while watching the history channel’s modern marvels 1 called engineering disaters 15 it talked about the chicago flood in 1991 when the (LOOP)
downtown bussiness area a company put new pileings in the chicago river and it damaged a tunnel that was once a under ground RR that delivered freight to businesses around the loop also it delivered coal for heating and hualed away ashes from the burned coals the RR is still intact but no longer operates i dont think but was very interesting to learn about next time im in chicago i might go to that area or library & find out more[8D]
Yes I saw that program also. I looked in the Offical RR Guide for 1979 & under Chicago there is no listing for it. [:p][:)]
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Originally posted by thebreeze05
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My daughter had a grade-school tour cut short because of the flood–it took a while for them to discover what had happened, but it was sure interesting to watch footage of the river spiraling down an invisible drain!
There have been a couple of books written about the Chicago Tunnel System–too bad that the infrastructure can’t be used in some way today, other than fur running pipes and cables.
ill keep looking for another site[8D]
Do you know if the company who owned it had a name that I can look up in the Official RR guide from 79?[:o)][:D][:)]
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Originally posted by CShaveRR
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QUOTE: Originally posted by spbed
Do you know if the company who owned it had a name that I can look up in the Official RR guide from 79?[:o)][:D][:)]
[8D] dont think they mentioned one
The correct name of the Company was the Chicago Tunnel Transport Company. The last trains operated in 1959.
A good book on the subject is Forty Feet Below, by Bruce Moffatt. I think he also wrote another book more recently, which might go into more detail.
Well that is why it would not be in a book printed in 79. Thanks for the research. [:p][:)][:D]
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Originally posted by CShaveRR
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The Illinois Railroad Museum acquired a locomotive and several cars from this railroad several years ago when Lake Shore Drive was rebuilt by the art institute. They were found parked in the tunnel where they were left when the railroad shut down. The musuem is in the process of restoring the equipment and plans to put it on display
Heres a webpage devoted to the subject and there is a book out on it too…
Vsmith,
I know this sounds wierd, but I am so glad to hear you are alive. Two months ago I noticed an obituary in Trains Magazine for a railroad enthusiast Victor Smith (or something like that). I thought it was you and was really bumbed out.
Umm . . . Glad to see you are alive. Keep up the good work . . . .
Gabe
The railway is not by any means intact anymore. The railway ran into the basements and sub basements of many high profile Chicago buisneses. When the Randolph building was torn down a few years ago access was easy to the tunnels and we found that the basements have been bricked shut. The ones that weren’t blocked off suffered when the tunnels flooded . The story of the tunnels is a fasinating story of Chicago corruption and politics with the sole purpose of the railway to break the back and the strangle hold of the teamsters union on the city.
Randy
“The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated…” Mark Twainn[:0]
“I am dead, I just haven’t stopped moving yet…” Zaphod Beeblebrox THHGTTG[;)]
I wonder why it isn’t possible to use the tunnels for passenger trains. rolling stock would have to be custom-built, with low-slung cars the same way as cars used in mines for bringing miners to their workplace
The "railroad’ would be too narrow for use as a modern passenger or freight railway. As far as I know, it had few connections to the outside world. It even predates the 2 CTA subway lines built in the 50’s. There have been plans made to build a cross loop subway or surface transit system, but nothing has happened. Seems to me when the tunnels flodded, part of the subway lines
also flooded, due to power routing & other utilities.
You may find some excellent books rprinted about the time of the floods.
Forty Feet Below by Bruce Moffat is the best.
Hey vsmith–
Sure you’re not just spending a year dead for tax purposes a la Hotblack Desiato???[xx(][xx(]
thanks for the web page link thats really COOL man[8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D][8D]
The freight tunnels lost their reason for existence when trucking deliveries developed in the 1920’s. The tunnel service continued as a way of delivering coal and removing ashes from buildings that still had coal-fired boilers. Some of the ash cars were left in the tunnels with loads of ashes when the system was abandoned in 1959.
When the State Street and Dearborn Street subways were bored, they were at the same level as the freight tunnels and gutted the system since the freight tunnels lost access to the buildings that fronted on those streets.
Also, the tunnels received some publicity when Geraldo Rivera was looking for Al Capone’s vaults in the Lexington Hotel at Cermak Rd. and Michigan Ave. He described it as a “secret” railway system that came within a few blocks of the Lexington Hotel.
Further Trivia…
Part of “The Blues Brothers” was filmed in the tunnels.
The scene where Carrie Fisher is threatening Belushi with the M-16 was shot there. You can see the rails in the floor behind both Akroyd and Belushi in parts of the scene.