A Century of Railroading in Chicago

[kschmidt]

Greetings,

I started vacation on Friday Sept 2nd so several friends and I decided to drive to Milwaukee's southern suburb of Chicago, IL. We were going to check out Pine Junction in Indiana which proved to be very busy and saw alot of trains. Then one person in the group found out that the UP #1982 (MOPAC Heritage Unit) was due into Chicago in the afternoon. So we thought we could catch it at Hayford Junction. Well our timing was a little off, but we caught UP 1982 in Clearing Yard.

We went up to the bridge over the yard and that is where the photos below were taken. Now about the century of railroading. I thought it was interesting that UP 1982 was coupled to UP 1882. A Century of Railroading right their in the consist. I don't know if this was done on purpose or accident.

Also while on the bridge over Clearing Yard we had our first experience with being "jacked up" for railfanning. A very pleasant Bedford Park Police officer actually stopped his squad in traffic, closing a lane of traffic on a very busy bridge. He said they had recieved a call about us taking pictures from the bridge. The officer said he knew right away it was just people taking train pictures. He did ask for our ID's which we produced, I also happened to show my work ID which happens to be a 7-pointed star. That made the officer even more cordial. He said it happens quite often that they calls, but they have to check it out. After calling in the ID's he asked if I could work on the Wisconsin State Patrol easing up on Illinois drivers, then he left.

Here are shots of the Century of Railroad in Chicago.



Here the UP 1982 and UP 1882 pull their train in Clearing Yard in Chicago, IL



After cutting away from the train the UP 1982 and 1988 head towards the diesel shop in Clearing.



Here is an overhead shot of UP 1982 in Clearing Yard. Its a good looking unit.

Keith

[Noah Hofrichter]

Keith, another great catch! Your right, it is kinda weird that both of those units were together!. I've yet to see the Heritage units, but I'm hoping one comes strolling through Wisconsin on the Adams line some time, or at least up to Butler. That's probably about the only way I'll get to see any of them. But again, great photos!

Noah

[kschmidt]

Noah,

I would love to see any of the Heritage units come through Milwaukee. But it sounds like they are trying to keep them in the area of the railroad they represent. However we have the advantage of having the Heritage Units being painted right here in Wisconsin at Horicon. So we should have the chance to see each one as it rolls out of the paint shop.

Keith

[Wdlgln005]

I'm going to guess the photos were from the Cicero avenue bridge, on the east side of the Clearing yard. The diesel shop is very visible nearby. The WalMart is vey close to RR property. THe Hayford junction is about 1.5 miles east of there. Bedford Park begins just south of the bridge & runs west to Harlem.

Depending on where the units came from, another opportunity could have been if the BRC mainline was used. TRains go north & you can get shots fom any of the grade crossings between 67-63-59-55th streets. THe CTA Midway Orange Line tracks are right next to the track. You may get lucky if there's no CTA train on the outer station track. Trains will alternate the sides of the platform they run to. From the west side, trains run from Central to Cicero along 55th st to get to the mainline. The route can be busy with transfer action.

Thanks for the great photos!

[JoeKoh]

hey up can let csx borrow the new power anytime! thanks for the pics!
stay safe
joe