on Mannheim Rd. I think the canal is in the weeds to the left of the UP units. Unfortunately the damn fence rail is at the height of the camera, but I think the water tank is still there. Just my worthless .2 cents worth. Maybe I am wrong.... https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4... Ean Kahn-Treras Yah this is definitely Proviso off of Mannheim looking east. DavidandLaura Greenberg and it is the same train. Jeff Carlson That's what I thought. The two leaders are the same units, the third looks similar, and at least the first two boxcars look similar. Wild! Mark Simmons That's Addison Creek to the left. Michael Klempin My Dad worked for the PC and spent many, many hours in Proviso yard. [The trees now hide the Addison Creek "Canal" from satellite view, but if you know it is there, you can find it.] |
Jerry Jackson posted three photos with the comment:
Dennis DeBruler See the second photo in http://www.createprogram.org/factsheets/B2.pdf
My late friend Jim Drennan and I each took one of these photos. Which is which? I dunno. Shot from the bridge at CP Hill, overlooking the east end of Proviso Yard. The third photo IS the bridge at CP Hill looking back on a much warmer day. I reference "CP Hill" as overheard by employees, including Jim.Dennis DeBruler So CP Hill is the IHB overpass. This is one of the few times in Chicagoland where a "now" photo would have more track than a "then" photo. Your view would have been blocked by a new bridge and ramped track to create a flyover connection between IHB and UP so that (slow!) transfer freights do not interfere with commuter trains on the two southern mainline tracks. http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../create-b2-b3-b4...
Dennis DeBruler See the second photo in http://www.createprogram.org/factsheets/B2.pdf
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| From an album of 1943 photos |
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| John Foster shared Fascinating photo of a narrow gauge line operating at Proviso Yard in 1943. Brandon McShane Obviously in the car shop in an era before forklifts and other rubber-wheeled equipment for hauling heavy components.Gerry Walsh The old friction bearing.Dont miss the old repacks.Steven Holding There use to be many "narrow gauge" railroads in a lot of industry. [I've seen them inside foundries complete with turntables in a side track so that it can feed several aisle tracks.] |
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| Patrick McNamara commented on John's posting I have a piece of rail from this little line...all evidence of this was erased in the mid 70s... |
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| Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted Here we (CNW archives crew) are once again with a question of where (community) this photo was taken. There is no photographer or date data on the reverse of the photo. Is that an icing station at the left side of the photo? What are those arched roofs buildings in the top center of the photo? We think that the photo posted "below" is from the same community. Patrick McNamara This is a view looking West at the Proviso Freight House from old Yard One. The walkway over the County Line Mains from the Berkeley (Proviso at that time) station is at Left, the Hump Yard, Yard Five, is the other side of the elevated line for the pneumatic tube system that ran from the Administration building to the RIP Track, on the Right. Kevin Leahy The arched roof building is the LCL Freight Station at Proviso. It was torn down and replaced with the old Proviso Piggyback Plaza. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on the above posting The closer part of the trestle on the left was part of the icing facilities. The ice making building would be out-of-frame to the left. You can see refers parked along part of the trestle. The above photo is very consistent with this 1938 aerial. It looks like Wolf Road used to go over the yard, and the picture was taken from the Wolf Road bridge. |
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| Bob Chaparro posted Indoor Reefer Icing A photo from the Facebook HS House Camping group. Description: December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Icing a refrigerator car in the freight house at a Chicago & North Western railyard." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. My Notes: Appears to be a PFE reefer. Bob Chaparro Moderator Railroad Citrus Industry Modeling Group |
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| Roger Wihelmi posted A picture from the February 1946 issue of NorthWestern Newsliner. |
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| Trent Blasco posted I read a few comments on this picture. A few people say it was a war time era box car used to move explosives. another person says it was exclusive to the C&NW to be moved between the Merchandise mart in Chicago and Priviso Freight house. Any more info as to the facts of the marking would be great. Erik Spoonmore According to this on the Historical Society FAQ page they were used to load LCL freight from the various Freight houses in Chicago to the large LCL terminal at Proviso Yard. They were called dolly cars and had cages attached to dolly’s to load packages on. Type in “X Door” in the search box on the link below and you will find the info towards the middle of the page https://www.cnwhs.org/faq.pl |
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| Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted The C&NW wanted to get heavily into "Piggyback" services and decided that this site where the LCL transfer shed stood was the best place to build it. Thus, the shed had to come down in 1958. We are looking east across the massive shed roof at the west end of the Proviso Yard in 1958. The wrecking of the shed is under way. Going....... Trent Blasco I think this is where the current day inter modal facility is located on the property? Jerry Cramer Yes it is Trent. It’s now called Global Two. I used to work out of there a lot. It also covers what used to be Yard One. |
Dennis DeBrulerYou and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Chicago Railroad Historians. As I was taking a closer look at this photo, I noticed the hump yard tower. Then I noticed that there seems to be two additional towers on either side of the track fan-out. (What is the proper term for the downhill part of a hump?) I now wonder when retarders were automated. Using three towers makes me realized that there is a lot about hump hard control that I don't know about. My first though was that the hump operator could select a track, and relays could throw the appropriate turnouts for that track. But then I realized that would allow only one car at a time to roll down the hump. I believe there can be multiple cars at a time in the track fan-out. As someone who wrote programs all of his career, a program to switch the turnouts at the correct time to handle multiple cars rolling to different tracks strikes me as an interesting (challenging) problem.
Patrick McNamara I'll have my old friend Carl Shaver fill you in on the intricacies of being a Car Retarder Operator (CRO in C&NW parlance). The hill itself is 'the Hump,' a term that was also used when referring to the tracks, Yard 5, that contained the freshly marshalled cars that rolled down the Hump. Proviso's mechanical retarder system dates from its building (in 1927-28) - the tracks switches were automated sometime after that.
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| Patrick McNamara posted C&NW 1776 pushes another string of cars over Proviso's Hump. Photo taken at Yard Nine for the US President's Railroad Commission that was investigating safety on the rails in the waning days of the Dwight Eisenhower administration - H. G. Plock, Photographer. 1960 David DaruszkaDavid and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Chicago Railroad Historians. They found no safety at Proviso and moved on. |
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| Larry J. Pearlman posted
You spin me round, round, baby....Proviso shops.
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| One of seven photos posted by Sam Carlson East end of diesel ramp. The sun is being obscured as a snowstorm rolls in. |
At first I thought the above photo was at the 40th Street Yard. But I've never seen that water tower there. So I checked Proviso. Sure enough, Proviso still has the water tower and an even bigger engine servicing facility.
I'm saving a copy of the satellite image while it still has cars in it because UP has closed the hump because they want to use the land to expand Global 2 because they closed Global 3 and Canalport. And I think they closed Global 1 also. Just what Chicago expressways need, more trucks. (We have to think of an alternative word for expressways because driving with your brake pedal is not express speeds. I now take the side roads because stop-and-go traffic has some "go.")
Since Union Pacific is tearing out the hump, I captured a satellite image in Aug 2021 while the hump was still showing.
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| Sam Carlson posted Since they made me work on New Years 1996, while no one else had to work, I brought my camera and cleaned up, getting shots that you couldn't get otherwise when there were trains running. Here's the west end of the Proviso Hump on 1-1-96. Normally there would be hump cuts here. Today, there's nothing. |
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| Sam Carlson posted |
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| Screenshot @ -0:23 Tom Rutkowski posted 2/26 A locomotive going for a spin on the turn table outside the shops at proviso. |
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| Carl Venzke posted General view of part of the rip tracks at Chicago and North Western railroad's Proviso yard, Chicago, Ill.- April 1943 - Jack Delano photo [RIP tracks are Repair in Place.] |
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| Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted Someone wanted to see photos of the C&NW's "old Proviso yard." Here is one taken by the C&NW company at an unknown date. Note the water tank at the upper left of the photo. Maybe the early 1960s? Also, see the three photos of Proviso taken in 1933 and published here a few moments ago. Roy Rother There are like 20 cars in this yard! Hannah Miyamoto Given that there are almost no freight cars and no locomotives in sight, isn't this before the hump yard actually opened? In that case, some of the smoke and steam on the left side of the photo may be from steam locomotives. Carl Shaver I think it was more like the late 1950s for the second hump lead being extended over the hill, soon after Heineman came to power. When I hired out in '71, it was much like this (except for the lack of water tower). However, we'd never see the yard this empty of cars. It was in '72 that they redesigned the hump to have a double crossover in front of Tower A, so both leads could hump into all tracks. It was scary to drive across the hump; in my career I saw two cars get hit. I know that one of the signal maintainers lost a leg up there as well. Hannah, no, it's not before everything opened...that second hump lead is the key to that. There originally was only one track over the hill. However, I have no idea why the yard was so empty, unless it was during the telegraphers' strike or something like that. No steam locomotives left at this point in time. This is after the Wolf Road bridge over the yard was destroyed; I see evidence of what's currently Track 39 there--when the bridge existed a pier would have obstructed that. I hired out 42 years after the hump opened, and spent 39 years there, mostly working Tower A. Don Wittmuss Is the method for reclassing cars still using the hump ramp...Chicago & North Western Historical Society Yes, Day after day with Gensets [Evidently UP hasn't given up totally on gensets, https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2017/03/gensets-are-already-dead.html] Brian Niedert Patrick McNamara when did they add the second hump lead?Patrick McNamara In the 60s - when I hired out in 72 they used a small shanty across the Hump Leads from the present Hump Office and called the little shanty 'Sputnik' (after the first Russian satellite) - the name stuck. |
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| Patrick McNamara commented on a post After searching my Archive I found these photos - they were taken just after the Telegrapher's strike in 1962. |
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| Patrick McNamara commented on a post The track to the right ? |
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| Fred Van Dorpe posted Dennis DeBruler Proviso is big. And I learned that when I went to Highland a couple of times traffic is a mess because Wolf Road stops and Mannheim Road looses a lane over the bridge. And, in general, most railroad entrances are not public friendly. Can someone suggest where in Proviso we should aim for? |
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| Fred commented on his post Fred Van Dorpe Just drive in this way, park in the parking lot you will see, and 1111 is where i circled. Just stay behind the yellow barricades, they don't want you getting too close. |
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| Mathan Mackey posted And just like that 90 years of the Proviso hump comes to an end. 07/07/19 [More comments about the closing of the hump and Global 1. Trains article This will cause trucks in the Chicago area to use even more interstate capacity so that UP can use less rail capacity.] |
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| Jeff Braxton posted The old CNW Proviso hump officially closes at 0600 this morning [July 9, 2019] forever after 90 years. Thank you PSR Alan Ott My Mom once told me that there was a footbridge that ran crossways over that yard that was a mile long. If I understand right, Proviso was at one time the largest railyard in the world. Jeff Braxton Alan Ott at one time it was the largest in the world. Until bailey came around. But still. Proviso has history. Josh Neely I’m a Yardmaster at Radnor in Nashville we went to flat switching for about a year then they opened us back up as a hump, maybe y’all will have the same fortune...Hang on though, PSR is rough and they will cut everything to the bone.... Tom Danza Alan Ott , you are correct it was the largest yard in the word in the 40’s 50’s. The foot bridge your mom spoke of is now Mannheim Rd. still spanning the width of the yard. The wooden bridge burned many years ago, from cinders from a steam loco. I pulled pins on that Hump many a night. John P. Pisciotto The wooden bridge was wolf road. Burned when someone parked a steam loco under it. Tom Danza John now that I think about it you are correct. And it was never replaced I think. Janet Schultz Where will the switching go? The UPRR closes Shortline yard in DM, transfers all those cars to Neff Yard in KCMO. we used to switch 500 cars a night, flat switch , bowl yard with about 40 tracks, 4 receiving tracks. They closed Butler WI, laid off a bunch of employees, same thing at Hinkle OR. North Platte has into the hundreds of employees laid off. Meanwhile, there is a newly painted "employee engagement" locomotive roaming around the properties that UPRR owns. And of course, tickets to ride the newly revamped 4014 BigBoy locomotive train are 300 to 750 dollars, and that's just for the Omaha to Boone leg, says its fundraiser for UP museum at Council Bluffs. More work from far less people, and the privileged people who can afford it, can ride the fancy trains. Lay off people with many years of service, screw em and their years of service....all in the name of something called Precision Railroading Oh, and the "father " of Precision railroading was paid 85 million dollars for 1 year of his job slashing by the railroad which contracted him, only 1 year because he was using an oxygen tank to breath and died cutting jobs. E Hunter Harrison . What is happening ? Who are we working for? I wonder. Harold Lemmon It seems they are cutting off their arms so they can save on shirts. Jeff Braxton The hump is being bulldozed and G2 ops are being extended into what once was the hump. They want to expand intermodal. It won’t be reopened. Elcamino Pasztor CP Rail has had a few humps ripped out over the Hunter years. Now they're being rebuilt and put back in to service. Elcamino Pasztor Peter Jugo Calgary completely ripped out the old hump yard about 8 months ago and put a new one in... all spanking brand new. Hugo Humphreys Mike Molnar Alyth yard in Calgary, and now they are doing Winnipeg, next up is Toronto I believe. Dee Kizzle They shut down, and tore up the Alyth hump yard when Hunter took over. They just spent millions building a new one that is less efficient than the original. |
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| David Daruszka uploaded, p18 |
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| Bob Lalich Flickr CNW Yard 9 1-90 I took this shot on a walk around Proviso Yard 9. Mark LLanuza wow! this is really rare with the tower and semaphore.Why in the hell i never took a photo of this i don't know.Great posting d.w.davidson Bob, you got this one just in time. It didn't last much longer and at the time, had not been in use for maybe ten years or so. The tower and semaphore signal was used as part of the operation of the Proviso Hump Yard. The tower was staffed with a Chicago Freight Terminal conductor who coordinated the shoves from Yard 9 (receiving yard) to the apex of the hump. Back in the 70s the first trick conductor was a man named Buck who everyone knew because he also trained new-hire trainmen. The red brick building is the Yard 9 office. 20 Main is the track closest to the camera, with 19 Main next to it. From the location of the photo, the North Avenue switchtender was behind you. |
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| Mark Llanuza posted Its Aug 2019 a view of once a very busy place of the CNW hump yard .today everything is gone here. Shawn Foreman: Is it leveled ?? Wow . I remember going there as a kid to watch . I could hear the cars on the hump from my bedroom window as a kid and cars crashing together . Tom Horvath: Shawn Foreman It is not leveled, about a dozen tracks were torn out of the bowl for Global 2 expansion. There was a total of 66 tracks in the bowl when I hired out 30 years ago. Then all the retarders were removed and tracks reconfigured, namely 19 and 20 mains that we use to run back and forth from the main body of yard 5 and the diesel ramp to Yard 9. Patrick McNamara: Tom Horvath =Not being a Yard Man, you wouldn't know that the Hump Yard consisted of 69 tracks...and that the term 'bowl' was the first stink the UP acquisition brought to Proviso. We Yard Operating employees could gauge when C&NW employees drank the UP's Kool Aide by when they started to use the UP babblespeak that had ZERO to do with C&NW operations. Like pretending that the Hump Yard (downhill all the way to Lake Michigan)was in any way a "bowl." Congratulations ! Tom Horvath: Patrick McNamara Ok…….So its a hump yard, at one time had 66 tracks and everybody and his brother called them “bowl” tracks even back in CNW days……so what would they be called otherwise? |
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| Comments on Mark's post |
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| Sam Carlson posted 25 years ago today [May 29, 2020], C&NW 6893 was getting a bath at Proviso Yard. |
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| Sam Carlson posted Not the most exciting signals, but I thought I'd post this since it's in a location not easily photographed. It's at C&NW's Proviso Yard on the hump leads on January 1, 1996. C&NW decided to shut down for the holiday and let most people go home, including the hump crews and most of the yard snakes. But did they let the crew haulers go home? NAO! So with nothing to do, I drove around and copped rare shots of the inactivity. Sam Carlson posted C&NW hump towers on New Years Day 1996. Absolutely nothing was happening and no one was around - except me. And I shot 4 or 5 rolls! Ken Jamin: The tower in the background is the hump tower. The tower in the foreground is one of the retarder operator's towers. Proviso's retarders were (among?) the last of manually operated retarders in the country. I recall there was a steep steel spiral staircase inside. Never took pix of it because I was there as FRA. Todd Taylor: No hump towers now! Sam Carlson posted C&NW was kind enough to give most of its employees New Year's Day 1996 off. That meant very few trains were running and there wasn't much switching getting done. The yard was dead. But as a crew hauler, I wasn't one of those who got the day off. But with no trains running, there was nothing much for me to do except drive around and cop shots of the virtually empty yard! (,,,,it's what I did....) Sam Carlson: This is the hump and the hump toweras. Usually there was a hump cut here to block your view. Ken Jamin: The tower in the foreground of the photo was one of the car retarder operators towers. IIRC there was one for each of the sets of retarders; master, intermediate, and group. The manually controlled retarders were (among?) the last in the US. I was in them when I worked for the FRA. Spiral stairs like a lighthouse. |
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| Sam Carlson posted Sam Carlson posted one of the Proviso Hump Towers 27 years ago today (new Years Day) Sam Carlson: Wonder what facebook did with my captions????? |
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| Sam Carlson commented on his post More for your memory bank..... Sam Carlson posted The retarders......not something you see photos of every day! Bob Conway: In the BNs Cicero yard, the need occasionally came up to stop and hold a car in the retarder. I happen to be standing next to the retarder when that happened and noticed that it clamped the wheels so tightly that the car was lifted entirely off the rails! Once the car was released, it dropped back down onto the rails and rolled down into the bowl. Ken Jamin: Rob Conway I have seen cars “catch up” to other cars in the retarder, hitting them so hard the car that was struck leaped up and rode on the guard rails for several feet. I do NOT recommend standing near retarders when they are working, to say nothing of the noise of steel on steel like fingers on a blackboard (if anyone still knows what they were. LOL) Without adequate hearing protection, the sound could be literally painful. Whenever I had to be near the retarders, I doubled up with earplugs AND my shooting muffs. |
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| Sam Carlson posted C&NW hump tower at Proviso on New Years Day, 1996. Sam Carlson posted C&NW Hump Tower at Proviso on 1-1-96, Holiday Pay1 |
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| Sam Carlson posted Crew haulers are sometimes faced with sticky situations. Trying to work your way down sloppy access roads in between cuts of moving cars could be dizzying, especially if each cut was moving in opposite directions. In the yard, these cuts are moving at restricted speed (usually 15mph or less) but it can still send your equilibrium all cattywumpus. When I trained a new driver, I always told him that if he ever got in this situation and started feeling dizzy or scared, just stop and put the van in park. Then wait it out. This was at C&NW's Proviso Yard on November 12, 1995. |
Since Union Pacific is tearing out the hump, I captured a satellite image in Aug 2021 while the hump was still showing.
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| Patrick McNamara posted, cropped Proviso's Top of the Hump Shanty - she GONE ! Wednesday, September 14, 2022 |
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| Patrick McNamara commented on his post November 1993 - Doug Davidson photo |
I like this angle because it shows that C&NW had to make a hill for the hump
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| Sam Carlson posted November 12, 1995 at C7nw Proviso Yard. |
Molly Reda-Schneider posted four photos with the comment:
Proviso Rail Yards bordered by Melrose Park, Stone Park, Bellwood, Westchester....We lived so close (less than a mile) and when it was quiet at night, I could hear the Yard Talk as the Trains were switched.We had many a Hobo roaming the town...... No trouble from them, they were just looking for a meal. Our home, the first Home in the Town of Stone Park, the floor beams were actually timbers from the floors of Boxcars that were retired and torn down for scrap as newer rail cars that were able to carry the Heavy Machinery being produced at the (one time Buick Factory which became International Harvester), WWII war plant across North Av. (Rt. 64) were introduced.My Grandfather worked his day Job with Northern Illinois Gas Co. and in the evenings, tore down Boxcars at the Yards. Extra Pay and Lumber (that was hard to come by because of the War).Shown (circa 1943) are a Lithograph of the Yards and Photo's of the Roundhouse.
Paul Webb shared
Jim Brodt: Grew up in Elmhurst west of Proviso & my grandfather worked for the C&NW in the UP of Michigan. He was a car repair foreman in the Escanaba shops and like the original poster used the scrap wood from boxcars for structural wood for a house he built in the early 50’s. There are a few places in the attic where you can still see the ball& bar logo / C&NW letters.
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1966 Marty Flickr photo (source, includes a discussion of 1943 cameras) of two mother-slug units shoving cars over the hump.
An album of 168 1943 photos.
Arturo Gross Flickr 1996 Photo (source)
Kevin P. Keefe's Milestone Blog post (source)
An album of 168 1943 photos.
Arturo Gross Flickr 1996 Photo (source)
Kevin P. Keefe's Milestone Blog post (source)
Brian Watt Yep, that's Proviso! Zito Yellow everywhere, Uncle Pete lurking about, beat up old Geeps, and some run through power. Nice captures!
You might join this group for RailRoad photos from life. Lots and WWII stuff.
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