Hello, I’m making plans for a N-scale track on wich i would like Sanata Fe Chiefs and also Wabash ( i just love that name ), by googling i found out that Chicago Dearborn street was used by both for passenger trains. Now my question, would anyone know where i could get trackdiagrams and blueprints ( or drawings with dimensions ) of Chicago Dearborn.
Help very much appreciated.
Jan a guys name where i live [:D]
Can’t help with the drawings, but there is a nice article on Modeling Chicago’s Dearborn Station by Gary Hoover in Kalmbach’s Modeling Railroads of the 1950s. You should be able to pick up a copy at most newstands/super markets, etc.
You might also try the PR department of the BNSF as they were one of the owners. By the way, the approaches to the station are now filled with Yuppie housing the city built.
Thanks Roger, I can’t pick it up where i live ( The Netherlands ) , but it just happens to be that i ordered it from Kallembach last week [:)]
The Dearborn Station in the MR of the 1950’s is an outstanding example of selective compression. Another source of information is Chicago’s Passenger Trains by Robert P. Olmstead. I’ve had mine about 15 years. I googled it and found it is avaiable at this website:
http://www.abaa.org/dbp/detailindex.php?booknr=183520972&membernr=1771&ordernr=13926&source=froogle
It is primarily a pictorial book about the trains that ran to and from Chicago and the six major terminals in Chicago. Since it covers a lot of different roads and stations, there isn’t a wealth of information about your specific needs but you might want to look into it anyway.
I just found this page maybe of help to others looking for diagrams and drawings. http://www.railsandtrails.com/diagrams.htm
Dearborn Station was owned by the Chicago & Western Indiana, which in turn was owned by C&EI, Erie/EL, GTW, Monon and Wabash/N&W. ATSF was strictly a tenant. Dearborn Station was virtually vacated on May 1, 1971 with only the N&W Orland Park suburban local lasting after that date, later moving to Chicago Union Station.
Dearborn Park, the housing development currently on the site, was built by a private developer, albeit in part with Federal funding.
If no one in the ATSF historical society has the track charts for Dearborn that you can borrow, try a main branch library in your area. They might have access to older USGS topo maps for Chicago, or even have access to the online Sanborn map collection. Either should give you enough data on what the area and trackage really looked like, and with the maps in front of you, will give you ideas on how to selectively compress the area.
Thanx for the suggestion Orson , only one minor problem i live in the Netherlands, so i’ll have to find it on the internet .
Grtz Jan
Also try Wikipedia…great info on there.
Rick
It would be great to find drawings of the actual depot building, so that one could accyrately model it.
Jim
Order the second quarter 2000 issue of THE Warbonnet from the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society. It has a very good article about Dearborn with a pretty good layout of the terminal trackage.
Thanx Johntaz , i just did together with a few others.
Try the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society’s publication on Dearborn Station by Bob Kosic. atsfrr.net. It is the definative article on the subject, at least that’s what he told me.
I just got the copy of Model Railroaders “Modeling Railroads of the 1950’s” , nice article and of great help. Trackplan lots of pictures, you can easily see how much he compressed to have a realistic chance of showing Dearborn. And a list of references he used to get plans, drawings etc.
Grtz Jan
I realize this is an answer to a year old question but i do have actual scale drawings of Dearborn terminal trackage, from and including the station all the way to just past 21st st junction including the Santa Fe servicing area and all the freight houses.
In what form do you have them? Jan is not the only Dutchman who is interested as I am too.
greetings,
Marc Immeker
Hi CPD95,
Are these drawings something that you could copy (Kinkos?), if so I’d like a copy. Please let me know.
Thanks,
John
If anyone can accept an 8 Meg PDF email attachment, I recently discovered that I also have a RR diagram for Dearborn. I think it’s a C&WI drawing from 1960.
Email me offlist at rtbsvrr69 (at) yahoo.com.
EDIT: sorry, it’s a 1953 C&EI drawing of the facility. And BIG; be prepared to figure out how to print out a drawing that was originally 25"x100"!
Another huge challenge will be to try to re-create the 21st Street Crossing/interlocking. THe PRR mainline runs south from Union Station. THe IC has a connection from near Central Station to their lines west.
The AT&SF used this junction to begin the treck west, along with the GM&O line to Joliet. THe IC used these tracks to reach their Iowa lines. THe C&WI lines crossed the PRR lines, then headed south. THe GTW/CN lines branched off about 35, the Wabash later. THere are a number of distictive buildings still in the area. You may want to use a combination of Google Maps & Google Streetview to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
BTW if you do a Streetwatch search on the Lumber Street crossing, which is just North of the lift bridge over the chicago River that the PRR/Amtrak lines use.
From the Netherlands, you may be able to find some Chicago video shot fromthis location. It was a very popular spot with a wide variety of power & trains available.
In Nscale, there is plenty of ATSF equipment available. You may have a hard time finding some of the oddball switchers ATSF used to pull the trains back from the terminal to the 21st st passenger servicing facility. Corwith yard was the ptrimary freight connection.
ConCor did some Wabash sets. I doubt if many of the UP yellow color cars made it to Chicago on Wabash passenger trains. An E unit & a collection of heavyweight or Budd type cars will stand in. The little Blue Bird was such a pretty little Budd built train with some domes similar to CB&Q types.
You may want to consider some GTW/CN trains, in the oldgreen scheme or the newer New Image design. GTW seemed to run a mix of GTW/CN equipment on the Toronto bound trains. IIRC the C&IW uses a fleet of RS1’s to service the GTW/Wabash fleets.