Switching Operations on the Chicago Rail Link
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- The Chicago Rail Link is a shortline railroad owned by OmniTrax. They operate on 72 miles of track and interchange with various class one and regional railroads. On November 27th, 2020, I chased the Chicago Rail Link as they performed switching around Irondale in South Chicago. The power for the day was OMLX #1000 and GMTX #2218. Both units put on a show as they moved cars along Torrence Avenue!
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Cool! I was just railfanning this area on the 20th before I went to East Chicago-Hammond area to catch some shots. Used to be my old stomping grounds when the steel mills heavily populated this area
Fantastic view really great view of this video
I believe switching operations are most interesting to watch. In New Zealand it's referred to as shunting and the switches known as points.
Sam, awesome video
Nice video I see they painted 1000 last time I saw that one it was faded up yellow earlier this year
Very good video!
Kool video kid!
Great video Sam!
Nice video Sam! They did a lot of switching of freight cars on the day after Thanksgiving 2020. I wonder how much switching they do on a regular day? In you comments about this video you say that this action took place at Irondale in the South Chicago area. Is this area the same Irondale location that the Chicago & North Western Railroad had their Irondale branch? I remember going to the C&NW's Irondale location 30 years ago. I took some photos of the office building that the C&NW had at their Irondale location. I do not remember if I ever saw a C&NW switch engine at the Irondale location. The C&NW's Irondale branch was located along Torrence Avenue near some Cargill Grain elevators. I have no idea where any of my photos or slides of the C&NW's Irondale location might be at this time. The location on 104th Street in South Chicago, where you started this video, was the headquarters of the Chicago, West Pullman & Southern Railroad. The CWP the Wisconsin Steel which was located nearby. Both CWP and Wisconsin Steel were owned by the International Harvester Company. The CWP was founded in order to bring steel produced at Wisconsin Steel to the the various International Harvester Plants. Here is a hyperlink to some information on the CWP:
industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2016/04/chicago-west-pullman-southern.html . Thank you for taking this video and sharing it with us!
Thomas you've got some good history. That's the same Irondale. When I was at the Rail Link the old C&NW yard office was being used by Bulkmatic. There were Cargill salt and Cargill oil terminals along with Bulkmatic. The Cargill grain was not in use but we did stuff 100 car grain trains in Nidera (I think old Lincoln Grain). You had to be pretty wylie working on the Link. At any time you'd better be ready to "join the birds". The track mostly joint bars, gauge rods, busted ties and mud. At that time Rail Link was huge in railcar storage. All of Irondale yard, the Calumet &Western yard to the north and 95% of Burr Oak (Blue Island) and the Port of Illinois yard were stuffed to the gills. Flat switching was mostly done up the hill at the two remaining tracks of CRI&P 95th yard. I loved working there it interesting to say the least. At that time there were still 3 Rock Island guys on the roster and some guys that came from the Chicago Short Line. They knew a lot of local history and the "hows and whys" of the whole thing.
@@mattberg916 thanks for your comments about working at Chicago Rail Link. It has been a while since I was at the C&NW Irondale branch. I do not think that I have been in that area since the early 1990s. You mentioned Chicago Rail Link was into car storage. I remember driving along the Bishop Ford Freeway like 15+ years ago and all the tracks on the east side of the Bishop Ford Freeway north of 130th Street were loaded with stored freight cars. Are those tracks part of Chicago Rail Link?
@@thomasmackowiak that's actually the port of Illinois. I don't know the exact "authority" that the Rail Link used to store railcars there, but that's what they were. At that time Metal Management was still in business there so most were gons for scrap loading but there were other cars stored also. The CSS&SB also accessed the port, they were usually in there at night. Pretty sure the Shore also came in over the Dan Ryan overpass from a connection to the RI main at Kennsington. The Shore also interchanged with NS at that Kensington connection and stored their caboose there. I believe the Rail Link did all the industry switching in the port, not sure why the Shore was there. But we did an interesting interchange with the shore there. After coming down the Rock Island main (controlled by NS Calumet operator) from Pullman Jct. we would cross the Dan Ryan at 130th. Once down into the yard from the overpass we would then shove back south curving east towards the canal, turning south again right at the edge of the water passing under 130th then continuing to curve west run parallel to the CSS&SB electric main up pretty fair incline to the two track interchange. Almost exclusively returning empty coil gons and picking up loaded coils for Unarco in Blue Island. A whole lot of push coming down off the hill with 50 loads of coils. Can't believe we never went in the canal, the track of course was slightly less than pristine.
@@mattberg916 Awesome! Was always interested in the history of the line.
@@SamLovesTrains I love old industrial and railroad history I wish I had more. There was a Chicago Terminal map with Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific company identification on the wall at CRL 104th st office that showed every nook and cranny of the city in railroad terms. Even showed railroad to Chicago Tunnel system interchange. I would've given my eye teeth for that one. It mysteriously vanished when the walls got painted.
Love it. I am so glad I stumbled across your channel. Such great content and much of it is centered around where I live. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you for checking out my videos!
@@SamLovesTrains you are welcome
Ahhhhhh, memory lane! Very cool video. They've really cleaned the place up since I worked there.
Definitely so Matt!
Cool
Your title should read “High-quality content...”.
Looks like they have some interesting power. Also looks like one of those lines that doesn't believe in such frivolities as repainting locos.
Sam
Another question. The two ex CN looking units outside 104th St shops, do you have any info or video of those ?
Fascinating location, found it on google maps. Thanks for the introduction.
What time do they leave the shops in the morning
Sam, Thank you, great to see CRL action, more please. Do you know what class loco #1000 is ?
Thank you. 1000 is classified as a GP38-3
Does Chicago Rail Link operate the former Rock Island yard near 127th & Vincennes?
They do operate a section of it, Iowa Interstate operates the rest of it.