Passenger Trains > Aerial view of CTA's Howard terminal

The point of this flight was to try and get a Metra UP-N train, a CTA yellow line train, and a CTA Purple line train all moving and crossing over each other simultaneously at the northwest corner of CTA's Howard terminal. That luck didn't emerge. But I thought these photos might be of interest, showing Howard station in the distance, and a portion of the Howard Terminal. Yellow Line, Purple Line, and Red Line trains are all potentially visibile in this location, as the three routes split here (Yellow goes underneath, Purple is overhead, Red heads south from Howard.) In the second photo a Red Line train is turning on the tighter loop track. A longer one goes around the whole yard.

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So what's the fare for a trip around the balloon track?

PHall Wrote:
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> So what's the fare for a trip around the balloon
> track?

Free, if you can hide on the car when the northbound run ends!

Now that's my kind of Model Railroad!

Nice clean well-maintained facility!

Good use of double slip switches to save space.  Does the NB Yellow line go up to Skokie on the old CNS&M right of way?

Electroliner Wrote:
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> Good use of double slip switches to save space. 
> Does the NB Yellow line go up to Skokie on the old
> CNS&M right of way?

I believe it does. I'm sure some others on here would know the specifics. I wonder if it always ducked into the trench under Clark St., Metra, and for a bit west of there.

Yes, the Skokie Line follows the old North Shore Skokie Valley Route out to Dempster. Essentially the same alignment, ducking down as it heads west from Howard and then up to cross the river. I think the CTA might have owned the line as far as the Skokie Shops, but I'm not entirely sure.

The Howard station, yard, and approach tracks are sure different compared to the "good old days" of the '50's and '60's.

Another note that just came to mind... in the last two weeks I've noticed that CTA has dumped some extra ballast on the southbound Purple and Red Line tracks between Jarvis and Morse. It still is that small crushed stone that is much smaller that any ballast I've seen on other railroads. I always wonder - why?

inCHI Wrote:
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> Another note that just came to mind... in the last
> two weeks I've noticed that CTA has dumped some
> extra ballast on the southbound Purple and Red
> Line tracks between Jarvis and Morse. It still is
> that small crushed stone that is much smaller that
> any ballast I've seen on other railroads. I always
> wonder - why?

CTA's standard mainline ballast size is AREMA #4 with a smaller maxiumum size (2")  that AREMA #3 (2.5") which most freight and passenger railroads use for main tracks. 

I have some photos of Howard St. taken from platform level that I like to post on Facebook whenever some misguided soul starts touting the glories of "monorail" systems.
 

Very cool photos!  Thanks for posting them.

Andy

Dempster was also the terminus of the old Chicago Rapid Transit Company’s Niles Center line, which used the CNS&M right-of-way until successor CTA ended the Niles Center service in 1948.

Oliver Barrett

Wow, haven’t seen the Howard terminal before, that is very cool and such a compact layout it’s begs to be modeled. Thanks for posting.

Nathan

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