Nostalgia & History > South Shore Curve at 130th Street

The Chicago South Shore and South Bend is basically an east-west railroad. That is, until it gets to 130th Street in Chicago, where it makes a hard right turn and makes a bee line for the Illinois Central at Kensington. The curve was a great place to catch some action, train action rather. Not the safest of neighborhoods, you tried to maintain a low profile, get your shots, and then get out of town. More than once I was warned by Chicago's finest to watch out for myself. One time, the officer stayed with me until I was through. Talk about service! I would like to share some shots from the late 70's and early 80's, featuring the old orange and maroon MU's and the beautiful 800's. We're not about to call them "Little Joes," are we?


First up is the 803 with a small train headed into the city to do some short work.

Next is MU 108 coming south under 130th St

Third shot shows a short mid-day train with the 104 in front heading round the curve westbound or northbound, whatever...

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Got some more to share with you

The 802 is done working Chicago and takes the curve at speed. Next stop is Burnham to work the yard and then home to Michigan City.

MU 111 looks like it might not be one of the "modernized" cars. It's making the turn and headed for downtown Chicago.

MU 101 fills the viewfinder on my Olympus OM-1 as it files past us headed east.

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I'll wrap this up with two more shots.

The first is a close up of the 803 headed for Chicago.

And last is a shot of GP38-2 2001 rolling south with an inspection train that had done a tour of Chicago's Switching District back in 1985. The 2001 and 2000 were painted in the orange for this special event.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/17 10:08 by WrongMain.

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Thanks for posting these great images. Gerry

Great stuff! I can only image how difficult it would be to railfan "inside the wires" like this. Well done...

Lance/199

A great collection of photos. Thanks for posting them.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Some of the best South Shore I have seen. My favorite is your seventh photo with 803 rounding the curve.
Thanks for posting these.

Could the South Shore MU their 800's and allow them to run up to their maximum power like the Milwaukee or did their lines not produce enough juice? I don't imagine they had the need for two often but I believe they ran some coal trains at times that no doubt would have benefitted from it.

Thanks for posting your interesting and great South Shore slides.
My favorite is Photo 4 with #802 coming around the curve.
ALLEN

Thanks for sharing these photos from an unusual location.

Nos. 4 and 7 of the 'Joe' coming round that curve look great!

I always enjoy a batch of great photos of the CSS&SB.
Thanks.
Gary

Milwaukee Wrote:
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> Could the South Shore MU their 800's and allow
> them to run up to their maximum power like the
> Milwaukee or did their lines not produce enough
> juice? I don't imagine they had the need for two
> often but I believe they ran some coal trains at
> times that no doubt would have benefitted from it.

I honestly don't know if the 800's could be M.U.'d or not. I never saw two of them together, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It may be strange, but every coal train I saw on the South Shore was powered by four of those old GP7's & GP9's, received from the C&O/Chessie System.

WrongMain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Milwaukee Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Could the South Shore MU their 800's and allow
> > them to run up to their maximum power like the
> > Milwaukee or did their lines not produce enough
> > juice? I don't imagine they had the need for
> two
> > often but I believe they ran some coal trains
> at
> > times that no doubt would have benefitted from
> it.
>
> I honestly don't know if the 800's could be M.U.'d
> or not. I never saw two of them together, but
> that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It may be
> strange, but every coal train I saw on the South
> Shore was powered by four of those old GP7's &
> GP9's, received from the C&O/Chessie System.

During the latter period of the 800-class's tenure on the South Shore (1970s), infrastructure deterioration was in full swing. :(

Deferred maintenance was a consequence of the railroad's then-disastrous financial crisis (freight revenue cross-funding massive passenger losses). Even the electric traction system was not immune. I surmise there's a possibility that a two-800 train might possibly represent so much power draw within a single section of the system that it might have circuit-tripped the feeder substations.

Remember that then, the majority of the electrical setup was still hardware representing the *1926* original installation.

One word: WOW!!!!

also -

WrongMain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Milwaukee Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Could the South Shore MU their 800's and allow
> > them to run up to their maximum power like the
> > Milwaukee or did their lines not produce enough
> > juice? I don't imagine they had the need for
> two
> > often but I believe they ran some coal trains
> at
> > times that no doubt would have benefitted from
> it.
>
> I honestly don't know if the 800's could be M.U.'d
> or not. I never saw two of them together, but
> that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It may be
> strange, but every coal train I saw on the South
> Shore was powered by four of those old GP7's &
> GP9's, received from the C&O/Chessie System.

Maybe 40 years ago already, I was in Michigan City taking photos and noticed the substation door was open, so I looked into the building and the electrician inside asked me to come in. I'll never forget the continuous hum and floor vibrating from the two transformers in that sub. He said wait until rush hour, or when an 800 starts pulling a good sized train! In the course of the conversation, mentioned that because of the limitations of the substations on the line, as well as the feeder lines along the railroad, they could not put 3 700s together nor could they run an 800 (Little Joe) with both pans up (to pull more power). Apparently, it was tried and literally sucked the juice out of the sub, causing it to overload and shut down.

When those subs were built in the Insull era of the '20s, there wasn't anything bigger than a couple of 50 ton steeple cabs to haul the freight. So, when the 700s were rolled out (rebuilt from former NYC R-2 motors), at 130 tons each, they could pull a lot of train, even more when MU'd. But substation capacity was the limiting factor. The electrician also told me that two 800s could not be in the same electrical 'block' (substation service area, about 10-15 miles) as it would cause an overload.

I'm guessing that the limitations of the electrical system was one of the contributing factors in the decision to dieselize their freight in the late '70s/early '80s. Of course, buying used diesels also kept their costs low. As the locos were worn out, having to upgrade the substations AND buy new locomotives at that point was not an option.

Great photos, thanks for posting.