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| (1538810) | |
PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 09:40:43 2020 The first leg of my actual journey on Amtrak's Train #21, the Texas Eagle, runs along the Metra "Heritage Corridor", which gets its name from the Illinois and Michigan Canal Heritage Corridor along which the rail line runs. In railroad Terms the line is the old Chicago and Alton which ran between Chicago and Alton in a similar fashion to the way Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac ran a single line between rail hubs in Alexandria and Richmond Virginia. The Alton was purchased by the B&O in 1921 then transferred to the Gulf Mobile and Ohio, which later merged with the Illinois Central before being ultimately purchased by Canadian National. The route below Joliet became part of Union Pacific, but CN retained ownership of the Heritage Corridor section due to a sizable amount of local industry. Today the line is part of the larger Lincoln Corridor, 110mph high speed route that connects St Louis, Springfield and Chicago with a 5 daily round trips, however due to the large amount of conflicting freight traffic, METRA service only consists of a handful of peak direction weekday runs.Freight conflicts are endemic to this route due to the presence of four major at-grade crossings that can be tied up for long stretches by freight movements trying to negotiate the congested Chicago terminal area. Closures of interlocking towers and increased dispatcher workload has made coordination impossible and it is not uncommon for Amtrak traffic to get hit with sizable delays on this 30 mile stretch. Fortunately my train only lost about 20-30 minutes for a variety of reasons. You can view the entire set of photos here and a video of the entire run here. After turning onto the old Alton at 21ST ST crossing, the line parallels the CTA Orange Line to Midway . Here we see a CTA Orange Line train led by 2600-series car #2958 pacing the Eagle near Bridgeport.  Here we see the same train after passing the old BRIDGEPORT drawbridge over Bubbly Creek. The CN Joliet Sub's speed in this area of 40mph allowed the transit train to keep up even with its frequent stops. With new 7000 series cars getting ready to replace the 2600-series, the Budds were moved to the Orange line which had previously been the domain of M-K built 3300 series cars.  The first of the major at-grade crossings is BRIGHTON PARK where the Alton crosses the former PRR "Panhandle" and B&OCT main lines that loop around the backside of Chicago. Until 2007 the crossing was non-interlocked, instead protected by stop signs with a switch tender displaying proceed signals to trains using a system of mechanical semaphores.  A bit to the south sits the Amtrak Brighton Park car shoppes. Built to support the RTG Turboliners in the 1970's, the shoppes continue to be used to perform a variety of maintenance tasks on the midwest single level coach fleet.  This ancient cantilever signal structure is a remnant of the line's B&O heritage, which resulted in B&O Color Position Light signals being present from the 1930's through until 2018.  CORWITH interlocking and its three sets of diamonds sits at the immediate west end of the former Santa Fe Corwith Yard, their gateway in the Chicago terminal. Until the merger frenzy of the 80's and 90'd, only the Santa Fe and Milwaukee Road offered "one seat" service to the Pacific coast. CORWITH tower, located on the left between the two sets of diamonds, was closed and demolished in 2009.  BELT JCT marks where the Alton crosses the Belt Railway of Chicago, the innermost of the three Chicago terminal railways. Note the strange rusty crossover.  The Summit station is served by both Metra and Amtrak Lincoln trains with the latter using it as an option for people traveling to/from the Chicago suburbs.  We happened upon a CN local switching a local industry with a cut of cars occupying Track #2. The Grand Trunk Western  The final set of diamonds belong to the Indiana Harbor Belt at what used to be known as ARGO crossing, and since renamed to CP-CANAL.  The crossing is named for the nearby Argo Corn Products megaplant that was being switched that day by RSSX GP10's #1062 and #8238.   Truss bridge over the Chicago Ship canal and the northbound home signals for LAMBERT interlocking. CN has worked to decrease delays by installing an excessive number of crossovers between Joliet and 21ST ST. The 36 mile line now has a total of 11 CTC crossovers.  Another pair of GTW/CN units sits just north of the FLAGSTONE crossover with GTW painted GP38-2 #4915 leading.  METRA Lockport Station. The MP 32.8 automatic signal was flashing Advance Approach.  Some sort of work in downtown Lockport was cause for crossing tenders to be deployed.  Fixed approach boards were set out at the northbound signal for STATEVILLE interlocking for the MoW possession in Lockport. To the right of the image can be seen a guard tower from the famous Illinois State Correctional Institution at Joliet, which was once home to notable musician Jake Blues.  End of the line comes at MP 36.8 where the CN/IC Joliet District ends and the Union Pacific Joliet Subdivision begins.  Next week we continue onto UP territory en route to Springfield and St. Louis on the Lincoln Corridor. |
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| (1538811) | |
Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by https://salaamallah.com/ on Thu Feb 20 09:42:05 2020, in response to PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 09:40:43 2020. NICE SHOTS |
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| (1538834) | |
Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by ChicagoMotorman on Thu Feb 20 15:03:42 2020, in response to PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 09:40:43 2020. AWESOME PICS! |
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| (1538841) | |
Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by Jackson Park B Train on Thu Feb 20 15:50:24 2020, in response to PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 09:40:43 2020. B&O bought the Alton in 1931 not 21. Despite the depression, CPL signals were installed, and B&O passed down to the Alton the 2 lightweight ACF built streamliners which had been the Royal Blue and Columbian to become the Abe Lincoln and Ann Rutledge.The Alton -minus Joiliet to downtown,was briefly operated by a group also involvedwith CSS&SB,then sold to Southern Pacificwhich iss howUP ended up with two separate routes between Chicago andSTL. Somewhere in all of that KCS got the Alton's KC spur and trackage rights to Springfield IINM. Despite the millionsspent onthe supposed 110mph route, in fact Amtrak is no faster than GM&O was in the mid 50s on jointed rail. |
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Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by randyo on Thu Feb 20 15:59:02 2020, in response to PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 09:40:43 2020. How come the Orange Line is so close to a class 1 ROW? Isn’t there supposed to be a minimum distance between a RR under FRA oversight and non FRA trackage? |
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Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by Dave on Thu Feb 20 17:00:24 2020, in response to PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 09:40:43 2020. Very nice, Mike. |
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Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 20:48:25 2020, in response to Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by randyo on Thu Feb 20 15:59:02 2020. I don't believe so. |
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Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 20:49:34 2020, in response to Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jackson Park B Train on Thu Feb 20 15:50:24 2020. Jointed rail was as good as welded is today, it just took a ton of care and attention. |
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Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by Jackson Park B Train on Thu Feb 20 23:31:12 2020, in response to Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Feb 20 20:49:34 2020. yes, and did not either heat kink or freeze snap as welded does. |
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| (1538870) | |
Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by Jackson Park B Train on Thu Feb 20 23:39:28 2020, in response to Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by randyo on Thu Feb 20 15:59:02 2020. Not AFAIK. most of the Orange Line was built on surplus mainline ROW as the Class Is cut back multiple mains. IINM, some is ex GTW, some ex B&OCT, Entertainingly this mimics the Cleveland Rapid (Red Line) which though not opened until the 50s was "provided for" in the 30s by the Van Swearingen Bros,who were both real estate developers and RR barons. They owned or had influence through complex holdings, C&O, NKP, W&LE, Pere Marquette, some piece of the Erie, MP, Shaker Heights Rapid Transit (now the Blue and Green Lines) and spearheaded the Public Square, Cleveland Union Station project. |
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Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR |
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Posted by kp5308 on Fri Feb 21 23:02:34 2020, in response to Re: PHOTOS: HERITAGE CORRIDOR, posted by Jackson Park B Train on Thu Feb 20 15:50:24 2020. The Abraham Lincoln was the 8 car Cor-Ten steel ACF train set that was originally going to run between Washington & Jersey City. B&O sent that set to the Alton's Chicago-St. Louis corridor along with 4-4-4 Lady Baltimore. That passenger car set never turned a wheel in revenue service on the East Coast.The Royal Blue ACF aluminum 8 car set ran as the DC/Jersey City flagship of the line and was the first train on the route to actually carry the name Royal Blue. The debut was on June 24, 1935. Power initially was the 4-6-4 Lord Baltimore. The boxcab diesel #50 would not arrive until August. IIRC the Columbian wasn't streamlined till 1948. Apparently the Ann Rutledge was very similar to the Abe/Royal Blue sets but was not part of the B&O 2 train set order of 1934. |
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