Remnants of the SP "Rat Hole" (Photos)

[Modelcar]

Dave...Believe the Triple Crown is an important run through this route....I have been up at the "Depot"...now Trail Head...but the NS tracks are parallel to the Trail there for a few hundred feet....and I've been there several time as it rolls through and it in general is very quiet as it passes....and impressive and strange at the same time being close to it as it slips pass...Just a little strange to have trailers slipping by, by the dozens and realizing their doing it on the rails.....and without heavy rail cars under them. Sure seems like an effecient way to move certain merchandise and in a pretty rapid manner.

At the same time when seeing 140 trailers on such train....realizing that is 140 trucks not running the interstate.....Wish we would see more of the system being used in more locations.

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MP173


I was in the Southside of Chicago today with a young sales trainee and he asked about a couple of locations, which I havent even thought about in years. Old factories on Pershing Avenue that once were busy are now either vacant or used for warehouses.

I actually grew up in Chicago. We lived North of Wrigley, then moved into a place right next to the EJ&E in the suburbs. We came out here when I was 18, so I never got a chance to see the Chicago urban stuff, like Lakewood Branch and all that, in person. You've probably seen it already, but there's an excellent street running site for Chicago here:
http://www.chicagoswitching.com/chicagoswitching/v3/

Dave

[MP173]

Thanks for the interesting photo essay. It is interesting to look at areas like that and let your mind wander about what might have been years ago.

I was in the Southside of Chicago today with a young sales trainee and he asked about a couple of locations, which I havent even thought about in years. Old factories on Pershing Avenue that once were busy are now either vacant or used for warehouses.

ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lonewoof

Not to beat a dead horse -- but I don't see the problem (alleged) with this website. I see the entire menu selection in the left pane; no need for a scroll bar. Right pane HAS a scroll bar, and will also scroll with my mouse roll wheel...
(Windows XP/internet explorer...)

Just out of curiousity, do you use yout browser in "full screen" mode?

I have to physically stretch the browser to full screen proportions in order to expose the improperly dispayed menu items

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

I know this area very well, as I work downtown, I hadave a friend who lived in this very area during the first wave of Urban Loft renewal back in the 90's, he shared a 3000sq.ft loft on 7th and Santa Fe St. thought he was on top of the world as an "Urban Pioneer". Well, the area turned into "Thunderdome" every night (still does) the "nieghbors" (crackheads, hookers, & just plain crazies) broke into his old beat up car every night, got to the point where he left the windows rolled down, the glovebox open, and a small sign saying (no cash, no radio, no nothing) so they stole his battery, and one time found a guy asleep in it!.....he moved the second his lease was up[;)]

I can remember this area from years ago when they were still switching cars into various factories here, even up to the mid 80's there was traffiic in a few places, but by the early 90's most of it dissappeared. I can still remember as a child (late 60's, early 70's) trains street running on Alameda Blvd.
[8D]

That's interesting, because I have thought about getting a place down there for years. I work in filming, so I know the area very well from that. I always wondered what it would be like. The neighborhood in itself is actually a lot more civilized now, just in terms of having things available to you and stuff. But yes, the street people are still there. And ironically, on weekends during the day, it's more quiet then a lot of residential streets. In the late 80's, it was still very much for just the diehard artist/musician crowd. To be honest, I kind of liked that era more. I use to photograph people on 7th Place, which back then was a rag factory and some other businesses. Now they seem to have refurbished everything on that block for lofts. I've been inside a lot of them... The old fire station right there is cool. But yes, it still takes a certain kind of bravery to live there full time. I think the city still comes down and uses a front end loader to scoop away all the cardboard box "housing" from under 6th St. Bridge about once a year. The last place I recall seeing a car set-out at, was the track in front of the Starkman Warehouse on Palmetto. I think it was a tank car.

And Modelcar... We use to have the Swift sets running up the UP out here. That was always a good train to catch. I think it use to have one GE usually. I believe they stopped running those though.

Dave

[vsmith]

Windows 2000 Professional

Looks fine to me,

I know this area very well, as I work downtown, I hadave a friend who lived in this very area during the first wave of Urban Loft renewal back in the 90's, he shared a 3000sq.ft loft on 7th and Santa Fe St. thought he was on top of the world as an "Urban Pioneer". Well, the area turned into "Thunderdome" every night (still does) the "nieghbors" (crackheads, hookers, & just plain crazies) broke into his old beat up car every night, got to the point where he left the windows rolled down, the glovebox open, and a small sign saying (no cash, no radio, no nothing) so they stole his battery, and one time found a guy asleep in it!.....he moved the second his lease was up[;)]

I can remember this area from years ago when they were still switching cars into various factories here, even up to the mid 80's there was traffiic in a few places, but by the early 90's most of it dissappeared. I can still remember as a child (late 60's, early 70's) trains street running on Alameda Blvd.

Thanks for sharing it.[8D]

[lonewoof]

Not to beat a dead horse -- but I don't see the problem (alleged) with this website. I see the entire menu selection in the left pane; no need for a scroll bar. Right pane HAS a scroll bar, and will also scroll with my mouse roll wheel...
(Windows XP/internet explorer...)

[Modelcar]

DPD1.....The Triple Crown is highly used on this route...I've seen up to 140 cars..{trailers}, on the train and when it's that long it has generally had {2}, 6-axle engines pulling it. I believe they run on the old Pennsy route {now NS}, across Pennsylania too...I believe a lot of auto parts are moved in them.

[DPD1]

There's many locations you might recognize in all those photos. I don't have that movie, but sounds like the same buildings. There aren't really any other industrial buildings that look like that, and there has been a lot of stuff filmed there... Especially down between the buildings. If you ever saw the X Files episode where they were fighting the virtual girl in the video game... A lot of that was filmed there, like when they're shooting at the motorcycles. And yes, there's a water tower on the Western one. The area in general has been filmed hundreds of times. "Repo Man" is a good film tribute to that area... Most of it was filmed around there.

Dave

[traingeek087]

err, looked at the movie and their are three buildings, but there was a water tower on the end one, and one of them didn't have windows, the one in the middle. Was it like this on the other side of the building?

[DPD1]

Oh, OK... I didn't know they were still running that. I think that might be the inherent reason why the road-railers haven't caught on in a big way... I think they're a little more unstable, compared to normal cars. It looked like an interesting train in the video though... I think they were using a single GP60, which is pretty cool.

Dave

[traingeek087]

LOOK AT THE PICTURES OF THE OLD SOUTHERN PACIFIC WAREHOUSES AT THE END, AREN'T THOSE THE BUILDING IN THE "FAST AND THE FURIOUS" WHEN BRIAN HAS HIS ECLIPSE!? I'M GOING TO WATCH THE MOVIE RIGHT NOW AND SEE IF I CAN TELL.

[Modelcar]

DPD1....Yes, and still does....The Triple Crown train comes through here from up north and on it's way to the deep south...Believe as far as Jacksonville, Fl.....In fact that train has derailed twice here in Muncie in the past year or so...It has a long sweeping curve to go around and it is on a slight grade to gain height to go over several overpasses in the city and for some reason has pulled off on the inside of the curve....

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

Not sure what kind of a set-up you have TheAntiGates, but I'm on Windows XP with Mozilla Firefox and the website looks great.

Well, I'm using mozilla under SUSE 9.2 and what I'm seeing is...2 major columns in the page targeted..

A narrow one on the left under a heading of DPDP....with a menu below it starting with "HOME",...and in the visible listing I get as far as " Referance- General Frequencies" and cannot get below that menu item.. There is no "scroll bar".

Then, on the Right side of the page I see a (Star)DPDP (Star) with a grid of 9 photos below,.... Followed by a listing Starting out with "New Products to check out" followed by his credit card thingie, his disclaimer verbage, and his 'made with Mac" statemenr


ALL OF WHICH I CAN ACCESS just fine with a conveniant and working scroll bar.

So, why is there a scroll bar in the right hand column, but not in the left hand colunn?

Looks to me like he has a problem....and you'd think he'd be more interested in fixing it than trying to justify it....I would if it was mine.

Telling people to go to a commercial site and look for a "gallery" that they cannot even access, then shoving a "Pay Pal" board in their face instead....seems a little more than just impolite to me,.. In fact it seems kinda "bait and switchy" if you ask me...

[Anonymous]

Not sure what kind of a set-up you have TheAntiGates, but I'm on Windows XP with Mozilla Firefox and the website looks great.

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

Dave....That is a wild bunch of photos of the massive rail trails in that area of some years ago...
There is an area called "The Rat Hole" on NS south of Cincinnati and on south.....That route comes through Muncie, In. here from Ft. Wayne.

I started running into references to that while searching for info on the SP stuff. Didn't they use to run the road railers on that? I recall they did a cab ride video for that.

Dave

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TheAntiGates

QUOTE: Originally posted by DPD1

I recently put together a little photo essay that focuses on the remaining visible evidence of the old SP "Rat Hole" industrial tracks, on the East side of downtown Los Angeles. I've been meaning to do this for years, but I probably waited a little too long... There's little equipment left, but broken sections of track are still fairly numerous. Go to the 'Railroad Gallery' page of my site below.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

Granted, I don't use Windows or MS Interner explorer,..... but the HTML at the link you provide is some of the most screwed up code I have ever seen... the left hand menu is too "Tall" for the space alloted, and no scroll bar was available for the left hand menu, meaning I Had to stretch the browser window vertically in order to expand the menu.

Since it (the site) is OBVIOUSLY a commercial endeavor trying to sell antennas, if I were you I'd fire whoever coded that trash for you... and get a subcontractor who knows what he is doing.

1. I can't fire myself... Though sometimes I wish I could.

2. If that's the most screwed up thing you've seen on a web site, you must not spend much time on the Internet.

3. The site has been up for quite a while, and you're the first person to say they have any problem with it. It's been tested in IE, NS, AOL & Safari, on different platforms, and worked fine on all. 100% compliance in all versions, of all browsers, on all platforms, is impossible.

4. A few buttons were added recently, and that did lengthen the menu frame a tad. I've shortened the graphics to give more room.

Dave

[Modelcar]

Dave....That is a wild bunch of photos of the massive rail trails in that area of some years ago...
There is an area called "The Rat Hole" on NS south of Cincinnati and on south.....That route comes through Muncie, In. here from Ft. Wayne.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DPD1

I recently put together a little photo essay that focuses on the remaining visible evidence of the old SP "Rat Hole" industrial tracks, on the East side of downtown Los Angeles. I've been meaning to do this for years, but I probably waited a little too long... There's little equipment left, but broken sections of track are still fairly numerous. Go to the 'Railroad Gallery' page of my site below.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

Granted, I don't use Windows or MS Interner explorer,..... but the HTML at the link you provide is some of the most screwed up code I have ever seen... the left hand menu is too "Tall" for the space alloted, and no scroll bar was available for the left hand menu, meaning I Had to stretch the browser window vertically in order to expand the menu.

Since it (the site) is OBVIOUSLY a commercial endeavor trying to sell antennas, if I were you I'd fire whoever coded that trash for you... and get a subcontractor who knows what he is doing.

[DPD1]

Thanks guys... I too would have liked to see it in full operation. It must have been a nightmare keeping all that street running track in service. I would be interested to see some maps or photos from the old days. I haven't found much yet, but I'll keep looking. I would encourage people in other cities to maybe go out and try to do the same thing. NY and KC come to mind. It's actually quite fun... Plus you get a lot of exercise. :-)

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

[Richard A]

Dave,

Thanks! For those of us old enough to have seen areas similar to the Rat Hole (although on a lesser scale) in other parts of the country, your pictures speak volumes.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing those. I wi***hat I could have seen the area in its heyday. It must have been something to watch.

[Anonymous]

Dave, thanks for sharing.

Hard to believe that at one time the "Rat Hole" was probably a buzz of activity with rail crews working around the clock, now there's nothing more than sections of rail and the odd pair of stop blocks.

Amazing to see the transitions that take place over the years, decades.

Thanks again,
Macguy

[DPD1]

I recently put together a little photo essay that focuses on the remaining visible evidence of the old SP "Rat Hole" industrial tracks, on the East side of downtown Los Angeles. I've been meaning to do this for years, but I probably waited a little too long... There's little equipment left, but broken sections of track are still fairly numerous. Go to the 'Railroad Gallery' page of my site below.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/