DLD Reference: 20160416: RR Bridges, Kinzie, ADM, Sears, Cicero

- Portage Park with a morning sun

- Santa Fe Bridge from Harlem bridge, backlit and hazy

- Crawford Power, Plant, Nerska Yard, and BRC and IN bridges from Pulaski Bridge. Caught a couple of mixed freight trains on BRC bridge. But bad hazy sky issue. Maybe it is a good thing I don't normally take pictures with a low morning sun.

- Good (effectively only) parking place at an entrance Com Ed no longer uses. The fence now goes straight across, but the road still exists.

- Leading engine of eastbound was CN but I did not have the camera up in time to catch it. It looks like the next engine was CSX. The third was a CN. Are the CSX and CN Tier 4?

- Train is going over the CN/IC Bridge. The Job Corps Center is closed campus. There was a security person parked on the entrance road. There is now a gate over the road that goes south and west along the perimeter. And the gate on the north road was closed. I was lucky the supervisor came into the Admin building to give me permission to park while I walked back to Kedzie Bridge. No one on a Saturday felt authorized to let me on the grounds. BTW, you can't exist I-55 to Kedzie from the western suburbs.

- The bridge with the train. Note it had a couple of DPU units in the train, but not at the end.

- Big base of the tower that turns the lines 90-degrees to cross the river and then follow the Santa Fe RoW. A streetview shows it turning north at Ashland. I then goes along the northside of the South Branch until it gets to Fisk's switching yard. It had followed the IC RoW from Crawford's switch yard. This power line would help replace the electricity that was generated by Fisk. I assume they have more than one power line feeding the inner city.

- The must have been about four intermodals that went east into Corwith Yard while I was in the vicinity of the Kedzie bridge.

- CN/IC Bridge on the sunny side. Prairie Yard 33 gets its gravel from barges.

- Scissors bridge backlit.

- Some big barges just parked rather far upstream on the SS.

- Yet another intermobile on the Santa Fe.

- While waiting for the truck to get of the sidewalk, I noticed quite a few trucks were getting ready to leave Prarie. I had not noticed any when I first walked past the yard. This is activity on a Saturday. BTW, I heard "metal dropping" noise from more than on scrap yard along the SS during the day.

- The truck finally made his left turn because another truck in the northbound lane blocked both lanes until he could get out. I took this picture to note that he has about 2-inches to spare in terms of the bridge clearance under the Santa Fe.

- A serious cell phone tower.

- I think this is a Fisk building. But the reason for the picture is to record that railroad crossing signals are still present for the track that runs along Cermak. I had seen others earlier, but I was able to get this one because I was stuck at a stop light.

- They even still have a railroad crossing signal for Cermak where BNSF/CB&Q crosses from the north. The traffic light post behind it has a Morgan Street sign. A streetview.

- Cermak bridge was up.

- Were they unable to get it back down after the morning sailboat run. Or has it been screwed up for a while? Sounds like the refurbishing in 1997 might not be enough.

There is a train in the background. I kept waiting for it to cross the RR bridge. Then I realized it must be on the former G&MO tracks. When I got home and could digitally zoom in, I saw the engines were CN. So it was a train on the G&MO tracks. Looks like CN's plan to use the EJ&E is still not happening.

- But a Amtrak train did head south. 10:07:38

- I got gutsier and stepped closer to the river so that I could get a better angle on the construction equipment.

- After the train stopped, I realized it was a turning move and a shove through the washer. It started heading north at 10:08:32

- CN train is still rolling. Lots of tank cars. But some covered hoppers.

- 10:10:12

- White tankcar is the end: 10:11:00

- I noticed on the other side of this building is a forsale sign, so I better get pictures of it while I can. Actually, digital pictures are so cheap, I took a couple of parting shots. It is interesting how the sky is almost white on the east but quite blue on the west.

- On the todo list was a trip down Gove to see if any track was left from the Jeff's Marina's predecessor, Allied Metal Co. Only the track in the street south of Cermak still exists.

- I followed the embankment until I got to I-90,94. You can see it climb up to the level of the elevated CN/GM&O/Chicago & Alton former yard.

- Then I turned 90-degrees so that you can see where it followed the embankment of the yard.

- Looking northish from the end of the tracks.

- Looking southish from the end of the tracks.

- While looking for parking by the Fieldhouse in Ping Tom Park (East), I found that you can legally get pretty close to the 16th Street Tower. You can park next to these barricades. The first is a few of some shots of the "L" going in and out of the subway entrance.

- This is the better of the two shots.

- A view of the other side of the Continental Paper Co. that is in many Amtrak yard shots, including my own.

- Different views of Gold Meadow Butter.

- Metra commuter by the tower.

- It was rather long for a Saturday

- Another Amtrak trains was being turned as I entered Ping Tom Park.

- Another todo list item: picture of 18th Street Bridge in the morning so that it is not in the shadow of the building.

- I had noticed the speed boat earlier, so when I heard the siren, I switched the camera to video mode.

- video up

- video down

- Another 18th Street Bridge

- Context shot of 18th Street on left, the ballpark, and the field house and Strauss bridges on the right.

- Going north to Kinzie on Clark. Took these to remind me that you can legally get good shots of the 16th Street Tower. And it helps kill the time while waiting at a red light.

- Clark becomes one-way south, so I went east a block to Dearborn. I was struck that there are at least three pre-depression classic Chicago skyscrappers (base, middle, crown; bay windows for better light) still on Dearborn.

Picture of street signs to record those skyscrappers are north of Congress.

- My trip across Kinzie Street bridge confirmed I should visit them when I take a commuter train to town. At the stop light, I stuck the camera out the window facing backwards.

- Taking advantage of another stop light: A commuter on the Metra/Milwaukee tracks and the Alta at K Station condos.

- Changed to wide angle. I am stopped on the Kinzie bridge.

- Blommer Chocolate. I could smell it as I drove past the west side. Needs to be afternoon to avoid building shadows?

- ADM Milling, another todo item. I was driving on Fulton because they allowed the whole street to be closed when building a building along Carrol. Fortunately, I saw the top of the bins and knew to turn back north.

- When this flour truck stopped, I walked over and took some pictures of it since there was no traffic on Carroll.

- I need to check out what that building at the end of Fulton is.

- I was going south on Ashland to Roosevelt. I was thinking it was 22nd. Around 19th I remembered it was 12th and headed back north. There is an interesting neighborhood around 18th Street.

- Going north on Homan to check out the "Sears Tower." I then went west on Arthington and south on Central Park. I then turned on the Garmen and went back to I-290. But the traffic was slow as far as I could see on 290, so I went south to take Ogden home.

- This neighborhood has two smokestacks. This taller one is for the Central Park Water Supply Pump Station, and it was used into the 21st Century.

- When I realized I was close to Cicero because I saw the "Hawthorn Tower," I turned right at a major intersection because I knew Ogden went along the south side of the yard with an opaque fence. I found myself next to Metra's station. It is easy to park their on a Saturday, so I got out and took some pictures. (2295 is an ex-Frisco GP38-2. 2129 is an ex-frisco GP38/GP38AC. It pulled out a cut and shoved it back in, then came out light and went back in.) I took pictures of J B Hunt trucks to count them. The high truck activity on a Saturday while I was their BNSF uses rubber wheels instead of steel wheels between Corwith Yard and the old GP destinations.