Tracks layout Chicago passenger terminals

Tracks layout of Chicago passenger’s terminals before Amtrak area where to find them?

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Wow, that is a tall order. I’m not sure that the track plans for all six Chicago passenger stations can be found in one place, but they may be. I will start you off with a completely detailed track plan for Dearborn Station in the 1950s. The following track plan can be enlarged by using DjVu software which is available for free.

Let me see if I can find track plans for the other five stations.

Rich

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This site has a lot of detail including a track plan for Chicago Union Station.

https://chicagology.com/skyscrapers/skyscrapers044/

And this one for the C&NW on Alamy.

Rich

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Here is a link to some pretty good info on LaSalle Street Station including a couple of good track maps. I rode into and out of LaSalle Street Station many a day before retiring.

Rich

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Hi Rich Thanks a lot for your help. I will check if I can load DjVu software in France. I am living in Paris area but have spent 5 years in Philadelphia (1987-1993) working within Arco Chemical R&D. If you do not mind, I will come back to you for other request related to the pre Amtrak area and to interurban and trolleys US systems from the past. I am also giving you my E-mail (philippe.motte60@gmail.com) Have a nice day.
Looking forwards to exchanging with you. Philippe
;

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Hi, Phillippe. I will give you whatever help that I can. Hopefully, others will join in because the members who frequent this Classic Trains forum are far more knowledgeable than me.

Rich

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I have been unable to locate a track plan for the Chicago Grand Central passenger station, but the main shed housed six passenger tracks. Three additional tracks were east of the shed and used for express mail and baggage. There were two more tracks west of the shed that were used by the Pere Marquette for freight. The station was owned by B&O, but it was also used by various other railroads at one time or another.

Rich

I’m looking through some of my maps and track diagrams I’ve scanned over the years:

PRR Western Avenue by Edmund, on Flickr

PRR South Branch-Alton-Jct by Edmund, on Flickr

This one I just scanned last night from the Edward Hungerford book The Run of the Twentieth Century. Just a fun map to look at.

NYC Chicago 1933 by Edmund, on Flickr

THIS site has some excellent Chicago information and the individual station articles do have some track diagrams:

https://chicagology.com/transportation/railroadstations/

Good Luck, Ed

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Hi Ed, thanks a lot for all documents you have sent to me, it will take me a while to study all of them before coming back to you. I used to live in Philadelphia (from 1987 to 1993), but unfortunately too late to enjoy the pre Amtrak area. Today I am retired and living in Paris. Here is my e-mail (philippe.motte60@gmail.com). Have a nice afternoon. Philippe

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I don’t have any track plans, however, spent any number of hours walking between them all during my near monthly trips from Garrett, IN to Chicago - hitting all the stations and the All Nation Hobby Shop - 1959-64

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The double-slips here are lined up in an orderly fashion and are very attractive.


“Lenahan’s Locomotive Lexicon,” 3rd Edition, Volume 2, Published in 1985: “Looking south from the Roosevelt Road bridge, south of Union Station. On the left is the former PRR passenger car yard, and on the right is the former CB&Q passenger car yard.”

The following photos are I took from the observation deck of the Sears Tower in 1993.



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Thank you for the southern exit pictures of Union Station. On the 3rd picture, what are the upper bridge tracks (Loop CTA ?) and those under the bridge on the left site?
A long time ago I found a link named Chicagoland or chicagorailfan, but I lost it. Does it sound something to you?
Philippe

Philippe, to what extent are you looking for detail on passenger station track arrangements?

Are you planning to design a layout or just to get a better understanding of passenger station track plans?

Rich

Morning Rich, I do not have enough space and time to design such a layout with 6 stations and their connections. Nevertheless, I am very interested in understanding how the different companies were reaching their terminal or were moving from one terminal to another one (in the forties-sixties). I am also interested in the Amtrak project for the extension of the Union Station (St Charles connections, north-south through tracks almost never used and so on…).
Few years ago I found a link (Chicagoland or Chicago railfan) which might have been helpful, unfortunately I have lost it.
For your info I have a trolley (H0) layout attempting to partly model the defund trolley network (240 km in the fifties only 4 LTR lines remaining today) of Charleroi (Belgium) my native city.
Philippe

Ahh, OK, so details like crossover tracks and double slip tracks are not as important to you as more general routes of the various railroads into the six downtown Chicago passenger stations.

For starters, the July 2003 issue of Trains magazine would be invaluable to you since it is devoted to the subject and includes a foldout map of all of the routes.

When I get some time later today, I will get back to you with more detail.

Rich

Thank you for the 2003 train magazine issue. Have you received my answers to your questions about the tracks layouts? As many rail tracks have been disappearing since the sixties, I thought that starting from the remainings of the stations layouts, it would be easier to retrace the various itineraries still in usage or abandoned or even dismantled with Satellite Google Maps.

That July 2003 issue of Trains magazine illustrates all of those track routes in detail in a single 2-page foldout. I wonder if Firecrown would permit me to photograph and post that map?

Rich

Grand Central’s track layout changed during the 1930 Chicago River straightening project. Before 1930 there was a low-level swing bridge crossing the Chicago River south of Taylor with a relatively tight ladder spreading out to the eight tracks served. After 1930 the approach curved around on a grade from the “B&O Bridge” next to the St Charles Air Line Bridge at about 1600 south. Although I can’t find any diagrams to prove it, I believe Grand Central’s approach was the only one in Chicago without a double slip switch.
There was no place to turn anything at the station. All passenger equipment (B&O, PM, CGW and Soo) was serviced at the B&OCT’s Lincoln Street coach yard and the adjacent Robey Street (Damen Avenue) engine facility, an area now occupied by UP’s Global 1 facility (former C&NW Wood St. yard)

Trains were turned on the 14th street wye just west of Western Avenue. This was the location where the B&OCT (CSX) Western Avenue line from eastern points met the Altenheim sub to Forest Park, shared by the Soo Line and the CGW.

B&O and C&O(Pere Marquette) trains moved to C&NW’s Chicago Passenger Terminal in 1969, the change made by going north from 14th street instead of east. B&O/C&O trains were serviced at C&NW’s California Avenue yard for the last 17 months of operation

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Good stuff, rcdrye.

I agree with you on the double slip issue.

As to the ability to turn trains around in the station, did any of the six downtown Chicago stations provide that ability? I cannot come up with any.

Rich