Maps of Railroads in Southeast Chicago

I know enough about the railroads in Southeast Chicago to know that it was a spaghetti bowl of tracks. Because there was a lot of industry in the area, one railroad would build tracks along side another railroad just to access a large industry. These maps help untangle the noodles.

Michael Mora posted seven images with the comment:

U.S. government maps of just some of the railways that ran through Southeast Side, 1916-1919: Chicago & Calumet River Railroad; Chicago & Western Indiana Railway; Calumet Western Railway; Chicago Short Line Railway; Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway; Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad; Pennsylvania Railroad. Interstate Commerce Commission, U.S. National Archives, catalog.archives.gov

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Daniel Bovino posted

Here’s a late 1880’s view of Roseland, Pullman, and the Calumet region. It shows a Lake Calumet in its original state and other lakes that have since been filled in. Hyde Lake is almost completely gone. Wolf Lake and Lake George have also been altered by the industrial push into this region over the last 150 years. Thankfully, some of our remaining area wetlands are under restoration. 

I received this wonderful map from Mendel Alumni, John Ormsby.

John Ormsby: Map taken from Library of Congress. Map Room in Jefferson Building

Paul Jevert shared

1880's topographical map of the southside at that time unincorporated into the City!

Back in 1916-19, the C&WI still owned the BRC tracks. BRC was created for the freight operations so that C&WI could concentrate on passenger service to the Dearborn Station.  

Rail to Water Transfer Dock on Calumet River

(see below for satellite information)

Mike Delaney posted
W.W. Holloway at rail to water on the Calumet River Chicago.
Robert Haller: Days of old, made many loads up to Valley Power Plant in Milwaukee.

 

Growing up in Chicago posted
1951 - Freight trains and ore thawing at 101st Street and Calumet River railyards.

Terry Spirek: These locomotives are from the Burlington Route , and on loan to the steel mill to help to thaw out the ore in the hoppers . .

Joseph Obrien shared

Marine Historical Society of Detroit posted
The whaleback tanker Meteor tied up at the Rail to Water Transfer Corp. facility in the Calumet River. Unknown date. J.R. Williams photo from the Jim Bartke/MHSD collection.

• Association for Great Lakes Maritime History  · 

  Follow

  Launched in 1896, what would become the whaleback freighter Meteor was built in West Superior, Wis. by the American Steel Barge Co. Christened the Frank Rockefeller, the 380-foot vessel (LOA) was designed to carry bulk cargoes and tow one or more unpowered whaleback barges to increase its cargo capacity.

  The American Steel Barge Co. was founded in 1888 by Capt. Alexander McDougall, the inventor of the whaleback design. McDougall’s goal was to create a new type of vessel that could be built using relatively low-skilled workers. In addition, those vessels would be capable of carrying heavy cargoes of iron ore in a wide variety of weather conditions.

  The Rockefeller operated in the iron ore trade on the Great Lakes initially as part of a fleet of whaleback freighters and barges leased and managed by the American Steel Barge Co. of Buffalo, New York. In 1900, the fleet was sold to the Bessemer Steamship Co. which became part of the Pittsburgh Steamship Co., a subsidiary of the U.S. Steel Corp., in 1901.

  During the winter of 1925-26, the ship’s cargo hold was rebuilt and strengthened. One year later, the vessel was sold to the Central Dredging Co. of Chicago which planned to convert it into a self-unloading dredge. However, after only minimal work was done, the whaleback was returned to service as a bulk freighter.

  In 1928, the vessel was renamed the South Park. Early in the Great Depression of the 1930s, it was laid up after Central Dredging ceased operations. In 1934, the ship was sold to Maurice H. Sobel of Detroit, Mich. who sold it in 1936 to the Nicholson Transit Co. Nicholson then sold it to the Erie Steamship Co. later that same year.

  In 1942, the whaleback went aground and was wrecked near Manistique, Mich. After being recovered, the vessel was towed to Manitowoc, Wis. It was then laid up there until 1943 when it was sold to Cleveland Tankers, Inc. The ship was then converted into a petroleum tanker at Manitowoc by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co.

  After work was completed, the vessel was renamed the Meteor. On Nov. 21, 1969, the tanker went aground and wrecked near Marquette, Mich. After recovery, it was towed to South Chicago, Ill. for repairs. Once repaired, the ship was towed to Manitowoc, Wis. where it was permanently laid-up.

  In 1972, the Meteor was sold to the City of Superior, Wis. for use as a museum ship and is now on display on Barker’s Island in Superior. The vessel was inducted into the National Maritime Hall of Fame at the American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point, New York in 1984.

  Information Sources:

  https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/438868

  https://greatlakeships.org/3706266/data?n=1

  http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/.../amshipsuperior.htm

  https://www.greatlakesvesselhistory.com/.../rockefeller...

  https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/.../whaleback-ships-and...

Marine Historical Society of Detroit shared
The whaleback tanker Meteor tied up at the Rail to Water Transfer Corp. facility in the Calumet River. Unknown date. J.R. Williams photo from the Jim Bartke/MHSD collection.
Mark Janovec: Great photo! I'm so used to seeing her in Superior as a museum that it's nice to see a photo of her when she was still active.

Dennis DeBruler commented on the above share
It is also nice to see what the facility looked like. Today it is just brownland.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.711555,-87.5469954,664m/data=!3m1!1e3

Lou Gerad posted
Robert C. Norton at Rail to Water in South Chicago, 1974.
Dan Vandenberg: Great picture! In more recent years called KCBX. Now I'm wondering...is KCBX still shipping coal from there? Haven't seen much posted on boats loading there recently.

Comments on Lou's post

That would be part of the Rail to Water on the left and the 100th Street Bridge is in the air.

Mike Delaney posted
The International heading up river on the Calumet. Anybody who has heard the horn on this thing would know which one it was long before you saw it. I know I posted this shot before somewhere but it shows the care and pride these companies took in their vessels no matter how old. Both this and the Harvester were in mint and I mean mint and pristine condition. I wish I could have sailed in that tiny fleet. She was my favorite oldy and it was my pleasure to see her up close. I almost cry when I look at this shot. Boat gone, International Steel plant is gone.
[The steel plant it was headed to was Wisconsin Steel.]
Scott Liberty: Many people don’t know that the red and black IH logo is an abstract representation of a man on a tractor.
[Some comments include a couple more photos of the ship on the Calumet river.]

A facility to transload coal from rail to ships became obsolete when power plants switched from Illinois Basin coal to Power River Basin coal. Then local refineries switched to processing crude oil from Canadian tar sands. The residue product from that oil was petcoke instead of asphalt. So the facility switched to transloading petcoke to ships.

Satellite

But the dust blown off the piles was a serious pollution hazard, so then it became nothing.

Satellite, accessed Jan 2020

Mike Delaney posted
Calumet River Chicago.  Cliffs Victory on the left and some foreign rusted out crapcan on the right at Rail to Water.  This was during a brief iron miners strike so the Victory was layed up wet.  Lots of opinions on the Calumet, Rouge and Cuyahoga rivers as far as pollution goes.  We kicked up a dead body in this river with the bow thruster on the Grace heading for Interlake Iron farther up the river.  Didn't get to see it myself.  Did the same thing in the Cuyahoga on the Snyder Jr. backing into the turning basin coming from Republic Steel with the prop.  I did get to see that one.  The deceased was wearing a brown suite covered with crabs.  The Coast Guard came and picked up the body put him in a bodybag with his feet sticking out layed him on the rear platform on the outside back of the boat and down the river they went with several pleasure boats following taking pics.  Couple years later on the Ayers I was being lowered to the J&L steel dock on the Cuyahoga river, they lowered me too soon, too fast, and I ended up in the water up to my chest and was between the boat and the dock in between two giant earthmover tires hanging from the dock as the boat came in.  took four guys to pull me back up and out enough to climb onto the tire.  Everybody was heaving the blocks over and bedlam was going on the deck as man overboard was called.  I got back on board wearing about 20lbs of Cuyahoga river.  mate says you OK, I said great time for a swim.  Says go take a shower and wash your clothes your done for the night.  I would rather have swam in the Rouge.
[That is the 100th Street Bridge in the foreground.]

Today conveyor belts have developed well enough that the material is stored in piles. Before that, coal was stored in hopper cars. That is why most of the land back then was used for yard tracks. Then a lot of those tracks were removed to create land for the storage piles. You can see that evolution of hopper to pile storage in the still active coal docks in Newport News, VA.

Bob  Lalich commented on Nick Fry's share
Here is a Life magazine photo of the elevator taken in 1951.
Bob Lalich Dennis DeBruler - the hoppers are coal for Rail To Water.

Dennis DeBruler replied to Bob's comment
This photo shows the many tracks north of the elevator in this 1977 topo was used for storage. Are those iron ore cars? They look rather short.

John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library Flickr
[The south side of the yard and a ship in the background.]

John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library Flickr
[The north part of the yard and the Com Ed 100th St. Generating Station in the background.]

Bob Lalich Flickr, Aug 1984
BRC 100th st Yard
BRC TR4 set switches Rail To Water near 100th St, 8-84.

Jim Prrfan posted
Rail to Water dock on Calumet River 4-1968. Steel Mill related.
Jim PRRFan photo
Dennis DeBruler shared to Southeast Chicago Historical Society
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7117017,-87.5474876,786m/data=!3m1!1e3
Daniel Kleszynski: RTW was opened in 1948. At one time it was owned by 7 coal mining companies. The docks as seen in the photo were constructed in 1954-1955. The North ship loader (closest on in the picture) was the original stationary ship loader.
Dale Windhorst: I just recently found out that it was built by the Chicago and Western Indiana RR. [The BRC was created from the freight operations of the C&WI. [Dennis DeBruler]]
Jeannie Caturano Leinweber: I worked at RTW during the summer before I left for college. I was working on site for an engineering company that was rebuilding the facility after a disgruntled employee torched it!
Daniel Kleszynski: Jeannie Caturano Leinweber that was in 1976.

Larry Candilas commented on Jim's post
Around the same time but a lot slower day with the river traffic.

MoPac/C&EI (C&WI) 35th (37th) Street Yard

(Satellite)

In later years, UP used this C&EI yard for storage for their intermodal service in Canalport.

William Brown posted
From the J Quinn Collection, an Missouri Pacific Transfer with C&EI 213 is retrieving it's Caboose at the CB&Q's Cicero Yard in May of 1967. The C&EI merged with the MP in May of 1967. The 213 is a GP7 built in March 1950. It was renumbered MP 78. It was then transferred to the L&N as their 396. It was later renumbered to L&N 2220. Finally renumbered SCL 628.
Bob Lalich: I believe that whomever labeled the photo was unfamiliar with the area, or simply got confused. I am certain that the location of the photo was the C&WI at 33rd St. The view is to the NW. At the time of the photo, the C&EI/MP leased 37th St Yard from the C&WI. Among other traffic, the yard handled TOFC. The GP was likely tacking the caboose on the end of the train in preparation for departure to the south.
Additional clues are seen too. The signal bridge was located just north of 33rd St. The gap in the tracks is the result of removal of track #5 between 21st St and 40th St, which happened in the late 1950s. The four stacks in the distance are Commonwealth Edison's Fisk Station. Aerial photos from the 1960s show the stacks in that arrangement.
Brandon McShane: Technically, C&EI wasn't merged into MP till 1976, though MP bought control in 1967 (subject to sale of Woodland Jct-Evansville to L&N).

Dennis DeBruler shared

Per the comments, this caboose is in its home yard of 37th Street Yard rather than being retrieved from CB&Q's Cicero Yard.

This yard not only still exists, it still has most of its tracks:

https://www.google.com/.../@41.8302245,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3

Dennis DeBruler commented on William's post

Wow, that UP yard still has most of its tracks.

https://www.google.com/.../@41.8299487,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3

C&EIRHS posted
Photo 5036-H from the C&EI Historical Society archives showing the piggyback ramp at Chicago c1956.
Eric Sibul shared
[C&EI converted flatcars to piggyback cars in their Oaklawn Shops.]

Dennis DeBruler commented on Eric's share
According to the comments by Rick La Fever in the base post, it was in the yellow rectangle. I noticed that the topo map accurately records that there was space between each pair of tracks.
1953 Englewood Quad @ 24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Eric's share
I noticed in a satellite image that the embankment for the lead down into the side yard still exists. You can see it in this Oct 2011 street view.
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m7!1e1!3m5...

Dennis DeBruler commented on Eric's share
Before it was a piggyback yard, it looks like it was a freight house. A 1938 aerial photo
https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/cook/flight12/0bwq08056.jpg

Dennis DeBruler commented on Eric's share
Rick La Fever After rereading your comments, I have to ask: or was it here in the C&WI team tracks that the owners shared?
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8437041,-87.638145,895m/data=!3m1!1e3

Bob Lalich commented on Eric's share
I think the photo was taken at 33rd St looking SSE. The map shows three tracks grouped together and a concrete ramp. Seems to fit.

Indiana Grain Elevator

(Satellite, the elevator was gone before 1938, let alone 2020)

The building on the left in this photo is what motivated this research.

MWRD posted
A view to the west of 18th Street near the South Branch of the Chicago River on November 12, 1902.

Dennis DeBruler commented on MWRD's post

The buildings north of 18th Street were the Schoenhofen Brewery. According to this 1901 Sanborn Map, the grain elevator on the left was the Indiana Elevator. I think the truss span is over the C&WI tracks.

Sanborn fire insurance map provided courtesy of the Map Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

https://images.digital.library.illinois.edu/.../0/color.jpg

Dennis DeBruler commented on MWRD's post
This photo uploaded by Paul Jervert confirms that the photographer was standing in the west end of the truss span over the Santa Fe tracks looking at the truss span over the C&WI tracks. The grain elevator would have been between the train and river and would have obstructed the view of the C&WI truss. This area is now the Ping Tom Memorial Park.

Sanborn fire insurance map provided courtesy of the Map Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
https://images.digital.library.illinois.edu/iiif/2/c5a350f0-c457-0133-1d17-0050569601ca-b/full/3365,/0/color.jpg via 1901 Grain Elevators

This elevator would have been served by the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad.

Digitally Zoomed

Dennis DeBruler posted the MWRD photo with the additional graphic.

Satellite
The red arrow shows where the photographer was standing and which direction he was facing.

In this 1938 aerial, the Indiana Elevator has been replaced by more tracks, but the two truss bridges are still standing.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The elevator is on the left side of this photo.

The last photo from eight photos of elevating the tracks northeast of here is worth copying.

The elevator is on the right side of this photo.

Al Krasauskas posted
Photographic view of the former Railroad Swing Bridge over the South Branch of the Chicago River. Originally built by P. F. W. & C. R. R. (Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Rail Road). I believe the view is actually northeast, towards downtown Chicago. Photograph is dated 8-7-09.
Paul Webb shared

 

Digitally Zoomed to Photo Resolution
The "Quaker Wheat Berries" and "Quaker Corn Meal" signs on the end of the elevator show why the full name of this elevator is "Indiana, The American Cereal Co.".

Al commented on his post
Robinson's Map of Chicago, 1886, shows that the tall structure at right was the Indiana Elevator grain warehouse and that lumber sheds were across the river, left in photo. Elevated 18th Street bridge and roadway are visible in the background.

South Deering Tower: C&WI vs. BRC

(Satellite)
NorthAmericanInterlockings:  photo
Chicago and Northern Indiana Railroad Interlocking Towers (missing)

John W. Barriger III Flickr

Bob Lalich commented on a post
South Deering tower controlled the junction of the BRC and C&WI. It was located near 112th and Torrence. Here is a diagram, courtesy Jon Roma.

1938 Aerial Photo
Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob Lalich's comment on a post
So the background is Wisconsin Steel. And this junction connected the BRC with C&WI's yard for the ACME Coke Plant.

C&EI used the Pennsy's Panhandle before the C&WI was built

David Daruszka enhanced a Bill Molony post
Chicago & Eastern Illinois employee time table dated July 7th, 1878.
Back then, the C&EI got into downtown Chicago on trackage rights over the Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway.

Bob Lalich David Daruszka - yes, the C&EI used the Panhandle from "Dalton" to Chicago for a short time prior to the building of the C&WI in the early 1880s. Under Special Rules in this timetable there is a reference to the PC&StL timetable.

Jon Roma The neatest part of this, IMHO, is in the special rules:

"No. 1. Trains will be run by Columbus time as shown by the clock in the Superintendent's office. Train men not having access to the clock will get their time from passenger Conductors, or by telegraph from Superintendent's office daily at 5 p.m."

Not only does the mention of Columbus time implicate the operating rights on the Panhandle, but it reminds one that this timetable pre-dates the adoption of Standard Time by over five years.

The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway was the actual name for the Pennsy's Panhandle.

I knew the C&EI ownership stopped at Dolton Junction, and they helped organize the C&WI to gain access to Dearborn Street Station. But I did not know the C&EI used the Panhandle, which also passes through Dolton Junction, until the C&WI was ready for business. That meant the C&EI first used the north end of Union Station for its passenger service in Chicago, and then it moved to Dearborn Station.

I copied the following satellite image from the Dolton Junction notes as a quick reference. The red line represents the C&EI route. The yellow route represents the Panhandle route. And the blue line represents the C&WI route that the C&EI switched to when it was available.

Satellite