This view is looking North.
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| CTA Flickr, taken in 1942, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) Electroliner at Tower 12 Today [Jan 21, 2013] marks the 50th anniversary of the end of service on the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, an interurban railroad known best as the "North Shore Line." The North Shore ran passenger service, entirely with electric cars, at its greatest extent, from downtown Chicago, IL to Milwaukee, WI via the 'L' system (through an agreement that allowed them to use our tracks in the city) and its own tracks, connecting dozens of cities and towns along the way. The earliest incarnations of this railroad's service began in the 1890s and continued through January 21, 1963. You could literally board a train at Adams/Wabash and ride all the way to downtown Milwaukee, on an electrically powered car the entire way—grabbing a beverage and an "Electro-Burger" for the trip! To commemorate the date, here's a picture of a North Shore train on the 'L'. Here you can see one of their distinctive "Electroliner" trains—two special trains billed as "America's First All-Electric Luxury Trains"—making a turn from Van Buren to head south onto Wabash on the Loop 'L'. Both Electroliners have been preserved and one of them can be seen (and sometimes ridden) at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL (along with lots of 'L' cars from over many decades). For more on the history of the North Shore Line, see this Wikipedia article: |
I'm pretty sure that this is a photo of this tower.
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| Scott Patrick posted Single MD car on the Loop. Edward Kwiatkowski shared Dennis DeBruler: Was this the original Tower #12? https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8769424,-87.6262159,88m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu |
The junction was closed the weekend of Sep 30, 2012, to rebuild the trackwork. 2 CTA photos via chicago-l:
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Neither photo above catches the tower because I think they were taken from the tower. Here is a street view of the contemporary tower that was built when the Orange Line was built.
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| Street View, Jul 2021 |
The subways removed the "L" trains from the loop except for the Evanston Express during rush hours. After the North Shore Line abandoned service on Jan 21,, 1963, only the Evanston Express was using the junction and there was no need to staff a tower. But after the Dan Ryan, Orange and Pink Lines were built, there were enough trains added to the loop that the tower is now staffed. [chicago-l]
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| David Carr posted The L tracks in The Loop, downtown Chicago. As kids, we’d ride in the first car going in from Oak Park & this was sort of our view….loved it! 😃💕. We wanted to see the skyline approaching; riding back out to Oak Park, we were in the last car to watch the city skyline recede. Got off at Oak Park Avenue, and walked home. |
I researched Tower 12 because of this post.
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| J.J. Sedelmaier posted May 24, 1953 Tribune photo Charles Kronenwetter: What was the cause of the oops? Scott Greig: Charles Kronenwetter combination of things...a yard motorman at Roosevelt Road had left a brake valve back in the train cut in after using a "cheater" brake handle, that left it in slow release, and the motorman did not make a brake test leaving Roosevelt Road. He approached Harrison Curve at speed, made an application, didn't slow down...the rest is history. Rex Nelson shared Michael E. Bond: The single track to the left led to the Congress St terminal which was the original terminal for the South Side L prior to the completion of the Loop in 1897. A few L trains continued to use the Congress St terminal until 1949 when CTA revised L routed. The North Shore Line used the Congress St Terminal for baggage and express from 1949 until the demise of the line in 1963. Those are North Shore trains in the photo. In 1953, only the North Shore ran on the reverse curves at Harrison. Prior to 1949, North Shore trains were stored on the center track south of Roosevelt Rd. After 1949, when CTA stopped using the Congress St terminal, North Shore trains could be stored on any of the tracks south of Roosevelt Road and north of 17th St junction with the State St subway incline. A few North Shore trains made a complete circuit around the Loop Outer Track before going to Roosevelt Road. This was for the convenience of shoppers going to Marshall Field's which could be accessed directly from the L on Wabash. Andrew Roth shared Jon Roma: Note that in 1953, only the North Shore used the part of the "L" between the south portal of the State St. Subway and Tower 12, so only North Shore trains would have been affected. As the article notes, southbound NSL trains could simply circle the Loop and return northbound, minus the Roosevelt Road stop. |
Back when the accident occurred, the "L" did sharp reverse curves to get from alley-running to street running. This topo map is wrong because it doesn't show the still existing original South Side L tracks to their Congress Street Terminal.
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| 1953 Englewood Quad @ 24,000 |
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| Jon Roma commented on Andrew's share From the Chicago Tribune, May 25, 1953. |
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| Jon Roma commented on Andrew's share From the Chicago Tribune, May 25, 1953. |
Very useful and interesting post.
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