Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Chicago railways; Why so many?

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Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 09-21-2003, 04:41 PM:

I've been flying in to Midway airport a lot recently, and I don't thing I ever saw so many train tracks within a city than Chicago. They're everywhere, criss-crossing from all directions. Why so many? We don't have anywhere near that many in New York. In the outer areas, trees have been planted along the sides of the tracks creating a green looking stripe. We don't have any of those 'double-decker' train cars, either.

I like the tramway in the middle of the highway, but it doesn't look like regular trains can run on it.

It also looks like they are taking some tracks away, too. (From the air) I see rail beds that seem to have no track, then "fade" into housing developments.

The highway traffic on the Kennedy Exwy is even thicker than NYC, too, even though there are more lanes. The highway exit I need to take to get to Cicero Av had a big picture of Jimi Hendrix, but they painted over it.. so now I get lost...

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 09-21-2003, 06:29 PM:

My guess would be because ships would come into port there from the Atlantic via the Great Lakes and their cargo would then be put on trains for land distribution to the West and Midwest.

Posted by John Scott (Member # 520) on 09-21-2003, 06:41 PM:

Also alot of those tracks are El tracks. The train system in Chicago is elevated, and not a subway as in most other cities.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 09-21-2003, 07:49 PM:

No, most of the tracks are normal railroads. Chicago was and is the railroad capital of the nation. This long predates the completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway system. Chicago is simply a major junction between the eastern lines and the western or the granger lines (lines that blanketed the midwest wheat belt and connected with other western lines).

The lines in the expressway median are indeed CTA rapid transit tracks; part of the elevated system. Lots of redundant rail lines have been removed; some turned into biking and hiking trails. The large yard south of Midway is Belt Railway of Chicago's Clearing Yard. The one immediately south of O'Hare is Canadian Pacific's ex-Milwaukee Road Bensenville Yard. A few miles farther south is the Union Pacific's ex-C&NW Proviso Yard. That's just a few of many in the area.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 09-22-2003, 12:47 AM:

I remember taking a train from Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Norman, Oklahoma in September of 1958. It seemed as it took forever to get clear of the Chicago rail maze. It was a very slow ride until about 1/2 hour after departure from the passenger station.

Once we cleared the yards, I think the locomotive engineer knew only one throttle position...and that was fully open. [Smile]

We went down the tracks like a bat out of hell. It was a fun ride. [Smile]

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 09-22-2003, 01:27 AM:

A bazillion different rail companies built into Chicago. It was an exceptionally well-located place for distribution, & the meat packing industry pumped it up even more. The midwest sent its cattle to Chicago, & it was packed & distrbuted from there. No city grew as hard & fast as Chicago. It was notorioulsy noisy with construction.

My favorite historical tidbit about Chicago was how they solved their drainage problem. It was just a monster about drainage problems, & stories of horses stuck in the mud, *PEOPLE* sinking to their hips in the mud of the streets, & had been since day one. Finally, they just got sick of it all & passed a law saying that the grade of the city was 12 or more feet higher. They either buried the first floor of buildings, or JACKED THE HUGE MOTHERS UP with scores of men with screw jacks under each building, & scooted dirt up under them. 10+ story, block-wide hotels, office buildings, etc; stone construction, pre-girder frame & curtain wall. Like lunatics levitating the pyramids.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 10-10-2003, 09:06 PM:

Driving an "18-wheeler" now, I've been to Chicago railyards several times in the past few weeks. I've had intermodal drops going both to the BNSF and CSX railyards. Let me tell you, they are HUGE places - tracks are everywhere. Try finding a particular trailer in one of those yards, too (as in tractor-trailer, not film trailer), there are literally thousands!! Took me an hour and a half to find my pickup at CSX.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-11-2003, 12:20 AM:

"The highway traffic on the Kennedy Exwy is even thicker than NYC, too, even though there are more lanes."
_________________________________________________________________

Now you see why I was a little reluctant to consider your installation there. I left that traffic mess behind 6 years ago
with little intention of ever returning there [Eek!]

. Sitting in that traffic is simply not worth it for anything [bs]

. You might try going into O'Hare Airport as its a stones throw from the Glenview area. Don't let the size of O'Hare scare you away [Confused]

. Once you've been through it its far easier to deal with than the drive from Midway to Glenview ever is [Big Grin]

.

Actually Midway is an interesting place to land in turbulent weather......you usually literally drop out of the sky onto the runway, while you are thinking that you may drop onto someones rooftop across the street [uhoh]

. Those are REALLY short runways there as well. Jets have on two occasions in past years run into the fence at the other end of the runways due do equipment failures [scream]

!!
There are also great shots of the early Midway Airport in the Hitchcock film "North By Northwest" [Cool]

.
_________________________________________________________________

"Why so many?"
____________________
They were all built exclusively for Steve Kraus [thumbsup]

.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 10-11-2003, 07:03 AM:

When I visit downtown Chicago. I take the South Shore commuter train from Michigan City, Indiana. It's a $6.75 trip right down to the Randolph Street station. Sure beats the traffic and $5/half hour parking. [thumbsup]

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 10-11-2003, 10:43 PM:

William Hooper wrote...
"They either buried the first floor of buildings, or JACKED THE HUGE MOTHERS UP with scores of men with screw jacks under each building"

In a section of downtown, there are streets under the streets. There is a whole different world going on under the north section of the loop. I forget what streets take you down there.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-12-2003, 04:13 PM:

I suppose one could consider Lower Wacker Drive to be Chicago's underground, but all you'd really find there is the delivery/service areas to the buildings that are above ground on upper wacker drive. Not really any buisnesses per say down there.... At least not like Underground Atlanta.

Chicago does have a network of hundreds of miles of coal tunnels though which still exist. They were used to deliver coal for heat before the advent of Gas heating. About a decade ago some stupid contractor put a piling through the bottom of the Chicago river into one of the coal tunnels causing the great downtown flood of whenever it was. Many of the downtown buildings go 3 to 4 stories underground and everything filled up with water in the downtown loop area. The leak was eventu7ally plugged and the water let out into the Chicago Deep Tunnel which is another maze of hundreds of miles of huge drainage tunnels that eventually drain into the Illinois river.
Mark

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 10-12-2003, 11:42 PM:

Well, there is at least one less train in that area - at least for now.

Sounds like a commuter train derailed this afternoon in Chicago. 100 people injured, at least 45 were taken to hospital. Most injuries were minor.

The derailment involved two locomotives and 5 coach cars.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 10-13-2003, 01:48 AM:

Chicago's Briggs House hotel, constructed in 1856.
Later that year, the City of Chicago passed the law raising the street grade.

Chicago's magnificent, palatial 250-room Tremont House hotel (pictured below in a later view), was rasied with 1,200 men & jackscrews.