In the steam era where in Chicago do Santa Fe passenger, freight, and troop trains interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad for trains going to, say, New York.
Passengers take PArmalee transfer busses between Union and Dearborn Stations. ATSF freights use Corwith yard on the soutwest side, PRR’s at 51st St (Fort Wayne Line) or 59th (Panhandle) with transfer runs between yards. Troop trains would be by arrangement.
When PRR and ATSF participated in through sleeper service, the sleepers were interchanged by switch moves between Union and Dearborn, via 21st Street crossing.
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Almost certainly, the same point was used for troop=train interchange.
Either PRR’s coach yard south of Union Station or Santa Fe’s Archer Avenue coach yard would be a reasonable place for handing off troop trains. The most direct route for freight transfers from Santa Fe’s Corwith Yard to PRR’s yards used the Belt Railway of Chicago along Kostner Avenue and then 75th St. Transfers to the Panhandle yard at 59th st turned north at Western Avenue. Transfers to 51st St went from the Panhandle to the Fort Wayne line using a track between 58th and 59th that has since been abandoned.
I think you corrected me. In the steam days, an interchanged troop train surely would have required watering and possibly some food service as well, so a yard move would have been necesary, not just power and crew changes.
Santa Fe also serves Chicago Union Station and on the old maps of Chicago shows Santa Fe tracks going to Union Station, so Santa Fe passenger and troop trains interchanged with the Pennsylvania at Chicago Union Station
Santa Fe was a tenant at Chicago & Western Indiana’s Dearborn Station and never served Union prior to Amtrak’s takeover of the Super Chief/El Capitan and Texas Chief on May 1, 1971. Santa Fe’s Archer Ave. coach yard was southeast of 21st St Crossing. PRR went north-south through 21st St., Santa Fe southwest-northeast. Connecting tracks in the southeast and northwest corners of 21st St. allowed connecting movements.
Railroads at 21st Street prior to May 1, 1971:
North: PRR and Gulf Mobile & Ohio
Northeast: Santa Fe, Illinois Central, Chicago & Western Indiana
South: PRR, Chicago & Western Indiana
Southwest: Santa Fe, Illinois Central, Gulf Mobile & Ohio
Railroad using Chicago & Western Indiana tracks:
Chicago & Eastern Illinois
Monon
Erie
Grand Trunk Western
Wabash
According to the employee timetables of the ATSF Illinois Division big steam locomotives such as 4-8-4s(3751-2929), 2-10-4s (5000-5035), 4-6-4 Hudsons and others all ran to Chicago.
Unlikely an interchanged troop would have used any station, since watering and provisioning were done at the coach yards in Chicago.