RE: [CBQ] Helpers

["Charlie Vlk" <cvlk@comcast.net>]

A not well known and photographically undocumented grade was in Chicago..

We don't know yet if helpers were used, but the ruling grade east of the
Mississippi until 1895 was from West Grossdale (Congress Park) to La Grange
Road.   I don't know what the percentage was, but the parallel abandoned ROW
of the Chicago and West Towns streetcar line and Burlington Avenue remain to
give us an idea.   There was a lawsuit filed with the Illinois Railroad and
Warehouse Commission  as the CB&Q did not want the predecessors of the
Indiana Harbor Belt to cross the Q at grade, as any train that stopped for
traffic at the crossing would not be able to make the hill up to La Grange
Road.   Remembering having ridden my bike up either side of the present
racetrack I bet that it was somewhere in excess of 2 percent...

The Q reluctantly raised the grade so they could cross over the IHB, first
starting at the West Grossdale (Congress Park) station and later all the way
back to Maple Avenue when the bridges were raised another 3-4 feet for
additional clearance.   Originally the grade up the glacial Lake Chicago
shoreline started at the foot of the bluff where the IHB is today.

Charlie Vlk



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