Nostalgia & History > TRRA Tuesday: Busy Snow Day at SH Tower and Madison Yard

Last Tuesday, we looked at some views of activity on the hump at the Madison Yard of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA), located in the small community of Venice, Illinois (and adjacent to its namesake town of Madison, Ill.), both located just northeast of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. This is one of two hump yards in the St. Louis region, along with Alton & Southern's Gateway Yard in East St. Louis, Illinois.

This week we'll go over to the other side (north side) of the Broadway / Madison Ave. highway overpass across the yard's north throat, always a fine photo location, and take a look at action on the big wye junction there near the former SH Tower. Tracks there lead off TRRA's Merchants Bridge across the Mississippi, routing traffic southward into the yard, northward to Granite City and an important junction at WR Tower, and eastward via a line segment known as the Eastern Connection. Most images here are from a cold, gray, snowy day in March, 1978. But as on so many days at this busy junction and yard complex, they still show a lot of traffic, and many details of interest. Enjoy, and thanks for looking.

MC
Muskegon, Michigan
 

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ABOVE:

1) The junction complex at the north throat of Madison Yard, looking northwest from the north sidewalk of the Broadway / Madison Ave. highway overpass over the yard's north throat.  Three trains are coming off the multiple tracks on the long east approach from TRRA's Merchants Bridge over the Mississippi River, then passing SH Tower, which controlled this track complex and the bridge approach.  Note:  all descriptions below for this and all other images represent my best understanding and recollection of various operations and track usage patterns at the dates of these images in 1978 and 1976.. Please feel free to comment upon or correct anything. Thank you.

• At left, a cut is pulling out of the yard's west side up onto the bridge approach to then shove back into the yard's center hump track, and on over the hump.
• At center, the long cut with the tank cars is shoving off the Merchants Bridge approach to the central lead to the hump, located behind the photographer on the other (south) side of the Broadway / Madison Ave. overpass.
• At right, an N&W freight comes off the long Merchants Bridge east approach behind a big SD45 running long-hood-forward,with  an older Geep trailing. The train will turn the corner here, and head northward to WR Tower in Granite City, and the junction there with the ex-Wabash mainline north to Decatur, Illinois.
• The track heading directly under the photographer and next to the searchlight signal is the lead across the wye-shaped track complex to the Eastern Connection, a short track segment leading to a yard used by C&NW (ex-Litchfield & Madison), ICG (ex-IC)  and N&W (ex-NKP). The yard is located about a mile to the east near Illinois Hwy. 203. In years past, Illinois Central passenger trains bound for Springfield, Ill. and Chicago (including IC's famed Green Diamond) used the Eastern Connection to reach their home rails northward.  Even earlier, NKP trains on Nickel Plate's old Clover Leaf route did the same. Both had run from St. Louis Union Station along the riverfront on north side of St. Louis via the TRRA Merchants Elevated trestle, then crossed the Mississippi on TRRA's Merchants Bridge.

BELOW:

2) A view a minute or two earlier as the N&W train approaches at center, soon to  pass SH Tower.  Merchants Bridge is in  the distance at left center. The continuous snow-covered berm in the distance (just above the rooftop of SH Tower) is the tall levee on the Mississippi's east bank. It's part of a huge levee and floodwall system protecting the vast floodplain area in Illinois  known as the American Bottoms, on which communities like Madison, Granite City and East St. Louis are built.

3) The caboose of the N&W train passes SH Tower as a TRRA switcher pair gets ready for its next assignment. The last cars of the N&W freight look like typical automotive traffic.  TRRA's Madison Yard and N&W's ex-Wabash lines out of St. Louis handled a great deal of automotive parts and finished vehicle traffic, with five GM, Ford and Chrysler assembly lines operating in the St. Louis area at the time.

On the west leads right below our perch, two TRRA switchers get ready to pull another cut out of the yard and up the Merchants Bridge approach, then to shove their cut back down past SH Tower onto the hump lead, then over the hump.

4) On another March day two years earlier in 1976, a view of the track complex, the Merchants Bridge east approach, and SH Tower, looking west-northwest from the north sidewalk of the Broadway / Madison Ave. overpass.  The smokestacks and the church steeples in the distance are across the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri, on the city's north side.

• The four visible (of five) tracks diverging at left are the leads for Madison Yard. The hump leads are the second two tracks to the left of the searchlight signal.
• The track immediately to the left of the searchlight signal near the tree is the track to the Eastern Connection.
• The tracks diverging to the right past the building lead to the TRRA mains north through the community of Madison to WR Tower in Granite City, where connections were made to several railroads.
• The track passing in front of the tree left to right is a connection into the yard from the mains north to Granite City (out of view to the right).
• Why is the lone tree there in the middle of all of these tracks? I have no idea. But I always found it interesting that it was there.

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/20 21:53 by ironmtn.

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BELOW:

5) and 6)  Back on the south side of the Broadway / Madison Ave. overpass, two more looks at the yard and the hump for context, in addition to last week's images.
The Dodge vans on the auto racks probably indicate this cut was part of the daily transfer from Frisco's Lindenwood Yard in southwest St. Louis. Frisco served the two side-by-side Chrysler assembly plants in the southwestern suburb of Fenton, Mo., one of which was building Dodge vans like these at the time of this image.

Note the then-popular two-tone paint jobs!

7) Simplified TRRA system map, from the Official Guide, Nov. 1964, my collection. A good, simple map for overall orientation to the TRRA. The TRRA published this same map in the Official Guide every month for many years. Madison Yard is located just the right of the word "Venice" to the right of the Merchants Bridge, with the wye junction at SH Tower and the yard's north end clearly shown. The Eastern Connection continues off to the right of the wye junction, to connections with the IC, C&NW and NYC&StL (Nickel Plate), and the TRRA mains continue straight north to Granite City and WR Tower there.

OTHER INFO:

Link to last week's images of the hump, and also information on the Illinois Terminal Venice Trestle (or Venice Hi-Line), which can be seen crossing over the south end of Madison Yard left-to-right in the distance: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5104265,5104265#msg-5104265

Aerial photographs of Madison Yard, all looking south to north. The Broadway / Madison Ave. overpass, our perch for these images, may be seen at the top (north end) of each view. Link: http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2017/07/madison-il-trra-madison-yard.html

Excellent and very detailed current TRRA system map of all St. Louis area railroads: http://www.terminalrailroad.com/images/TRRA%20Map.pdf



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/20 08:21 by ironmtn.

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Neat group of photos and great detail in the descriptions.

Rich

Thanks for the most interesting photo posting.
The snow on the ground adds interest.
ALLEN
 

Love these shots! Wow, look at all that manifest and automotive traffic that used to exist. Reminds me of watching trains whiile growing up around Detroit.

JG

Great reference material for a most complex railroad interchange area.
thank you,
Go