Street running railroads in the Chicago area
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South Shore's pair of ex-Iowa Interstate SD38-2's approach the Dearborn Ave crossing in Hammond, IN with the Belt Job, AF-4.
October 9, 2020
Working with a three man crew, the AF4 heads back north after working multiple industries including Kingsbury, Pigfeed, and interchange with the CN at Stillwell. Here the Chicago South Shore Kingsbury local is seen passing by the pond in La Porte as the sun begins to set. Big thanks to the conductor on the job for giving us a run down of the day's work.
Built in 1913 in Newcastle upon Tyne. A Canadian survey ship that served in both World Wars and survived the Halifax explosion. She surveyed the waters of Canada's Arctic and the coast of Newfoundland and was also used as a patrol and training vessel. Now permanently docked in Halifax Harbour next to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
South Shore 803 with trailing brand new Port Huron & Detroit boxcar, works near Hammond, Indiana on March 4, 1978
I've described the South Shore as the Duneland Essence on more than one occasion on here, and many many more times than that in real life conversation. While I'm grateful for the unique photo opportunities the Double Track NWI project is bringing, I can't help but feel sad that the centuries-in-the-making interurban feel will effectively die with it. That is what I, and most others that I know, will miss the most. Scenes such as this, an electrified commuter railroad coming within 25' of a house, and but up against multiple backyards with nothing in between the two. This isn't some two-times-yearly used branchline for railcar storage, though I've always felt this location certainly gives that impression. You might notice the basketball hoop in the backyard of the blue house - sure enough, a few minutes before this was taken, the local youth were playing a friendly game that resulted in their ball landing right in the middle of the gauge multiple times.
But, as I mentioned, I have to be grateful that there are still -some- opportunities available to photograph trains in these places, and with so much work going on, what you can frame up are often subjects you could almost never see before the project began. This train was no exception.
The current infrastructure has had the capability to run electrified passenger trains many times a day between mileposts 33.0, where we are here, and 44.0 near Dune Park. Now, this stretch has been completely deenergized - overhead electric, signals, everything is now dark. Instead of doing 79 miles per between Michigan City and Chesterton, all train movements are now warrant-controlled, restricted to 25mph max, and all road crossings between the two mileposts are considered out of service, requiring all trains to stop before proceeding at each. Thankfully, a very small amount of CSS freight trains and the occasional work train on the NICTD side are all that pass through this stretch. This is a bit different though.
NICTD is still offering options for passengers to be bused between stations at Michigan City and Dune Park (out of the work zone, where business is still as usual). As a result, the passenger trains now begin and terminate at Dune Park, where they can be serviced at the base level - mostly just janitorial tasks. But, like everything in life, it's only a matter of time before something more serious requires attention from a shop - in this case, the South Shore's shops in Michigan City.
To take care of this, the passenger guys have been doing occasional ferry moves of EMUs between the two locations through the work zone, and here is one such example. My favorite motor on the South Shore period (freight and passenger considered), NICD 1001, with all its nose light excellence, was the power this morning with five EMUs for Dune Park. The crew has just received their track warrant to pass the dark signal directly behind me, and are treating me and my camera to quite a smoke-filled show getting their train back up to speed... smoking is another nice trait about this unit. The horn ain't bad either!
And thus completes another caption that is entirely too long. I should try writing a book sometime or something, so many words would look a lot less awkward in one...
Chicago South Shore & South Bend GP38-2 2003 — properly equipped with a Leslie five-chime — breaks the silence of a quiet Michigan City morning as it jogs down 11th Street, en route to Shops.
Having spent December 2018 through July 2022 in the East Coast, I missed the last days of the South Shore Freight / NICTD street running in Michigan City in February 2022. At the time, I was a little displeased that I missed getting those last classic shots, like dipping down the grade at 11th St. and Lafayette and passing First Christian Church, or snaking onto 10th St. after clearing the Amtrak diamond.
Therefore, the promise of a relatively rare eastbound freight on the morning of August 6, 2022, was something of consolation prize for being six months late to the party. No more were scenes that seethed of an interurban railroad, with two steel ribbons laying in the pavement, boxed in by a series of stick homes and bungalows, and capped by overhead wire.
In retrospect, this consolation prize was worth more than the proverbial big check. Truly, how long will this brief moment in time — when the first crossties and continuous welded rail of the second track are going in, but the catenary and overhead wire still aren't in — be available? Certainly shorter than the century that photographers had to capture the classic Michigan City scenes hundreds of times over.
South Shore train AF4 heads west through the Hegewisch on its way to interchnage with the BRC. Sep 26, 2024
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Original exposure: ISO 100, 12mm, f/4, 1/200sec.
Visited the great locks at Hüntel - Emsland, Germany - at the 174km long Dortmund-Ems-Kanal again this evening, originally built in 1896. I watched ships like this come and go, raised or lowered, waiting for the gates to close and open as they continue their journey.
Got some great long exposure ghost ships as well! Will post them tomorrow.
DRI: digitally blended the sky from another bracketed shot in continues mode right after.
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A three-car eastbound South Shore passenger train crosses the ICG heading for home rails at Kensington Tower on a very frigid morning, in January 1982.
The SD38-2 set slowly winds through the S curve crossing the CSX Barr sub, approaching Gary.
Miller, IN.
03-27-21
CSS 2009 runs through the controlled siding under the x-Michigan Central coal tower in Michigan City. A large number of cars for USALCO and Shell necessitated the move.
Cooler than any tea kettle, streamliner or heritage unit this everyday South Shore Freight train heads east down 11th street in Michigan City, Indiana
CSS train AF2 just came through the drawbridge on Amtrak's Michigan line. The CSS works a couple industries on this side of the river. It was another frigid day in the Midwest. I woke up to -12 degrees, drove the 2 1/4 hours to Michigan City to chase the CSS down the Kingsbury line. When I arrived, I received the disappointing news that they were not running down there today. But found out the AF2 job was waiting near Drawbridge for Amtrak to go by. Thanks to KV for the tip.
The theme of my weekend was MOODLE and INTRO to CSS. Saturday am woke up at 4am burning with the desire to record my top ten tips for new edna Groups users. Shared it in the edna Group Owners forum and will work up a blog post soon.
Saturday night watched a great series of how to videos from the Moodleman himself Julian Ridden on how to create a Moodle template.
Tonight, I dug in and gave it a go. This is NOT the finished product, it's where I had to stop for tonight. I had a fantastic time learning and love, love, love Firebug, Dreamweaver, Filezilla and Gimp in concert. Also LOVE Colour Picker. (Yes I know Dreamweaver can FTP, no I haven't set it up yet cuz I was impatient.)
DOM = document object model (everything on a single web page *document* everything on that page is an object. Colour picker can spit back a palette of a web.
Seeing a South Shore 800 was always a treat for me. The CSS&SB's version of the Little Joe was massive, powerful, and sleek. It didn't make any difference if it was moving or standing still, the 800's were hard to beat.
Airbus A320-212 of Anda Air (operated by Jonika Airlines) in Lviv as charter flight from Sharm-El-Sheikh on a rainy day.