Thursday, June 7, 2018

SOO (Wisconsin Central) Freight House in Chicago

(Satellite)
Robert Daly posted
Soo Line freight house, SW corner of Roosevelt and Canal in Chicago, March 17 1974. This massive complex was elevated above grade level. It was demolished some time after 1988. A Walgreens, Jewel, and other stores now occupy this location.
Scott Greig Demolished in the 90s. As I recall the limestone name ornament and a terrazo "Soo Line" floor piece from an entrance are now at IRM.
Harold J. Krewer Yes, the tableau across the upper windows reading "Minneapolis St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway" and one of the cast concrete Soo "dollar sign" logos were saved and incorporated into the wall along the west side of the food service building at IRM. If you sit at the outside tables in the courtyard area you're right next to them.
Scott Greig I think the terrazo floor piece is in Barn 9?
Marty Gatton Not sure if the tall portion of the building was down before hand, but the summer of 96 the dock portions along canal and jefferson were there....
Brian Kaempen There are still a couple tracks poking through the pavement on 14th Place in front of the Pacific Garden Mission.
Dennis DeBruler shared
Philip Wizenick It was connected to the Chicago Tunnel system

Dennis DeBruler commented on Robert's posting
I went south all the way to the St. Charles Viaduct so we can see how the tracks curved north to service this building. You can clearly see the rows of boxcars to sort outbound freight on the west side of the freight house. What is the area of the long white stripes south of the freight house? Team tracks?
Bob Lalich Yes, team tracks.

1953 Englewood Quadrangle @ 1:24,000
The team tracks still show in a 1963 map, but the building is gone.

Brian A Morgan posted
Ronald Kaminen: I remember working the Canal Street job with Engineer Harley Stark back on April 9th, 1962. To work at Canal St. at 11:30pm and tied up at Canal St. 8:15am. We did switching in the basement of this terminal and a trip to Schiller Park. This was not the best part of town since it was on Roosevelt Road on the south side of the city.!! We had engine 2119.

Brian A Morgan posted, cropped
The former Soo Line ( Wisconsin Central. ) Freight Station which formerly stood at the intersection of West Roosevelt Road and South Canal Street.
[Was abandoned as a freight house c. 1986 and torn down in March of 98.]

Mark Llanuza posted
Soo Line Freight house stood for many years at the corner of Roosevelt Rd and Canal street .Its May 1977 I took this view looking west on Roosevelt Rd of this once busy place .Box cars still being unloaded on the upper level .I finally went back yesterday Nov 2018 to line everything back up again as close as possible 41 years later .The old classic church on the far right side is still there .I almost cropped it out in my older photo but i moved my camera a little over to right to get in in full .Today its a large shopping center and Roosevelt Rd has been up graded to look more beautiful.

Mark Simmons commented on a post:
I have the the track plans for that building. Plus the SOO magazine did a two part article on the construction of that building a few years ago. It dates back to about 1920. It had a single switch job called the City Run, which was always an SW1200. It ran from Schiller Park and worked all the industries from the Dan Ryan to the house proper. The SW1200 was used because it was small enough to enter the subway and deliver a tank car to the paint company located down there. At one point in the 70s a TOFC ramp was installed for LTC traffic.
Mark Simmons Fall 2007


Bob Lalich Flickr, Aug 1988, cropped
I walked up to track level of the Soo Line freight house one day in the late 1980s after it had closed. IIRC, the 20th Century RR Club held meetings there for a short period of time. They also owned or had an option on the South Shore caboose seen in this photo.

Robert Daly posted
SE corner of Roosevelt and Canal Sts, October 1973. Soo Line freighthouse across Canal St.
Gary Sturm posted
[Note the freight house on the right side of this photo. This also provides a good view of the team tracks that were south of the freight house.]

Steven J. Brown posted
Looking south from the now gone Taylor Street overpass at the now gone(?) Amtrak F40PHR 400 (built 1985, became NJT 400 to AMTL 400 to SLC 400 to LTEX 400) with the now gone REA Express building and behind that the now gone Soo Line Freight building in Chicago, Illinois - September 12, 1988. Those two Amfleet still stand a good chance of still being around.
Dennis DeBruler shared

Steven J. Brown posted
Burlington Northerns E9m's, Pennsy signals and a big hole where the Railway Express Agency building was at Taylor Street in Chicago, Illinois - June 4, 1991.
[The building in the left background would be the SOO freight house.]

RailPictures has a glimpse of the freight handling part of the freight house.

And I think the grey building in another 1981 photo would be the warehouse part of the freight house.

No comments:

Post a Comment