Stock Yards "L" Branch

(Satellite links are embedded throughout these notes)

Bruce Moffat commented on a posting by William Shapotkin of the C&WI 40th Street Tower to help date William's photo:

Apparently the black & white views supplied by William Shapotkin date from after 1958 because prior to that time this location was a rather rare triple level crossing! The top level was the elevated structure for the Stock Yards "L" which ran directly above the CJ tracks in this area. The elevated structure was actually owned by a sister company of the Chicago Junction/Union Stock Yards & Transit Company but operated by the Chicago Rapid Transit Company and successor CTA until October 7, 1957 when CTA discontinued operations. The USY&T demolished it the following year. Attached is a photo that was credited to the C&WI that was printed in some magazine (Maybe Railroad?) in the early to mid-1950's.

The NS/NYC/Chicago Junction/ Union Stock Yard & Transit railroad was built as part of the 1865 Union Stock Yard project to connect all of the trunk railroads that entered Chicago to the stock yard. It was intended to be a freight railroad, but it did run passenger service to help get the workers needed by not just the stock yards and the packing houses that were west of the stock yards, but also to the plants that made products from animal byproducts. At its peak, 50,000 workers needed to commute to this area. When the city forced the Chicago Junction, along with the other railroads, to elevate their tracks, they decided to build two routes along the elevation, one for freight and another for passengers. The South Side Elevated, which later became part of the CTA, signed a 50-year lease with the Chicago Junction to operate the passenger route and opened it on April 8, 1908. It was a shuttle service between the Indiana Transfer Station and the seven stations on its route. [Chicago-L]

The branch went west from the Indiana Transfer Station (buildings near the right side of this image along the tracks).

1938 Aerial East Photo from ILHAP (Satellite  It is no longer a transfer station because the branches have been removed)

It headed west over the NYC and Rock Island. Note the shadow of the truss bridge that took the passenger line over the trunk railroads. This would be a triple level crossing because the Chicago Junction went under the trunk railroads.

1938 Aerial East Photo from ILHAP (Satellite  Not only is the "L" long gone, Metra now owns the remaining trunk line tracks)

Then we come to the crossing of the Pennsy and C&WI captured in the photo at the top. Again, we can see the shadow of the truss bridge.

1938 Aerial East Photo from ILHAP (Satellite   When they split up Conrail, NS got both the Pennsy trunk line and the NYC Chicago Junction. 

Between Union and Emerald Avenues, it turned south and then worked its way back west.

1938 Aerial West Photo from ILHAP  Nothing left in a satellite image.

It terminated in a counterclockwise loop around Packingtown. "The loop generally followed Exchange Avenue, Packers Avenue, 44th Street, and Racine Avenue." [Chicago-L]

1938 Aerial West Photo 

Satellite  The edges of this image is where the loop ran.

David M Laz posted a couple of pictures with the comment:

DID YOU KNOW THAT there were actually two loops in Chicago, the other being the loop around the old stockyards where it made stops at all four meet packing companies? ? It was just a single track loop, not two way. Imagine the smell working on the "L"'s that made that route!

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I speculated on William's posting:
Dennis DeBruler I just looked it up. The bonds for the Dan Ryan Expressway were issued in 1955 and it opened in 1961. I wonder if that is why the "L" quit in 1957 and it was soon torn down. Because of the decline of the stock yards, the expense of bridging over the Dan Ryan was too much.

Bruce Moffat explained: "The abandonment had nothing to do with the express way. Ridership had dwindled to almost nothing and the line was a money looser that CTA had been trying to dump for years." The reason for the shutdown was the expiration of the 50-year lease.

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Forest Park Towers: (CSX+CN)/(B&OCT+WC) vs Aban/C&NW/CGW vs Aban/CA&E

(New Tower Flickr; Satellite According to Global Earth images: In 2000, the tower was east of the billboard. In 2002, there was just a concrete slab.)
NorthAmericanInterlockings:  new tower (old tower photos are below)
Chicago and Northern Indiana Railroad Interlocking Towers (click the marker for more information)

Great Western Junction was another name for this junction.

William Shapotkin posted two photos with the comment:

Great Western Junction -- located at Beloit Ave in Forest Park, IL, is where the CGW mainline began (trains operated over the B&OCT east of that point). Here are two pix of that tower BEFORE construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway obliterated everything.
1. This view (looking west) shows an E/B CA&E train x/o the B&OCT. The CGW branches off to the left -- the B&OCT (WC) to the right.
2. This view (looking east) shows a W/B CA&E train arriving Des Plaines Ave station. The tower is at left.

Dennis DeBruler Using the second photo, I can conclude that the tower is the taller building on the right of the first photo.

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Great Western Junction -- located at Beloit Ave in Forest Park, IL, is where the CGW mainline began (trains operated over the B&OCT east of that point). Here are two pix of that tower BEFORE construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway obliterated everything.

This view (looking west) shows an E/B CA&E train x/o the B&OCT. The CGW branches off to the left -- the B&OCT (WC) to the right.
Thomas Kaufman I have seen this photo before. I never noticed the East platform of the Des Plaines Av station behind the upper left of the CA&E car. Since this was a single car and there was a third rail gap because of the interlocking the motorman really had to work up a huge rate of speed to cross the gap and not get stuck. I think I remember there was a stinger pole they could use to get moving again if stuck that energized the single car trains to get them moving. DOuble car trains connected together crossed the gap easily. ,
William Shapotkin You are correct Thomas Kaufman -- the Des Plaines Ave station platform is visible at left. Have other pix at this location (including a CGW motor car train x/o the CA&E) -- but (as that (and other) pix have not yet been scanned), am unable to show them at this time. All my photo work is on slide film (NO, I do NOT trust electronic storage) and, after amassing a collection of over 200,000 slide images, am not about to start scanning all that stuff (hey -- if I had that much time available to me, I'd be out taking more pix, not scanning the stuff I already have).

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Great Western Junction -- located at Beloit Ave in Forest Park, IL, is where the CGW mainline began (trains operated over the B&OCT east of that point). Here are two pix of that tower BEFORE construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway obliterated everything.
This view (looking east) shows a W/B CA&E train arriving Des Plaines Ave station. The tower is at left.

Some details concerning the CA&E, WC, and CGW before I discuss a 1938 aerial photo.


CA&E is the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban. It joined the Metropolitan West Side "L" at Bellwood for access to Wells Street Terminal.

1938 Map from DeBruler

Northern Pacific helped finance Wisconsin Central building into downtown Chicago and building Grand Central Station. Because this was one of the later railroads built into Chicago, they had to buy a lot of expensive land downtown. WC went bankrupt soon after and B&O bought the assets, including the station, out to Madison Street in Forest Park as an addition to B&OCT. Today CSX owns the B&OCT route and CN owns the WC route. But the segment east of the BRC tracks is now out-of-service. (The official reason I read is that the bridges are too low to clear autoracks and double-stacks. The unofficial reason I read is that the developers along the route complained to a Daily about train noise.) And CN bought EJ&E so they quit using the WC route through Forest Park. So now the only segment used is between BRC and the Ferrara Pan Candy Company.

The Chicago & Great Western was also a later railroad built to Chicago. It arrived in 1887. By this time the city realized that railroads cut up the city and were disruptive. (This is a couple of decades before the city forced all of the railroads to elevate their tracks.) So it required new railroads to cooperate and build a single shared route into the city. In this case, the CGW joined the WC at Forest Park (Forest Home in 1880s) per William's first photo.


The red rectangle highlights the tower. The WC crossed the CA&E and then the CGW.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Building I-290 in the 1950s required a new tower. Photos: Davidson and Allen. The CGW was not abandoned until after 1968. Looking at a 1962 aerial photo, the CTA terminal was smaller and the CGW route (red) had its own overpass over Des Plaines Ave. The CA&E route (yellow line in the lower-left corner) is now just a couple of stub tracks. I wonder why the new tower was built on the east side of the I-290 overpass since the actual junction was on the west side.

Satellite plus Paint

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