Nostalgia & History > few Griffith, IN '72 . . .

. . while visiting the Chicago area in summer '72 two junctions stood out above the rest IMHO, Pullman Jct on the south side of Chicago which is my all time favorite (then, not now) with number two being Griffith, IN ten miles or so into IN from IL. Here the EJE entered from the east off lines from both Gary and Porter, IN, the GT main from MI to Chicago came through and the joint EL CO mains from Chicago east splitting and going their own ways just southwest of the junction with an additional PC branch crossing and EL-CO just north of the main set of eight diamonds with a street crossing them all. Great action, great variety, great access. Today traffic is considerably less with the PC branch, EL and CO long gone and the exGT and exEJE lines providing all traffic. There still decent access and as far as I know the steet crossing is still there.
top: With a genuine crossing guard on duty protecting the street crossing a PC lite engine was heading east through the maze looking toward Chicago on the joint EL CO line.
middle: Steel traffic on the J was still very heavy with numerous movements through the day. One of the J's EMD rebuilt Baldwin center cabs led a westbound train coming around the curve from Gary headed toward Joliet a few hundred feet east of the crossing.
bottom: Eastbound EL train about to hammer the PC, then GT then EJE diamonds.
JB



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/14 07:02 by 3rdswitch.

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Wow, 3 fine memories, and #1 is a classic RR scene and a great angle showing the track work, very nice J(o)B!

Shot 1. If I recall correctly, the 5803 was a Peoria and Eastern Unit. I don't recall many NYC Proper units having the Unit Number up high on the short hood like this one. The only ones that come to mind are those of the P&E. Nice set of shots. Thanks for sharing. Ben

Great shots of one of my favorite places, especially #1. Since I started going to Griffith back in 1975, I never caught a train on the PennCentral tracks. That line was an original Michigan Central branch that went to Joliet. The Ford stamping plant in Chicago Heights kept it alive until the early '70's. The old EL/C&O line is now a bike trail with a neat EL diamond logo in the pavement at the south end of town.

I remember a few in that scheme used as pullers at the Elkhart Yard and, in fact, have movies of them in that service.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

ns2557 Wrote:
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> Shot 1. If I recall correctly, the 5803 was a
> Peoria and Eastern Unit. I don't recall many NYC
> Proper units having the Unit Number up high on the
> short hood like this one. The only ones that come
> to mind are those of the P&E. Nice set of shots.
> Thanks for sharing. Ben

Great shots Joe. Brings back a lot of memories especially #3 as a reminder of how those EL trains use to really move through there.
Steve B.

Great shots all while not nearly the track it once had. Griffith was still really accessible and had decent traffic several years ago when I was there.

Kris

Wow, what an Awesome trio! That first shot is just Great in so many ways.

ns2557 Wrote:
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> Shot 1. If I recall correctly, the 5803 was a
> Peoria and Eastern Unit. I don't recall many NYC
> Proper units having the Unit Number up high on the
> short hood like this one. The only ones that come
> to mind are those of the P&E. Nice set of shots.
> Thanks for sharing. Ben

The P&E GP7s were 5612-5625 and AFAIK no other roadswitchers were officially transferred to P&E, although anything laying around Avon Yard could and did make a spin to Peoria.

The high numbers were also used at one time or another by most of the other NYC "System" subsidiaries, e.g., P&LE, CUT, etc.

A web search on the 5803 indicates it was built for NYC proper and does not appear to have been assigned to any NYCS subsidiaries, although IIRC a couple of 5800-series GPs were assigned to CUT.

NZ