1905 CN/FVW/GBW/C&NW Bridge over Fox River in Green Bay, WI

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges, Satellite)

FVW is the Fox Valley & Western, and GBW is the Green Bay & Western.

The satellite image shows that this swing span is normally open. Since this downstream bridge would get a lot less freighter traffic than the upstream Wisconsin Central Bridge, I'm surprised that this span is normally open. At first, I thought that meant that there were fewer trains than boats servicing the Georgia-Pacific/Fort Howard Paper Co. Then I remembered that the waterways have priority over the railroads. It would be cheaper for CN to use the conductors of the trains to operate the bridge than to staff it with a bridge tender.

Sam Carlson posted
Crossing the Fox River Drawbridge in Green Bay, WI in August, 1986. What was once paradise - today, there is virtually no reason to go to Green Bay.

Greg Mross posted
GBW 320 brings a Boat Train from Kewaunee, WI. across the Fox River and into Green Bay in October of 1988.

Mike Kohn: I'm so glad that I lived in GB in the late 80's and early 90's and got to experience the GBW firsthand. All Alco line. So fun to sit over by Norwood Yard and watch operations. Plus I would travel along Hwy 54 a lot and catch the GBW running their mainline.

1908 Postcard via BridgeHunter

Pierre Leonard posted
CNW Green Bay

4 images

Grayslake Junction: (Metra+WSOR)/Milw vs. (CN+Metra)/WC

(Satellite)  

WSOR = Wisconsin & Southern

I'm still learning about the Chicagoland railroads one junction at a time. And researching this junction taught me something more about Metra routes.

Rob Conway posted
Another view of the Grayslake diamond replacement in 1976.
Mike Heiligstedt All that and a Fairmont !! [The speeder on the right.]
Sam Carlson Watching jewelers mount a diamond!

Metra's route on the former Milwaukee tracks is Milwaukee District North (MD-N). Metra would own this route in its service area. I presume that WSOR would own the rest of the route and provide freight service on the Metra part.

Metra's route on the former Wisconsin Central tracks, North Central Service (NCS), is complicated because the WC tracks between the BRC and the loop are either out-of-service or no longer exist. And they are owned by B&OCT, which is now owned by CSX.

I looked at using this topo map to document the lost WC route. But it has the serious error of showing the B&O (actually, B&OCT) route turning south and joining the Pennsy route rather than continuing across the river and turning north to the Grand Central Station.

1953 Chicago Quadrangle @ 1:250,000

The 1957 1:250,000 topo had the same error. But the 1980 version below accurately shows the B&OCT/WC route to the Grand Central Station. I used the following color code.

• Yellow: out-of-service
• Green: the land for the Robey and Lincoln Yards was sold to C&NW to create Global I.
• Red: the land has been repurposed except for the bridge over the river.

1980 Chicago Quadrangle @ 1:250,000 plus Paint

So I checked a Metra map to see how the North Central Service trains get between the WC tracks and Union Station.

Metra-NCS

The answer is that they use the Milwaukee District West (MD-W) route, which Metra owns, until they get to the B-12 Junction (red oval on map) and turn North onto CN/CP(Soo)/WC tracks.

Metra-ND-W plus Paint

NCS is obviously the Metra route that provides service to O'Hare. It has a station that is a couple of blocks from the People Mover terminal that supports some rental car companies. I remember that it took a while after Metra was created to get this route running. In fact, the first regular service train didn't run until 5:27am on Monday, August 19,1996. [History-NCS] Unlike the other routes where railroads were running commuter trains for over 70 years before 1996, the Wisconsin Central did not have commuter service. It was not built to create suburbs like some other routes were (e.g. MD-W's Chicago & Pacific [History-MD-W]). It was built to connect the WC to the Chicago freight market. So $131.4m had to be spent to get the 53-mile route ready for commuter service. The towns along the route helped pay for the stations and parking lots. Shortly after Metra was formed in 1984, they began planning this route. In 1987, Soo, a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific, sold the line to a new corporation that revived the name Wisconsin Central. Canadian National obtained ownership of the line in 2001. "Rails and signals were upgraded to allow for 60-mph commuter trains. Sidings were added or elongated so freight trains could move out of the way of commuter trains and vice versa. Gates were upgraded at 69 crossings and rebuilt at 23 crossings." Between 1997 and 2006, Metra spent $218m to add a second track and four more stations. [History-NCS]

Lake Bluff Tower: UP/C&NW vs. UP/C&NW

(Satellite, west of the tracks)
NorthAmericanInterlockings:  photo

William Shapotkin posted two photos with the comment:

It's amazing how your knowledge/interest on one railroad (or subject) can come in handy when trying to identify something on another railroad. For example: This slide of a trn of North Shore Line SILVERLINERS (operating in-place of an ELECTROLINER, which was probably being serviced that day) came to my attention. There was no location given or other information given on the slide mount, just the photo date, which was April 30, 1962.
It took a while, but after studying the photo a few times, I realized where the photo was taken and what direction it is traveling. The train is S/B approaching Lake Bluff from the north. What gave it away? Take a good look at the building at right -- it is none other than Lake Bluff Tower on the C&NW (see second photo). That tower (now long-gone) controlled the still-extant junction of the junction of the (now UP) Tower KO-Lake Bluff frt line with the psgr main here at Lake Bluff. Damn -- don't you just love this hobby?
1st Photo from the David Stanley Collection. Posted with Permission. Color Correction and other photo work by David Sadowski. 2nd Photo taken by Henry Wilhelm in 1928 -- from the website "North American Interlockings."

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Dennis DeBruler commented on William's post
I think it was within the red rectangle of this 1939 aerial photo. Can you determine which blob it would be?
https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/.../0bwx01125.jpg
Sam Carlson Blobbification refuses magnification which hoses determination and blocks information....
Dennis DeBruler Sam Carlson Normally I can spot towers and depots with the help of their shadows. But the shadows did not make sense in this aerial. Thanks for looking.
Andy Smith My money is on the larger dark blob, second from the bottom of the red box.
Sam Carlson I asked a seasoned blobbernaut, and he agrees with Andy.

C&E: RTA Wilson Avenue Tower, Yard and Station

(HAER; Satellite, the yard was on the east side of the tracks between Wilson and Montrose)

The yard burned down in 1996 after RTA had moved maintenance and storage in 1993 to a new Howard yard and shop. It has now been redeveloped. The Howard expansion was part of the plan for switching the south end of the Red Line from Englewood-Jackson Park to Dan Ryan. [chicago-L]

HAER ILL,16-CHIG,107A--1
1. VIEW OF WILSON AVENUE UPPER LEVEL INTERLOCKING TOWER. DESIGN SIMILAR TO THAT WHICH WAS ON LOOP.

HAER ILL,16-CHIG,107A--2
2. GENERAL VIEW IN SWITCH ROOM OF TOWER SHOWING MECHANICAL INTERLOCKING LEVERS.

HAER ILL,16-CHIG,107A--3
3. VIEW OF LOCKING BED AND LEADOUT CRANKS ON FIRST FLOOR OF TOWER.

HAER ILL,16-CHIG,107A--4
4. VIEW OF MECHANICAL INTERLOCKING LEADOUT FROM TOWER.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Glen Miller posted
Wilson Yards looking south, Montrose and Broadway, 1900, Chicago. These days, Wilson Yards is a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) development in Uptown.
Paul Webb shared

CTA posted
1976
Ivory D. Graham pulls mechanical switch levers at the Wilson Tower to safely route trains through various junctions as CTA’s first female “Towerman.”
Raymond Storey shared
Raymond Storey shared again

Marty Bernard posted

This Interlocking Tower Was 30 Feet Up in the Air

I have always found interesting the "Armstrong" interlocking tower on the Chicago Transit Authority "L" structure at Wilson Ave. on the four-track mainline on Chicago's north side. Among things it protected the north end of the Wilson Yard and Shop. Because it was up on the structure non-CTA employees couldn't get to it and could only see it when riding past on a train. When I worked for the CTA I should have taken the opportunity to get up in it.

A while back I found some pictures on the Library of Congress online photograph site of the tower's inside and mechanism. It's a typical Armstrong plant. The levers were on the second floor of the tower and the mechanism (aka. machine) was in the first floor (remember the tower was already about 30 feet off the ground).

I took this picture of the tower from a passing train in June

Ezequiel Delgadillo: Was it there when that massive fire happened in the mid 90's?
Glen Olbermann: Ezequiel Delgadillo the massive fire was right across it at the famous Wilson St shops. I saw it after it burned down. The CTA had shuttle buses going on the day of the fire and the day after the fire. I remember the new CTA mgmt wanted Wison St shops to close and demolish it but didn't know how. CTA mgmt had the shop set on fire in order to burn the whole place down. I remember that work from Wilson St shops moved to the 61st st shops already. The yellow work trains were already reassigned to 61st St shops then. I had a few friends that worked for the CTA back then and I rode their trains, particularly the Evanston Express and the Ravenswood line and they told me 4 weeks ahead of time that the word was going around that Wilson St shops was gonna be burned down. There were no investigations after the fire and the problem just "went away". I stayed quiet waiting to see what will happen next but nothing.
Marty Bernard shared
Jon Roma: There are still a couple towers that have the mechanical locking frame, but there has been no tower that operates switches, signals, or facing point locks for the last decade when Union Pacific's Ridgely Tower in Springfield, IL closed.

I have an album of photos from this tower on Flickr, unfortunately I did not get to visit the interior.

https://www.flickr.com/.../jonroma/albums/72157601254724800

(new window)



Milwaukee transferred the Chicago & Evanston route north of Wilson to the CTA with the understanding that the CTA would serve the few remaining industries along the track, mostly coal retailers. Milwaukee handed off freight cars to the CTA at Wilson. For an extensive history and description of this freight operation, see L-freight.

Sam Carlson posted
Lou Gerard Wow! At Wilson Yard!
Ralcon Wagner Terrific! The freight loco used to move loads of coal between Milwaukee Road branch and CTA el line at Montrose/Wilson connecting track in Chicago. This image was made between 1960 and 1973. Looks like the loco was freshly painted. Great find!
Lou Gerard According to the info on the back of the print, it is from 1961.

David Daruszka commented on Matt's post

The line was originally built as a commuter line that ran as far north as Wilmette. Commuter service was abandoned in the early 1900's and the Northwestern Elevated assumed operations over the right of way north of Wilson Ave. That line was later elevated. There was a freight exchange yard at Wilson with the CTA, who provided freight service for the remaining businesses that needed it. Slowly but surely freight service south of Wilson diminished as well.

["During the last month of freight service, locomotive S-104 is pushing two empty hopper cars back to Buena Yard on the freight lead in April 1973. The freight train has just passed over Montrose Avenue and is heading north on the elevated connection between Buena Yard and Track 1 at Wilson station, seen looking southwest from the Wilson Shops lunchroom. (Photo by Lou Gerard)" [L-freight]]

Craig Holmberg commented on a post

Joshua Sutherland Lakewood line from the 1870's to 1973, used to switch cars to the CTA for the CTA's freight service that ended in 1973 when Lill coal yard stopped receiving shipments.
Joshua Sutherland Craig Holmberg We have one of those (CTA S104) at the Museum in Union.
[Comments implied there were two of these electric freight locomotives to serve industries on the CTA part because they were named Delores and LaVerne.
"On the last day of CTA freight service, locomotive S-104 is seen shoving the last empty hoppers south down Track 1 back to Buena Yard, passing Berwyn station on April 30, 1973. This would be the last in-service freight run on the "L". (Photo by Lou Gerard)" [L-freight]]

Due to their substantial weight -- about 100,000 pounds -- electric locomotive S-104 and its twin, S-105, were well-suited to snow clearance duty during the winter months when not needed for freight service. Here, S-104 is seen in Lower Wilson Yard with a snowplow attached to its front on February 1, 1939. The four-track North Side Main Line and the elevated Wilson Shops are visible in the background. (Photo by George Krambles, from the Krambles-Peterson Archive) [L-freight]

William Shapotkin posted
A S/B North Shore Line train (operating on the "local" trk) has just passed the Granville 'L' station on Chicago's North Side. Visible at right is the Jacob Best Coal Company (located 6133 N. Broadway) -- which closed circa 1960.
This was one of several coal yards served by CTA. (Technically these coal yards were served by The Milwaukee Road -- CTA (and predecessor CRT) delivered the cars the from Buena Yard (located north of Irving Park Rd).) View looks south.
My thanks to Lou Gerard, Bruce Moffat, David Zornig (and others) in assisting in identifying the name of the coal company (no, this is NOT Lill Coal -- which was located at Berwyn). Photo by the late William Hoffman taken July 29, 1956. Wm Shapotkin Collection.
David Patt The last of the coal yards was at Berwyn and was replaced by a Jewel store..

Jon Roma Flickr album of ten photos of the tower and interlocking  Of note is the photo of the upper level of the yard and shops. There is a yard and shops on the ground level as well.

So how far into Evanston did the Chicago & Evanston branch go?

MWRD posted
Hydraulic bank sloping work on the North Shore Channel, looking slightly northwest from an area north of Central Street in Evanston, Illinois, with the current CTA Purple Line bridge at right, on September 19, 1917

Willilam Shapotkin posted

Just north of Central St (Evanston) on (what is now) the EVANSTON (or "Purple Line") 'L' is a bridge over the North Shore Channel -- over which trns of the North Shore Line (Shoreline Route) once operated. When the 'L' (which at one time operated at grade level) was elevated above the streets in Evanston the bridge was likewise raised to meet the height of the newly-elevated 'L'. This view looks N-N/W in this photo from the Metropolitan Sanitary District dated September 19, 1917.

As I understand it, this bridge was erected by the MILW and the line was later (from approx Wilson Ave (in Chicago) north into WIlmette) leased to the Northwestern Elevated Railroad. It was later purchased outright by successor CTA (in 1954 (?)).

Howard is where most of the trains going past Wilson Avenue terminated. But this "train" is one of them that went on up through Evanston.

Don Wetmore posted
CTA at Howard St on Jan 11, 1980.  Photo by Don Wetmore
Don Wetmore shared

Raymond Kunst posted
L stop at Broadway and Wilson in Chicago — 1917
Raymond Kunst shared
L stop at Broadway and Wilson in Chicago — 1917

Sanjay Joshi commented on Raymond's share
Looks very different now.

Mick O Brien provided three photos on Raymonds share:

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Peter Baker Asphalt Plant near Rondout

(3D Satellite)

Rob Conway posted
It is amazing how the CN managed to [get rid of] the Peter Baker business at Rondout. 16 loads of gravel, generated on line, every day, Gone! Now route 176 is jammed with trucks all day long moving in and out of Baker.
Sam Carlson I wonder if we can file a class action suit against the CN for ruining the quality of life in this area by forcing Peter Baker, which located here because of rail access, to switch to dusty, dirty dump trucks whose cargo should be in freight cars. Any lawyers out there?
B-Train David Lemke Probably did this as they were going to abandon this line, only to scrap the idea.There is little business on this route. A good shortline would do wonders,here.
Jeffrey Varney There were many times where Baker got a double spot...30+ cars unloaded everyday. They were always fast unloading cars.
William O'Neal Stringer Came out of Joliet, Illinois on the "Bug Line." Out towards the generator.
[The source of the gravel was probably the Material Service gravel quarry east of Plainfield.]
Steve Nichols When did CN stop serving them? This is the first time learning of this operation and of course its too late.
Jeffrey Varney A picture from August 7, 2008 shows an inbound train hauling Peter Baker rock into Rondout...so maybe 2009 or 2010...
Steven Suhs Wow they making that move in daylight. I was always at night when I switched it.

PeterBaker-about

Founded in 1915 by Peter Baker and his son Arthur Baker Sr. as a roofing business, the company is currently under the control of 4th generation brothers Art and Rob Baker.
With asphalt production facilities located in Lake Bluff, Lakemoor, Marengo and North Chicago, Illinois we are able to service all of Northeastern Illinois including Lake, McHenry, Cook, DeKalb, Kane and Boone Counties.
We are committed to producing quality materials, and providing quality construction services by our team of experienced and dedicated personnel.

PeterBaker-services

PeterBaker-services

PeterBaker-services

Before they lay the asphalt, a new rode needs various layers of crushed stone to create a foundation for the road.

PeterBaker-services

PeterBaker-services

Since the abandonment was relatively recent, I could use Gobal Earth to determine where the industrial spur used to be. In April, 1998, they were digging the unloading pit.

Apr 1998

I captured some other images showing hoppers on the spur. In each case there is a hopper over the pit. Some images verify that it is hard to find the tracks near stone piles. If there were not hoppers parked by the piles in some images, you could not determine there were tracks there.

Oct 2002

Aug 2005

May 2010

Now that I know where to look, I can find the tracks on the property and...

Satellite

...the turnout for the industrial spur.

Satellite

Back when Class I railroads had plenty of coal to haul for many miles, they didn't care about carload business. CN is the first railroad where Hunter Harrison aggressively implemented his operating tactics that he labelled Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). The tactics were focused on reducing the railroad's operating ratio (expenses/revenue). One of those tactics was to quit servicing small customers. For example, by the time Hunter got to CSX, he required a grain elevator to load a unit train of at least 65 hoppers in a day or so. He refused to serve the customers that had been getting blocks of 20 hoppers. Actually, CSX was dumping customers before Hunter took charge. Some grain elevators were lucky enough that they were on a branch that CSX did not want. So that branch got sold to a shortline and the shortline was glad to combine the smaller cuts of hoppers into a large unit train for interchange with CSX. The Evansville Western Railway (EVWR) is an example of such a shortline. Grain elevators along tracks that CSX wanted to keep simply got screwed. Screwing a grain elevator also screws the farmers in the area because they get a lower price per bushel since it costs more to haul those bushels to marked. And it puts more trucks on our roads. I learned yesterday that a farmer is allowed to haul loads of 92,000 pounds. The normal legal limit is 80,000 pounds. [video for 40 seconds]

Why the Surface Transportation Board allowed the railroads to ignore their common carrier obligations is one of those questions that makes me mad and causes me to loose sleep at night. It is hard for me to watch a few greedy railroad managers and hedge fund operators gut America's railroad network.  I've read that some people are advocating letting shortline railroads use Class I tracks to serve the industries that had built along those tracks many decades ago to get rail service. Of course, the Class I railroads are fighting that compromise. They don't care if more trucks tear up our roads.

UP/C&NW Depots, Turntable and Railyard in Waukegan, IL

Turntable: (Satellite) A yard satellite image is below

Depot, original: (Satellite)

Depot, current: (Satellite)

Pat Adamek posted three images with the comment: "The Waukegan Illinois train depots over the years!"

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You can tell the turntable is now used just to turn locomotives because they have put a fence around the pit.

Charles Heraver posted
Waukegan IL DEC 1996. Spin the Train Stop motor. A deuce, still in CNW paint, has just been turned on the turntable and will lead the next Waukegan hopper train out of town. The Waukegan hotel looks on in the background. The table is still there today, although UP rarely uses it anymore.
Charles Heraver The table is air powered, using the locomotives air compressor.

This railyard is long and skinny. A classification yard is north of Mathon Drive. This is the part that is south of Mathon Drive with Sheridan Road on the west side, EJ&E on the east side, and C&NW in the middle.

Satellite

The same area back in 1939. Note that Pershing Road did not exist back then because it has been built over the foot print of the roundhouse.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

A 1960 topo map shows that the roundhouse has been torn down, but IL-137 and Pershing have not yet been built. The next date available for topo maps is 1908. It is interesting that the roundhouse is shown on a different arc. Did it get rebuilt to hold larger engines?

USGS, 1908 Waukegan, 1:62,500

Sam Carlson posted
C&NW's Waukegan facility looked like this in March, 1974.
[Judging from the comments, the roof on the left was the depot.]

Pat Adamek posted
Train Wreck in Waukegan yard mid 1970s. This train was on the way to the power plant I worked at. CNW passenger train can be seen at the Depot in the distance!
John Edmondson: I was standing where the piles of coal are lying when the train derailed . I was a track worker for Chicago & Northwestern then and we were raising track and shoving gravel under the ties to level things off. Unfortunately when you raise the track and only put a small amount of gravel under the ties, and it being about 95 degrees out, things don’t stay in place. When a coal train was given an all clear to come through at normal speed when we cleared the area it was going downhill at about 30 MPH with a full load of coal.As it passed through the work area I was sitting a few feet off the side. All of a sudden I saw the rails bow and sparks fly.I got up and ran away from the tracks and as I did the cars jumped the tracks and folded up with a tremendous crash. Rails and cars and coal were everywhere. I had to climb over the debris to get back over. It was and still is one of the coolest things I ever saw. If you ever saw “The Fugitive” with that train wreck it was kind of like that, only no people got hurt.

There are several photos in the railyard in the comments of this post.