Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Bottle Trains Not Done Yet

While Cleveland Cliffs annouced the idling of some of their facilities last week including their Riverdale IL facilty, the actual closure has to wait 60 days before it happens. Until then, the NS bottle trains will continue to shuttle between East Chicago IN and Riverdale IL. As I am working out of a project office in Hammond IN, I usually head a few blocks north after work to the IHB main. The trains are predominantly vehicle trains to and from IHB's Gibson Yard but the bottle trains make occasional appearances. Such was thie case this afternoon when NS 5333 trundled west with five bottle cars between two Southern gons. 
These trains used to follow a set schedule but now seem to be random movements. 
Hammond is a good location as Willow Court is parallel to the IHB from State Line Road east to almost Gibson Yard (it goes west of State Line Road but the street is abysmal and there are usually parked coal gons blocking the view of the mains)

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I headed west into Illinois and found a sidestreet that led to tje tracks where I ngot some video 

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Excellent photos of the NS bottle train.I'll need to take a few moments to view the video.
This whole closing of Cleveland Cliffs facilities hits home a bit. Back in the "hayday" in the 1950-1960s, of steel making in the USA an uncle and a close high school friend's brother were employed by Alan Wood Steel. Compared to my Dad who held various jobs,after WW II, the steelworkers were " well to do". My dad did work there as a sample ladle carrier to catch a bit of a blast furnace output to deliver to the "labs" for diagnostics. I'm guessing his military recruitment in WW II ended that employment. I'll never get over the fact that the union steel workers in 1964 got 5 weeks of vacation. Holy SH*T! I felt lucky to get a week when I joined the work force in 1964. The unions were bleeding the steel makers dry! 
  In the early-Sixties, Alan Wood built a modern new blast furnace that was short in life account of the "Emission Standards" that arrived in the mid-Sixties.The old blast furnace on the west bank was dismantled. Over the years the adjacent Philadelphia Coke works was also shuttered. All of those childhood memories of steel mills were erased. Today the only remaining memories are of the rolling mills in Conshohocken, PA. Soon to be shuttered.
ARGH!!!
gonut

 

Thanks for the excellent photos and video.  Looking at all the power lines in the video, you must be at Calumet Park.
I began fanning The Bottles there in the mid-60's when they were still PRR; they came south on the SC&S to Bernice,
thence north on the Panhandle to Acme Riverdale.  Once the engine passed we stood a little closer to the track
to feel the heat of the passing cars. I have never heard of a derailment of this train.  Long live The Bottle Train.

Seventyfive Wrote:
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 I have never heard of a derailment of this train.  

Yeah that could get messy in a hurry...

JG

http://i.imgur.com/lpC9l.jpg

 

The video location is at the north end of Alice Street three blocks north of State Street. Map has it in Burnham, IL.
I don’t believe the NS moves these faster than 25 mph and the IHB mains are in good shape. That would seem to reduce the chances of derailments.

Posted from iPhone

Besides the vehicle trains for Gibson and the bottle trains, does CPKC still use the IHB (as part owner) Blue Island-Gibson-Indiana Harbor to gain their NS rights to Detroit and Windsor via Elkhart? Or their CSX rights to Buffalo for domestic stacks via Willow Creek?

pbouzide Wrote:
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> Besides the vehicle trains for Gibson and the
> bottle trains, does CPKC still use the IHB (as
> part owner) Blue Island-Gibson-Indiana Harbor to
> gain their NS rights to Detroit and Windsor via
> Elkhart? Or their CSX rights to Buffalo for
> domestic stacks via Willow Creek?

 CPKC uses the route you descibe and also sometimes uses the CSX Porter Branch from Gibson to Porter Jct.
 

It has been years since I last saw The Bottles in person, and what caught my attention here was seeing 
no spacer cars between each hot metal car, which I never saw in those years past.

Thank you for posting these pictures and the video Takes me back to my childhood in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago. I remember seeing bottle cars like that moving on the rail line west of Avenue O to the Republic Steel Mill ( now long gone ). In particular at the 134th St crossing. Could feel the heat as the cars went by.

Anyone know what was the source of that hot metal? And what is the history of that rail line? (very sure someone here does) Thank you in advance

Posted from iPhone

Seventyfive Wrote:
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> It has been years since I last saw The Bottles in
> person, and what caught my attention here was
> seeing 
> no spacer cars between each hot metal car, which I
> never saw in those years past.

The Idler cars were used to spread the weight of the train crossing a bridge over the ship canal.  Now, I'm told the train no longer uses the bridge, so the cars have been removed.

30in2029 Wrote:
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> Anyone know what was the source of that hot metal?
> And what is the history of that rail line? (very
> sure someone here does) Thank you in advance
>
It sounds like you're talking about the South Chicago & Southern, a Pennsy owned property that connected the Pennsy Fr. Wayne main on the north with the Pennsy Panhandle on the south at Lansing.  The bottle train originated at the Acme blast furnace along Torrence Ave and carried molten iron to the steel-making plant at Riverdale.  Acme is long gone--as is much of the SC&S--but Riverdale plant is now owned by Cleveland Cliffs.

Thank you Calumet
Appreciate your input to point me in the right direction. I do recall the Acme Steel plant on Torrence Ave.
I am going to do some further research - for my personal education.

The best printed reference about the SC&S and the PRR in the area is "The Pennsy in Chicago"
by the late Edward M. DeRouin.  Three rare photos of The Bottle Train are within.
To say this book is A+ would be an understatement.
It is in my all-time top five of the hundred or more rail history books I own.

30in2029 Wrote:
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> I am going to do some further research - for my
> personal education.

A couple more suggestions to consider, if you're interested. First one is a website that has a nice overall history of the Calumet District, including Acme Steel:

https://www.csu.edu/cerc/researchreports/documents/ChicagoSESideIndustrialHistory.pdf

Second one (if you haven't seen it) is the book "PRR Lines West: Vol 3," which has some nice maps of the area and a brief history of SC&S/PRR serving the Acme blast furnace which incidentally closed in 2001. That's when the bottle trains started running from the lake, usually from the YS&T or Inland plants.

JG

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/25 17:06 by jgilmore.

Recently came across this website.
The author has compiled a lot of information about the history of Acme Steel - including the contributions of rail service. There are some interesting photos

https://www.acmecoke.com/

A thousand thank yous for the two outstanding links above.  The amount of history in each is incredible.
Seeing the aerial photos of now vacant land where so many mills were hopping for years is shocking.

I worked on railroads near them in the 70's and 80's and drove past them almost daily.  
Working at the NS Calumet Yard, the sight of the coke plant after dark on second and third tricks
was really something, as was the smell when the wind was off Lake Michigan.
Still, those were great and interesting times.