Nostalgia & History > Art at Roosevelt Rd ca 1970

Art Gibson spent an after on Roosevelt Rd in Chicago. Here are a few interesting results:

1. AT&SF 3114 is spotting train #15, the “Texas Chief” at Dearborn. Art noted both consists. Power: 335 L, 331A, 325B, 326A and 330A. Cars: 3673, 3517, 734, 711, 726, 1495, ‘Pine Gorge’, ‘Palm Haven’ and ‘Blue Ridge’.

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Three more showing the BN side of things…

2. & 3. BN 9967, in Q paint is leading train #1, the “Denver Zephyr” away. Engine consist: 9967, 9968 and 9920.

4. BN 9992, also in Q paint is arriving with train #8. Engine consist only: 9992, 9981, 9941 and 9988.
4 original Kodachrome slides taken in Chicago, IL on October 24, 1970 by William A. Gibson Jr.
Now in the James T. Wilson collection.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Wilson (jtwlunch)
Remembering the late Art Gibson, aka ‘wag216’

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A great spot I neglected on all of my visits to Chicago in the seventies and eighties.
JB

WOW! In that Dearborn shot, not a soul to be seen in the picture. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/26 07:26 by Hou74-76.

That E7 9920 in shot 2 has a unique BN scheme that I don't think I've seen before

Love number one!! Bryan 

Hou74-76 Wrote:
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> WOW! In that Dearborn shot, not a soul to be seen
> in the picture. 

And other signs the glory days are gone:  Rusty tracks on the lower right side of the photo.  And nary a boxcar, or any sign of comnmercial activity at the freight house platform on the right, except a lonely 1965 Chevy.

Seems like an unusually big loco consist for the number of passenger cars.   Possibly because the F's were starting to show their age in terms of reliability.  But I'd still give my right arm to ride that train today.

- Norm

stevelv Wrote:
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> That E7 9920 in shot 2 has a unique BN scheme that
> I don't think I've seen before

9920 was the only E7 to be repained in BN colors.  The sides were stainless steel panels so only the nose was green.

J.

In picture #1 by 1970, the Santa Fe was just about it as far as trains using Dearborn Street Station.  The C&EI still had a local to Danville, IL and maybe there was still a Florida train using the C&EI to get to Chicago..

Picture #4 looks like it's the combined Morning Zephyr, Empire Builder and North Coast Limited arriving.  With Amtrak on the horizon, and Lew Menk at the helm, the Burlington was making no effort to run separate trains anymore between Chicago and the Twin Cities.  Even the California Zephyr had been reduced to tri-weekly, the equipment tacked onto the Nebraska Zephyr and renamed "California Service".  
 

agent1522 Wrote:
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> In picture #1 by 1970, the Santa Fe was just about
> it as far as trains using Dearborn Street
> Station.  The C&EI still had a local to Danville,
> IL

C&EI had the Danville Flyer
GTW had 3 trains each way.
N&W had the round trip to Decatur, Ill. and the Orland Park suburban train

In the right side of the photo is a maroon-colored private car.  It was on the last run of Norfolk & Western's City of Decatur as shown in the video in the first post of this November 2025 thread (seen at 4:49):

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,6102691,6102691#msg-6102691

stevelv Wrote:
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> That E7 9920 in shot 2 has a unique BN scheme that
> I don't think I've seen before

I was thinking the exact same thing.