BNSF/CB&Q Chicago Commuter Train (14th Street, Coach) Yard

(Satellite)
(Update: the other terminal yard for this commuter service is in Aurora.)

David Ingles, the editor of TRAINS magazine, coined the term Zephyr Pit. Railroad workers referred to this yard as "the Ramp," "the House" or the BN coach yard. Furthermore, Zephyr Pit was the engine servicing facility.                           

Steven J. Brown posted two photos with the comment:
I get a now and then, twenty-nine years apart, AND a twenty-nine years ago today out of this post!

The Zephyr Pit in Chicago last week, February 24, 2017 and twenty-nine years ago today March 4, 1988! (Yes, I will ALWAYS call it the Zephyr Pit.)

1: BNSF line Metra trains in the Zephyr Pit, Chicago - February 24, 2017.

2: The fleet is in! Burlington Northern E's in the Zephyr Pit, Chicago - March 4, 1988.
Matt McClure 29 years ago the giant, rounded REA building existed just north of the commuter yard too. And the tower at Taylor Street. Miss them as well.
Jim Shaw What purpose did those two multi story BN buildings serve?
Bryan Howell Crooks Terminal Warehouses. The Q used some of the space for records storage. Some of which were saved but now languish in a leaky baggage car.

Satellite

Update:

Steven J. Brown posted
Burlington Northern E9m's, thirteen of them visible, rest midday in the Zephyr Pit - Chicago, Illinois - March 4, 1988.
John Stein: Went to Chicago in June 1992 to see them on the BN racetrack before they finished.
Steven Kakoczki: Great photo.......but does anyone know why Metra had most of the E-9s HEP Replaced with Cummins HEP Power plants? Seems by this date, all original Detroit HEP systems where changed out.
Timothy Leppert: Steven Kakoczki Metra is a Transit Agency, and a customer of BNSF. BNSF Owned the E's and decided to replace them instead of doing another rebuild. Parts availability and Business considerations drove this. The photo is from when the new Coach Yard Facility was being built....that's why there is no locomotives in the construction area. See those Two Tank cars to the left...they were providing fuel for the E's. The long line of E's are being "Worked" for the night parade.
Steven Kakoczki: Timothy Leppert ....I firmly believe you missed the question.
Timothy Leppert: Steven Kakoczki no, Metra didn't own the E,'s. They didn't have the decision. They are an Agency, not a Railroad. We at BN Commuter made the call. It was a dependability issue. I firmly believe I was there.
Dennis DeBruler: Timothy Leppert Steven should have said BN instead of Metra, but his question is not why were the E's replaced, but rather, why were the HEP units in the E's replaced.
Timothy Leppert: Dennis DeBruler Again, the HEP units were replaced because of dependability issues. The BN tested many different HEP units and alternatives. The duty cycles of the originals were poor. All of the additional information included about the photo was a courtesy, not an answer to a question.
Michael Ryan: Timothy Leppert when did Metra become a railroad? I know they own tracks and equipment now.
Timothy Leppert: Michael Ryan The RTA was first. West Hinsdale was an RTA Station for a while. Then the process to distribute tax dollars to Mass Transit changed to three areas. The Metra Agency was created for heavy rail. The CTA handled light rail and PACE for suburban bus. Metra bought Commuter service from the railroads through Purchase of Service Agreements. BN owned it's service, and the CNW owned it's lines. As the remaining commuter rail carriers failed, Metra formed the NIRC to take over and maintain their service ...gradually expanding, like SWS, as tax dollars permitted.
Steven J. Brown shared
Edward Kwiatkowski shared

William Brown posted
From the J Quinn Collection, in an undated photo GM&O E7A 101 and F3A 885A are inbound for Chicago Union Station. A lot of headend Traffic with former D&H Baggage Cars and a MP Express Boxcar. The adjoining CB&Q Coach Yard is full of interesting Trains. On the closest Track in the foreground is a two Car Suburban Local that can run with a Steam Generator Equipped E Unit. The next Track over is a Train with a Bi-level Cab Car, two Bi-level Coaches and an Aurora Shops Heavy Weight Coach converted into a HEP Car. These cars were always on the West End of the Consist. In the background on the first Track appears to be the Denver Zepher. Four or five Tracks to the right appears to hold the Empire Builder. No photographer noted. No real Caption on the photo. Any help appreciated.
Craig Willett: The train in the background as identified as the Denver Zephyr is the California Zephyr. The CZ had a distinctive round end dome observation car, while the Denver Zephyr had a flat end dome observation car. As info.
[Some comments discuss the RPO cars and a date range for the photo.]

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.

Dennis DeBruler commented on his share
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8597924,-87.6370315,89a,35y,357.36h,71.12t/data=!3m1!1e3

Philip M. Goldstein commented on a post
Candystripers @ METRA Chicago Yard, taken from the Michael's parking lot ramp (actually shooting under Roosevelt Ave overpass) - 5/29/2013.

Timothy Leppert posted two photos with the comment:

These photos are when BN1 - 2 - 3 were earning a living on the BN. This was a CEO Grinstein - 1985 to 1995 - business train leaving Chicago Westbound. The second photo shows part of the train from the BN Yardmasters office. It had about 10 cars with the new paint scheme. There are some great stories about rebuilding our BN Business Car Fleet. Train departed on time..........naturally.

Augusta Wind With BN3 in the train, this may have been the Winter Park Colorado trip.
Don Sands II At least one of the F Units is at The Illinois Railway Museum. One picture showed it was originally a Boston&Maine.

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2

Tom Bedwell posted two photos with the comment: " Here are a couple I took in the 1950’s. In Chicago."

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2

Dennis DeBruler commented on Tom's posting
I assume the big smokestack on the small building is a heating plant that generated steam for the parked coaches back when they were steam heated. Now the commuter yards (both Aurora (Hill) and Chicago) have a couple of bridges over all of the tracks with an "extension cord" for each track to provide electricity when they are parked.

Tom Bedwell posted
[Tom caught another view of the commuter yard while catching a train leaving CUS.]

ShutterStock from FreightWaves
BNSF bumps up spending on expansion projects this year as intermodal business grows
[It was a silly photo to choose given the subject of the article. But it was great for these notes. The southern yard at the top of the photo is called Yard A and the northern yard is called Yard B.]
"Track maintenance remains the largest part of BNSF’s program at $2.47 billion, roughly flat since 2017....A record year for container movements into the U.S. West Coast pushed more domestic and international containers onto the rail."
[I wonder if the increase is because of suppliers trying to beat the tarrifs. Also, it appears the bigger Panama Canal has yet to impact transcon traffic. Can the west coast ports handle the new Panama Canal ships? East coast ports are still building to handle the bigger Panama ships.]

20170421 8728

Parked in the service area is a jet to help clear the many switches in this yard.

Satellite

William Brown posted this photo to four groups. I saved all four links because of the different comments in each group.

The Zephyr Pit outside Chicago Union Station in September of 1981. Anyone familiar with the facility/ Is this the Cleaning Track and are the trains in the background waiting to be cleaned?

Friends of BNSF:
Patrick Cunningham Not a lot of change. Metra uses these tracks to store commuter trains during the day. They are cleaned and serviced. Engines are usually uncoupled and taken for service as well. Metra trains here run on the BNSF, Heritage Corridor, and Southwest Service. Metra has a repair shop here as well. At far left are Amtrak servicing facilities. Here's a quick ground level view: https://youtu.be/5mTNUO_GxZg
Dennis DeBruler I don't know what it was like in 1981, but now the cleaning facility is further north on "Track 0." I'm under the impression that they are cleaned on there way to the station and then staged on Track 0 until a platform track opens up. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...
Bob Dietz The outside of the cars get washed a couple of times a week. The inside of the cars are cleaned daily in the A or B yards. The motors are cut away and serviced in the two service tracks.
[The outside is cleaned each day according to Joseph below. He is a BNSF engineer.]

BNSF Racetrack:
Joseph Robert LeMay Well, they are all cleaned on the inside by the coach cleaners on these tracks. The car wash, if it was in the same place then as it is now, is north of Roosevelt. Trains go through the wash as they exit CUS and enter the yard after their morning runs.

Railroad History Buffs of Illinois:
Steve Malachinski It is where inbound trains are serviced and held until needed for the evening rush.

Chicago Area Railroad Historians:
Seth Lakin The Zephyr Pit is broken up into two the Northern one is B yard, the one in the background is A yard. Each have their own yard ladders on each end. Today there are 13 servicing tracks in B yard, I think 12 in A yard. They are numbered from the main on the left in this photo. Trains pull in to their assigned tracks cut the engine off and set it off to the diesel servicing tracks. Carmen and coach cleaners work the trains, a yard crew will switch out bad orders. When the engines are serviced, hostlers will put the engine back on the train and the road crews hop on the cab car and take the train into the depot. When I work over there, I usually go into track 4B and pick up my train at 13B.
Bruce Bishop Metra runs those tracks now...Amtrak holds their trains on the left past the mains.
Seth Lakin Bruce Bishop actually BNSF runs the yard. BNSF crews run the trains for Metra under a purchase of service contract. The three UP lines are UP crews under a similar contract. All other Metra lines are Metra crews.
Dennis DeBruler This group is doing its job, teaching many of us how the trains work(ed) in Chicagoland. Steven J Brown has posted some views of the south side of the Zephyr Pit. For example: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2459972264030505&id=100000532667674

Raymond G Weber posted
Timothy Leppert Where is this? Looks like the Chicago Coach Yard and E unit in the background.
Bob Campbell Timothy Leppert it is; taken from Roosevelt Road bridge.

Arvy J. Novahtskee posted several photos with the comment: "Don’t remember if I posted these or not anyway I screenshot these a few months back while watching a CH7 livestream.. thought it was cool to catch a birds eye view of union station and 14th Street (Zephyr Pit) "

I selected these four.

a
[Note all of the double-slip turnouts.]

b

c

d
[That skyline in the upper-left is going to be changing.]

Edward Kwiatkowski shared
A Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) diesel locomotive pulls out of Union Station and is heading into the curve to the westbound tracks running north of 16th street. Based upon the coloration of the cars in this B&W photo, it appears that the cars are a Great Northern (GN) consist, and may be the GN Empire Building, which was carried by the CB&Q between Chicago and the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
[The Zephyr Pit is along the left side of this view looking Northish. The photographer must be on the B&OCT Viaduct to their bridge.]
Bradley Rempert Year?
Bradley Rempert Looks like the Hancock way back in the distance......so, 1970?
Eric Margolis The logo on the front of the engine was used until 1970.

Jim Arvites posted a different exposure of this photo
View of Chicago Burlington & Quincy units on the lead of the "Empire Builder" departing Chicago on October 9, 1950.  (Wallace W Abbey Photo)
Rodney D Zona: Old CB&Q RR Chicago based passenger train and engine crews worked to and from Savanna, IL.

Jim Arvites posted
Jon Roma: Both GN and NP equipment ran to and from Chicago, and in later years (even before the 1970 BN merger) their trains were even combined, and ran behind CB&Q engines.
GN and NP did not enter Chicago. These railroads terminated in Minneapolis/St. Paul, so their trains traveled over CB&Q rails between these twin cities and Chicago.
Steven J. Brown: From the B&O bridge on the St Charles Airline! I’ve been up there a lot after the rails were abandoned. Must have been an interesting place to stand back when the line was active!
Alan Kline: Steven J. Brown The B&OCT bridge was parallel to the SCAL, but not really part of it. It was B&OCT’s access to Grand Central Station, and when the station was closed and demolished around 1970, there was no further need for the bridge.

The second photo posted by Marty Bernard

The Burlington Northern's Far East End

Detailed captions are with the photos.

2. Shot from the Sears Building looking south on March 19, 1975. At the left is the Amtrak (ex-PRR) coach yard. To the right of it are the mainlines that head south (mainly PRR and GM&O) and west (CB&Q). At the right is the BN (ex-CB&Q) coach yard. Across the bottom is the Roosevelt Road Viaduct also known as the greatest place in the world to take train pictures. To the right is Canal Street. About 1/3 of the way down the photo you can see the elevated St. Charles Airline and the abandoned connection to Grand Central Station (B&O). At the far end of the BN coach yard you can just make out the wye and the BN mainline tracks turning west. Less that a mile north (bottom of the photo) is Chicago Union Station. 

Steve Pahl

The big building in the upper right corner is Crooks Terminal, an old freight warehouse. The suburban enginemen bunk house was on the 3rd floor, I think. Also, just below Crooks, the power house sits with a whisper of steam escaping. There was a “banchee” whistle on a standpipe on the roof. I wonder what ever happened to that

William Shapotkin posted
Many of us have visited the Roosevelt Rd bridge (over the south approach to Union Station) in Chicago and taken pix -- but here is a contemporary areal photo, courtesy of Joe Slezinger. View looks S-S/E.

Third photo of six photos shared by Marty Bernard

And this is what it looks like after the evening rush hour when everything has gone to Aurora's Hill Yard.

The third photo posted by Marty Bernard

Norfolk & Western Chicago Passenger Trains

Note, all photos are from the Roosevelt Road Viaduct. Captions with photos.

3. N&W GP40 1372 with the inbound Orland Park Commuter Train headed for Chicago Union Station on August 25, 1977. Note, the Burlington Northern Commuter Train Yard is empty, as it should be during the morning rush.

Dennis DeBruler: A nice overview of the CB&Q Commissary & Crooks Terminal Warehouse, power plant, and engine service buildings.

William Brown posted
From the J Quinn Collection, Amtrak 626, a SDP40F, is departing Chicago Union Station in July of 1978. What a marvelous photo of the backyard at Chicago Union Station. The BN Switcher waiting behind Amtrak. The Sand car behind it. A double Staging Yard full of BN Commuter Trains. Just look at the all the track work. No photographer noted.
William Brown also posted

David Daruszka commented on William's post
The view from the CCF (Consolidated Control Facility).
[1501 S. Canal, the Metra Dispatching Center]

William Brown posted
From the J Quinn Collection, a full Zephyr Pit in July of 1978. The Zephyr pit is outside Chicago's Union Station. I was riding from Aurora to Chicago everyday then. The Locomotives and Bilevels will be available from Rapido in the Future.
William Brown also posted
Leo Hochstatter: The south end of “A” yard!
William Brown also posted
Brian Burns: I hired out in Aurora just after the BNSF merger. We all had to qualify in passenger service. Part of this was taking NORAC rules in Chicago. Working Dinkies, as Burlington people called the commuter trains was lots of fun.
William Brown also posted

Ron Conway commented on William's last post
Your cover photo is not the "Zephyr Pit". It is the 14th St Coach Yard. The "Zephyr Pit" is the engine facility at the yard. Here is a shot of it in 1978.