Nostalgia & History > More CSS&SB from the 70s

Another trek to Chicago in March '72 and another in '86 found these:
#1 and #2 - the 'freedom to roam' the platforms found a handful of aging orange and maroon cars waiting for their next trip East.
#3 - By June of '86, the new cars were pretty well established and the orange cars disappearing.  A mid-day 2 car train boards passengers at Hammond, bound for Chicago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 18:22 by BRAtkinson.

---

---

---

"Back then", the motorman would allow passengers to stand in the vestibule while on the train.  Most of them were friendly and talked about many subjects. 
#1 - It's June '76, and coming out of Hammond, our eastbound train was running 'wrong main' as we came up along the Indiana Toll Road.  Off in the distance, a westbound train is waiting for us to cross back to 'our side'.
#2 - The conductor from the eastbound awaits our passage.  As there aren't any signals visible in the previous picture, and the conductor on the ground, the switches were probably manual operation only.
#3 - The gauntlet track over the B&O railroad (or was it the PRR?  My memory is slipping) looms ahead.  This is the site of a headon collision perhaps 10-15 years ago that resulted in a second bridge built alongside the original to handle the second track.

---

---

---

A trip in July '74 found these trains -
#1 - an eastbound train running under the 1 mile 'Ideal section' of catenary built in the '20s just west of the B&O bridge in Miller.  This was built during the Insull area to test out this style of catenary structure.  The structure was more than adequate to the task, so the entire Skokie Valley line of the North Shore was built using supports like these.  The 1 mile "Ideal section" was never extended over the remainder of the South Shore.  It stood until maybe 5-10 years ago, when it was replaced with more modern catenary supports.
#2 - Somewhere out by the Dunes stop, if I recall.  Maybe closer to Beverly Shores.  Ahhh...the 'cost' of not writing location info on my slides.
#3 - The zig-zag from 11th to 10th streets on the west side of Michigan City

---

---

---

My best friend from college was a conductor for the South Shore and on the train when that accident happened. The stories he told me about injured people and how the two trains opened like soup cans. Worst of all, for this friend was the grilling and blood tests for drugs that he went through.

He lasted a short time in passenger service before he went to another railroad where he works to this day.

Eric

Thanks for the excellent photos!   Always nice to see shots of the old CSS&SB.  The gantlet bridge photo, I believe may be just west of downtown Gary; looks like you are crossing over the PRR and Wabash, and off to the left appears to be United States Steel.  The bridge where the accident occurred is closer to Burns Harbor if I remember correctly.  The next to last photo may be close to Michigan City; note the Nipsco power plant cooling tower in the background.  This might be Central Ave. crossing.  Nonetheless, great pictures.

Rich

It was interesting to listen to the media frenzy following that tragic head-on accident.
They droned on and on about the hazards of operating trains in both directions over
that short section of single track.  Of course the knee jerk reaction was to spend
millions to double track the bridge.  With all the talk of the "dangers" of all trains using
the single track bridge, not a word was said about the miles and miles of single track
east of Gary.

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was interesting to listen to the media frenzy
> following that tragic head-on accident.
> They droned on and on about the hazards of
> operating trains in both directions over
> that short section of single track.  Of course
> the knee jerk reaction was to spend
> millions to double track the bridge.  With all
> the talk of the "dangers" of all trains using
> the single track bridge, not a word was said about
> the miles and miles of single track
> east of Gary.

When you think about it, isn't a gantlet track more or less similar to a passing siding without switches? Of course, if one misses a signal to take the siding, a derailment could occur if the speed were great enough. 

The gantlet track has no relationship to a passing siding.  As pictured, what is a double track portion of the railroad has one track "overlapped" with another, perhaps 12" apart.  It is impossible for 2 trains to pass on a gantlet track.  A gantlet functions as if there were switches at each end to switch one track into the other and back to double track at the other end, but it is done without switches.  The tracks are simply overlapped.

The CNS&M (North Shore) had a gantlet track in Milwaukee just south of its Harrison Ave shops.  Why a gantlet track?  A cost saving of millions of dollars (in todays terms) during construction.