Nostalgia & History > Burlington Pioneer Zephyr In Chicago in The 1970's

Burlington Pioneer Zephyr next to German U-505, the only submarine captured during WWII. Photo taken sometime in the late 1970's before the exhibits were moved indoors. Other locomotives are just visible in the background.

Sorry for poor quality; but I thought it might be of interest to someone.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/11 23:38 by norm1153.

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Visited the site in 1978 during a transcon USARailpass trip. Ice was heaving out of Lake Michigan a dozen feet in the air, as I recall!

Could board the sub, but not the train. Happy to see both have received good treatment lately.

http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/pioneer-zephyr/

~ Bob Z.

One of the locos on display was moved by rail to the museum in Union, IL. They actually put down sections of track on the street to get it to the nearby ICG tracks. I think this happened sometime in the '90s.

March 1995:

http://steve.filmteknik.com/santafe.html

(This is from my original website, preserved as-is from 1995 and designed for dialup, which is why there are no thumbnails and the photo scans are small.)

The routing took it through a park, onto city streets, and behind a gas station and some apartment buildings, to get to a gentle ramp up to IC level. They reversed the route that got the engine there in the first place.

Further info in IRM's Rail & Wire Magazine November 1995.
http://www.irm.org/railwire/pdf/156.pdf

Compare the original move from Rail & Wire July 1995.
http://www.irm.org/railwire/pdf/154.pdf

That is one awesome image!! U505 and the Zephyr in a single shot!

Two other subs were captured in World War II while on combat patrols. U570 was captured by the British in 1941 and put back into service as the HMS GRAPH. U110 was captured in 1941 but was scuttled after all of the code machines, cyphers and code books were rescued. Trainorders certainly fills the railfan need....but check out http://www.uboat.net and see the fan and the academic collide in an incredible repository of data.

I've seen the sub, but it was inside the Chicago Museum of Natural History.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

crusader5619 Wrote:
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> Two other subs were captured in World War II while
> on combat patrols. U570 was captured by the
> British in 1941 and put back into service as the
> HMS GRAPH. U110 was captured in 1941 but was
> scuttled after all of the code machines, cyphers
> and code books were rescued. Trainorders certainly
> fills the railfan need....but check out
> http://www.uboat.net and see the fan and the
> academic collide in an incredible repository of
> data.


I think it was the other way round, U 110 was HMS GRAPH, and 570 was scuttled.

Malcolm
New Zealand.

Yes, and I didn't word my post correctly. I understand the U-505 is the only submarine captured by US Forces, in WWII.

As I read all the posts I recalled that the sub also traveled to the museum by rail. It was towed to the lakefront and then was placed on a temporary track across Lake Shore Drive. I recall marveling at this at the time. ( I was eight.)

A brief history of the sub and a photo of it being moved on the tracks across LSD:

http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/story/the-first-exhibition/a-secret-made-public/

truxtrax Wrote:
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> I've seen the sub, but it was inside the Chicago
> Museum of Natural History.

The sub is in the Museum of Science and Industry, not the Field Museum of Natural History.

I was going to ask how a sub belongs in "Natural History" but considering the M. of N. H. in Los Angeles has a bunch of antique automobiles...
I guess they can always spotlight the fossil fuels aspect of cars... and you do use them to drive over topography...

colehour Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> truxtrax Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've seen the sub, but it was inside the
> Chicago
> > Museum of Natural History.
>
> The sub is in the Museum of Science and Industry,
> not the Field Museum of Natural History.

colehour Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> truxtrax Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've seen the sub, but it was inside the
> Chicago
> > Museum of Natural History.
>
> The sub is in the Museum of Science and Industry,
> not the Field Museum of Natural History.

My bad!!...I meant Science and Industry but my tongue got twisted around my eye teeth and I couldn't see what I was saying! (quote attributed to someone else)

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

It's not a railfan topic....

But if you haven't seen the U-505 since the "sank" it indoors, GO DO IT! It's truely impressive - you come out on a balcony looking at it at roughly water level. FAR more impressive than it was sitting outdoors! Plus, the train hall continues to have neat stuff in it.