C&NW, Milwaukee, and PRR Team Tracks near Kinzie and Jefferson

Marty Bernard shared his photo
2. A F7A pulls a scoot on the station leads taken from the Sears Tower on March 9, 1975.  Center right is C&NW Clinton Street Tower.
[Below the C&NW viaduct is the location of the former team tracks of the Kinzie Street Yard. That is why there is asphalt alternating with dirt.]

Wayne Hudak posted a 1978 shot from the Sears Tower

I asked about the names of the yards with the north/south tracks and with the east/west tracks. Bob Lalich and Dave Daruszka added comments that pointed me to resources that answered that question. (The north/south tracks are the C&NW Kinzie St. Team Tracks, the east/west tracks were C&NW's Hubbard Street Yard and the facilities described below.)

One resource was a Chicago Switching's Engineering  Diagram for this area. The following is an excerpt from a diagram at full resolution.

Excerpt from Engineering Diagram, click the "dk_navypier_04" image

The more I studied that diagram, the more team tracks I found. This is another reminder about how important railroads and team tracks were back in the horse-and-wagon days. C&NW has Grand Avenue and Kinzie Street Team Tracks. Milwaukee has team tracks on the east side of the river near Grand Avenue and on the west side on Jefferson St north of Fulton Street. Penn's Panhandle also had team tracks in that neighborhood. (The Panhandle was the first railroad up the Western Avenue Corridor. It went north and then east to this freight complex. Milwaukee Road joined its tracks when it turned east. Passenger trains continued east and south to Union Station.)

In this map, we see C&NW had a third set of team tracks in the area: Clinton St. Team Tracks. Also note on the left that Milwaukee and Penn had big cranes to help unload flatcar loads.

Excerpt from 1952 Chicago Terminal District map produced by the Illinois Freight Association

(Update: I must have forgotten to record the URL for the 1952 map. Bummer. I could not find the 1952 reference, but I did find a 1961 version of the map.)

1961, Chicago Switching Committee Illinois Freight Association

 

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
Relating to the last photo posted, we are looking south along Canal Street just south of Kinzie Street. The tracks going left lead to the "trunnion bascule" bridge which crosses the north branch of the Chicago River in Chicago. The gardener is a C&NW employee tasked with guarding the active Canal Street grade crossing. Today the tracks here as well as the fright house are gone. So is the garden. It today is a parking lot. Note the plaque in the left center of the photo. It once marked the site of very first train station in Chicago - the Kinzie Street depot. The plaque has since disappeared.
Aaron Grace shared
[Some C&NW team tracks were to the west of the garden and a Milwaukee freight house is in the background.]

 

Patrick McNamara commented on the above post
Yup = disappeared.

Bob Chaparro posted

Team Track

Courtesy of Claus Schlund, a photo from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, circa 1934.

Description:

“Men with products on trucks and horse-drawn wagons near train at Chicago Northwestern Railroad Depot.”

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's post
C&NW had three team track yards west of the Chicago River. Because of the elevated signaling bridge in the photo, if that yard is in Chicago, I think it was the Clinton Street Team Tracks.
1961 Official Map Chicago Terminal District

(A photo of a newsprint boxcar with a Milwaukee freight house in the background. Since the newsprint would be for Sun-Times or Tribune, it is probably setting in the C&NW Hubbard Street Yard. But unless it was rebuilt since 1946, it is not the FRT. HO. between Jefferson and Clinton because that one was just one story tall. Another argument that the boxcar is in Hubbard Yard is that the other three photos it was associated with are C&NW locos: 1, 2 and 3. (source))

It makes sense that the railroads would build team tracks here because their mainlines passed by here and the South Water Street Market was close. This market was probably established with river and I&M Canal transportation in mind. But the railroads soon became the dominate form of transportation to produce. These team track and freight house facilities would also explain why Fulton Street became another market area.

Update: a view looking southeast across the railroad facilities along Milwaukee Avenue.

Growing up in Chicago posted

1955 - Milwaukee, Kinzie, and Desplaines

Historic Chicago posted

Milwaukee Avenue (1950s)

Dennis DeBruler shared
The intersection of Kinzie, Milwaukee and Des Plaines is in the foreground and we are looking Southeastish.
Even though I could not find a single locomotive in this photo, it has a lot of railroad history. We are looking at some of the team tracks for the C&NW, Milwaukee and Pennsy Panhandle railroads. And some of the freight houses for the Milwaukee and Panhandle.

Dennis DeBruler commented on his share
Dennis DeBruler: There was a lot of railroading all the way west to where the original G&CU mainline along Kinzie joined the elevated C&NW tracks.
1953 Chicago Loop Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Dave Jendras commented on Dennis' share
And further to the east across the river… though much earlier.

Jack Bobby Lou Mulreavy posted three images with the comment:

Here are two aerial photos of the joint PRR-Milwaukee Road trackage into Chicago Union Station from the North. This was once part of the Panhandle Lines . I believe one track was PRR, the other was Milwaukee. They shared maintenance. First photo is looking east, second is looking west. Elevated 6 track viaduct of CNW also visible, along with freight infrastructure of MILW. the year is 1965 map shows highlighted area.

Dennis DeBruler shared with the comment:

These aerial photos confirm that I-90's Hubbard Tunnel was dug under tracks and buildings. At the very top of the first photo we see Milwaukee's bobtail (asymmetric swing) bridge in the open position. The lower-right corner of the second photo shows that C&NW's bridge is also open.

Chris Schultz I’d like to see pictures of how they did it!

1

2

3

Bob Lalich commented on Chris Schultz's comment on Dennis' share

1953 Chicago Loop Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Steven J. Brown posted
Metra F40PH action at Des Plaines Avenue in Chicago - February 8, 1991.
[Looking east from Des Plaines Ave. with the east/west Metra/Milwaukee road passing under the north/south UP/C&NW.]

This area is getting gentrified. You can can't see the south part of the UP/C&NW tracks now.

Street View

The comments focused on the locomotive, but the freighthouse is what interested me. I thought the Empire Builder used CB&Q to access Chicago. But this photo did not agree with the CB&Q tracks. When I saw the tall black building was John Hancock (or whatever we are supposed to call it now) instead of Sears (Willis), I realized this train is on former-Milwaukee tracks. Then it made a lot of sense, the freighthouse is the Milwaukee freighthouse between Jefferson and Clinton Streets, and the viaduct in the middle is for the UP/C&NW.

Steven J. Brown posted
Amtrak F69PH-AC 450 (built 1989 as USDOT 450, became NREX 450) with the Empire Builder #7 at Des Plaines Avenue in Chicago, Illinois - February 8, 1991

Paul Escudero:

Power type Diesel

Model EMD F69PHAC

Build date June 1989

Total produced 2

Specifications

Configuration:

​

• AAR B-B

• UIC Bo'Bo'

Gauge 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

Length 58 ft 2 in (17.73 m)

Loco weight 262,000 lb (118,841 kg)

Fuel type Diesel

Fuel capacity 1,800 US gal (6,800 L; 1,500 imp gal)

Prime mover EMD 710

Engine type Two-stroke diesel V12

Aspiration Turbocharged

Traction motors 1TB 2626-0TA02

Cylinders 12

Train heating 800 kW HEP inverter

Train brakes Air

Performance figures

Maximum speed 110 mph (177 km/h)

Power output 3,000 hp (2.237 MW) (No HEP)

1,930 hp (1.439 MW) (Max HEP)

Career

Operators US DOT

Numbers Amtrak 450–451

Nicknames Winnebago, Zephyr

Locale United States

Retired 1999

Disposition Both units sold to National Rail Equipment Co.

Batson D. Belfry: AC traction motors. I ran a test train with them around the time they came out. Somewhere in my archives I have a handout released by EMD and Amtrak.

That carbody design was used for the second generation of F-40PH locomotives for Metra. They are referred to as "Winnebagos"

Steven J. Brown shared

Brian Voss: If it was anything like Metra's F40PHM-2 "Winnebagos" they were likely to be miserable rattletraps for engine crews.

Thomas Manz posted
C&NW scoot at Clinton tower (C William Brubaker)
Dennis DeBrulerYou and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Chicago Railroad Historians. The cars in the foreground are in the C&NW Hubbard Street Yard.
Dennis DeBrulerYou and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Chicago Railroad Historians. The tracks north of Kenzie were the C&NW Kinzie Street Team Tracks.

Jim Arvites posted
View looking north toward the Clinton Street Tower Interchange during the evening rush hour in 1948 of Chicago & North Western suburban trains being backed into the C&NW's Madison Street Station to load commuters for their ride home.
(Andreas Feininger Photo)
Dennis DeBruler This photo is old enough to show boxcars and trucks using the Kinzie Street Team Tracks inside the curve. This is the first view I have seen of those team tracks that show the heavy duty gantry crane used to load and unload heavy loads. https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../c-milwaukee...

Bill Molony posted
Dennis DeBrulerYou and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Chicago Railroad Historians. The boxcar in the middle right is setting on the Kinzie Street Team Tracks. Note that a truck is backed up to its open door.

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William Shapotkin posted
We are in Chicago, were an E/B C&NW psgr trn (behind steam) has just passed Clinton St Tower and will shortly arrive at its downtown destination -- North Western Station. View looks N/W in this undated photo (1920s (?)). From the facebook page "We grew up in a friendly Chicago Neighborhood."

Dennis DeBruler commented on William's post
This is one of the better views I have seen of the boxcars on the C&NW Kinzie Street Team Tracks under the overpass. It is the first time I have seen those tracks full of boxcars being unloaded. And this is the first good view I have seen of C&NW's freight houses. The long freight handling building with boxcars 4-5 abreast would be an outgoing freight house. The shorter building with "just" 3 boxcars abreast is probably an incoming freight house.

I knew that Erie Street had a truss viaduct across the C&NW tracks. This shows that Grand Avenue had an even longer truss viaduct. The Erie Street Yard is north of Erie and includes the coach yard and engine servicing facilities for the commuter trains on the northern routes. (The western route and intercity trains had coaches at California Yard and engines at the 40th Street Ramp.)

Since the photo has trucks instead of horse&wagons, the date is past the 1910s. And since all those boxcars imply that the economy is booming, I would guess the 1920s as well.

Thanks to whoever correctly flipped the photo.