1977 - A Teen Explores Chicago's Railroads

i never considered myself a photographer i picked up the camera to make a historical record railroads were in a state of steep decline in the 1970s railroad bankruptcies and mergers were daily news amtrak came into being to relieve the struggling railroads of their money-losing passenger operations the physical plant of the railroads had deteriorated to a point unimaginable today first generation diesels were starting to disappear at a rapid rate at the time we didn't think railroads were going to survive in north america it was during this time that i became a teenager my uncle gave me my first rangefinder 35 millimeter camera when i was 10 in 1972. i have a smattering of photos from 1972 on mostly taken during family vacations in the files are quite a few more starting in 1975 even more from 76 but the numbers explode in 1977. i was 14 at the beginning of 1977 and lived in skokie a near north suburb of chicago with advancing age came the discovery of independence and the desire to capture the end of railroading as i knew it of course without a driver's license other modes of transportation had to be used bicycles were handy for some closer destinations the chicago and northwestern and the milwaukee road were in my backyard the morton grove depot was only a few miles away and a great deal of time was spent looking back this was all pretty neat but it was right there all the time it would always be there right the really good stuff was on the mysterious south side i would focus my efforts there i should have thousands of photos of northwestern's green and yellow streamliners but alas have very few if i could travel in time i would go back and kick my 14 year old behind i grew accustomed to transit at a young age mom likes to tell the story of a time when i was eight or nine when she got a call from one of my teachers who was alarmed that she saw me get on a city bus in front of the school mom knew i was just heading to dad's store in evanston then but she had no idea until recently how far i'd get a few years later usually accompanied by at least one of my school friends we started to make frequent trips all over chicagoland we were kids without much income so we found the absolute cheapest way to get around the cta sundays were the best you could get an all-day super transfer for just 80 cents getting downtown was easy with lots of stuff to see union station was always hopping we would walk south to the roosevelt road overpass then through the amtrak coach yard down to 21st street where trains crossed the chicago river on an impressive lift bridge and hit the illinois central gulf diamonds the old santa fe coat yard was still temporarily in use this is the amtrak floridian it would be discontinued in 1979 conrail operated two weekday commuter trains to valparaiso amtrak switched with elko rs3s until mid 77 and there were many illinois central golf units still wearing gmno colors five years after the merger lasalle street station felt like a place lost in time coaches dating as far back as the 1920s ran behind eisenhower era classic emd enf units we couldn't know at the time of rock island's soon demise but we did know that new equipment was on the way that would soon replace the rock island commuter fleet photographing this was high priority everyone was friendly at lasalle street no one seemed to mind having kids hanging around the best time to visit was during the weekday rush hour we'd get off the l at the station door and walk down the tracks all the way to roosevelt road red white and bankruptcy blue bicentennial e8652 would be one of the two in the fleet to be eventually preserved a handful of v8s were purchased from the union pacific in 1969 657 still wore union pacific colors the fleet had the last e7s in service anywhere there were four three a's and one b there were two inner city trains the peoria and quad city rockets of the three f-sevens only 675 was in maroon and then there was this visitor from italy a fiat railcar dubbed the ravioli rocket it tested for about a year and then ended up getting sold to mexico the coach fleet consisted of pullman standard and bud bi-levels from the 60s plus 1923 vintage standard steel cars there was one train set of unique 2700 single level pullman cars equipment shortages saw the lease of northwestern and amtrak bi-levels as prophesies the evil new f40 phs started delivery in october and started replacing the fleet on the rock in november 1977. getting down to blue island wasn't easy by cta but when we had a few extra dollars lasalle street was the starting point for a journey in that direction aboard a rock island train watching the view from the last car was the favored place but finding a friendly crew that invited you on the head end was a better treat vermont street is the main blue island station the depot and tower are at the southern end of the rock islands bur oak yard it's also the terminus of the illinois central's blue island branch yard switch moves periodically came by for headroom transfers from other railroads went by as did rock island freights to and from the west walking north from vermont street we passed the coach yard which was full on the weekends waiting for monday morning's commute then we climbed the stairs to the burr oak avenue bridge for the overhead view then walk further north to see what's at the round house the rock was very proud of this home-built slug set that appeared in 1977 walking south from vermont street takes us to blue island crossing one of the more photogenic junctions in the midwest here the rock island passes over the top of the junction between the grand trunk western the indiana harbor belt and the baltimore and ohio chicago terminal behind this grand trunk freight is a chessy transfer shoving up to the rock island it will pull by us a few minutes later hanging out up on the rock island it was common to run into many other fans even picnicking with their families anything could show up here every train was a surprise u.s railway equipment's freight car plant was here sometimes their ge switcher would make an appearance transfers and run throughs from many other railroads pass through including belt railway of chicago chicago and northwestern milwaukee road sioux line and santa fe we finish up our visit to blue island with this shot of conrail power on an ihb transfer conrail was my other priority in 1977. formed by the government in 1976 conrail combined 10 bankrupt railroads into one suddenly the power from all those railroads got mixed in throughout the system the goal was to catch as much as possible before it all turned blue dalton illinois was the most accessible place to see conrail and get varan back cheaply on the cta the trip would take over two hours one way so he needed to get an early start up before dawn we would make an entire loaf of bread into peanut butter and jam sandwiches stuffing them back into the wrapper and then into a knapsack we would walk the mile to the bus stop to catch the first route 97 bus at 5 50 a.m the eastbound bus would get on howard street check out the price of gas and let us off at the howard l where we caught a jackson park or englewood train for the loop we'd get off at a downtown subway stop then head above ground to catch a lake dan ryan train at one of the loop stops south to 95th street into the land where workers at fast food restaurants worked behind bulletproof glass at 95th street the next ride was the route 34 bus down michigan avenue it was over a mile from where the bus dropped us off to dalton crossing the busiest junction in chicagoland here are the lines of the baltimore and ohio chicago terminal chessy system the indiana harbor belt used also by conrail the conrail x pennsylvania panhandle and the missouri pacific x chicago and eastern illinois surrounding the junction were three major rail yards mopac's yard center ihbs blue island yard and bnoct's bar yard the interlocking tower was built in 1943. it would be torn down in 2017. most of the following images were taken by these diamonds we'll start with trains on the indiana harbor belt i regret not taking many pictures of the ihb trains they seem boring at the time they'd take every freight car in the area and drag them behind two emd switchers conrail part owner of the ihb runs their trains through here harking back to the days of the new york central still in its infancy their power was in various stages of repainted over painted or stenciled quite a few locomotives were still undefiled this penn central u-23b was built to run longhood forward and this brand new long island mp15 is traveling to its new home conrail was leasing power at the time like this bangor and aristotle gp-38 in the spring of 78 and these canadian national units in the fall of 76. chicago and northwestern power showed up periodically all through 1977. conrail's ex-pennsylvania panhandle line to cincinnati was in the process of being abandoned the only move i ever caught on it was this caboose hop in april of 1977 almost all of chessy systems traffic into chicago came through dalton chessy didn't seem to be in a big hurry to repaint their equipment although it was rare we were treated to the occasional western maryland unit finally missouri pacific formerly the chicago and eastern illinois ran north and south crossing both the ihb and the bnoct in addition to mopac power louisville and nashville plus southern railway moves came through when we had enough we usually started walking west along the ihb towards the illinois central gulf we were probably hungry the loaf of sandwiches by now had been crushed in the knapsack to a point of no longer being identifiable as separate sandwiches we peeled off what we could from the loaf from up on the icg brand new conrail sd 40-2s below fresh from the factory a northbound icg piggyback train i see green diamond jeeps on the ihb returning after dropping a transfer in blue island yard amtrak's illini from champaign and a chessy transfer heading to markham next walk west into the ihb yard to halsted street on the way ihb power move at school street we'd climbed the bridge at halstead to look into ihb's locomotive facility security tended to be pretty tight on this side of the yard but over on the north side of the yard conrail had a separate facility nobody seemed to care if you walked around here this is where we always found something interesting getting ready for its next trip a central railroad of new jersey sd-35 is front and center a freshly painted alco rs-11 least chicago and northwestern units an untouched lehigh valley u23b and a freshly painted conrail sd 45-2 a defiled erie lackawanna sdp-45 new gp 38-2 with the least chicago northwestern u30c the variety here seemed limitless while putting this show together i found that we had made at least 20 trips like this between the fall of 76 and the spring to 78. while each trip wasn't the same generally the next move was to walk to the east end of chessy's bar yard to where the illinois central gulf went over avoiding most of the yard as security was tight there this view looked south along the conrail panhandle under the icg of an inbound chessy train crossing on diamonds these are those same diamonds from above for a time in 1977 this was common power on sioux line's transfer to markham yard by now all the peanut butter and jam globs would be gone and it was time to head home if we could afford it we'd head down to the icg electric station and hop a highliner downtown most of the time we couldn't so it's off to the bus stop back on the lake dan ryan l it was hard to pass up a stop at rock island's rocket house at 47th street there was always neat stuff there number 630 was the last operating e6 and would end up getting preserved number 643 was the very first e8 an emd demonstrator surrounded by high fences plus the stories about residents of the adjacent robert taylor housing project taking the occasional shot into the yard from their windows the rocket house always seemed like it would be a tough place to visit one time we decided to have a look and learn that the gate was unguarded and no one seemed to care if we were looking around one winter day the engineer of a lasalle street station bound rocket saw us wandering around and demanded we ride with him downtown for our own safety we agreed i got a driver's license in the summer of 78 although continuing to explore i got busy with school and other stuff teens do so there's a lot but not as much in the files for the following years thanks for watching and please like this video and subscribe to my channel you

Channel: Steven J Brown

Views: 10,133

Rating: 4.9802308 out of 5

Keywords: FotoMagico

Id: juLJ9b5FhTs

Length: 16min 25sec (985 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020