Nostalgia & History > PRR "freight house" in Chicago: what was it for?

I think of a freight house as a place where boxcars
are parked, hopefully in a place where a wagon or truck
can get close to it to load/unload cargo. Need some
storage space, but wouldn't think stuff was stored
there for weeks or months.

So why did PRR need this?

https://www.lakestatesarchive.org/FA-Cole-Collection/Chicago-Union-Station/i-XXCsbpV/A

Freight cars stayed at ground level? Trucks too,
or did they elevator upward? What-all went on
in all that space above ground level?

This may answer some of your questions:

https://chicagology.com/skyscrapers/skyscrapers167

https://books.google.com/books?id=clo5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA842&dq=railway+review+march+1918&hl=
en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiK0PCjz7SJAxU5mIQIHTLQMhcQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=
onepage&q=railway%20review%20march%201918&f=false

This will take you to Volume 62 of Railway Review.
Scroll to page 365 to see more than you will ever want to know about the warehouse known
to railfans as "Fort Pennsylvania"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/24 15:31 by Englewood.

The elevator was an important labor saving device. Many of the urban warehousing and light manufacturing buildings from that era are vertical. The surviving stock is converted to condos and lofts, or office space, but many still have their freight elevators.

As built this freighthouse had 32 elevators with shafts for 18 more. Including 2 x 24ft platforms for moving automobiles in transit for delivery.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/24 09:30 by PCRC.

This article discusses the movement toward multi-story buildings, and especially the use of elevators and upper story warehousing.
https://www.academia.edu/120285695/Industrial_Building_Design_and_Economic_Context_The_Railway_Freighthouse_in_Chicago_1850_1925

Never saw that before.  Thanks, that's just an astounding facility design and story.

We can say that classic 40' boxcar LCL is dead, dead, dead but it's astounding how much 'transloading' is very much in and growing, including boxcar traffic.    

This post prompted me to grab my "The Pennsy in Chicago" book by Ed DeRouin.  Highly recommended coverage of the complex PRR operations in Chicagoland.  Beside pics of the freight house's construction beginning in 1916 and a description of switching this massive facility, there is this interesting fact regarding business volume

"In 1947 freight house operations generated over $32.1 million in revenue, handling 137,876 inbound and 115,478 outbound cars plus 642 inbound and 335 outbound cars for Western Warehousing.  An average of 828 cars were handled every 24 hours."

Imagine that:  An average of 10 (or more!) entire trains of LTL boxcars every day.  The amount of boxcar freight in this pre-Interstate era boggles the mind...

- Norm

I wonder how much freight went through freight tunnels throughout Chicago from here as they show interconnected. Also was there the same type of TLC facilities in other PRR town for unloading? It would be interesting to see where most outbound loads went.

mococomike Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder how much freight went through freight
> tunnels throughout Chicago from here as they show
> interconnected. Also was there the same type of
> TLC facilities in other PRR town for unloading? It
> would be interesting to see where most outbound
> loads went.

If I remember correctly, Grand Central Station also had an elevator connection to the tunnel system.

TAW

The Chicago freight tunnels I'm aware of used narrow gauge electric locomotives to haul coal, coal ash and  some merchandise until the 1950s.

Oliver Barrett