Steam & Excursion > Indian Hill & Iron Range Railroad

Returning to Chicago from a trip to Michigan I would pass by the steel mills on the far south side of Chicago. On one such trip I happened to glance out of the window and saw this locomotive. Needless to say I stopped and luckily I had a few shots left in the camera. At the time I didn't realize just how unique this little railroad was. Owned by the H. Bairstow & Company, the approximately one mile long Indian Hill and Iron Range Railway served only one purpose. The railroad received loads of slag from the Elgin Joliet & Eastern in northwest Hammond, Indiana and shoved the loads to a waiting rotary dumper. The slag was then trucked to a nearby facility where it was crushed and used in highway construction.

As always, comments and corrections are welcome and thanks for looking!

Jack Bejna
Los Angeles, CA

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That's amazing, Jack. Man, you took some great photographs over your life. Thank God that you're willing to share them with us. I've never even heard of that little RR. Looks like it might be an oil burner. Whataya think?

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/11 19:34 by rcall31060.

Nice photos Jack. Do you know what year it was?

Thanks for posting!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

These were probably taken in 1956, although I'm not real sure. Yes, she does look like an oil burner to me as well. I'd like to know where this loco came from if anyone knows.

Jack Bejna
Los Angeles, CA

Wonderful shots. This is the first time I've heard of this railroad.

Tony J.

IHIR was a private industrial railroad owned by H. Bairstow Company. Looks like its only purpose was to transfer slag and other steel debris at the rotary loader mentioned. The track was near Lake Michigan off Calumet Avenue south of Chicago. Not sure when the operation started, but it reportedly ended in the late 1960s.

The 0-8-0 shown is ex-New York Central. They purchased a former Chicago Short Line VO1000 and an ex-Toledo Peoria and Western Lima 1200 hp unit later. (The Lima in 1959)

Cool photos of this obscure little operation. Thanks for posting them.

Here's some photos of the diesels:

IHIR 301: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1628368

IHIR 302: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1572738

Z

Wow, here I thought I'd never see a post on this road. Here's the Baldwin VO-1000 I had custom painted for me.


For those of you interested, the 301 was formerly Chicago Short Line 101. 302 was a Lima Hamilton LS-1000 built as Lima Demo 1004, later sold to the TP&W as #302 before being resold to the IH&IR. I believe the BLW VO-1000 was purchased to replace this loco.

Ryan Kertis
Whiting, IN



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/11 15:19 by Nictd1000.

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Jack- First I ever heard of this railroad. Amazing and good photos!
-JH

Just echoing the other comments, never heard of this operation, and thank you Jack for publishing your wonderful collection of steam photos. Interesting the loco is ex-NYCS.

A friend from South Chicago found on the Internet the attached image of a post card featuring the IH&IR!

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I actually saw this operation in action as a kid in the 50s. We lived about a mile away and my friends and I would often go to play at Lake Michigan and along the tracks. (In those days no one seemed to mind, although a railroad cop did once ask us what we were doing.)

What I recall about the operation is that the cars would be pushed up the grade and spotted at the rotary dumper where they would be unloaded. (I think the postcard view is looking west, toward Chicago, and was taken from the south side of the operation.) The car that had been dumped would be nudged down the grade and a brakeman would be riding it as it coasted down and then up a little switchback and then rolled down to join the remaining empties as the brakeman would apply the hand brake. (I imagine that the switchback had a spring switch.) It was quite a treat to watch this operation, especially when the steam loco was used.

Bairstow came to be reviled for creating mountains of slag along George Lake in Hammond but the area was cleaned up and now hosts a golf course and clubhouse with a good restaurant. Bairstow also dumped slag along the Lake Michigan lake front. Eventually vegetation grew up and it has become a bird sanctuary. Who would have thought...?

Speaking of slag, there was a great operation over on Chicago's East Side where hot slag from a local mill would be dumped down an incline. Quite a sight and something of a thrill for kids in those older, simpler times.

Funny story about slag...when I first moved to Washington State to work on the ferries on Puget Sound in 1978, one of my first jobs was down on the Pt. Defiance-Tahlequah run from Vashon Island over to Tacoma. We were coming across to Pt. Defiance at night, and I was headed up to the pilothouse for "lookout". I came across the car deck and glanced toward Pt. Defiance. I saw this huge flame down near the water in the distance. I went running into the pilothouse, shouting that something was on fire over near the marina.

Everyone had a good laugh, and when they were gasping for breath, the captain managed to tell me I had seen slag being dumped into the sound from the ARSARCO plant in Ruston.

Barry Stone
Edmonds, WA

Jack thanks for posting the photos of the IH&IR. The 0-8-0 is ex-Rock Island and yes it is an oil burner.

Finally !! After 50 years of not knowing anything about the Indian Hill and Iron Range.
I had bought a slide showing the same dumper view from the now defunct Universal Slide Company of Beverly Hills, California.

I always thought it was up in Iron Range country.

--Jim Baker, Whittier, CA