Nostalgia & History > The Broadway (and others) from Englewood Tower in Aug 1970

Marty Bernard's picture of Penn Central's Broadway Ltd. and Altipete's comments on it
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3783098
sent me looking for these pictures I took from Englewood Tower on August 16, 1970.

The pictures are not the greatest.  It was a humid smoggy day and I was using an off brand Japanese
camera I bought from a pawn shop.

The train numbers are from notes I made at the time. 
1. PC No. 48 the eastbound Broadway Ltd.  Picture taken from the west window of the tower.
2. No. 48's rear end taken from the east window of the tower.
3. No. 356 for Detroit

In picture 1 PC track 3 has been removed west of the Rock Island diamonds.
That was probably in preparation for the first of three attempts to get the Rock Island
into Union Station.  A double track bridge was later built over 63rd St above where the CTA
bus can be seen.  The project was placed on hold before any tracks were laid on the bridge.
On the PC side crossovers were installed for the connection but were never put in service.
They were also removed after the project was placed on hold. 

West of the plant the two tracks on the left, trks 3 and 4, went to 55th St Yard (aka "The Boulevard")
About where 48's rear end is the tracks curved north. Around the curve at 59th St. was
"EC" (Englewood Connecting) block station. The op at EC had hand operated crossovers
between tracks 3 and 4 and turnouts on track 3 at both ends of the wye on the Englewood
Connecting line.  The EC line connected the Ft. Wayne Line with 59th St. yard on the Panhandle.

By the time I started working Englewood in '73 the operator at EC had been moved into the
tower and tracks 3 and 4 were redesignated 33 and 34 west of Englewood.  The wyes
at EC were then normally left lined for the Englewood Connecting Line so 33 became the
route to 59th St Yard and 34 became the route to 55th St. Yard.

PC mains 1 and 2 were ABS current of traffic ( 1 eastward - 2 westward ).  Trains like ELBN and
PIBN going to the Burlington Northern via 21st St. and Union Ave had to run against the current
of  traffic west of Englewood because there was no facing point crossover at 21st St.

East of the tower in pictures 2 and 3 the tracks from left to right are 2,1,4 and 3.  1 and 3 were
ABS current of traffic for eastward trains,  2 and 4 were ABS current of traffic for westward trains.
Tracks 3 and 4 were removed east of Englewood as part of a capacity constraint project in the early '80s.
Actually tracks 3 and 4 were rebuilt, signaled both directions and redesignated 1 and 2 and old tracks 1 and 2 were given over
to Park Manor Yard.  Around this time the PRR track numbering system gave way to the NYC plan and 1 became 2, etc.

By the time I was working Englewood in 73, the Broadway was Amtrak No. 40.  It could still put on a show if there was not
a 10 mph slow order on the diamond.  The curve west of Englewood was 25 mph, so at a point just a little west of where
No. 48 is pictured, the engineer would open up on the 3 or 4 E-units. The rear end would be moving pretty good by the time
it cleared the diamond.  A couple times a steam connector fell off after rough treatment over the diamond.  Hearing the steam jetting
out of the train line at high pressure is something not forgotten.

There was a daily ritual on the PC dispatchers line that I never got tired of hearing. The op at South Branch Bridge would come on the
line "OS South Branch"  The DS would answer and South Branch would say " No. 40 eng Amtrak xxx, xx cars by South Branch x:xx pm.
Then the DS would ring all the towers on his part of the Ft. Wayne Line.  This would put an audible code pulse over the DS line that would
actuate a ringer in the towers to call the op to the DS line. After listening to all the "thunka, thunk, thunk, thunka thunk" on the line the DS
would say "Englewood, River Branch, Whiting, Canal, Indiana Harbor, CJ, Bart annnnnd Wanatah, No. 40 eng Amtak xxx on time on 1".
Of course as towers were closed the list got shorter.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/15 22:02 by Englewood.

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4 and 5. A westbound frt crossing over.

6. PC No. 50 the Admiral.

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Especially like your Photo 6 of No. 50 The Admiral. Do not recall having seen a recent post of this train at the beginning of its run. For those who may not know, this was a through Chicago - New York train that departed Chicago two hours after the Broadway Limited. By August 1970, The Admiral only offered reclining seat coach and snack bar coach service. The snack bar was closed Fort Wayne - Pittsburgh. It really took someone with a sense of adventure or foolhardiness to ride this train from Chicago to New York.
ALLEN

Englewood, you didn't show a picture of the tower.  My first photo is looking east, so the west window from which you took your first photo is in the upper right.  The train is the first of the two Valparaiso commuters the morning of April 21, 1965.  My second photo is of the second Valpo train that morning with the Geep obstructing the tower.

I really appreciate the detailed description of what your photos show.  Was the effort to get the Rock Island into Union Station was by the RTA (Metra) to consolidate and thereby eliminate LaSalle Station.   But I would think that would make Union Station capacity constrained.  You say there were several attempts.  Were any before RTA and Amtrak?   Were any by the Board of Trade to eliminate LaSalle Street Station so it could more easily expand?
 
I never did get up into Englewood Tower.  I probably could have talked my way in but never tried. Darn.  That would have been in the 1960s, before your time there.

Marty Bernard

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MartyBernard Wrote:
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 Was the effort to get the
> Rock Island into Union Station was by the RTA
> (Metra) to consolidate and thereby eliminate
> LaSalle Station.   But I would think that would
> make Union Station capacity constrained.  You say
> there were several attempts.  Were any before RTA
> and Amtrak?   Were any by the Board of Trade to
> eliminate LaSalle Street Station so it could more
> easily expand?

The first attempt to get into CUS was made befrore the RTA and Metra existed.
After the merger the PC pulled their ex NYC trains out of LaSalle St and put them in CUS.
That left the Rock as the only user of LasSalle St. and I assume responsible for a larger
portion of the costs.  I don't know how much the Rock was going to pay for the improvements
the PC was making to accomodate the trains into CUS, but in addition to the connection
at Englewood both PC mains were to be reverse signalled (CTC-261) to 21st St and an
interlocking with universal crossovers was planned for 40th St. (This was way before CP
518 was ever dreamed of). I believe the signal bridges at 40th St. were actually installed.
When I first worked at Englewood, the word was that the cutover was thisclose to happening.
I don't know why the plan fell through at the last minute but considering both companies
were broke it probably had to do with money.

In 1976 the RTA had another plan to switch the trains over to CUS to avoid the
cost of operating LaSalle St..  I forget if their plan was to get on the PC at Englewood
or cut over further north at Root St. and use the CJ.  A group of
us towermen went to an RTA hearing to argue against the move.  One of our main arguements
against the move was the lack of capacity over South Branch Bridge.  I know our appearance
had no influence on a decision but the move was again put on hold.

The third try was in the mid to late 1980's when Chicago Pacific (I think that was the name of
the land company that came out of the Rock bankruptcy) was threatening to throw Metra
off their property so it could be developed.  That was resolved by moving the station to
its present sorry location.  A capacity study was done at CUS with the conclusion that if
everything went perfectly smooth every day the Rock trains could be handled.  How often
does everthing go prefectly smooth?

There was an even earlier plan from the early 60's instigated by a city study that wanted
to move the through trains from Dearborn, LaSalle and Grand Central into CUS.  It did not
include moving the Rock suburban trains so I don't know what the plan was for them.  Reading
between the line of the CUS study gives the impression that CUS did not think it practical.
More fodder for future posts

Marty, thanks for the great pictures of the tower in better days.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/15 08:30 by Englewood.

Englewood Wrote:


> There was an even earlier plan from the early 60's
> instigated by a city study that wanted
> to move the through trains from Dearborn, LaSalle
> and Grand Central into CUS.  It did not
> include moving the Rock suburban trains so I don't
> know what the plan was for them.  Reading
> between the line of the CUS study gives the
> impression that CUS did not think it practical.
> More fodder for future posts
>

Exactly somewhere in the part of my library that is in a storage unit (that would be 99.9% of it) is a plan from the late 20s or early 30s to consolidate all passenger traffic into a single station. Someday when I find it, I will post some of the drawings in it.

TAW

Super interesting photos and information Englewood, many thanks for digging these out and the detailed accounts (sounds like an interesting job to say the least!).
#48 appears to have had two extra coaches added to that day's run per the PC company East West consist book , but otherwiise represents a more than complete "original" post '67 version,
in this case approx 13 cars vs Marty's 8 car version eight months later which gives you an idea of how quickly things were deteriorating for the company, employees and passengers.
Notably by the 8-70 date there are more green repaints here then tuscan cars, this version's sleepers would still include a 12-4 duplex and likely the dual unit diner,
also noteworthy amoungst the two additonal coaches are two of the ten 44-seat ex-UP cars
http://bcoolidge.com/Amtrak_71-75_Boston_Pix/PC%20Coach%203005%20%28ex-UP%29%20Back%20Bay%203_73edited.jpg

Despite it's grim trajectory I find Penn Central a fascinating subject to study and enjoy building 1/48 models of it's equipment.
Pete

If one goes to Google books and searches the free google ebooks pages for the following books:

Through Routes for Chicago's Steam Railroads

Report of Walter L. Fisher and Bion J. Arnold to the Citizen's Terminal Plan

Report on the re-arrangement and development of the steam railroad terminals of the city of Chicago

you can find hours of interesting reading and many good photos.  Unfortunately the interns or whoever scans
books for Google are not railfans and if there is a foldout drawing they never open it up to scan. 




TAW Wrote:
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> Exactly somewhere in the part of my library that
> is in a storage unit (that would be 99.9% of it)
> is a plan from the late 20s or early 30s to
> consolidate all passenger traffic into a single
> station. Someday when I find it, I will post some
> of the drawings in it.
>
> TAW

Holy Cow Englewood!  Two GP38's and an FP7 on a TV train!  Gorgeous, and thanks for sharing!

When I went to Valparaiso for college, I would ride the Dummy in to Chicago to get on the Cardinal and go home to Cincinnati.

They were still using two boiler-equipped GP7's and P70's on the trip.  Notice the cab signal box slung under the running board on the 8500. 

They would get up to 79MPH on the way into Chicago, and one trip I was talking to a freight conductor who had a PC uniform on (even though it was the CR era) and he was telling me stories about working the route for freight service.  We were sailing through Wheeler, west of Valpo, and the unmistakeable sound of dumping the air made the Brakeman mumble something and start walking forward.  The train had hit a pickup truck that came from behind a cut of stored freight cars on a siding in Wheeler and ran in front of the inbound Dummy.

It was not a Happy Thanksgiving for the occupant.