Eastern Railroad Discussion > IHB switching at night in East Chicago & operations question

I stumbled across this IHB job switching last night in East Chicago, IN. Some may appreciate that classic switchstand (the railroaders, I'm not so sure.) The third image is a poor shot of what I think is called Michigan Ave. yard, with the NS bottle train undergoing a crew change before heading up to the ArcelorMittal mill.

My question is about another IHB switching operation that I understand happens at night. There is a route that crosses Wolf Lake in Calumet City (IL) that leaves the west end of Gibson Yard and ends at the Cargill Plant in Hammond. (It is really confusing that that area is also a part of Hammond.) I think this may be called the Calumet City Industrial Track. Someone mentioned that a local goes to work the Cargill Plant at night.

Is that the case? If so, what days of the week or roughly what time? I'd like to see a train on that Wolf Lake causeway. Thanks for any help.

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Nice images. Question about the first image, was the locomotive headlights and other lights LED's??  thanks,  Doug

hoggerdoug Wrote:
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> Nice images. Question about the first image, was
> the locomotive headlights and other lights
> LED's??  thanks,  Doug
Thanks. I think they were bulbs, but looking again I am a bit surprised an how white they look compared to the streetlight in the distance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/15 16:37 by inCHI.

Interesting, I thought the bottle train ran morning-early evening. Are there multiple ones each day? Or perhaps this one was just unusually late.

SMandN Wrote:
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> Interesting, I thought the bottle train ran
> morning-early evening. Are there multiple ones
> each day? Or perhaps this one was just unusually
> late.

I'm no expert but I've always understood there to be multiple trains per day, depending on demand.

inCHI Wrote:
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> My question is about another IHB switching
> operation that I understand happens at night.
> There is a route that crosses Wolf Lake in Calumet
> City (IL) that leaves the west end of Gibson Yard
> and ends at the Cargill Plant in Hammond. (It is
> really confusing that that area is also a part of
> Hammond.) I think this may be called the Calumet
> City Industrial Track. Someone mentioned that a
> local goes to work the Cargill Plant at night.
>
> Is that the case? If so, what days of the week or
> roughly what time? I'd like to see a train on that
> Wolf Lake causeway. Thanks for any help.

First, the track that crosses Wolf Lake is the Sheddfield Industrial Track (also known as the Robey Track).  The Calumet City Industrial Track runs N-S between Cal City Yard and Burnham Yard, passing thru State Line Crossing.  Second, the train to the Cargill Plant originates at Burnham Yard, not Gibson. 

I'm not certain but I think the Cargill move runs on an as-needed basis, so there are no set days on which it operates.
 

Thanks for the corrections. Maybe this won't be possible if it is as-needed...

Nice series of shots, I've been there during the day. this looked really cool at night