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From: "J DOT Henry Priebe Jr DOT " root AT net DOT bluemoon DOT net
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 12:55:47 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Chicago River service
"Erie_St_5.jpg" - image/jpeg, 49676 bytes, 727x500 (24bit)


List member Ken Dabisch sent these photos and this email to the list and it
bounced because his mailer attached them as application/x-java-applet instead
of image/jpeg for some reason.

I extracted them manually from the bounce so I could repost them here.

Please address replies to Ken and not me!

Henry

J. Henry Priebe Jr. Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net Railfan Network Services


Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:30:02 -0600
From: Ken & Carol Dabisch
To: erielack-digest@lists.Railfan.net
Subject: (erielack) Chicago River service

WARNING -- Far west end content -- delete if not interested!

Early last year I purchased back issues of the Diamond, Vol. 7 #1&2. In
them there's an article by Bernard Sennstrom on the Erie Chicago River
service. From 1913 to 1936 the Erie loaded freight cars on and off of
car floats and moved them through Chicago via the Chicago River. The
Erie actually had small RR yards at several places along the river,
where this took place. I was amazed to read about this activity,
unknown to me, in my home town by my favorite railroad.

I took two 'field trips' into Chicago to see if there was any remnant or
artifact of this, in May and Sept of last year. I visited the Erie
Street area and the 18th Street area. Not surprisingly, there was no
trace of the former rail/river activity. The 18th Street area was once
a large Chicago & Western Indiana RR (Erie part owner) yard; this is
completely gone and replaced by a large city park and vacant land. The
Erie Street property was in the process of being renovated into another
city park. In both cases the shoreline had been completely re-done and
any signs of previous car float activity were gone.

I took many photos, and have attached a few:

Erie St #1 -- View looking east along Erie Street. The former Erie yard
was on this property.
Erie St #2 -- Looking NW toward the location of the Erie yard (to the
left). The tracks in the pavement (Kingsbury St) are ex-Milwaukee Road
tracks that the Erie connected to.
Erie St #3 and #4 -- Views showing the shoreline renovation that
obliterated any evidence of rail float activity. In the river in the
foreground of #4 are what looks like old wood pilings -- perhaps this is
a remnant of the float bridge that was once there.
Erie St #5 and map #1 -- This photo shows two concrete pads that,
curiously, are located at the same area and same orientation as the yard
office on the map in the Diamond article, which is map #1. That spot is
highlighted in yellow. (I've re-oriented both maps so that north is up.)
Erie St map #2 -- This is a detail from an Illinois Waterway Chart book
by the Army Corps of Engineers, dated 1974. It shows the Erie street
yard (highlighted in yellow) with trackage still present, although I
think by that time the tracks must have been removed (?). It also still
shows the place along the shoreline for the float bridge. Did the
Milwaukee Road perhaps buy and use this yard after Erie ceased
operations there (in 1936)? I doubt it -- I think the RR detail on this
map is just out of date.
18th St #1 -- Taken from 18th St bridge looking east, showing river
shoreline area where the Erie float bridge and C&WI yard once was.
18th St #2 -- Same area, but looking north along shoreline.
18th St #3 -- Overall view of the area, taken from the 18th St bridge
looking SW. I tried to approximate the same photo location as the photo
in the recent Diamond Vol. 18 #3, page 16, which showed the Phoebe Snow
arriving Chicago in 1963. Quite a change from then to now!

I really wish I would have explored these areas 30-40 years ago, but I
guess that's the railfan's lament.

I realize that interest in this far west end stuff is close to nil, but
...... do any list members or ELHS members have any info on this beyond
what was in the excellent Diamond article? Is anyone out there
interested in this? Is Bernard Sennstrom still involved? How can he be
contacted?

Any information or comments would be appreciated.

Ken Dabisch
ELHS #3275



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