Nostalgia & History > More C&WI

This is my second and final installment of Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad scans.

The C&WI was the owner of Dearborn Station in Chicago and the trackage leading to it. The C&WI was owned equally by five* of the railroads using it to reach the terminal, and kept those companies from needing their own lines into the city. The depot served passenger trains of the:

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (was only a tenant and by far ran the most trains)
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (moved to Grand Central Station February 28, 1925)
*Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad
Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad (had a commuter service until 1964)
*Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway (Monon)
*Erie Railroad (Erie Lackawanna Railway after 1960)
*Grand Trunk Western Railroad
*Wabash Railroad (Norfolk and Western Railway after 1964)

1. Looking into Dearborn Station's train shed from the Roosevelt Road Viaduct on May 13, 1964. A Monon RS2 can be seen to the right and two C&WI RS1s were also working trains.

2. C&WI RS1 260 was captured on April 21, 1965 at Normal and 51st in Chicago.

3. C&WI Caboose 1971 was also at Normal and 51st on April 21, 1965.


one more photo ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/14 19:47 by MartyBernard.

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That marker lamp on top of the cupula of the 1971 is really neat! I wonder if that is one of the old style lamps that can be turned and pivoted from inside of the car so that the proper colors can be shown in all directions?

Thanks for mentioning the marker light. I meant to and forgot. Why change colors? Isn't it always red to the rear?

Marty Bernard

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> Thanks for mentioning the marker light. I meant
> to and forgot. Why change colors? Isn't it
> always red to the rear?

Green or yellow (depending upon the rulebook) if in the clear.

TAW

This brings up a few questions. How did you know which color faced the rear of the train? When they were kerosine, how were they lit? I wonder if C&IW had passing sidings to get into the clear?


Marty Bernard

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> This brings up a few questions. How did you know
> which color faced the rear of the train? When
> they were kerosine, how were they lit? I wonder
> if C&IW had passing sidings to get into the
> clear?


Red to rear. I don't have my old CWI rulebooks handy to know if the other color was yellow or green, but on most railroads it was green.

Turning the marker had three purposes
* telling a train coming from behind that the rear end they were seeing was in the clear,
* telling an opposing train that they were in the clear,
* telling the head end they were in the clear.

There were sidings at Pullman Jct and State Line. I don't remember any others. North of Pullman Jct and Oakdale, there were 4 main tracks. North of 80th Street, there were 6 main tracks.

Like other kerosene markers, the crew did it.

Back when the semaphores at an interlocking were lit by kerosene, one of the towerman's jobs was lighting them in the evening and putting them out in the morning.

TAW

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for mentioning the marker light. I meant
> to and forgot. Why change colors? Isn't it
> always red to the rear?
>
> Marty Bernard


Handlan and Adlake both made markers that were permanently mounted to the roof and the bottom of the lamp was through a hole so that you could pull the burner and font from inside the car. The whole lamp assembly could be rotated from inside also. If they ran the car backwards with the long end towards the back and the short end towards the front of the train then they needed to rotate the lamp to display the proper color. Checking in Illustrated Encyclopedia of Railroad Lighting- Volume Two The Railroad Signal Lamp shows lamps with two lenses not four, and some of those two lens lamps had all red lenses and some showed red and green.