I don’t think any of the Chicago stations had any way to turn trains unless you count Santa Fe’s loop at the Archer Avenue coach yard. Looking over my notes, it’s not always clear where turning and servicing happened in various eras. Working around the Loop, here’s where trains were turned and engines serviced:
Union north (CMStP&P) Tower A-5, Western Avenue Coach yard
C&NW CPT Western Avenue wye, California Avenue Coach yard
Union south CB&Q, PRR turned at Union tower, CB&Q yard west of South Joint approach, PRR on east side (current Metra and Amtrak yards) PRR power serviced at 51st st. CB&Q steam at Clyde/Cicero (?)
Grand Central turned at 14th St, serviced at Lincoln St/Robey St.
LaSalle NYC Power serviced at 61st street.
LaSalle CRI&P Power/coach yard at 47th St
LaSalle NYC&SL
Not sure where NYC’s coach yard was - all three may have used 39th Street CR&I wye to turn trains as 16th street did not have a complete wye.
Dearborn C&WI (Erie, GTW, Wabash, C&EI, Monon) turned at 39th street (another CR&I wye) and serviced at 47th St. GTW may have serviced engines at Elsdon yard
Dearborn AT&SF Archer avenue yard balloon loop. Engines serviced at Archer and at Corwith yard
Central IC Turned at a balloon loop at 87th street (Fordham yard) Engine service at 26th Street yard. Coach yards around the station. MC(NYC) had a roundhouse just south of the St Charles Air Line connection.
It’s a good site. Certainly has current track plans. Not sure if they have the old classic plans.
Btw I’m a big fan of Parisian trains. Have you ever seen cartometro.com? They have track plans for the Paris metro and RER. Also London and a bunch of other cities.
Some time ago I came across a 1930s film of a boat ride on the Chicago River showing all the bridges of the time. Can’t find it now. This has a bit of interest:
A little more info on turning passenger trains in Chicago:
Union - GM&O trains turned on the same wye used by PRR, west along the CB&Q. One of the wye tracks was considered part of the South Joint Approach. GM&O switchers assisted to or from Brighton Park, depending on direction.
LaSalle NKP: NKP had engine facilities at their yard at 95th St. near Pullman Jct. Not sure where NKP trains were turned.
The Milwaukee trains turned at tower A-5 (Pacific Jct). backing onto the Bloomer line to towards the lakefront. Amtrak trains are all turned on the south wye, using the bypass tracks on the east side of the station.
For What It’s Worth…not that I am speaking to the specific areas mentioned in this thread. I have a facination/appreciation of Sanborn Fire Maps. So many many towns are mapped in late 1800’s until early 1900’s. Details are great if the city has RR service. endmrw0118252154
As with most such questions, the answer is “it depends” - in this case, upon eras. We (Pullman Library) have quite a number of Chicago terminal maps, including the B&OCT & the C&WI Valuation maps; maps for many of the transit companies, several variants of CUS and the other terminals from prior to 1900 up to Amtrak. Some of the maps are over 30’ long. I believe Larry Thomas of the TRRAHS has maps as well, he definitely has one of St, Louis
As for tracks changing post Amtrak, remember that most have Commuter operations into them, and oft times commuter heavy rail needs more flexibility than Amtrak.
There were myriad designs for a true Union Station - along the Lake, combining Dearborn and one or two others, etc. By the time they got to past the design phases, they realized it was a dead end in terms of passenger traffic declining. Most were terminals, not stations - Union being one of the few that has (at least 1 still) through track. But even that is for convenience of turning rather than true through trains.
The NYC used to shuffle cars to/from the CB&Q for the transcon sleepers (pre-1958). Which was not atypical, and the point made by Robert Young’s “A pig can cross Chicago without changing trains, why can’t you?” (paraphrased).
The transfer companies made a living out of transferring people and luggage between the terminals. Express companies were using electric trucks over 100 years ago. Ed’s book on moving mail has some maps, as does (did) his Pennsy ion Chicago book. In the next few years there will be some books with overviews of the passenger operations and stations (real, fantasy, proposed).
Hi JL Thanks for cartometro.com I know this website. If you have any request related to the french, swiss, belgium, italian ,german, … trolleys LRT metro and trains network roaster… let me know. Philippe
The crosstown switching of sleepers between 1947 and 1958 was almost ridiculous. Some moves were “easy” - across the Union bypass tracks between PRR and (post 1955) MILW, or even on the same side of Union (PRR/CB&Q) or LaSalle (NYC/CRI&P). Of course, to Pullman, it may have mattered which way the cars were “facing” with the preferred corridor location on the left side going forward. Some of these moves regularly got a switch engine and a caboose.
Kind of working from “easy” to “hard” (SCAL is St Charles Air Line, South Wye is the South Joint Approach wye toward the CB&Q’s Union Tower). Turning of cars is not taken into account.
CRI&P - NYC local switching at LaSalle
CRI&P - PRR 16th St, SCAL, Union Tower, South wye
CB&Q - PRR local switching at Union, maybe turn at South wye
CB&Q - NYC South Wye to Union Tower, SCAL, 16th St.
AT&SF - PRR via 21st St crossing
AT&SF - NYC via 21st St, South wye, Union Tower, SCAL, 16th St.
AT&SF - B&O via 21st St, South wye, Union Tower, SCAL to B&OCT crossovers (west end of SCAL/B&OCT bridges)
C&NW - PRR Western Avenue, Union bypass tracks
C&NW - NYC Western Avenue, C&NW Rockwell Sub to SCAL, 16th Street
C&NW - B&O Western Avenue, 14th St, B&OCT
MILW - NYC Western Avenue, 14th St, B&OCT to SCAL, 16th street
or bypass tracks, south wye, Union Tower, SCAL, 16th St.
MILW - PRR Union bypass tracks, turn at South Wye
The routes via the B&O and CRI&P ended first. All of the others ended when NYC withdrew from its Pullman contract in 1958,
“A pig can cross Chicago without changing trains, why can’t you?”
While pigs may have occupied the same car going through Chicago, they also encountered a 24 hour period out of the car for Feed, Water & Rest before getting back into the rail car. Livestock movements had a number of conditions applied to their transportation.
At one time pigs were the one exception to the 24-hour livestock rule. Cars carrying pigs were flushed using high-pressure penstocks/sprayers (no fun in the winter for pigs or penstock operators). Not a huge problem in Chicago since a lot of pigs were destined there in any case. The Stock Yards were full of holding pens for other animals. Shift in meat packing to points closer to the animals’ origin, along with railroads’ unwillingness to maintain stock facilities like pens and penstocks ended this practice.
Pork is something I enjoy almost to a fault. But that being said, I’m old enough to remember NKP trains with stock cars placed just behind the steam locomotive. They would pass by our house at speed on any day of the year. Even as a kid, my heart broke for the animals inside. Their hides often had ice caked on them. If the train stopped for the nearby signal, one could hear their moans and cries of distress, and smell them, too, even from a distance. Seventy years later, I can still remember it all vividly.
We’ve all watched enough TV science programs to know how intelligent pigs are. Frankly,
I’m glad stock cars, and flushing cars in the winter with high speed hoses, are a thing of the past and that the animals destined for slaughter (and my breakfast table) now travel much shorter distances. I’ve heard stories of an Erie train or trains where a car or two full of horses or other animals were neglected in the yards here, when they should have been fed or watered or even hosed down, resulting in their deaths.
Then I learned that only 3 years before I was born, human beings had been stuffed into stock cars for transport to death camps. Knowing about the animals made it possible for me to visualize and ponder human beings in the same situation.
The ending of the use of stock cars may be some evidence that mankind does, slowly, sometimes make progress.