Tuesday, January 16, 2018

CP/Milwaukee+NS/Pennsy CP Morgan

(Satellite)     CP = Control Point    (Update: an article on Pennsy's Position Signals)

More photos of this area are in my trip report.

20171122 8121
Digitally Zoomed
Dennis DeBruler It wasn't until I zoomed in that I noticed there is a "backslash" only head in the middle signal.
Dan Marinellie That 'blackslash' signal head allows a 'Restricting' aspect to be displayed for track 2.
Dan Marinellie posted two photos with the comment:
The old Pennsylvania Railroad position light signals still stand at CP Morgan. The PRR and Milwaukee Road owned this section of track jointly, and that's how these beautiful position light signals came to be.
They may be showing their age, but they've guided hundreds of thousands- if not millions- of trains safely into Chicago Union Station.
My photos, 1/14/18.

Tim Sasse They just recently replaced the ones just east of A2 tower.
Bob Lalich CUS track ownership ended at Canal St. From Canal St to Tower A2, the tracks were jointly owned by PRR and Milwaukee Road. I believe Metra now owns that stretch of track. PRR added the red "snake eyes" to interlocking PL signals in the mid-1950s.
Brandon McShane Correct. This stretch was originally used by PRR's Panhandle Route to reach Union Station. The Bernice Cutoff permitted these trains to save a few miles by operating south from the station, rather than north.
Dennis DeBruler Brandon McShane Once the trains got on the former Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago mainline, the cutoff also saved a lot of crossings with roads and railroads.


1
2
I studied other signalling bridges in the area to confirm that Dan took pictures of the bridge that is east of Racine Avenue.

Street View
View of the eastern signals for the control point. I took this closeup to confirm that positional signal heads still don't exist on this bridge. The outbound heads are a rather common searchlight signal. But it looks like the inbound signals have a vertical head.
Street View
Closer to Union Station, both sides have the vertical heads. And to my surprise they have four lights instead of three. And there is a red light hanging below each one.
Update:
David Daruszka posted
Milwaukee Road class A 4-4-2 No. 2 accelerates the original Hiawatha away from Chicago Union Station at the start of its journey to St. Paul and Minneapolis. It’s February 1936, and the famous streamliner has been in service for less than a year. A. W. Johnson photo from the Classic Trains Collection.
Bob Lalich Looks to be the old Sangamon St bridge overhead. The old Halsted St bridge is in the far background.

Byron Defenbach Atlantic!

Lenny Hendricks Steam's Finest Hour, (by D.P. Morgan, Kalmbach 1959) does NOT list the A as an Atlantic. It was built YEARS after any other 4-4-2's and the main rod connected to the first driver axle rather than the second which was true of the true Atlantics.

Byron Defenbach You may be right, but my MILW history books call them Atlantics.

Lenny Hendricks "for an A, 100 mph was accelerating." -- David P Morgan.
Dennis DeBruler commented on David's posting
Sangamon Bridge on the left and Halsted Bridge on the right.
Mark Hinsdale posted
Out and about a bit this afternoon [April 25, 2018], with sunshine and seasonable temperatures to enjoy. The demise of the last ex Pennsylvania Railroad position light signals in all of Chicagoland is being well documented; one unit was replaced last night, with two more to go. By Friday morning, they will be history.
[I'm surprised that they kept the old bridge. Until now, all of the replacements I have seen have replaced the bridge as well. Bob Lalich commented on another posting: "It's a good bet that the signal bridge was installed around the turn of the century and had semaphores before the PL signals." If they are going to keep the bridge, they should consider painting it.]
Robert Jordon shared his photo with the comment:
Norfolk Southern at CP Morgan as a Metra Milwaukee service train passes on 12/20/2018. NS is switching the ADM(19th century Eckart and Swan) plant on the old Panhandle on the north side of Union Station.
Robert Jordan shared his photo [http://www.railpictures.net/photo/681526/]
Norfolk Southern at CP Morgan as a Metra Milwaukee service train passes on 12/20/2018. NS is switching the ADM(19th century Eckart and Swan) plant on the old Panhandle on the north side of Union Station.
Jerry Jackson also posted
Metra painted a heritage unit for the Milwaukee Road. The railfans were out to catch its first revenue service. This Control Point was one of the railfan locations.

Nick Hart posted
Metra 405 makes its inaugural run as it heads west out of downtown Chicago! Debuting in its Milwaukee Road paint, it looked great for the railfans on hand for the occasion at Racine Avenue. 01/10/19
Zaky Joseph posted
MILWAUKEE IN CHICAGO! (And no, the Brewers are not playing the Cubs at Wrigley! Lol). My take of today's first revenue run of Metra MP36 #405 at CP Morgan, Racine Ave in the windy city. 1/10/19.



No comments:

Post a Comment