Thanks Denny for earlier memories than I have of the area. I think the
traces of the tracks in the Forest Preserve may have been buried under the
ROW of 1st Avenue.... and the balloon loop of the connection lost under the
streets and houses of the residential area south and east of the Hollywood
station.
I seem to remember seeing a reference somewheres to the Q having a Freight
Station at Lyons, Illinois..... any ideas???
I am sorry to hear that your exploration in the Forest Preserve was not as
fruitful as mine turned out to be....50 years later I found that I had
discovered the Chicago, Millington & Western ROW, although this was denied
by all the adults I talked to at the time!
Charlie
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Denny Anspach [mailto:danspach@m...]
> Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 10:25 PM
> To: BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [BRHSlist] Re: Lyons Belt Rwy. and Riverside.
>
>
> 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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