Railroads, Chicago-style

From The Trolley Dodger blog: North Shore Line Electroliner trainset at the corner of Harrison and Wabash on the Chicago L

From The Trolley Dodger blog:  “CSL 5249 appears to be heading southbound on Larrabee, just north of Chicago Avenue. To the left, you see the Montgomery Ward complex, which has since been turned into residential. 5249 is signed to go to Vincennes and 88th, which probably makes this a Halsted car.”

The street with tracks veering off at left is Kingsbury. The tracks were part of the Milwaukee Road Kingsbury Branch (C&E South Line) 

Thomas Underwood Coll B&O026 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library Via Flickr: Baltimore & Ohio Station, Salem, IL July 4, 1966

From The Trolley Dodger blog: “North Shore Line Silverliners 770, 738, and 767 just north of Wilson Avenue on June 2, 1962. This is probably a ‘substitute Liner’, meaning they were temporarily taking the place of an Electroliner when one of that pair was being serviced.” (Wien-Criss Archive)

Chicago

From The Trolley Dodger blog: Chicago Surface Lines streetcars in Bronzeville, on 47th Street looking west.

Original source: Library of Congress: “47th Street, Chicago, Illinois”

Photo by Russell Lee

April 1941

From The Trolley Dodger Blog: “CTA 7160, viewed from the Douglas Park L (today’s Pink Line), is operating on Western at 21st on June 15, 1955.”

Note the Yusay Pilsen Beer truck at left. This was a beer brewed by the Pilsen Brewing Company in Chicago.

Chicago

(Wien-Criss Archive)

From The Trolley Dodger blog: “Chicago postwar PCC 7216 is shown heading south on Clark at Harrison on March 11, 1958.”

Photo by A. Goddard

(via LakeCentral DC3 N18667 Midway 759 | Mel Lawrence | Flickr)

So it’s not railroading, but Mel Lawrence has been posting a great series of vintage photos from O’Hare and Midway Airports recently, so I am going to start sharing some of these too . . .

3 Santa Fe Shots from Chicago’s Roosevelt Road Viaduct by railfan 44 on Flickr.

Caption: “ATSF 543 at Dearborn Station, Chicago, IL on May 13, 1964. ATSF 543 is, not was, a H12-44TS built May 1956, retired May 1974. The ‘TS’ (Terminal Switcher) means she has a steam generator in her short hood to heat the passenger cars she was switching. She now resides at the Illinois Railway Museum and photos show her out in the open in poor shape. She is not on the Museum’s web site roster. Only three H12-44TSs were built, all for Dearborn Station.”

Photo by Marty Bernard

Note the U.S. Mail trailers and that red hot station wagon in the background.

(via CTA 5400230 6148 Clark St at Halsted St 540200 LIGHTROOM F… | Flickr)

CTA 6148, with colorful delivery trucks and water towers

Clark Street at Halsted Street, Chicago

1954

The two tan brick buildings at right are still there, but nothing else looks the same: https://goo.gl/maps/SaCVVYZZvgt

John F Bromley Archives

From The Trolley Dodger blog: “This picture of various Chicago, Aurora & Elgin trains was taken around September 1953 at DesPlaines Avenue in Forest Park. Construction is under way to reconfigure the terminal for a new track arrangement, where CA&E trains will no longer head downtown, but will terminate and loop here. The wooden ramp in the background was built so that CTA trains could loop without crossing CA&E tracks, which were no longer going to be connected to the CTA. This new arrangement continued until the CA&E quit operating passenger service on July 3, 1957.”

Chicago Surface Lines streetcar 5702

35th Street at Wallace Street, Chicago (a few blocks west of Comiskey Park)

Date and photographer unknown (but note the “BUY DEFENSE BONDS” placard on the streetcar)

Caption: “The Indiana Harbor Belt has had several hi-rail vehicles numbered as HR-1 in its fleet. The earliest was this late 1960s Dodge van, seen sporting the OSHA Orange scheme, which is seen passing by a Chevrolet hi-rail pickup just west of Gibson Yard.”

Hammond, Indiana

March 3, 1983

Photo by Tom Golden