IC 27th Street Yard, Roundhouse and Coaling Tower

(Satellite, it is now a parking lot for McCormick Place)

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

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted
IC E8A 4031 poses on the turntable at Chicago's 27th Street roundhouse, circa 1954. By the time this photo was taken, the sleek E-unit had probably already toured most of IC's system, pulling trains like the "Panama Limited", Green Diamond", and "Land O' Corn".
Photo from Sam Harrison collection.

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted
IC's 27th Street roundhouse in Chicago was photographed in 1970, shortly before the facility was demolished. By this date all repair work had been shifted to the new Woodcrest shops, and the only workers left in the building were salvaging tools and machinery. Built in the early 1900's, the roundhouse had serviced everything from 4-4-0's to 2-8-2's to 4-8-2's, plus diesels ranging from "boxcabs" to E9A's. Photo from the collection of Sam Harrison.
Paul Jevert: My grandfather fired or ran out of 27th from 1912 until he "pulled the pin" in 1956 ! I got the "Enginemen Only" sign off the top of the door frame to the crew room one day after the RH was closed !
Paul Jevert shared

I include the Jackson Park Quadrangles @ 1:24,000 for 1929 and 1963. The 1929 map shows the location of both roundhouses. They not only served the passenger locomotives for Central Station, but the extensive freight operations in downtown Chicago. In a comment below, Cliff Downey explains that the northern roundhouse serviced passenger locomotives and the other serviced freight and yard locomotives. The northern roundhouse was torn down in 1942 to make room for a new diesel shop.

The 1963 map makes it easier to correlate the location with current satellite maps because the shoreline changes have been made and the crosshatching shows the location of the roundhouse. The maps cover the area from 24th Street down to 31st Street. Then I show the comparable location from a 1938 aerial photo.

1929

1963

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

So 27th Street Yard had two "1/2" roundhouses.

At photo resolution

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted
The yard next to the 27th Street roundhouse in Chicago is seen circa 1940. At one time the IC had TWO roundhouses at 27th Street. One serviced passenger locomotives and the other serviced freight locos and yard engines. The passenger roundhouse was torn down around 1942 after the railroad built a new diesel shop attached to the "freight" roundhouse. The photographer is standing on the pedestrian bridge that connected the shops to the 27th Street suburban stop (a portion of the electrified mainlines can be seen at left). Photographer unknown, Cliff Downey collection.
Jack Fuller The cat structures extended over all the main tracks, as there were plans to electrify all the Chicago lakefront operation.
Jack Fuller Evidently there was some electric freight operation - maybe just at Congress St. IC had at least 3 heavy steeple-cab units that were evntually sold to CSS&SB.

Cliff Downey shared
Paul Jaenicke Saw these two roundhouses on old Sanborn insurance maps. Also the MCRR had their own roundhouse just south of the station.
Paul Jaenicke Kirk, Trains from the MCRR stopped using Central Station in January of 1957. The 1959 Chicago Division Condensed Profile showed the old MCRR roundhouse but was not labeled as such. It did show the NYCRR automobile station just off of 16th and Indiana. This automobile station was used by MCRR to service Automobile Row along South Michigan Ave. Its heyday was back before the Depression. The 1964 Profile shows neither the automobile or roundhouse; I believe they closed the roundhouse around 1957 and knocked it down in early 1960's. IC power usually pulled Big Four trains but I have also seen pictures of NYC steam and diesel pulling these trains . Not certain what arraignments they had with servicing Big Four power.

Cliff Downey shared
Yesterday I posted a photo of IC's 27th Street roundhouse in Chicago taken circa 1940. This aerial photo of the roundhouse was taken circa 1965. Much has changed since this photo was taken. The roundhouse is long gone and McCormick Place has been greatly expanded. Photographer unknown, Cliff Downey collection.
Paul Jevert shared
I.C. 27th St. Roundhouse "Home of the Streamliner's" (1956)
Joseph Tuch Santucci: The McCormick Place in this photo burned down in 1967 to be replaced by the present building on the east side of Lake Shore Drive.
Paul Jevert shared
I.C. 27th St. Roundhouse (1940)
Lou Gerard: There’s a Soo Line Geep just above the right of the roundhouse.
Paul Jevert: Lou Gerard Those SOO Line Geep's where used on the SOO Line Laker that ran out of Central Station from 1963 to 1965. She went way up north to Superior thru Hayward WI & Lac Cou'dere. Stopped at most every road Xing in WI to pick-up and drop-off fishermen and hunters during the season.
George E. Kanary: Great scene, Paul, I remember seeing C&O Mikados there earlier.
Paul Jevert: George E. Kanary I.C. serviced them since they had B&O/C&O Freight out of So. Water Street Yard.

David Wilson from his photoset

19670324 06 Illinois Central 27th St. Engine Terminal

Eric J. Nordstom posted

1953 aerial photographic image of chicago's land clearance commission's project adjacent to micheal reese hospital on the near south side of chicago. 

the land was acquired by the commission and sold to private developers, who at the time, were building prairie shores - a community of over 1700 apartments with shops. 

the project - identified as "area 7," consisted of 55 acres bounded by e. 26th street on the north, south parkway on the west, e. 31st on the south, and the hospital campus on the east. 

courtesy of bldg. 51 archive.

Bill Meyer shared

Is that an Illinois Central roundhouse at the upper center? Love the locomotive and the overall time capsule of a scene!

Cliff Downey: Yes, that was the IC's 27th Street roundhouse. At one time there was a second roundhouse, just to the left. The second roundhouse was for freight locomotives, but it was demolished after Markham Yard opened in the 1920's. The locomotive in the photo serviced passenger locomotives. All of the work at 27th Street was shifted to the new Woodcrest Shops circa 1971 and afterwards the roundhouse was demolished.

Incidentally, when the roundhouses were built c.1910, they were located literally on the shores of Lake Michigan, but in the next few decades the lakefront was filled in.

Dennis DeBruler posted
From photo from Chicago Park District Archive

Percy Sloan 1925 Aerial, cropped, via Newberry
[Soldiers Field is small. Northerly Island and Lake Shore Drive are being built for the 1933 expo.]

Percy Sloan 1925 Aerial, cropped, via Newberry

National Archive, cropped

Cropped from the above at photo resolution

National Archive, cropped via Airscapes

 

Cropped from the above at photo resolution

 

National Archive, cropped via Airscapes

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted
Around 1950 a worker at Illinois Central's 27th Street roundhouse in Chicago is seen testing the driver and axle of a steam locomotive for microscopic cracks and flaws. The machine used for this testing is a Sperry Reflectoscope, which uses ultrasound waves to detect defects that are not visible to the naked eye. The Reflectoscope was invented in the 1940's by Floyd Firestone, a professor at the University of Michigan. Beginning in the 1950's commercial versions of the Reflectoscope were built by Sperry Products and sold to railroads, shipyards, and industrial customers throughout the U.S.
IC photo, photographer unknown, Cliff Downey coll.
Michael Ophus Looks like a promotional photo for Sperry, The machine is so clean and everything else so dirty. I work with electronic test equipment in dirty environments and they do not stay brand new looking for long.
Brenden Couchman I guess Sperry is in the defect scanning business still today

Randy James posted
Ic's 27th st roundhouse, chicago, 1969, Joe McMillan photo

Chuck Edmonson posted
The IC's Green Diamond 121 being towed backwards into a Chicago yard 1939.
James Nelson Diesel was still unreliable at that time; good ole steam to the rescue, yet again.

Bob identified the location of  the coaling tower in the above photo as 27th Street Yard.

Bobl Lalich commented on a post
That is the 27th St engine terminal in the distance. Here is a John Barriger photo from the same side of the facility, north. The Green Diamond was turned on a balloon track at the south end of Fordham Yard.

[It turns out I had already had this photo in my notes. I just didn't remember it.]

146.  IC lead to 27th St. roundhouses - North end.

[Note the coaling tower in the background near the middle.]

Two smokestacks is also an identifier for this yard.

90.  IC RR - twin roundhouses - 27th St.

The coaling tower also places this photo in the 27th Street Yard.

Bill Molony posted
Illinois Central model TR #9204 A+B was built by EMD at La Grange, Illinois in 1939.
This was a cow-and-calf version of EMD's NW2 switch engines. Each unit was powered by a 12-cylinder 567 prime mover rated at 1,000 horsepower.
Martin Kern I remember the old 1029 a-b on the north hump at Markham yard.

Joseph Kelly Thompson posted
IC 1027 leads CN L536 south out of Chicago, Illinois as it passes the 31st street overpass and leaves the skyline behind. The storms rolled in which caused me to prepare for a cloudy shot when all of the sudden a slight break in the clouds allowed for the sun to poke out right at the perfect time.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130730314@N03/
Matt McClure CN yank out the tiny stub siding IC put in in the 80s to capture McCormick business?
That whole area of trailers was the passenger fleet roundhouse and storage until c. 1972. 27th Street Roundhouse.
[Matt's comment is why I have included a railfan photo. I see Google Map labels this area Truck Marshalling. I assume it is a parking lot for the trailers hauling in equipment for the next exhibition at McCormick Place.]

VintageChicago photo of 1933 Century of Progress that has the roundhouses in the background

Steven J. Brown posted
Remnants of the steam era, an Illinois Central water tank and turntable snapped from a passing IC Highliner electric commuter train just south of McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois - Spring 1977. Note the cigarette ad on the billboard and the now gone McCormick Inn.
More info -  https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2020/01/ic-27th-street-yard-roundhouse-and.html
Steven J. Brown shared

Another photo from the 1970s.

Jim Parker posted
What's this what's this
[Several comments identify it as 27th Street Roundhouse.]
Paul Webb shared