I’ve been looking at pictures of the yard at Proviso, and was wondering if anybody had a copy of the track plan for the area. I’m having a very warped idea of wether I could build part of it. [%-)]
Cheers
Andrew
If no one points you to an actual map of the yard, you can use Google Earth to find a satellite view of the yard, zoom in to the desired area, then switch to the “Google Maps” view.
You can then print out a copy of your screen view by pressing CONTROL-P.
Proviso is a pretty good sized yard and not one that can be replicated on one’s layout, given its size and complexity.
Here is a link to a forum that has included some aerial views of Proviso, or at least portions of it.
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?76164-Proper-angle-for-yard-ladders
Rich
Thanks for the link Rich,
The stuff that I have been looking at has been from the 1940’s when the yard didn’t have so many tracks. I was mainly thinking of using it as a basis for a yard, with the hump and the roundhouse set up.
Even in the 1940s Proviso was one of the largest rail yards in the world. It goes on as far as the eye can see. This image by Jack Delano is from the Shorpy website. Glorious Kodachrome color from the WWII era!
Dave Nelson
Several years ago I sold a phone company map of Proviso that my dad had gotten from a friend who worked at the phone company. It was a blue print about 3 feet wide and 6 to 8 feet long, and it didn’t include yard 9 which is the receiving yard that runs north- south, north of Lake St. and North Av. IIRC the map was from the late 60’s or early 70’s. I was selling off my dad’s collection at the time and I didn’t have the room to display it. So there are maps out there, but they might be hard to find.
To the Indiana Harbor Belt crews Proviso was known as “The Chamber of Horrors”. I only got to go there once (by rail) a couple of years before I retired. Once was enough.
Dick
I like the still active turn table in the middle of a parking lot. Looking at with Google Earth you can understand why it would take a week for a car to move 100 feet or from one track to another.
Pete
Might find some useful topos for download from the USGS:
I’ve got pictures somewhere of a unit being turned on that turn table back in the 80’s. You used to be able to drive back in there and take pictures around the engine terminal from the parking lots. I haven’t been back that way in a long time. Does anyone know if you could still do that?
Ha, in today’s security conscious world, I doubt it. The railroad police would be all over you.
Rich