Steam & Excursion > Last Steam in Chicago's LaSalle Street Station?

With the forthcoming JOLIET ROCKET, it begs the question about what was the last steam locomotive in LaSalle Street Station.  If heritage is not a concern, it was SOUTHERN Railway 2-8-2 4501 on July 5, 1973.  She had just pulled the Circus Train from Baraboo, WI to Milwaukee just a couple of days earlier and was headed east on the INDEPENDENCE LIMITED, a one-way trip to Fort Wayne and points east on the N&W.

The station users were the NKP, CRI&P and NYC.

NKP 2-8-4 765 pulled the last steam passenger train on the NKP on June 11, 1958 from Chicago to East Wayne Yards and return with a public excursion. Does anybody have photos of that occasion?  After its last freight trip from Calumet to East Wayne on June 14, its fires were dropped on June 17. It served in stationary boiler service from Dec. 5 to 7 of 1958 and brought down the curtain as the last NKP Berkshire under steam by the railroad. 

CRI&P 4-6-2 938 was the last Rock Island steam locomotive under steam, at LaSalle Street Station, on September 16, 1953.  It landed in Enid, Oklahoma for years and finally made its way to the Illinois Railway Museum in 1995.

New York Central steam seems to be a complete mystery............can anybody help with that?

Wrong date, wrong depot. 
4501 operated out of LaSalle Street Station on June 24, 1973 on a trip over the Rock Island to Bureau Junction and back, not July 5.
July 4, 1973, not July 5, found it on the point of the Independence Limited headed east on the old Nickel Plate.  The train originated on a couple of tracks just west of the Dearborn Station train shed, the tracks where the Orland Park local (commuter trains) operating over the old Wabash line terminated in Chicago.  Dearborn had closed in 1971 with the birth of Amtrak but for a couple of years the Orland Park trains still arrived on the tracks mentioned above.  Today I believe these commuter trains are part of Metra's Heritage Corridor.
IIRC the train was parked on both tracks and 4501 pulled ahead with the first half and backed to get the second half before departing.  I have Super 8 movies taken from the Roosevelt Road bridge.  After departing, the next place I grabbed it was on the Western Indiana curved diamonds at 21st Street, where the engine crew very gingerly walked her through the curved diamonds.  Memories of what happened with Reading 2102 in July 1968 were still fresh in everyone's mind. 
I believe 4501 used the Western Indiana tracks all the way south to Pullman Junction where they headed into Calumet Yard and picked up the heavyweight sleeper Clator Lake.  The train made a brief stop at the old NKP depot in Hammond, IN (why I don't recall) at that time being used as a storage facility for a tire store, and then headed east.     

2102 incident? tell me about that! too tight of something?

Others on this board may have a better, and more detailed, explanation but Bill Benson and Steam Tours, Inc. brought Reading 2102 to Chicago for two trips over the Grand Trunk Western, Chicago to South Bend, IN on Saturday and Sunday, July 27, 28, 1968.  The Saturday trip went just fine until 2102 (more explanation may be needed here) took the curved diamonds at 21st Street a bit too fast and went on the ground, tearing up one of the Hennessey lubricators on the driver axles.  I recall reading somewhere about lateral motion, or maybe the lack of it, being a factor in the drivers derailing.  2102 spent the night at the Western Indiana's 47th Street roundhouse, where Dick Jensen and his equipment camped out, and Jensen raided his spare parts stuff to rig something up they thought would work as a lubricator.
My father, me and a couple of his friends had tickets to ride Sunday's trip and at Valparaiso, IN the engine was cut off the train and moved to the siding on the north side of the tracks east of the depot and crossing.  Dick Jensen crawled underneath to make some repairs to the rigged lubricator.  Somewhere I have a slide of his head protruding between two drivers at rail level and I remember being up in the very crowded cab when the engineer came up to make sure the throttle stayed closed and in a frustrated voice mentioned something about having a "man underneath and sure as hell don't want to cut him in two."  A different time and a different era to be sure!  
I remember the eastbound Maple Leaf passed us at Valparaiso.  With repairs made 2102 tied onto the train and we headed east, making a photo runby shortly after leaving Valparaiso.  At Haskell, not too much further east and where the Monon crossed the GTW, the engine was again worked on before the decision was made to not head any further east and instead head back to Chicago.  The engine was coupled to the open gondola (remember those days?) at the rear of the train and ran in reverse all the way to Chicago, pushing a Firestone-lettered tank car/water canteen ahead of it.  I remember riding in the gondola with 2102's smokebox just feet away and listening to the loud stack talk as we headed west.  I remember the return trip passenger stop in Valparaiso and I recall, even as a youngster, thinking those passengers didn't get much of a ride for their ticket.  
In 1973, when I saw 4501 gingerly walk though the same curved diamonds at 21st Street, and someone leaning way out on the engineer's side watching the drivers negotiate the diamonds, I remembered what happened with 2102 and thought that was probably the reason for being so careful with 4501.    

sierrawestern Wrote:
"In 1973, when I saw 4501 gingerly walk though the same curved diamonds at 21st Street, and someone leaning way out on the engineer's side watching the drivers negotiate the diamonds, I remembered what happened with 2102 and thought that was probably the reason for being so careful with 4501."

A good friend of mine has 16mm footage that his uncle shot of 2102 going on the ground at 21st Street. Amazing footage, you see it all happen!

I think the cause was a self-protecting switch frog and not the diamonds.

R.R. Conway

RRBadTrack Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A good friend of mine has 16mm footage that his
> uncle shot of 2102 going on the ground at 21st
> Street. Amazing footage, you see it all happen!
>
> I think the cause was a self-protecting switch
> frog and not the diamonds.
>
> R.R. Conway

Rob, I was riding in the gon with my dad and grandfather behind 2102 when it derailed.  We, along with many others got off the train to take a look.  Dad has photos of one of the drivers on the ground.  Up until that time, I had only ridden behind steam locomotives, so I was thrilled to finally ride behind a diesel when they brought us into the station.