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Metra highlights need to replace Elgin bridge
Yes, always single track tho’ much of the MIlwaukee’s line to Omaha was double, and in several instances went back to single, as during the Great Depression…and you have to love the insider reference to “scoots” by Mr. Streeter.
Extraordinarily poor choice of picture, since it is either old
Burlington ROW to Aurora (signal bridge typical) or, less likely, old C&NW with the " pink lady " ballast and express track.
Google may show an old C, A & E ROW (the roarin’ Elgin).
Yes, a doubletrack bridge is definitely needed, besides the age and use of it, it calls for replacemeent, I really hope common sense plays out and powers to be install a double track bridge.
Long overdue. Yes, this one single track bridge handled all the Milwaukee traffic to points west, but that’s kind of irrelevant. I am pretty sure Metra’s traffic alone today contains more movements than the Milwaukee Road mustered in a day. What we are looking at is today and this being the only single track section between Chicago and Elgin, it’s a bottle neck and will be even more so when we see trains running Chicago - Rockford - Dubuque again.
Now that the Chicago-Rockford train service is going to use this Metra line, replacing that bridge with a double track bridge is most important.
Mr. Jordan: yes, those trains did run over it, presumably single. I can only surmise that there were fewer scoots then. Plus, much less attention was paid to speed limits, so late trains could make it up.
The new proposed Amtrak service to Rockford will also run over this bridge.
Pic is at Hinsdale on BNSF looking east. It seems the Newswire has only this one for all Metra articles. It also was attached to the story citing the Flossmoor depot re-build on the Electric District. Be thankful. At least this scene is on the same side of town.
I’ve no doubt that Metra is operating a whole lot more trains than the Milwaukee commuter operation ever had.
As for the prospects for Metra getting the TIGER grant from the feds, we can only hope. But we can be absolutely sure that even it does, neither Mr. Obama or SecTrans Foxx will put in an appearance there to match Mr. Obama’s recent one at the Tappan Zee/I-87 Bridge construction site at Tarrytown, NY. And look at the price differential. It was $1.6 billion they gave to NY with out batting an eyelash. This one in Mr. Obama’s home state no less, will not come so easily.
And how come NY Gov. Cuomo and his DOT didn’t have to submit application for a TIGER and then wait and hope? I think we all know the answer.
For all the people who thought Mr. Obama’s administration would do big things for rail and shift transportation policy, “So how’s that hopey changey thing workin’ out for ya’, huh?”
Looking at Google Earth, it looks like the bridge was always single track. There is also another RR (ex-C&NW?) bridge parallel to it.
I think it is the type of project needed but…
didn’t City of LA, Denver, Arrow, KC manifests, Omaha manifests, Dubuque trains, Quad City Trains and Milwaukee road commuter Trains make it or was it double track and then single tracked?
Spur economic development?
The bottleneck caused by this single track bridge is a major deterrent to the economic growth and development that would otherwise be taking place along Metra’s Milwaukee West Line if a double track bridge were at that location.
Is the picture at the top the closest picture that can be taken of the bridge? It looks like 3 tracks as far as I can see.
Thanks to Mr. Shapp of Mass. for a ton of useful information. He is a lot farther away from the old CB&Q main than I, but knows more about it. One small correction, however, for future usage:
in the pix is a signal bridge, not a gantry. A bridge typically has support on both ends, whereas a gantry is a cantilever, and therefore much more elegant and photogenic.
@Mr. Larson: The signal gantry is actually the replacement of the decades old CB&Q structure. The signals are the absolutes that govern eastward movements at Highlands Interlocking. The opposing signals are mounted on similar replacement. BNSF has been replacing the original structures and signal heads all along the Chicago Sub with new ones like these in order to make them PTC compatible.
The interesting thing about this particular location is the continued use of searchlight-type heads. All the new intermediates and absolutes are of the color-light type with a three-light vertical cluster in each head. Last I rode (April 2014) the only Q signal bridges and signal heads remaining were at Eola Interlocking and maybe at West Eola too. Not sure about that one.
Also F.Y.I., BNSF retired just about all of the interlocking just west of Downers Grove Main Street station. I think they may be leaving in a modernized one-switch/three signal plant on Tk1 to govern movements in/out of a siding that may be used for MofW equipment storage. Clearly they decided the Fairview Avenue plant, between Downers and Fairview Ave depots, would offer enough operating flexibility.
Mark Shapp, you know full well that we in the Northeast can’t get someone to even pick up a shovel for less than $1 billion. To be fair, I believe the Tappan Zee bridge is being paid for using loans that will be repaid quickly through generous tolls. Plus, the precast method being used is supposed to save hundreds of millions in comparison to early estimates. What I don’t understand is why does that bridge have to be located where the river is widest, at like 3 miles wide? The Elgin rail bridge project sounds like it should be a worthwhile investment, as long as they can stay on budget. Best of luck to them.
Re: Mr. Shapp’s comments about BNSF.
Yes, Downers Grove has been reduced to one dispatcher-controlled switch leading into Downers Grove Yard, with the idea that Metra trains that flip back to Chicago can pull in there to change ends. It is still a control point for Mains 2 and 3 as well, even though they have no switches.
Eola and West Eola still have older signals, but expect them to be replaced this year. New bridges and cantilevers have already been laid on the ground near them for installation. Supposedly, this will be part of the capacity improvements for the new Amtrak service to Moline.
Word is that the ones at Rochelle will also change this year, perhaps even sooner than Eola.
Of course, all of this is sidebar to the irrelevant photo posted with the article, which was about a new bridge on the Milwaukee Road in Elgin.
Yes, the parallel bridge is UP, ex-CNW, the original route of the Galena & Chicago Union. The proposed Amtrak connection between those two lines would be a few miles west, at the Big Timber Metra station.
The wooden bridge in the background is the one lane Oak Street bridge (auto) in Hinsdale, Il on the BNSF raceway. My home town!
The bridge was originally a gauntlet track arrangement protected by Tower B-35.
Austin and William that is Hinsdale on the CBQ/BN/BNSF the smoke stake is the old power plant for the hospital.