Eastern Railroad Discussion > Labor Day Weekend Multimodal Over & Under at Lemont

With the final big weekend of the summer approaching, lots of folks are planning cookouts, backyard parties, or trips to the beach for the three-day Labor Day weekend. Like many of us, I have done all of those activities on Labor Day weekends. But sometimes I don't. If there's no cookout or party on the calendar, or a get-together with friends or family planned, I'll do other things on such a long holiday weekend. Beach time? Nope. Living one mile from Lake Michigan and a fine beach, I can go there almost anytime I want to do so - and I do. And when it's a lot less crowded.

So, why not enjoy some railfanning instead? Labor Day weekend 2017 took me to the Chicago area, where I had a couple of excellent days photographing some interesting railroad operations. But the final afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017 was one of the best ever. After previous time on Saturday in northwest Indiana and the south suburbs of Chicago, I decided to focus on the southwest corner of Chicagoland, particularly the BNSF ex-Santa Fe trackage near Joliet, Illinois. We've all tried for over-and-under images or videos at locations where two routes intersect and cross over each other, hoping that two or more trains might pass over and under each other simultaneously. It's an exercise in pure luck, to be sure, and one which we celebrate and remember when achieved. But for me, such over-and-under scenes have generally been an exercise in repeated frustration. Not this time, though. Not two trains crossing this time, but multiple trains and marine traffic, and on a very busy afternoon for both modes. With carload traffic, and TOFC and COFC intermodal (both single-level and doublestack)) by rail, as well as marine barge freight, and marine passenger (!) traffic (a little unusual, given the location), it was truly a multimodal event.

I hadn't ever gotten a good over-and-under like this before. And I haven't since. And I kinda doubt that I ever will again. The video and audio aren't the best, being made mostly hand-held, and a product of the video function of my trusty Nikon D5000 DSLR. It lacks the image quality of a true dedicated video camera, and its built-in-only microphone (no jack for a better external mike) is of pretty basic quality, and easily overmodulated by the roar of passing trains and barge tows. But, please enjoy nevertheless.  And good luck on your own Labor Day weekend railfanning this coming weekend, if you choose the rails...instead of the beach.

MC
Muskegon, Michigan
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/19 16:39 by ironmtn.

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Additional images:
1) A memorial alongside the canal, apparenly in memory of rivermen who worked on this reach of the Illinois Waterway.

2) A BNSF train with a Citirail unit in the third position comes off the east end of the bridge over the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal at Lemont, Ill., just before rounding the big curve near the site of the former Santa Fe depot at Lemont, a location of many historical photos. I missed the Citirail unit when my camera locked up for one more frame, the only downer on an otherwise fine (if warm and humid) afternoon.

 

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A few further notes. The waterway here is the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, part of the Illinois River Waterway system. It is a key portion of a great engineering work, the reversal of the flow of the Chicago River away from (instead of into) Lake Michigan, and westward into the Des Plaines River and Illinois River watersheds. All done so that Chicago's wastewater would drain away from and not pollute Lake Michigan, the source of Chicago's drinking water. With the canal also came navigation, from Lake Michigan and Chicago into the Illinois River via the canal, onto the Mississippi, and southward all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
Some interesting background on the canal: http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2017/04/building-sanitary-and-ship-canal.html

 At this location, the canal (as an extension of the Chicago River west of a low, dividing ridge between the Chicago and Des Plaines River watersheds) is also a very busy commercial waterway. Here, the canal is a deep, rock-walled, sheer vertical cut. The rock here, known as Joliet-Lemont Limestone, is close to the surface, and consists here of thin-bedded, layered planes which break easily along the bedding planes. This can be seen briefly in a portion of the video and the images below. The stone is well known for its use as dimension stone for some famous buildings (such as the Water Tower on N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago). In thicker formations it often has an attractive, creamy, slightly tan color. But at this location, it is more of a grey-white color, like other dolomites, and the thin-bedded formations as here were cut for use as sidewalk pavers and staircase treads.

While an interesting location, it's SAFETY FIRST!  This site at the foot of Stephen Street in Lemont, Ill. is also one that demands a lot of care and attention to safety, if you visit. The thin-bedded planes of the stone can be slick, even when dry. They easily  break off into rounded gravel pebbles that can be like marbles to walk on. You have to use care to maintain your footing. There are grassy areas and it's best to stay on them, but to shoot around the bushes, you may have to be partly on the stone. Care and watching your step is really important, because the canal walls are cut straight into the stone, and are absolutely sheer vertical walls, with no cutouts, angled banks or ladders cut into the walls. If you were to unfortunately slip on the stone and fall into the canal, there's no way to climb back out, at least anywhere nearby that I could see. If this waterway were built today, there would be safety climb-out ladders every few hundred feet, as there are on the  outlet channels to Lake Michigan for the rivers on its eastern shore, as for the Muskegon River channel to Lake Michigan here in my hometown. But this was a work of the late nineteenth century, and such appurtenances were not the standard at the time.

You can also see in the video how passing barge tows can use every last inch of available space. That they can do so is a tribute to their pilots (these folks are really good at what they do!). But there's no room for you if you go swimming and a barge tow comes along. I grew up in St. Louis, and have seen hundreds of barge tows on the Mississippi through the years. But I have never been as close to one underway as at this location, even at the old Lock & Dam No. 26 in Alton, Ill., where a viewing platform in years past got you pretty close to tows that were locking through. It's an interesting and exciting location at Lemont with a tow passing so closely, but it's also a little daunting, and keeps you on your toes. By the way, the power in the towboat Windy City which passes with the four-barge tow is a Cummins KTA-19 M3, 1200 hp. I know you were hoping for an Alco, and so was I. They are out there, and recent models are in use for inland river towboats. Info on the Windy City: https://www.towboatgallery.com/Windy_City.php?pic=1&tnc=1&mnu=. Towboats used on the Illinois Waterway are unusual for the way in which their pilothouses can be raised or lowered on hydraulic lifts for navigation under low bridges, as seen fully lowered here at Lemont.

As seen in the view above, there is a small memorial at the location which was apparently put into place in memory of men who worked on this waterway. I don't know if it is a general memorial to them as co-workers, or if it specifically relates to the fact that they were injured or lost their life in working on the waterway at or near this location. Whatever the case, it is an object lesson of reminder for great care if you visit this location.

Trainorders member and former UP Steam Crew member up3985 (Bob Krieger) grew up in nearby Lockport. I can just imagine his parents' warnings to him as a kid to, "stay away from that canal!" when he was out playing with his childhood buddies. He would go on to run trains and really big steam locomotives, so if he received such warnings, he learned them and their safety first message well.

Given the situation, I wondered if I should be at this location. I just followed a footpath at the end of Stephen Street. There were (at the time, at least) no warning or no trespassing signs. No fences or gates. A fenced and gated area across the street was posted, but the fence line did not extend to the footpath. There were several pickup trucks parked at the end of Stephen Street well away from the last houses on the block, and with no other buildings around.  I concluded that they may have been the vehicles of waterway workers. If a tow were stopped, it might be possible to board with a ladder from the deck. The canal is not really suitable for fishing (it is after all in part a "sanitary" canal -- you can figure out what that means), and I saw no fishermen anywhere nearby. And no one of the several towboat pilots I saw as they passed (or a cop working an accident on the Illinois 53 highway overpass visible in one video view, and who clearly saw me down below) warned me off. All that said, the situation may have changed, and your results today may vary if you visit this location.

My friend santafe199 (Lance Garrels) may be a bit put out at me for this video. We toured around Chicagoland together earlier that summer on Memorial Day weekend in 2017, and I did not take him to this location, which unfortunately I discovered after his visit. Santa Fe man that he is, he wanted to focus on ex-ATSF trackage, and we did check out a number of locations, none of which we found to be particularly good. For those who have worked to photograph the BNSF Chillicothe Sub leaving Chicago, you know how few are the good locations along the ex-Santa Fe these days. The trackage is often sandwiched tightly between the Illinois Waterway and industrial facilities with no access, or blocked off like a wall by I-55. Unlike other Chicago area railroads, surface street crossings are far and few between, and may be on long overhead bridges or expressway ramps which also span the waterway, and have limited access or views. Corwith Yard and its throat are now completely blocked off as a big intermodal terminal. East of Corwith, the line carries very little traffic, with the fleet of Santa Fe passenger trains which used that trackage bound for the former Dearborn Station now long gone, and Amtrak's Southwest Chief rerouted to the ex-Burlington triple-track through the western suburbs. Maybe that's why so many views of the Santa Fe leaving Chicago have through the years been at Joliet, or just past this bridge at the former Lemont depot, where there was good access and an interesting scene. In any case, next time, Lance, we'll head here. Sorry we missed it. Put it on the list for your next Chicago visit.

As for the BNSF bridge, yup, it was once a swing span with the pivot point on the far bank under the tall section of the through-truss. My understanding is that the bridge has been a fixed span now for many years. It's interesting that the bridge is now over a century old, having been built in 1898, and still carries heavy freight at good speed. Trains have to pinch down for the sweeping curves approaching the bridge on both banks of the canal, as the line changes from a northeast-southwest orientation to north-south orientation to cross the canal from either bank. But they still roll across the span at a pretty good clip.  More info on the bridge: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=illinois/lemont/

Here's a good aerial view of the bridge in winter, looking northeast toward Chicago: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Chicago_Sanitary_and_Ship_Canal%2C2010-01-23.jpg. Fewer barges also in the view.
You can clearly see the pivot mechanism for the span as formerly used as a swing-span drawbridge on the north bank. My location for the video is on the opposite bank, where the snow has been cleared from atop the canal wall.

I've always enjoyed railfanning on a three-day long holiday weekend. With reduced operations on Monday both sometimes by the railroad, and often by shippers, there seems to be a heavy traffic flow at the end of the week before the Monday holiday. For some time, I found Friday and Saturday to be the heaviest days. But now Friday, and especially Sunday, seem heaviest here in heart of the industrial Midwest, and particularly on the former Santa Fe. Which makes sense when you think about it, especially for intermodal traffic. Lots of traffic from points east and west seem to meet here in the middle on Sunday afternoon. The Sunday afternoon I shot this video there literally was a train every 10-15 minutes for almost three hours. The radio never stopped chattering, and the DS was clearly very, very busy. I've seldom experienced such steady traffic flow for hours on end. But when it died at about 6:00 pm Sunday, it was like a rock falling. The trains stopped totally after one intermodal that clearly looked like a final cleanup move to get power west, with about 6 or 7 big GE's on the point, and a relatively short stack train behind. The radio suddenly went dead silent, and ATCS Monitor showed zero activity for many miles westward. It was over. Time to head home.

Hope you have a great Labor Day holiday weekend, and if you go railfanning, that you find and photograph or video something equally (or more) interesting and enjoyable. Good luck!

MC
Muskegon, Michigan



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/19 06:47 by ironmtn.

 Plenty of activity at this location to keep one occupied....

Good video MC. I definitely need to head over there one of these days.

Posted from iPhone

Nice video, nothing like that down where I live. How do they push the barges so straight in that narrow passageway without rubbing the side or going crooked?

Really great video.  Was that bridge ever a swing span to allow taller vessels to pass beneath?
SR2

Fantastic! Really enjoyed it. That's what I call having a really good day.

SR2 Wrote:
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> Really great video.  Was that bridge ever a swing
> span to allow taller vessels to pass beneath?
> SR2

Thanks for the compliments. Glad you both enjoyed it. Yes, the bridge was built as a swing span in 1898, with the pivot point on the north bank of the canal. A somewhat uncommon design for drawbridges. My understanding is that the span has been fixed in place now for many years. Here's a link to an aerial view in winter, looking northeastward toward Chicago from the west side of the bridge: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Chicago_Sanitary_and_Ship_Canal%2C2010-01-23.jpg

You can clearly see the pivot point on the north bank of the canal. My location for the video is on the south bank, in the small area where the snow has been cleared from atop the canal wall.

steamloco Wrote:
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> Nice video, nothing like that down where I live.
> How do they push the barges so straight in that
> narrow passageway without rubbing the side or
> going crooked?

Lots of skill and practice. Growing up in St. Louis, I've known a number of river pilots through the years. Like good locomotive engineers and trainmen, they love their work, and take great pride in doing it well. Their qualification process to be at the helm in the pilothouse is just as rigorous as for locomotive engineers, and is also territory-based. So, they know the reach of the river they work on very well. It helps too that the towboats are designed for close and tight maneuverability, and response to fine adjustments in orientation. Like many of us who grew up near waterways, I am as interested in commercial navigation as in rail transportation.

MC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/19 07:09 by ironmtn.

ironmtn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SR2 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Really great video.  Was that bridge ever a
> swing
> > span to allow taller vessels to pass beneath?
> > SR2
>
> Thanks for the compliments. Glad you both enjoyed
> it. Yes, the bridge was built as a swing span in
> 1898, with the pivot point on the north bank of
> the canal. A somewhat uncommon design for
> drawbridges. My understanding is that the span has
> been fixed in place now for many years. Here's a
> link to an aerial view in winter, looking
> northeastward toward Chicago from the west side of
> the bridge:
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c
> d/Chicago_Sanitary_and_Ship_Canal%2C2010-01-23.jpg
>
>
> You can clearly see the pivot point on the north
> bank of the canal. My location for the video is on
> the south bank, in the small area where the snow
> has been cleared from atop the canal wall.
>
> steamloco Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nice video, nothing like that down where I
> live.
> > How do they push the barges so straight in that
> > narrow passageway without rubbing the side or
> > going crooked?
>
> Lots of skill and practice. Growing up in St.
> Louis, I've known a number of river pilots through
> the years. Like good locomotive engineers and
> trainmen, they love their work, and take great
> pride in doing it well. Their qualification
> process to be at the helm in the pilothouse is
> just as rigorous as for locomotive engineers, and
> is also territory-based. So, they know the reach
> of the river they work on very well. It helps too
> that the towboats are designed for close and tight
> maneuverability, and response to fine adjustments
> in orientation. Like many of us who grew up near
> waterways, I am as interested in commercial
> navigation as in rail transportation.
>
> MC


There are also hydrodynamic forces at work....water in an incompressable fluid so at some point the force it exterts against the barge trying to squeeze it against the bank, will push back and act like a  solid surfce, preventing the barge from  hitting the bank.  It also works to draw vessels classing close in opposite or similar directions to move toward each other.. Water is pretty amazing stuff....

Bob

Thank you for this comment. It adds some really useful perspective, and explains a lot of things that I have seen over the years with barge tows on inland waterways (and with larger vessels, like Great Lakes freighters). One of the river pilots I have known may have explained this to me at some point (and probably did), but I had long forgotten it. Your knowledgeable comment as a naval architect is a welcome addition.

MC