DLD Reference: 20170422 Metra Ride: Halsted Stop then 16th and Canal Streets

I needed to go to a 7:30pm meeting in Union Station. The train that arrives at 7:40 would not do, so I took the train that arrives an hour earlier. It was one of the few locals that stopped at Halstead Street. Since I had time to kill and my knees need some walking. I got off at that stop and walked east on 16th Street and north on Canal Street. I learned that I can take pictures with gloves on. Before that are some shots from the upper level of a Gallery Car. I was in a car that had a lighter tint in the windows, but the green tint still makes the pictures look a little funky.

The railroad in the background is the CN/IC and the orange things are stacks of stored container trailers. We are at the west end of Clyde (Cicero) Yard.

They are ready to load containers into deep-well cars and trailers onto piggy-back cars.

We are approaching the engine service facilities that are on the south side of the yard. You can't get pictures of them from the road because they have erected a privacy fence. This is the first time I have seen it from a commuter train because normally there is at least one cut of cars on those many tracks that blocks the view.

I zoomed in to get a better shot of the engines.

I cropped the above picture.

I cropped some more on the right because I don't know what it is. Also, it looks like there may be a boarded up tower in the background.

I noticed there was a gantry crane with its "hooks" down. See below for the crop.

Camera resolution

Then I saw four more cranes. See below for the crop.

Zoomed in to the four cranes.

Then there was a cut of double-stack on the track next to us and a cut of vehicle cars on the next track, so that was the end of my view of the yard until we got near the east end.

The commuter trains travel fast past the yard so this Santa Fe that was helping push a cut of empty cars onto a loading track caught me by surprise.

I know programs can rotate pictures. I wonder if a program can stitch two photos together to make a complete engine. I was trying so hard to get the Fallen Flag that I did not even get the number of the pumpkin. The Diesel Shop indicates the 1614 is a SD40-2 that was built in 9-10/79. Once again, a railroad is using it oldest, dirtiest (polluting) locomotives in an urban yard. In fact it was this yard that the EPA studied several years ago to determine that kids living close to the yard did have more issues with asthma. To reduce yard pollution was the reason why gensets were developed.

A couple of shots of the yard tower.

See the next photo for a better view of this area.

The closer bridge was either the Manufacturers Junction or the Chicago & Western Illinois. I took a lot of pictures in this area because I'm not sure if it is abandoned or operated by the BNSF. The far embankment and bridge is the Belt Railway Company of Chicago (BRC). The two tracks on the ground are southwest quadrant connections between the BNSF/CB&Q and the BRC.

Basically the same shot but with a wide angle lens.

A shot between the BRC on the left in the mystery railroad on the right. It appears there is a train coming on the BRC because I see a headlight.

The next two pictures are the connections in the Western Avenue Corridor area.

The western end of the Western Avenue Yard.

This yard is where the CB&Q part of BNSF and NS interchange trains unit trains. I've seen oil trains parked here on previous trips. Today it looks like there is just a cut of 11 3-bay covered hoppers and a cut of some MoW cars. The covered hoppers might have wheat for the NS to deliver to the ADM mill.

When the 11-car cut quit, I could see the longer cut of old open-hopper cars behind the covered hoppers. Judging by the cars still painted for Santa Fe...

...and BN...

...and a gondola and flatcar, I assume these are used is some sort of Maintenance of Way train.

Evidently the tracks are so closely spaced that they could not put a column between them to hold the south side of the signalling bridge so they bridged all of the tracks.

Chicago is not just railroads. It is nice to see that a church can afford to do some repair work.

Some old industrial building still exists near the downtown. West side and...

...east side.

The chimney and top of the Fisk Generating Plant. It was closed a few years ago.

To add to a set of interior shots I took on a previous trip.

I'm on 16th Street crossing Halstead. This is the first time in Chicago I have seen the "daylighting" of an unused overpass.

A sequence of pictures of the ramps and main lanes of the Dan Ryan (I-90/94). I'm trying to capture how deep the steel beams are as well as how wide the overpass is. It is also high because they were required to be 60 feet above the Sanitary and Ship Canal when it was built.

I wondered why they used concrete walls here rather than the usual cylindrical piers.

Now I'm walking north along Canal Street taking shots to the East to catch various views of the St. Charles Air Line and B&OCT bridges and their viaducts.

The Jefferson Connectionis in the foreground of these two pictures.

This particular shot is to the North instead of the East. The tower crane reminded me that the skyline to the west will be changing some more. Not too many years ago Madison Avenue was a "skid row" west of the river. It is becoming condos and/or office space.

Back to the bridges and their viaducts.

As you can see by the barb wire that the railroads don't want to be sued for the old B&OCT viaduct being an unprotected "attractive nuisance."

I knew by the standard cab and shortness of the frame that this pumpkin must be an older one. #2655 is a GP39-3R, which is a rebuild of an engine built in July, 1965. Its linage is
2655 < BNSF 2630 < ATSF 2930 < nee ATSF 1430

Note the jet for blowing snow off the tracks.

In addition to the jet, these would be a couple of the sand towers for refilling the locomotives.

This is not only another view of the 2655, it shows the Amtrak yard tower.

BNSF wheelsets in the foreground and Amtrak coaches and engines in the background. The Union Station Power House is on the left.

A Metra commuter is leaving Union Station.

The bridge over the tracks hold the power cord reels so that the coaches can be powered during the day so the locomotive can be removed and serviced. I waited to catch the commuter locomotive under the "electric power bridge."

Because it is after 7:00pm, I was able to find an area in the parking lot without cars that was big enough that I could catch several Amtrak engines.

The foreground shows that the concrete has spalled so badly that the rebar is showing and the background has the powerhouse so that I can later locate where this picture was taken.

There were more tulips behind me, but I wanted to catch the white blossoms as well. The sign on the building said Northern Trust.

They tore down the neat old Concourse Building of the Union Station to build this white box.

Of course, the Willis/Sears Tower.

While waiting for my train, I took pictures of the gates and commuters because some of the gate closings were false closings. (A train never came by while the gates were down.) I was surprised that a westbound train crossed over to the eastbound track just short of Washington and set there until almost the arrival of our eastbound.

I took a picture of the gate being down because....

20170421 8663

...the only train I could see was a commuter a loooong way down the track. And it struck me as curious that a westbound train would be on the M3 (southern) track.

Note that the Forest gates are still up.

The train stopped short of Washington...

...and eventually the Main Street gates decided to go back up.

A "real" westbound commuter is arriving.

I didn't catch its departure at its smokiest.

I think I took this picture because the gates closed again and I wanted to document that the train was still a long way away. Also, after the train set for a while near Washington, it finally headed east.

This is a cropping of the above photo so that you can see the trains. I didn't realize there was one in the middle also until I looked at the pictures.I wished I had burned to electrons and taken a picture of Main's gates if they were indeed down because clearly Washington and Maple are up.

My eastbound is coming. The train that stopped short of Washington got out of its way without a lot of time to spare.