C&NW Des Plaines Coach Yard

(Satellite)

I added the "roundhouse" label because this yard did have a turntable.

Bob Guhr posted
\Chicago & North Western - Des Plaines, IL Coach Yard. Smaller facility, water - about 8,000 gallons - fuel and turn table servicing about 7 engines per day. Photo by Elmer Passow.
Bob Lalich: Thanks for sharing! The yard is still there but mostly used for MoW and some local freight.

I had first noticed this yard in a satellite image when studying the Deval Junction. But I didn't know the name of it. Now that Bob Guhr has provided the name of Des Plaines Coach Yard, I can write about it. The yard's name confirms what I had surmised: at least some of the commuter trains terminated in Des Plaines because they were stored here. Now the commuter trains go beyond the Fox River and this yard is more of a storage yard. Unlike many railyards, it has retained most of its tracks.

1963 Arlington Heights Quad @ 1:24,000

The junction in the upper-left corner of the topo extract is Seeger Junction.

B&O South Chicago Yard and Roundhouse

(see below for satellite)

There is a question mark in the title because I have not been able to determine a name for this yard. So I'm using "87th Street" as a placeholder.

B&O originally accessed Chicago by joining the IC around 70th Street. Back then, this yard would have been very important for B&O. But after B&O bought what became the B&OCT, the need for this yard was reduced.

Rod commented on his post
B&O Roundhouse from Same 1915 Smoke Abatement and Electrification study.

While researching the implications of this crossing concerning EJ&E trackage along 87th Street, I discovered from the 1929 topo map below that B&O had a roundhouse and yard west of Burley Avenue.

Rod Sellers posted
Where am I?
Cynthia Costello: Looks like 86th and Burley Avenue. I lived on that block from 1956 to 1993. 

Rod commented on his post
86th and Burley. Photo appeared in a Smoke Abatement and Electrification Report for Chicago in 1915. Attached is a map of the area near the photo from the Report.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Rod's post
Labeling the owner of the tracks on this crossing as EJ&E answers a question that has been on my mind: were the tracks along 87th Street owned by B&O or EJ&E? So the little roundhouse east of Burley would be EJ&E. I presume the big roundhouse west of Burley was B&O. What was the name of the B&O Yard?
I presume that the little yard that parallels Baker Street was owned by IC. What was its name?
1929 Calumet Lake Quadrangle @ 1:24,000
[The title now has the correct yard name thanks to this comment by Bob.]
Bob Lalich: Dennis DeBruler - the EJ&E, B&O and IC connected in the area west of Burley and north of 87th St. The EJ&E paralleled 86th St. 87th St crossed the B&O and IC. The roundhouse west of Burley was B&O. The yard was called South Chicago Yard. The smaller yard along Baker St was IC's Suburban Coach Yard.
Wayne Garritano: Bob Lalich Bob knows!
Dennis DeBruler: Wayne Garritano Indeed he does. I now have the correct name for the B&O yard in my notes.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Rod's post
1938 Aerial
https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/.../0bwq05067.jpg

Rod commented on his post
Site map view of E.J. & E.Railroad Round House at U.S.Steel South Works, 1910.

The engine servicing facility has remained industrial, but the yard as been redeveloped as residential property. Because of land contamination concerns, this is quite rare.

Satellite

EJ&E South Works Yard and Roundhouse

(Satellite, I'm amazed that any tracks are left)

Kevin Piper posted
The old CLS&E (future EJ&E) South Chicago yard looking north.

Because the US Steel South Works closed many years ago, we need to use a topo map as a "wayback machine." We can see that US Steel had a yard along most of its west side. Rod's post below indicates that the little yard along 87th Street was also EJ&E.

1953 Calumet Lake Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

EJ&E accessed the yard at the south end using its Calumet River Bridge, which is now stuck in the upright position because CN burned out a motor. BRC and Rock Island also accessed it at the south end using their branches from Rock Island Junction that went along the Calumet River.

I wondered when I saw this topo map if B&O accessed the South Works along 87th Street. The following answers this question as "no" because the EJ&E crossed Burley Avenue. Instead of the B&O going east to EJ&E, EJ&E went west to B&O.

Rod Sellers posted
Where am I?
Cynthia Costello Too bad there's not a picture of the watchtower. My Grandfather used to lower and raise the gates for the trains.
Fred Ploszaj 85 th and burley ej&e railroad crossing

Bill Staniec commented on Rod's post
From 1915. Before the 1919 Bush fire.

Rod commented in his post, at Facebook resolution, cropped
86th and Burley. Photo appeared in a Smoke Abatement and Electrification Report for Chicago in 1915. Attached is a map of the area near the photo from the Report.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Rod's post
Labeling the owner of the tracks on this crossing as EJ&E answers a question that has been on my mind: were the tracks along 87th Street owned by B&O or EJ&E? So the little roundhouse east of Burley would be EJ&E. I presume the big roundhouse west of Burley was B&O. What was the name of the B&O Yard?
I presume that the little yard that parallels Baker Street was owned by IC. What was its name?
1929 Calumet Lake Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Rod's post
1938 Aerial
https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/.../0bwq05067.jpg

Rod commented on his post
Site map view of E.J. & E.Railroad Round House at U.S.Steel South Works, 1910.

Since both EJ&E and BRC had connections to this yard, it was used to receive EJ&E interchange traffic from BRC per some comments on a share by Marty Bernard of some EJ&E Joliet Yard photos:
Ignacio Ibarra I think EJ&E goes to the Belt in South Chicago
Bob Lalich Historically, EJ&E delivered to BRC's Commercial Ave Yard, and BRC delivered to the J at South Works. Those interchange points were eliminated after CN acquired the J. The J's bridge over the Calumet River is out of service.
Dennis DeBruler Bob Lalich Do they now haul transfers all the way between Kirk and Clearing?
Bob Lalich Dennis DeBruler - I think Clearing is the only BRC-CN interchange point now, but I am not certain. Hopefully someone can verify that.
Dennis DeBruler Commercial, also South Chicago: https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../brc-commercial...
South Works: https://www.google.com/.../@41.731671,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3
J Bridge: https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../ej-bridge-710...
Kirk: https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../ej-kirk-yard.html
Clearing: https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../brc-clearing...

Michigan Central 14th Street Yard and Roundhouse

(Satellite, the roundhouse would have been in Mark Twain Park)

MS'c passenger engine servicing yard was tucked away, rather literally, in a corner of IC's passenger operations. Michigan Central also had roundhouses in Kennsington and Gibson Yards. IHB now owns Gibson Yard and they removed the hump yard to make room for their auto mixing yard. But they kept the roundhouse!

Bob Lalich commented on a posting
Very interesting photo David! Note the small roundhouse near the St Charles Air Line approach, which belonged to the Michigan Central. According to the historic aerials site, the roundhouse was gone by 1962, so the time frame of the photo is between 1955 and 1962.

1953 Jackson Park Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Jeff Ayersman commented on Dave's post

It used to actually go north around Central Station, but a long term legal battle to address the sheds/warehouses on Indiana Ave around the St. Lukes hospital complex required them to reconfigure the tracks to what you see today. 

Found this in hospital year book.
Here is view looking south in Indiana toward 15th/16th

David Daruszka And the old Michigan Central Roundhouse is still there in this photo.

Alan Kline commented on a post
This is a 1942 track chart for the Air Line. 

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

Antonis Zaspalis posted
Illinois Central 2038 and 4003, 27th Street, Chicago, Illinois, August 30, 1969

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.

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted four photos with the comment:

In the late 1960's the Illinois Central drafted plans for a new facility that would replace Chicago's 27th street roundhouse*, Markham Yard roundhouse, and the Burnside Shops at 95th Street.  The new facility would be known as Woodcrest, combining the names of the adjoining communities Homewood and Hazel Crest.

An IC company photographer visited the 27th Street roundhouse in 1970, shortly after it had been shut down, and captured these images.  For the most part, everything at the roundhouse was scrapped.  Afterwards the site was paved over and today is used as truck parking for McCormick Place events.

Four photos, IC photographer, Cliff Downey collection.

* At one time there were TWO roundhouses at 27th Street, located side-by-side.  The north one had 17 stalls and was built in 1898, the south one had 19 stalls and was built in 1893.  The north roundhouse was used to service freight locomotives, and the south roundhouse serviced passenger locomotives.  The north roundhouse was demolished in the mid-1920's when Markham Yard opened.  When built the roundhouses literally were on the shore of Lake Michigan.  Beginning in the 1920's the land next to roundhouses were filled in.

Cliff Downey shared

Cliff Downey shared

Cliff Downey shared

John Linge: I was fortunate to have worked at 27th Street during its last several years. In the power house, a gentleman named Swede Hilman was the powerhouse engineer. I never asked, but I remember a large machine that appeared to be a steam engine turning a generator. Wondering what ever happened to it????

Swede used to walk around with a paint brush on a stick. He’d paint your shoes while standing there talking to you and you wouldn’t know it until you walked away!!!!

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

Thomas White commented on a post

Tad Dunville commented on Thomas' comment
yep. The Alan Lind book always comes through!

Tad Dunville commented on his comment

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

Ken Riley posted
Illinois Central 4036 waits for its next call to duty at IC's 27th Street facility in Chicago, Ilinois, August 30, 1969.
Richard Fiedler shared

Lou Gerard: I remember the 27th St. facility. It was right along South Lake Shore drive. Always neat going by there and seeing the E units.

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

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook And Occasionally Other Railroads posted two photos with the comment:

Happy Birthday to the llinois Central's"City of New Orleans" train.  The CofNO made its first run on April 27. 1947.

The southbound CofNO is seen rolling past the 27th Street roundhouse and commuter station on its way out of Chicago on May 25, 1950.  Leading the train are E7A 4005 and an E7B.

These two prints have an IC stamp on the back, but the print misidentified the train as number 19.  , the southbound "Daylight" to St. Louis.  But if you look carefully at the drumhead on the rear of the obcar, it clearly reads "City of New Orleans"!   I suspect the company photographer and/or a clerk got their notes mixed up along the way.  However, I doubt most folks would think to look at the drumhead, and the photo probably has been published a few times with the incorrect train identification.

The 27th Street station, incidentally, is where an IC commuter train rear-ended another commuter train on Oct. 30, 1972, killing 45 persons.  

Both photos, IC railroad, Cliff Downey coll.

David Daruszka shared

1
[Note the coaling tower.]

2

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