Nostalgia & History > B&OCT in '71

Somewhere north of Blue Island, IL, a B&OCT transfer job was northbound south of Chicago in Aug '71.
JB

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Thanks for that one. Looking at the picture, I can remember the fence of ties, the power company pole line on the west side, and the really narrow street along the west side of the track like I was there yesterday, but I can't remember which street crossing. Back then, there was a crossing every block 103rd - 111th, then 113th, 115th. There are a couple of places where Rockwell Street is really close to the track. I think the likely candidate is 113th Street. Did you see a station building on the west side near there while you were cruising? That would have been 115th Street (Mount Hope station, built for funerals at the adjacent Mount Hope cemetery). I think I have a picture of it...somewhere. This is north of 115th.

At the time of day in this picture, it is either Run 39 going to the Q at Cicero or Run 203 going to CNW at Proviso, but a CBQ hopper and a NP mty box behind the power says it's probably 39.

TAW

Nice photo! The only images of B&OCT power that I have are of various switchers in deadlines around Chicago. I also like the black and white crossing gate.

I agree the location is likely 113th Street. I worked on a street design project in that neighborhood a few years ago that upgraded residential streets to current standards with sidewalks and curbs. One of the streets in our project was Rockwell Street between 109th and 111th Streets. In this area Rockwell is on the east side of the tracks. South of 113th Street it is on the west side.

This stretch of tracks was just recently upgraded to a "Quiet Zone" with four quadrant gates at each crossing.