Congress Street Yard and South Towards Central Station

Congress Street Yard was along the lakefront north of the 18th Street Yard and south of the South Water Street Yard.

(Update: an index of IC's Chicagoland yards and roundhouses)

Congress Street Yard consists of 8 tracks with a total standing capacity of 700 cars. It is used as a receiving, departure, make-up and break-up yard for the freight facilities location north of Monroe St. It plays a very important and vital part in the freight operations for both the Main Line South and the Main Line West, and is the base of operations for extensive interchange with other carriers.
31st Street Yard is made up of 12 tracks with a total standing capacity of 227 cars. All tracks in this yard are electrified. It is used as an overflow yard for Congress Street and as a storage and make up yard for South Water Street L. C. L. freight house settings.
[Organization and Traffic of the Illinois Central System, 1938, Digitized by Google, p30]

This would have been one of the primary freight handling yards until Markham Yard was completed in 1926. Even after Markham Yard became operational, this yard remained important because the South Leg on the east end of the St. Charles Air Line was not built until 1968. Freight trains on the West Mainline had to use the Long Hill Connection to this yard. This yard also handled a lot of local freight because IC, Michigan Central, and Big Four had freight houses on the landfill north of Randolph Street. But all of those freight houses became obsolete in the 1970s as interstate highways and 18-wheelers took that freight business away from the railroads.

Satellite

Today the freight tracks in the lakefront corridor are gone. Some of that land has been reused as a busway. This busway was built to shorten the transit times between hotels in the loop and McCormick Place. Recently, Mayor Lightfoot made the news because one of her friends had a pass to this busway, and he was using it to shorten his daily commute.

We can see that a lot of the local freight service still operated through Congress Street Yard in 1938. But IC moved through freight service from Congress Street to Markham by using the belt railroads of BRC and IHB.

Organization and Traffic of the Illinois Central System, 1938, Digitized by Google. p69

Michael Brandt posted
A great shot of the IC railroad yard downtown.
Dennis DeBruler: I have not seen this view before of the old Congress Street Yard.

I've tried to order the photos from North to South. Evidently Mr. Barriger III rode a train south on the freight tracks and then back north on the passenger (electrified) tracks. I did not copy and fix (generally flip horizontally or rotate 180-degrees) all of the photos that are on the Flickr site. The IC collection starts here. My thanks to Bob, David and Jon for their Flickr comments. Without them, I would not have tackled this project.

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka identified it as Congress Street Yard and Bob Lalich explained; "Looking north toward the throat of Randolph St Station, Congress St Yard to the right. Note NYC caboose."

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka: Congress Street Yard

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka: Electric Suburban MU cars.
Bob Lalich: Looking north.
[We can tell by the tower on Montgomery Ward's headquarters that this photo is a little south of the previous photo.]

Richard Koenig posted two photos with the comment:

Monroe Street Overpass
This is the Illinois Central as seen from the Monroe Street overpass in Chicago. That’s the Art Institute on either side of the tracks—as well as a hallway over the top to connect the two.
The Highliner one sees in the first image was from a batch built in 1971 by the St. Louis Car Company; they were retired in 2016. And I’m assuming that’s a string of classic fifty-foot boxcars stored on an adjacent track.
Two images by Richard Koenig; taken early in 1980.

David Daruszka The IC parked those boxcars there in order to lay claim to the land they received by grant from the State of Illinois when they initially built the tracks into the city. There was a long and acrimonious history where the IC took their grant to include increasing the land with fill to build more yards and facilities. The State eventually sued the railroad to stop their expansion. The IC could continue to claim that remaining sliver of land for railroad use by parking boxcars there, and preventing the land from reverting to municipal ownership. When the boxcars were finally removed the railroad offered to sell the land to the city for a busway to McCormick place. The successor company (CN) eventually "donated" said land to the city.
[There are extensive comments and photos about the lake fill on both sides of the IC tracks.]

1

2

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka:  Congress Street Yard

Matthew Chapman posted
Hi folks, here's a rather poor quality photo I took as a kid in downtown Chicago back in the late 1960's, from the Van Buren overpass of the Illinois Central tracks.
Dennis DeBruler This photo compliments another photo taken south of the Art Institute.
https://www.flickr.com/.../in/album-72157640358322113/
Matthew Chapman posted
Paul Jevert MU cars are sitting during daytime storage on 4 Main at Van Buren St.
Matthew Chapman Paul Jevert I was hoping someone could explain why they were over on that track.
This photo most probably was taken on either a Saturday or Sunday.
Paul Jevert Matthew Chapman That was a typical Monday thru Friday storage track for about six trains from 09:00-15:45. that track was clean on the weekends unless the GYM had a bad order or two he needed to get out of the station until they could be run to 18th Street MU Shop.

Two of the five photos posted by Larry Lavery with the comment:

The rest of Chicago's Front Yard

A southward walkabout pivoting around the Prudential building on the east side of the Illinois Central yards from Randolph Street to just past the Van Buren Street station in 1955.

Photo Credit: Clarence W. Sorensen Collection at American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries https://uwm.edu/libraries/digital-collections/copyright-digcoll/

Dennis DeBruler shared

In 1955 the Prudential Building was new and the tallest in Chicago. And the IC still had plenty of freight cars alongside the loop. The fourth and fifth photos are the best I have seen of Congress Street Yard.

4

North end of Van Buren Street station with stairs up to East Jackson Drive with the Art Institute of Chicago right center on the block north of Jackson.

5

Van Buren St. overpass and the Van Buren Street station.

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka: The tall building in the center housed the offices of Encyclopedia Britannica.
[The statue on top of Ward's headquarters is fading into the background.]

One of 24 images posted by David Daruszka
Inbound refrigerator cars at the Congress Street Yard. The IC ran a number of produce express trains depending on the season.

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
Matt M:  Looking north, with Blackstone and Conrad (I think) hotels on the west across Michigan Ave.
[The track leaving the frame in the lower part of the left side would be the heavily sanded SB track to the long hill that Bob mentions in the following photo. That means the track up the middle must be the NB track from the long hill.]

John W. Barriger III Flickr
Ian Contreras:  Roosevelt Rd. looking north.
Bob Lalich:  Look at the sand on the SB track leading to the long hill.

John W. Barriger III Flickr
David Daruszka:  The switches at 11th Place were (and still are) manually operated by a switch tender whose shanty is seen on the left. The yard tracks to the right have been replaced by a busway. Looking north from 11th Place.
[I believe the busway is on the left here. I see the freight and passenger tracks switched sides around Harrison Street and the busway switched sides around 8th Street.]

John W. Barriger III Flickr
Jon R. Roma:  The 11th Place switchtender shanty, north of Central Station, Chicago, IL. That's Michigan Avenue at left in this northward-facing view.

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka: Pedestrian bridge (since demolished) over the IC tracks east of Michigan Ave.
Bob Lalich:  Looking north. Central Station tracks ended a little north of here.

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
Bob Lalich:   Looking south at Roosevelt Road suburban platforms. Note stop boards - two freight tracks leading from Congress St Yard to the "long hill" approach to SCAL crossed suburban tracks north of the station.

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka commented that this is looking south towards Roosevelt Road and Central Station.

John W. Barriger III Flickr
Jon R. Roma:  This is a southward-facing view just north of Central Station, Chicago, IL. The IC Electric 12th Street Station is to the left.
Bob Lalich:  Looking right at the long hill approach to SCAL.
[Photos of the Long Hill itself are in another set of notes.]

John W. Barriger III Flickr, reversed and cropped
David Daruszka explains: "The electrification of IC's Chicago suburban commuter service came about with the passage of Chicago's Lakefront Smoke Abatement Ordinance. This electric switch engine, built by Baldwin Westinghouse in 1929, was part of that plan for the Congress Street Yard. The four engines built were later sold to the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad after the advent of diesel locomotives ended that part of IC's plan."

John W. Barriger III Flickr, cropped
David Daruszka: IC Alco HH600 switch engine (1 of 8 purchased by the IC) switching cars at Congress Street Yard.

John W. Barriger III Flickr, cropped
David Daruszka: IC EMD SW1 switch engine at Congress Street Yard.

Steve Lewandowski posted
From an original 35mm Negative scan, the Central Yards Chicago circa 1968.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Steve's post
I believe it was taken from the middle crossing of the tracks in this 1938 aerial. We can see the Long Hill reach grade level on the right side of the photo.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Steve's post
 The bottom crossing at Roosevelt Road was gone by 1963 so that is why it is missing in the photo.
1963 Jackson Park Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Eric Berg posted
IC caboose #8089 at Congress st. yd. in Chicago. Photographer and date unknown.
[I don't know where this is in terms of north/south placement.]

Chicago made a concerted effort to move industry from the Chicago River to the Calumet River. So IC's freight business near the loop started to fade. That gave IC a bunch of empty tracks near the loop on which to support a railroad equipment exhibition.

Bill Molony posted
Illinois Central Congress Street Yard - Chicago 1968.
John Petit What was the exposition for?
Robert Petit John Petit my guess, and a guess it is, the Railway Equipment Supplier Show.
Randy James Alco c636 on display

Bill Molony shared
Andre Kristopans Mitch Markovitz this was the outdoor portion of a railway supply show at McCormick Place.
Andre Kristopans This is at South Water Street before Illinois Center was built. Looking north, presumably from Lake Street at Stetson (north side of Prudential Building). Commuter tracks just out of frame to the left.
Andre Kristopans Note the salt pile in distance. This was right by the river. The tracks in foreground were once team tracks. Further to the right was the piggyback loading area.
Gene Rebeck And there's the old Curtiss candy plant, which was north of Ogden Slip. http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../ogden-slip-and...

Patrick McNamara commented on Bill's share
From 1970
[At Facebook resolution]