Gerald-
In the 1864 Annual Report is there any mention of the grade between (what
became) Congress Park and La Grange?
I've always wondered what that part of the railroad looked like before the
arrival of what became the IHB.....
We know from photos of the trackside of the West Grossdale Station (1884) that
at that point the tracks were at one time at
Street level or very nearly so....
Also, at some point the bridge was constructed over the C&CT/CH&W/CUT/IHB and
this caused the mainline to be raised in front
of the station. Later, the bridge was further raised (the concrete caps on top
of the stonework) and a subway was installed
and the front (track) side of the station was entirely closed off (prior to the
building of the subway the south interchange track
joined the mainline west of the station platform).
I have been doing some research that answers some of these questions.... I
found a Chicago Tribune December 4, 1889 article
that reports that the Chicago & Calumet Terminal went before the Railroad and
Warehouse Commisioners to compel the CB&Q
to allow them to cross their tracks at grade at La Grange.
The Burlington insisted that the Terminal cross over it at no less than 25-30
feet, "for a crossing on the level would impede
an endanger the travel and transportation on its road. The Burlington people
also claimed that the point of the proposed
crossing was at the foot of a maximum grade, and that trains going both ways
run at a maximum speed; that westbound
trains were obliged to run at high speed for the purpose of making the
ascending grade, and that those trains could not run
for the grade as heretofore, making it necessary to reduce the length of them.
Later the Burlington presented a propositon
for an undercrossing in agreeing to raise its tracks 11 feet and pay part of
the expense. ......"
So it appears that prior to the building through of what eventually became the
IHB, the Q ran up the grade (the old shoreline/dunes
of Lake Chicago) on much the same grade as the steets paralleling the line to
the north and south of it!!!
That must have been some grade!!!
Another Chicago Tribune article about the same spot dated July 12, 1897 (almost
110 years ago!!!) reported when the Chicago, Hammond
& Western did finally get to building though the area the Suburban Electric
(later West Towns Street Railway) was building into La Grange
at the same time. The newspaper report is not really clear but the CH&W and
SE construction forces got into a riot involving about 300
workers from contractors for both lines. The article reports the scene of the
conflict was in Hill Grove Avenue, east of the Burlington depot.
It later stated that the two companies had been battling over ROW and that the
"Bad feeling had been engendered by recent condemantion
proceedings in the County Court in which the CH&W officials got the better of
their rivals (by getting a ROW from SE for $7000 instead of
the $9000 the SE was willing to sell it for).
It sounds like the actual issue was who was going to have to install and
maintain the crossing between the two companies as they cross
at right angles.... the ROW would be the section that the two lines parallel
each other.
Also found some interesting information on the IC Iowa line terminating at
LaVerne with trackage rights to the St.Charles Air Line.....
Charlie Vlk
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|