Charlie Vik's queries on the Lyons Belt Rwy are certainly intriguing,
particularly as they pertain to any original CB&Q connection around
the current 1st Avenue crossing west of the Des Plaines River. I do
not know the answer, but also never perceived remnants of any old
roadbed in a long childhood of exploration of the Forest Preserves,
that if memory serves, probably still divides much of first avenue
from the Des Plaines River all the way south to Ogden Avenue.
The limestone quarry to which Charle refers south of Ogden was
railroad active until about 1950, as I recall, with tracks dividing
Ogden Avenue from the steep sides of the quarry itself (Material
Service Corporation- owned.controlled by the same family that also
controlled the Rock Island RR). Now I presume that the Lyons Belt was
the railroad that served the quarry (I would certainly like to know
more).
I recall in the forties a legion of tank 0-4-0s puffing up and down
and around the quarry hauling out the rock, and for several years a
tank engine and some side dumps were left derelict directly at the
edge of Ogden Avenue at the very east end of quarry, only several
blocks from Riverside/Lyons dam. At the time (c. 1950), I thought a
number of times how neat it would be to fire it up and run it up and
down that rickety track!
The property originally constituting the Riverside engine terminal
and layover tracks between the station and river were in the 30's and
'40s a coal yard- the prime source for Riverside's residential and
municipal heating.
Denny
Denny S. Anspach, MD
Sacramento, California
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