Nostalgia & History > Chicago Gravel Company ..........Oct 1980

Back in 1980 I found myself taking classes at the Amtrak School at Beech Grove, Ind, and on one of my weekends I rode up to Lake Bluff, ILL .

Home of  " Big R RailFan Tours "
For a Nominal fee, The Nice Family who ran Big R Tours would take you on a tour of the Major Chicago Yards and keep you fed with Great Food and drinks

One of the places we went was called  " Chicago Gravel Co " , they had 3 old industrial units, I have no idea of where this was, only guess is by the CWP&S Shop.  Does anyone know if these are still there ? 
TIA Tom

From June 1980
 

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Cool shots... I remember reading in a RR magazine a couple years before that, maybe 1977 or 1978 about a kid and his mom who have railfan tours of Chicago. At the time the kid didn't drive, but the mom needed him to navigate.

Were these the same folk? The kid probably would be driving by 1980.

Is he still a railfan today?

erielackawanna Wrote:
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> Cool shots... I remember reading in a RR magazine
> a couple years before that, maybe 1977 or 1978
> about a kid and his mom who have railfan tours of
> Chicago. At the time the kid didn't drive, but the
> mom needed him to navigate.
>
> Were these the same folk? The kid probably would
> be driving by 1980.
>
> Is he still a railfan today?

Yes he went on to go to work in Erie, Pa for GE !

i hired a co in 1980 to take me on the railtour in chicago,  but thay subcontracted me out to someone else  but i did get 12 rolls of film  none came out vary good . had a poor camera

Interesting photos. Coincidentally, I took a Big R Railfan Tour on a Sunday in April Did not visit this location. On April 25th I posted the photo of an EJ&E switcher that I had made on this tour.
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3726048
ALLEN

I shot these same 3 units in 1974, but the name I had was  Illinois Slag & Ballast. I may have gotten it wrong, or perhaps the name changed. My records of models of the 3 pics you posted are as follows:
pic 1 Davenport 45T
pic 2 GE35T
pic 3 GE45T drop cab
 

Yes it was the Lambrecht family running the tours. Tom and Bob were the  two boys behind the idea. Bob ended up at GE in Erie and Tom is VP Mechanical at CP and was behind the GN 441 at Issac Walton Inn.  I talked my Dad into taking me to Chicargo so we could take the tour with the Lambrecht family. What a great time!