About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

December 17, 2002
If you survived the first part of this trip, part two may bring you to your knees. I will barrage you with information in the second leg of this journey. It may put you into overload and shut all of your thought processing systems down altogether. Should this occur, I will then have you under my complete and total control.

Before we dive into this part of the trip a correction; the Santa Fe had two tracks not one between Bridgeport and 21st Street no one. There was only one track left between these two points when I started at the CCP, and it was not in service at that time, just lying there dormant.

It has been written that the average speed of a train working its way across Chicago is just 7 MPH. The numerous junctions and crossings at grade play out as a major culprit of the delays. As you have observed from part one of our little journey we have indeed proven this theory. The first portion of this trip took one hour, fifty-five minutes to go about six miles. This equates to just better than 3 miles per hour, not exactly approaching mach one here or any type of land speed records.

This time we will look at some of the other factors in the equation that make getting across town more than just a job, but an adventure.

When we left you all last time, we had just stopped at 21st Street. This is the crossing of Norfolk Southern’s former Conrail Chicago Line and Amtrak’s Chicago Terminal. At 21st, the ownership changes from one to the other. Conrail sold their interest in Chicago Union Station and the associated trackage to Amtrak about 1980. All trackage north (compass) or west (timetable) of 21st Street, called Alton Junction on Conrail went to Amtrak with Conrail keeping perpetual trackage rights.

The 21st Street name is also a misnomer as the real 21st Street is a bit south of here. 18th Street is actually closer. Another railroad used to cross and connect here besides CNIC and Conrail and their predecessors. The Chicago & Western Indiana came in parallel to and just west of the Chicago Line. It made a right turn and crossed the other two railroads at 21st Street. The Santa Fe connected to the CWI using it to reach Dearborn Station. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Monon, Wabash, Erie Lackawanna and Grand Trunk Western all used the CWI to access Dearborn Station. The CWI operated a fleet of commuter trains called "dummies" in and out of Dearborn and through 21st Street as well. With all of this traffic, 21st still wasn’t the busiest interlocking in the Chicago Terminal, though it was damn close.

With all the railroads involved here, 21st Street also carried several different names depending upon which railroad you were operating. As I mentioned, Alton Jct. was used on Conrail and its predecessors. This name comes from the GM&O predecessor Chicago & Alton, the Alton Route. As you recall from part one, I mentioned the very northern terminus of the GM&O proper was 21st Street where it connected to the former Pennsylvania Railroad for the trip downtown to Union Station.

Now in its day the GM&O called 21st Street Fort Wayne. This comes from Conrail predecessor Pennsylvania. Through their subsidiary Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, they built what eventually became the Chicago Line. In fact, this name carried forward into the ICG and was shown as such in the timetables well into the 80’s. Both the IC and CWI called this place 21st Street. Gee, what’s in a name here?

Just east of the crossing is a wye on the southeast quadrant that connects the Chicago Line with the Freeport Sub. There also used to be a set of crossovers between the main tracks here that were removed last year. When I inquired as to why they were removed the answer I was given was "We don’t need them anymore." We don’t huh? Just several days prior to their being removed, we used those very crossovers to go from track two over to track one. The rail was still shiny when it came out.

Between the two crossings of 21st and 16th Streets, we take some huge delays owing to the Amtrak, Metra, NS and UP trains operating on the Chicago Line and the Metra trains operating on the Rock Island District. There are morning and afternoon rush curfews in which no trains on the CNIC are allowed to cross either of the of the lines during these periods. Each curfew is over one hour and a half. And yes, we have been stuck here on numerous occasions.

It is now 0915 and after watching two inbound Amtrak trains come across, we get the signal and proceed east with only a ten minute delay. The best signal we can get here at 21st going east is a restricting, in this case displayed as lunar. For those unfamiliar with the concept of lunar, it is sort of a silvery colored light. I guess it looks like the moon hence then name. From this point we begin a maximum speed of 10 MPH.

Just east of 21st is ABS W2.6. This signal governs the approach to 16th Street, the crossing with the Metra Rock Island District. We have an approach (yellow) signal displayed at W2.6. This means I must proceed prepared to stop before passing the next signal. As recently as last year, it used to be that when we had the line up at 16th Street, we would get a clear (green) signal at W2.6. For whatever reasons, it no longer displays a clear signal under these circumstances. It has been reported many times but……

As we approach W2.6 we are dropping down a bit of a descending grade and start into a gentle right hand curve. After we pass the signal we turn to the left. To our left along the right of way is now a park. This is built on what was the CWI right of way. To our right is a cluster of apartment buildings and condominiums at the very northern edge of Chinatown. The Santa Fe coach yard and passenger train servicing facilities were located here until the late 1970’s or very early 80’s when Amtrak consolidated their Chicago mechanical facilities into a new complex along their Chicago Terminal trackage between 12th and 16th Streets. To the east of the condos is vacant land with a few telltale signs of the former facility located there.

We cross a little road that accesses the park, duck under the 18th Street overhead and begin a short steep climb to 16th Street. We also now begin to swing back to the right as well. The signals at 16th are on a bridge that spans both tracks. It sits strategically behind the 18th Street overhead as any good signal should. This makes it just that much more difficult to see. Now being that we had an approach at W2.6, we need to be prepared to stop at 16th Street. Should the signal at 16th be displaying a stop indication (red without a number plate), I have to stop before passing. Should I not get stopped, it means the loss of my certification. Should I get too far past it, the results could be a wreck.

I have learned how to spot this signal in advance without having to be prepared to stop. There are a couple of spots where it is briefly visible long before I get past the 18th Street overhead. Now should it not be readily visible owing to bright sunlight, snow, heavy rain or fog, I am creeping up to it. Having a big train, particularly like the one today that has 51 empties in the head 90 cars and the very rear 24 cars as loads, particular care must be taken to keep the train in one piece. Keeping the slack action to a minimum is also very important as the excessive action can and does cause derailments. There have been several through here but fortunately for me; I have been party to none of them.

This day I could see the approach signal displayed at 16th Street far enough in advance that I could keep rolling without having to use anything more than throttle modulation to control my speed and get through here.

16th Street was known as Clark Street on the IC for years and years. Metra and prior to them, the Rock Island and the New York Central and their Penn Central successor which shared this trackage with the Rock until 1972, called it 16th Street. There are actually two crossings here, the Metra Rock Island District and just west of it the connection between the Rock and the St. Charles Air Line.

The best signal we can get here is at 16th is an approach (yellow). There is a signal just east of the crossing where Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) begins. The signal system here is set up in such a way (or so they tell me) that if the CTC entrance signal is not lined up, you cannot get the approach signal at 16th.

We are now climbing and swinging hard right. In between the diamonds and the CTC entrance signal is the connection from the St. Charles Air Line. The Air Line connects the Freeport Sub to the BNSF’s former BN line at Union Avenue and to UP’s Global One, the former Chicago & Northwestern Wood Street Yard. Amtrak uses the Air Line between Union Ave and 16th as part of their journey between Union Station and the CNIC.

In my Wisconsin Central days, I used to operate across the Air Line. For quite some time I worked the run that operated between Fond du Lac and the IC at Markham. We used to come through Global One and used the Air Line as a part of our route. The turnouts where the Air Line and Freeport Sub connect have very tight radius. While I was fortunate enough to never have it happen, there were many derailments here involving WC trains. The speed across the Air Line is 10 MPH.

As we approach the CTC entrance signal, it is partially obscured by the overgrowth of brush and trees. At night is not as difficult because the signal does stand out a bit in the dark. In daylight in can be more difficult. In the late fall and winter seasons the trees have shed their leaves and the signal is a little more visible. As we pass this signal the track levels out a bit but now starts to curve to the left and then back to the right before remaining tangent for about a quarter mile or so. We are now passing various grossly overpriced town homes, condos and lofts, many of which abut the right of way.

With all the curves through here and the bind of them against the flanges of the wheels, there is a considerable amount of whining and squealing coming from the trains as they pass through this area. With the buildings closed up so tightly against the right of way, there is a considerable amount of reverberation making the noise all that much louder. Add to this the scream of the engines working the tonnage against this rolling resistance and the grades, the sounds of flat spots on wheels pounding the rails and a few joints where the rails meet each other and you have quite the formula for noise. I have no clue as to why anybody would pay so much to live here. We are talking about studios that start at $100,000 and climb up well over half a million bucks. All that cash for all that noise. And they are still building these places stuffing them anywhere there is vacant land next to the right of way.

I’m sure the big press release in 1997 announcing that we were moving out of here had a great deal to do with the mad dash to build everywhere around the right of way. I’m sure the management firms marketing these developments are telling everybody the railroad will be gone shortly. Wait until these people find out this railroad is not going away anytime soon. Although I think a few have discovered this fact as several for sale signs have appeared in front of some of these places. Gee, I hope it is not because we are being bad neighbors.

We cross above several well known Chicago Streets including State Street, that great street. At Indiana Avenue milepost W1.2 was once South Wye Junction. This was where the trains off the Iowa Division used to turnout and head north toward Central Station or Congress Street Yard. The junction was removed sometime before I began at the CCP in 1986, but the name remained at this spot for many years after. It was still alive as recently as the latter 1980’s. It is also at this point the mileposts change. The Chicago Sub mileage ends and Freeport Sub mileage begins. Chicago Sub mileage ends at 2.2 and Freeport begins with W1.2.

Just east of the junction we then make a hard, right hand turn. As we approach this curve, Metra’s 18th Street MU Shed where they perform service on the electric Highliner cars comes into view. Soldier Field, the home of those hapless and pathetic Chicago Bears (I am an Indianapolis Colts fan) is just beyond the shed separated only by Electric District tracks 3 and 4 and Lake Shore Drive. Lake Michigan itself is just beyond Soldier Field and can also be seen. We are now dropping down again as we make the curve. About halfway into the curve is ABS 1225 displaying a clear (green over red) signal. This signal was moved north several hundred feet to its present location last year as part of a project to build a bridge under the railroad between the 18th Street bridge and McCormick Place. The number on this signal represents two distinct markers. The 1 indicates this is track 1 and the 225 indicates 2.25 miles from what would be the end of the line in downtown Chicago at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Randolph Streets if the line went straight into the city from here. The signal adjacent on track two is numbered 2225.

Just south of signal 1225 we once again pass under a portion of 18th Street, only this time in the manner of a pedestrian bridge. We duck under the bridge and begin to climb again up to the north edge of McCormick Place West, the giant exhibition center. Between the bridge and McCormick is the previous location of signal 1225.

McCormick Place West was built in two phases in the mid-80’s and early 90’s. During a portion of its construction, track two of the Chicago Sub was removed from service. To accommodate the trains through here on track one in both directions, remote controlled crossovers were built and placed into service at 18th Street and 23rd Street. They have both since been removed and track two returned to service. While single tracking through here was the method of operation, northbound trains often took quite the beating in delays to allow for the passage of higher priority southbound trains like P51 the ICG’s hot intermodal train out of IMX as well as Amtrak 391 and 59.

At the north end of the tunnel we use to pass under this giant edifice, the four main tracks of Metra’s Electric District emerges underneath us in a northeast/southwest curving configuration. This line then straightens up and begins to parallel us from this point all the way to Steunkel, milepost 31.6 where it ends . Once inside the McCormick Place tunnel the track begins to drop down back to what would be considered ground level.

The area to the east of the main tracks here was home to the Illinois Central 27th Street Yard. This facility was the servicing facilities for their inter-city passenger trains. The passenger car and locomotive fleet were serviced here. When Amtrak was created in 1971 this facility became redundant and was eventually closed. Over a period of time, much of the property affiliated with intercity passenger operations was sold off to developers. Air rights over the railroad in several locations were also sold for development as well. This was how McCormick Place West was able to be constructed over the railroad.

Located straight north of here at Roosevelt Road (12th Street) was Central Station, the Chicago home of IC’s passenger terminal as well the IC’s operating headquarters. The operations were eventually moved out of this building; it was torn down and like so much other downtown real estate the IC owned, sold for other development.

An interesting fact about the Chicago and Freeport Subs in the McCormick Place area, it has been renamed several times since 1997. For many years the portion of the Chicago Sub used to extend up to milepost 2.2. From here it became the St. Charles Air Line. At Clark Street the Air Line veered of to the right as I mentioned previously. The line that went straight (didn’t make the turnout to be more correct as everything is winding and bending) became the Freeport District. The Freeport District extended its namesake city ending at Wallace Yard there where the main track then became the Dubuque District.

The first change was made when the Iowa Division from just west of the Belt crossing all the way out to Council Bluffs, IA was spun off to become the Chicago Central & Pacific in late 1986. With this sale the trackage between the Belt Crossing and South Wye junction was renamed the Bridgeport District. The next change occurred in the late 1990’s and had the Chicago District being extended from milepost 2.2 up to Bridgeport. The most recent changes came after the merger with CN and the issuance of the first CNIC timetable. All the lines known as districts in IC and ICG days became subdivisions. The Bridgeport District was eliminated and the Freeport Sub was extended to Bridgeport. The Chicago Sub was extended north from 2.2 up to Bridgeport. Even though it was generally an east-west configuration according to the compass, we were timetable north and south.

This created confusion as the track designations were changed to correspond to the change of direction. The Bridgeport District was an east-west route and the Chicago District a north south route. Generally railroads call the so-called westbound track in current of direction double track territory track one. The eastbound would be track two. In a north and south configuration track one would be the southbound and track two the northbound. Track two on what was now the Chicago Sub was then extended by proclamation as it were; to Bridgeport replacing what was track one of the Bridgeport District. Track two on the Bridgeport became track one of the Chicago Sub. Got that? These are the things that try a person’s sanity. By the time I got comfortable with this change, there was yet more change.

Lets everybody pause for a moment, place an index finger on your lips, making a rapid motion up and down on them and say blee-blee-blee-blee-blee-blee-blee.

It was decided by the powers that be that we needed to change all this change. Why leave well enough alone? By proclamation the Chicago Sub was shortened by making Clark Street its northern terminus. The Freeport Sub was extended east to Clark Street. Simultaneously, Clark Street was renamed 16th Street. What now happens is that you proceed eastward from Freeport two to southward on Chicago one when you cross 16th Street. I have become comfortable with this change, so it is very likely it will all be changed again soon.

Reasoning like this is why nuthouses everywhere are full of people whose little trains have gone chugging down the tracks of life. Or why some people just go postal and came in one day and shoot up the place. Probably explains too, why railroad rulebooks prohibit employees whose duties do not require them from possessing firearms on the property. They are afraid we would seek out those in charge who create such confusion and send them into railroad hell where they belong a lot sooner than they were planning to go there.

But I digress.

The 10 MPH speed restriction ends when the entire train passes milepost 2.2. Timetable speed for all trains increases to 25 MPH between here and milepost 2.7 at the south end of the tunnel. Certain trains are restricted to a maximum speed of 10 MPH while passing under McCormick Place West. We have one of those trains today meaning we will operate for another half mile at this nice slow speed. Again, the entire train must be past milepost 2.7 before I can increase my speed. This can really be a pain in the ass. With a big train like today’s beast, you have the train in several states of ascending and descending mode. As we proceed south out of the tunnel, the track levels a bit and then begins a gentle ascent again. As the tail end of the train works its way south, it begins to start down through the tunnel.

Another aspect that makes operating a big train between 21st Street and the south end of the tunnel is the undulating or rolling terrain. As I start the climb up to 16th Street I am starting to work the power to begin pulling the head end up hill. I can back off the throttle a bit as I start into the curve by South Wye Junction, but then have to start working it harder again as I start into the tunnel. About halfway through the tunnel I can start backing off the throttle and eventually get back into run 1 or even idle.

If you remember you basic laws of physics and Newton’s theory of gravity, you can quickly calculate that what goes up must come down. And when you carry a lot of weight, you tend to drop faster than you went up. When you apply these theories to railroading, it means the tail end of the train is now trying to go faster than the head end. So what this creates is a run in of the slack. The tail end is now trying to push me faster than I desire to go. And when you have twenty-four loads on the very rear beginning their descent down the hill inside the tunnel, they really want start going very fast, very quickly.

When I have a lead unit equipped with dynamic brakes, I can use this handy, dandy little tool to keep things under control quite well. By the time I have reached the south end of the tunnel, I can have the dynamic brakes starting to bunch up the slack and hold the train speed to the required 10 MPH. Even just a single unit with dynamic works well here against a heavy tonnage train like we have today. As I am bunching up the slack and keeping the speed in check, I reduce the in train forces and the tail end will not smack us as it starts down the hill in the tunnel.

But today I have no lead unit equipped with dynamic. I have two choices remaining to control my speed, using the automatic brake valve and setting the train brakes or using the engine brakes. Being that it is rather cold outside and that we have a very long train, I decide against the train brakes. I would only need a minimum reduction (the least possible amount of air I could set) to control my speed. With all things considered, there is a certain possibility of having some brakes sticking after I release them in the train should I go with the train brakes. So I opt to go with the engine brake method. In this manner I will gradually apply about twenty pounds of brake cylinder pressure against the wheels of all of my locomotives slowly gradually bunching up the slack in the train as it rolls down the hill against the engines. I’ll keep the train at 10 MPH and won’t get that big smack of slack in the process.

We roll through the 2700 or so feet of tunnel under McCormick Place West and back into daylight. Just south of the tunnel is I-55, the Stevenson Expressway named for Illinois politician and former presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson.

With a train of appreciable length and no delays it takes about fifty minutes to go from Hawthorne Yard to the south end of McCormick Place West. Add another forty minutes of running time to Homewood and get one hour, thirty minutes of total time between Hawthorne and Markham. Today it took us almost twice that much about eight and one half miles. We still have some twenty-three plus miles to go to reach Homewood, at the south end of Markham.

We’ll track this final leg of this trip in part three.

The Santa Train was another rousing success this past weekend. I’ll give you a rundown on it next week. I want to thank all of you that took the time to come out to visit and say hello. A great time was had by all. I don’t know for sure who had the most fun, the kids who came to see Santa or those of us who helped Santa out on his train.

And so it goes.

Tuch