Spent a lot of time with my railfanning buddies around Grand and the connection to the Soo/WC and the IHB/Milwaukee connection. Can still hear the thrum of the diesels, the flanges squealing and the headlight lighting up what we called the alley track. Always loved Madison Street as far back as a kid in the back of gramp's car. Even as a kid the Soo switchstand target on one side and the B&O CPL signal on the other made it clear the handoff from Soo to B&O was the middle of the street. One very dead stretch of railroad from there to south of of B12.
This is cool. I was never on a train south of the Franklin Park Metra station or B12, when i was still a conductor for cn, but this gives me an idea of what could have laid beyond in the days of the WC there's a lot of amazing railroad history down in Chicagoland
Great stuff here! How are there only 6 comments!? Where was that industry "Nexus" receiving boxcars? Also, did WC switch out cars at Hines Lumber in Forest Park?
I assume you are familiar with the area. Nexus was on the north side of the Allstate Arena where Target sits now. It was a warehouse that received inbound paper rolls. So the spur to it crossed Mannheim. When the circus used to come to town, WC put the elephant cars on the spur. And yes, WC switched Hines.
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I remember the spur crossed 45. Remember seeing it when I saw Plant & Page back in '95 at the Horizon. Wasn't sure if it was still used at that time. I wish I had done more exploring back then. Were there any other industries west of 45? Also, do you know when was the spur over by Fujifilm(?) used last and what type of cars did it receive?
Now Canadian National. However, the Franklin Park to Forest Park portion of the Waukesha Subdivision is dormant as of 2009 with the acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
Actually there were three ways to go from B-12 into the city and prior to the EJ&E acquisition we started preferencing Cragin over Madison St. (The third way was via the IHB). You could get across B-12 faster going via Madison St but it seemed that going via Cragin was better overall - you weren't trying to get up onto the BRC at 12th St and fit into the flow.
holy cow this was amazing. wish i wouldve been old enough to work back then
Spent a lot of time with my railfanning buddies around Grand and the connection to the Soo/WC and the IHB/Milwaukee connection. Can still hear the thrum of the diesels, the flanges squealing and the headlight lighting up what we called the alley track. Always loved Madison Street as far back as a kid in the back of gramp's car. Even as a kid the Soo switchstand target on one side and the B&O CPL signal on the other made it clear the handoff from Soo to B&O was the middle of the street. One very dead stretch of railroad from there to south of of B12.
Ya, there was a lot going on in a small area - especially when you were trying to run your train....
Excellent coverage of the WC in Chicago. I always wondered about the Twinkie and the Gauntlet.
This is cool. I was never on a train south of the Franklin Park Metra station or B12, when i was still a conductor for cn, but this gives me an idea of what could have laid beyond in the days of the WC there's a lot of amazing railroad history down in Chicagoland
Ya, WC crews went everywhere in Chicago. Which made them valuable when CN took over because CN crews didn't go anywhere - everybody came to them.
Brings back a lot of memories, I was one of the original Engineers out of Fond du Lac. Thank you for sharing this video, nice job!
When it was fun to go to work.
Great stuff here! How are there only 6 comments!?
Where was that industry "Nexus" receiving boxcars?
Also, did WC switch out cars at Hines Lumber in Forest Park?
I assume you are familiar with the area. Nexus was on the north side of the Allstate Arena where Target sits now. It was a warehouse that received inbound paper rolls. So the spur to it crossed Mannheim. When the circus used to come to town, WC put the elephant cars on the spur. And yes, WC switched Hines.
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I remember the spur crossed 45. Remember seeing it when I saw Plant & Page back in '95 at the Horizon. Wasn't sure if it was still used at that time. I wish I had done more exploring back then. Were there any other industries west of 45?
Also, do you know when was the spur over by Fujifilm(?) used last and what type of cars did it receive?
Looks so different today running Metra from Antioch
Now Canadian National. However, the Franklin Park to Forest Park portion of the Waukesha Subdivision is dormant as of 2009 with the acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
Actually there were three ways to go from B-12 into the city and prior to the EJ&E acquisition we started preferencing Cragin over Madison St. (The third way was via the IHB). You could get across B-12 faster going via Madison St but it seemed that going via Cragin was better overall - you weren't trying to get up onto the BRC at 12th St and fit into the flow.
lots of old interlocking towers.....