Chicago LaSalle Street Station in the '50s

[ETR_500]

Dear Railfans,

I'm taking a great interest for learning something more about Chicago LaSalle Street Station (the former 1903-1981 building, preceding the pulling down): I've seen it last evening watching Hitchcock's 1959 movie "North by Northwest". Well, as you surely remember, Cary Grant arrives to Chicago on NYC "20th Century Limited", travelling clandestinely to avoid Police inspection. If I've got it right, the Chicago station reached should be LaSalle Street.

However, to this point I have to say that old LaSalle Street Station in the movie seems to be rather small: is my impression wrong? So, I ask you:

1 - how many tracks did old 1903-1981 LaSalle Street Station have?

2 - being Rock Island, NYC and Nickel Plate Road terminal, I would like to know how these railroads managed railway traffic entering in the station. Did each company have its own tracks and platforms?

Thanks for your attention.

[Bobster]

Greetings,

  I'll take a stab at this.  I'm kind of tired so I might ramble.  While others may know the flow better, I will try the decription as I remember it from the mid 1960's. A 13 story brick building.  10 to 12 tracks wide grouped in pairs dead ending in a low shed at the south side of the 13 story building.  There were heavy beams above and it was kind of dark inside the train shed.  The tracks narrowed down to about 4  just south of the station.  There was an elevated train just outside the front door so you really could not see the front of the station.  I rode the Peoria Rocket to Chicago with my dad.  My first train ride in 1966 or 67.  I went through again in June(?) 1969 on a trip to see a Cardinals & Cubs baseball game.  A favorable outcome...Cardinals 3 Cubs 1.  There was a sign in the station pointing one way for RI tickets and another way for NYC and Nickle Plate Rd tickets. Early in its history the train shed was much higher.

I know about 6 miles south, at Englewood, the New York Central tracks split off and turned East.  I don't remember where the Nickle Plate split off.  A little searching for Chicago Railroads and LaSalle Street Station should help you find what you need.  

Check Your E-mail,

Bob Lipka 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

NKP split off from the NYC main line near Grand Crossing and went over the IC before heading south.  This line is what's being considered for Amtrak trains to get to the IC if the St. Charles Air Line is closed.

In the 1930's, RI (1) and NYC (4) had some dual-power locomotives that were used to switch La Salle Street Station.  They were the same as NYC's tri-powers in New York City except that they lacked the third-rail gear.

[RRCharlie]

ETR_500;

If you can find the July 2003 issue of TRAINS magazine, there is a foldout of the Chicago area that shows how the various railroads entered Chicago in 1928.

Quoting from John Szwajkart's 3rd Edition of Train Watcher's Guide to Chicago:

"The Nickle Plate Road had only one line into the area, and this came from the East. Actual entry into the area was east of Thomaston(,Indiana). The line went West Northwest toward Valpariso, then ran alongside the PRR Fort Wayne Line to Hobart. Here the two separated and the NKP went through the South side of Gary, across the EJ&E at Van Loon, and into Hammond. After crossing the NYC at Osborn, the line headed for downtown Hammond and Homan Avenue Crossing, IHB, then north to State Line Crossing. There the line entered Illinois and went Northwest through Burnham into Chicago alonside the C&WI. Generally following the C&WI, the line headed North-Northwest past Calumet Yard to Pullman Junction.

Here the road made connections with the C&WI and the BRC. Its mainline continued across these two lines and the CRL(RI), Northwest to the IC mainline. It then followed alongside the IC to just South of Grand Crossing, crossed over the IC, ran along the west side of the tracks toward the NYC and PRR, then went under the two. Once on the North side of the NYC main, the line turned and followed alongside the NYC for a short distance, then joined the NYC."

I was in LaSalle Street station once or twice before Amtrak and the assignment of trains by railroad to specific tracks was not too obvious, but each train was probably spotted on a particular track on a regular basis so employees and regular passengers didn't have to guess where their train was parked.

Long winded, but the Chicago map is a maze. Hope this helps.

Mel Hazen; Jax, FL

[Cris_261]

I've got a couple of LaSalle Street Station related questions to add to this thread.

1. What sort of building now occupies the spot where the station was located?

2. Near the end of the station's (and Rock Island's) life, was it pretty run down inside and out, or did Rock Island try to take care of the building as much as possible?

[daveklepper]

Answering specific questions:  There was no permanent assignment of specific tracks and specific platforms to each of the three railroad systems using the station.   However, a pattern of usage developed that saw each departure repeating the same track day after day, and this included both the suburban trains (nearly all Rock Island) and the long distance trains.

The elevated railroad (Loop) platform nearest the station had a direct entrance/exit with the second story of the station, if my memory is correct.

[Bobster]

Hello again,

 

  The front (North) of the old building can be found on a post card at www.rr-fallenflags.org  look for Rock Island in the R section.  You will have to scroll down aways in the Rock Island section but the picture is there.

 Later,

Bob Lipka

[rrboomer]

As much as possible they tried to get the outbound suburban (rush hour)trains on the same track every day. Commuters are like cattle, they tend to take the same path daily. With the main line passenger trains it somewhat depended on train length and/or what they would have blocked while in the train shed.

The NYC had a yard job handle their trains between LaSalle Street and the coach yard at 44th St. The road engine crew handled the road power to and from Englewood.

The Rock Island road engine crew and a switchman (backup) pilot handled their own train and engines between 51st St coach yard and the depot or the suburban coach yard at 12th St in the case of suburban trains. There was a turntable and servicing for the suburban engines at 16th St plus a bunk house for the engine crews laying there.

In the case of a non rush hour conventional equipment suburban train that would turn out of LaSalle St and had a dual control locomotive. The procedure was after stopping at the post and passengers were off, the fireman would turn off the lights (steam already off) and carman would cut the engine off train. Depot engine would then pull train south and road engine would follow them out (by signals) and go somewhere beside their train.  The depot engine would then shove train to the post (on maybe a different track). When the depot engine was done and out of way Polk St Tower would line the road engine in on their train, carman would couple it to train, cut in the air (steam if needed), fireman would plug in lights and train would be air tested.

I don't recall ever hearing anyone I worked with ever say how the NKP handled their passenger trains or where their coach yard was.

[rrboomer]

Between Polk St Tower and Root St Tower there were four main tracks The outer two (#2 to the east and #5 on west side) were signaled in both directions. Track #3 signaled inbound and #4 outbound.

Between Root St and 61st ST Tower there was track #1 (to the east) not signaled and track #6 not signaled, started at 44th St Tower and ended at 61st St.

Tracks 1-3 owned and maintained by NYC, tracks 4-6 by RI. The section was operated jointly by both roads and had it's own timetable/special instructions. Root St Tower was the Train Director for the joint section.

[Anonymous]

Not much to add.  In the fall of 1950, I started attending ATI at Lawrence and Broadway on the North side of Chicago.  I would ride the Rock Island commuter train from Joliet to LaSalle Street Station and could walk out the North side door and grab an elevated train north to the Lawrence station, very convenient and easier L service than what Union Station provided.

The commuter trains would use the westernmost tracks of the station and it was a rare day that the outbound trains would not be on the same track as the day before.  As rrboomer mentioned, commuters are like cattle; the train could be on a different track when it arrives, but it better be on a specific track when it leaves! 

 Art

[ETR_500]

Hello again, Railfriends!!!

I really don't know how to thank You for Your answers. You have allowed me to get an idea about the service standard. Nevertheless, excuse me if I repeat myself:

having been New York Central, in particular, one of the largest USA railroads, how could such a small station handle all NYC Chicago-bound trains (in addition to Rock Island and Nickel Plate ones) without reaching the saturation point?

Happy Easter.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Until 1953 or so, all Michigan Central trains arrived and departed from Central Station at Roosevelt and the Lakefront.  All Big Four trains also arrived and departed from Central Station until April 30, 1971.

La Salle Street also had, IIRC, twelve or fourteen tracks, almost the same as the south side of Chicago Union Station.

[cnwfan51]

   Ok its my turn to ask a question along this line   I have seen pictureas showiing the trackage and what look like shelters in the yard the caption read that they were used for protection for the switchtenders who lines the switches into and out of the station  Was that the case were all the switches thrown manually   Thanks Larryu

[rrboomer]

Polk Street Tower controlled all the switches at the south end of LaSalle St Station, plus there were many inside crossovers they controlled as well. 

Everyone had to work as a team to keep the depot fluid. The depot switch crew had to be in position to make their moves when needed, carmen, baggage handlers, and so on. It especially seems amazing today when you consider no one had a radio, except for what was on some of the locomotives. Everything was set up by telephone or the talkback speakers. For the most part the daily operation of the regular trains was fairly routine. Plan "B or C..." had to be developed when trains were late or extras operated.

[timz]

having been New York Central, in particular, one of the largest USA railroads, how could such a small station handle all NYC Chicago-bound trains (in addition to Rock Island and Nickel Plate ones)

The September 1947 timetable shows 27 NY Central departures from La Salle St, plus two Nickel Plate. I didn't count the Rock Islands yet-- until I do, I'll guess maybe 50 of them. And I'll guess 12-14 total departures in the busiest 60-minute period.

(The July 1947 Guide shows 66 weekday Rock Island departures from La Salle St.)

[jimrice4449]

At least until 1950when I moved w/ my family to Calif, the NKP would send a lt eng move (a USRA 0-8-0) into La Salle to PU any Wbound trains at the depot and would pull the whole outfit, eng and all, out to Calumet Yd.   I never saw the procedure for Ebound trains bur I would imagine it was just the reverse.

[wanswheel]

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=655142

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=677027

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/1/6/9/7169.1041994380.jpg

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/0/1/1/3011.1168671600.jpg

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/8/5/0/6850.1164895200.jpg

http://muse.museum.montana.edu/rvndb/rvn-jpgs/RVN13300.jpg 

http://photoswest.org/photos/00013501/00013583.jpg

http://www.trainweb.org/rshs/VD%20-%20LaSalle%20Street%20Station.htm

Excerpt from "Remembering Bix, A Memoir of the Jazz Age" by Ralph Berton

Anywhere in Chicago you were never far from the sound, sight and smell of a railroad. Chicago was the biggest rail center in the world, with I forget how many lines coming in from every corner of the North American continent -- the figure 72 sticks in my mind; is that possibe? anyhow a lot. You came smoothly rushing and swaying toward the big ugly town across miles of prairie, then suddenly you were passing a few smoking factories, then more farm and prairie, the telegraph wires outside the Pullman window smoothly rising and abruptly dropping like miles of music paper, birds dotting them like black sixteenth notes racing by in a swift silent melody over the never-ending rhythm of the wheels, then without any warning you were right in it, still going fast and smooth, past long stretches of grimy warehouses and blackened steel mills, the roadway at your side suddenly sinking down between gloomy streets and clattering across black iron bridges, getting more and more entangled in the wilderness of steel ribbons crisscrossing like giant tick-tack-toe boards, now gradually drifting to lesser speeds, rumbling over more miles of switches and curving track, everything around you getting blacker and smokier every minute, the long powerful train running at half speed now through the yards, passing with a sudden rush of sound another train, another train overtaking you and swaying alongside for a moment and then curving widely away on its own track, and another and another, converging, diverging, vanishing. "Chicago!... Chicago!" ... The conductor's drone as he strode calmly through the swaying cars, their overhead lamps swinging in perspective down the long aisle. "Chicago!... Chicago!"... It had a quickening, almost ominous note. "Chicago! ... LaSalle Street Station!..."

[Classic Fan]

I interviewed with the Rock Island at La Salle in 1974 and it was apparent the Rock did not have the financial means to maintain much of anything.  There offices upstairs were dreary and when I went to their auditing office on Polk St (about 2 blocks south of the station) it was in a warehouse type setting with minimal modifications for desks etc.

Earlier visit in 1965 to La Salle and other stations showed it to be in the worst repair of any Chicago station.  Platforms were cracked and broken up and trackwork rough.

[ZephyrOverland]

Cris_261

I've got a couple of LaSalle Street Station related questions to add to this thread.

1. What sort of building now occupies the spot where the station was located?

2. Near the end of the station's (and Rock Island's) life, was it pretty run down inside and out, or did Rock Island try to take care of the building as much as possible?

 

The site where La Salle Street Station existed is now occupied by the Chicago Board Options Exchange.  There is a small station facility at track level in the building itself, but you need to walk around the Chicago Board Options Exchange Building to access the station.

In the late 1970's a friend who was a Rock Island fan and I went to college in downtown Chicago.  Occasionally when we had long breaks between classes, we would walk down to La Salle Street Station to just walk around and see what was going on.  The structure was run down, grimy and falling apart.  The track platforms were decomposing and trains were wobbling as they were going in and out of the station.  On the other hand, there were reminders of better times, such as the architecture, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern and Rock Island designations that adorned both sides of the arched entrance, the neon sign that pointed out the Rock Island  and NYC ticket booths - but the neon was turned off on the NYC half, and the track designators that took their visual cues from the postwar NYC diesel paint scheme - the light gray one with dark gray stripes.

We visited the station at the last day of its operation in 1981 to see off the final RI commuter departure from the old station. It was very quiet and very empty - there was no celebratory sendoff for the old station like there was for Philadelphia's Broad Street Station a couple of decades earlier.  It was just my friend, myself and a security guard who wasn't above offering some station artifacts for a king's randsom.  All of the station retail shops were gone and the RI ticket office was basically empty.  We paid our respects, saw the final commuter run of the day off, and did a final exit from the facility.  I let my friend be the last "passenger" exiting from the old La Salle Street Station.  We visited the site in the following weeks to see the station's demolition, but also we witnessed the evolution of the area from a seedy section of the Loop to a modern commercial one, with new buildings and renovations of older buildings which at one time contained businesses that supported the long distance traveler who used La Salle Street Station.

[Deggesty]

Back more than fifty years ago, Rosemary Entringer wrote a brief article about riding a Rock Island Suburban Line train home which I enjoyed greatly. It was republished several years later, perhaps in connection with the notice of her death. In it, she wrote of hastening from the L to the station, going on through to her train, and the ride on down to her station. She was a gracious lady, and a great asset to Trains. 

[wjstix]

Yes, remember they weren't all there at once, and the trains didn't sit around all day waiting for people to get onboard. The cars would be moved from the coach yard of each railroad to the station track so people could start boarding. A road engine would come from the railroad's roundhouse and couple up to the train, pump up the air line and once you were all set ALL ABOARD and the train's gone. I suspect in some situations the whole process could get done in less than an hour - maybe quite a bit less.

BTW you might want to check out this book, I bought it a couple of weeks ago and liked it....

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