Nostalgia & History > Soo and GM&O interchange

Did these two railroads ever have any interchange points between each other?

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 More than likely they used the BRC (Belt Ry. Co. of Chicago) Clearing Yard...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 11:18 by ghemr.

The GM&O and Soo could have also used interchanged through the B&OCT or IHB.  Both of them, like the BRC, had connections to GM&O and Soo (and all the other Class I railroads serving Chicago).  I imagine the EJ&E could have also been used, but EJ&E tended to have a higher switch charge than the others.  



 

> Did these two railroads ever have any interchange points between each other?

Hello,

Yes, at Chicago.  Not sure the years this was active, but there was a transfer job that ran between SOO (Schiller Pk) and GM&O (Glenn Yard) to exchange cars.  When GM&O merged with IC, they did away with the job but soon put it back on again.  There was a short piece in a recent Trains magazine that mentioned this.

Take care,

Mark   

Perhaps via B&OCT Forest Park to Rockwell Jct. to Brighton Park
then around the wye on the northwest quadrant (when there was one)
onto the GM&O ??

Maybe TAW recalls handling them that way.

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps via B&OCT Forest Park to Rockwell Jct. to
> Brighton Park
> then around the wye on the northwest quadrant
> (when there was one)
> onto the GM&O ??
>
> Maybe TAW recalls handling them that way.

Never direct like that. I don't remember GM&O interchange from Robey St. GM&O delivered to Robey but there was no job to GM&O from Robey. There was a job out of Barr that delivered GM&O at C&A (Argo) but didn't pick up. That would be the long way around. Soo Line to Robey B&OCT to Barr to Argo GM&O.

IHB wouldn't have been much faster. I don't remember an east man that delivered GM&O directly. GM&Os set out at (IHB) Argo for delivery later. There weren't a lot of east men setting out at Argo. In fact, I don't remember any. I remember Argo getting a train a day out of Blue Island, so it might have been a convoluted trip like the B&OOCT connection.

The fastest interchange would have been Soo Line to CJ to GM&O. Ashland worked like Clearing. Each railroad had a track. Arriving trains were spread into the tracks for the connections. At cutoff time, the engines would get on their respective tracks, make the joints, blow up the train, and blast off for home.

TAW

rantoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The answer to this may be in Milwaukee Road's
> history.  Soo did not get to Chicago until they
> bought Milwaukee Road in 1985.

Well...not into the city limits. The line ended at Madison Street in Forest Park.

> For
> Chicago bound traffic before 1985 who did Soo
> interchange with?

Soo interchanged IHB at Norpaul, BRC at Clearing (direct trains via IHB), CJ at Ashland (direct trains via B&OCT), B&OCT at Robey Street.

TAW

rantoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe, the answer.
>
> http://sooline.railfan.net/resources/timetables/ih
> b-main.jpg
>
> http://milwaukeeroadarchives.com/Construction/Milw
> aukee%20Profiles/Track%20Profile%201973%20Chicago%
> 20Division.pdf

MILW wouldn't have been relevant to Soo Line. Soo Line was in the area a long time before it bought MILW.

>
> A bit of Glenn Yard history.  If Soo - GM&O had
> traffic for each other it seems it had to get
> to-from Glenn Yard somehow.

I don't remember (from working C&A/Argo) any foreign lines going to Glenn. GM&O took trains to/from interchanges themselves.

TAW


>
> http://www.gmohs.org/GMORR/GM&O_NEWS_1940-1972/11-
> 15-1951.pdf

Possible answers
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4784102,4784102#msg-4784102