What’s the most number of tracks at a crossing you’ve ever crossed?Also what are the street names and locations of the crossings?I’ve crossed 7 somewhere in a town close to El Dorado,AR.
6 - my watch site…
I can’t remember how many tracks cross Broadway at Blue Island, but it’s at least eight (Mookie, I’ll have to take you there next time you come east–that’s the one spot in Chicagoland that reminds me the most of Camp Mookie!). Perhaps someone with more time and expertise can post a link to a satellite view of this spot.
Historically, I remember the Chicago crossing where the Grand Trunk Western crossed 55th Street at grade. The street went right through Elsdon Yard, and the crossbucks were labeled as 13 tracks (that was an unlucky number if there was switching going on!). The yard’s gone now, and the tracks that are left see a lot less traffic than they used to.
Four. Nameoki Road, Granite City. The lines are owned by Norfolk Southern and I think Alton and Southern. Maybe.
14 trks @ the 29th st crossing of the BNSF in Wichita,KS. Two main trks, 12 yd trks. This cuts through the middle of the ex ATSF North Wichita yd. This has always presented a operating nightmare for trains that have setout/pick ups @ Wichita. Many times the crossing has to be cut in order not to block the street. 29th is a major east-west street in town and blocking the crossing at say 3:PM when everyone is getting off work…not a good place for a trainman to be standing next to the crossing.
I can’t remember exactly how many there were, but back during my childhood in early '60s Mankato, MN we crossed quite a few tracks near the downtown depot while crossing the Minnesota River.
Six – Euclid Avenue, Bristol, Virginia. That’s where the ex-Southern Rwy (the natural tunnel route, not the Bristol-Birmingham route) siding splits into multiple tracks leading into a metalworks. So bumpy! People railed (sorry) against it for years. Crossing in any car or pickup in the Seventies was awful. Finally the local paper started a “gripe” column and got lots of comments, some from people in other cities along the lines of “we fixed ours,” or “ruined our day [tires].” An impressive no. of people considering out-of-towners found their way to the Herald-Courier through word-of-mouth or telephone info – frequently without knowing there was a column a-borning – and had to write “real” letters with stationery and stamp.
Eventually, some accommodation was found. Even now, though, the crossing is far from perfect.
82 madison illinois, walking and driving i think its 14 dupo illinois.
6 on columbus ave in fostoria,4 on main st in fostoria,5 on marion st in south deshler and 4 on dietrick st in defiance.
stay safe
joe
Carl - can’t cut and paste the url, but for those interested, it’s quite visible if you do a search on Google Maps for “broadway, blue island, IL”. Due to the existance of a fifth, currently unused, railroad bridge just north of that crossing, I’d guess that at one time there may have been more than eight tracks on the crossing.
From a long time ago, I have two contenders, Burnham Avenue in Burnham IL with 9 (3 CSS&SB, 4 C&WI, 2 NKP) and Hohman Avenue in downtown Hammond IN with 8 (2 N&W, 2 EL, 3 IHB, 1 MON, with crossing diamonds in the street).
Five here at Eola yard via McClure Road…not as many as some of you others, but enough to keep my teeth rattling when I cross over McClure.
Broadway St. crossing, Blue Island, IL
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=41.650213&lon=-87.68658&z=18.9&r=0&src=ggl
Wow that Broadway St. crossing in Blue Island is not just 8 tracks, it looks like it is main tracks!
When I was growing up in North Charleston, SC, we always used to go down Remount Road and Virginia Avenue to get to the Navy Base. Near the massive Westvaco plant, there is a crossing over the north end of a yard with about eight tracks (link below):
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=32.903137&lon=-79.973571&z=17.4&r=0&src=ggl
Plus, if you look around, there are other multi track crossings that you must navigate just to get to this one. It seemed like a constant bumpy ride going down there, and there were always trains moving cars around at all hours of the day. Jamie
12+ on 49th Steet/ Malabar Yard (LA/Vernon)+ Vernon Team and used to be more when LA’s Street Railway was in there.
Thanks to Deepspire, we have an aerial shot of Blue Island. Basically, six of the eight tracks are main lines; the two to the west are connecting tracks. The extra bridge, Larry, once carried another connecting track, from the GTW (the main lines on the adjacent bridge) to the Rock Island (which crosses over the entire mess on a grade separation further south).
Paul, I just thought of another “way-back” contender: the crossing at Broad Street in Griffith, Indiana. Let’s see: you had the Michigan Central (one track), Erie (two tracks; C&O was on Erie tracks at this point, with the junction just to the east), GTW (two tracks), EJ&E (two tracks), and connections between the J and the Erie and Grand Trunk (one track apiece). That’s nine. Plenty of diamonds in that grade
Airline yard in Toledo at one time had either 15 or 17 tracks at Westwood ave at the west end of the yard. It is close to the former Nasby tower and the old Toledo Terminal diamond in south Toledo. It is on the Chicago- Harrisburg line which also turns north to Michigan.
The most tracks. I have ever crossed here in milwaukee is 8 and that’s when we had the ADM plant but now that it’s gone the crossing only has 3 active tracks and the other 5 still cross the street but they don’t lead no where.
The old Talluda Falls RR had an industrial siding in Dillard. Ga. with 9 tracks going from the siding to a wood working plant. Long gone about 1961.
Don’t get around like I used to but I believe there were 15-16 tracks at the Theresa Avenue level crossing at the west end of the Mill Creek yards. Wabash, Frisco and MoPac had main lines entering the yard at that point, and there were a number of switching and storage tracks. This is one block east of Grand Blvd. Now Metrolink uses it.
They had double gates at each side of the crossing, controlled by the Grand Avenue tower operator. If you wanted to cross, you just had to wait until he saw you and determined that it was safe to cross. When I was on the Police and wanted to cross, I used my siren and loudspeaker to get his attention. After I was off the Department, I just didn’t use the crossing.