[Genma Saotome]

Just a couple of screenshots I took while examining my progress... for a laugh I also took a couple of shots in Google Street View that approximate the same location and angle.

At Kingsbury and Chicago Ave, trying to look like 1950... Montgomery Wards on the left, viewing NNW:



and today




A few steps to the south, looking towards SSE towards the Loop:


and today:



Soooo much change.


and this one too:
taken in 1944 from the North American Cold Storage building at Kinzie and Canal St., looking north.

and my accomplishments so far in trying to replicate it (click on image to enlarge it for a fair comparison to the photo):


Plenty to do but it is moving in the right direction.

[timmuir]

Hey Dave,

I don't know if this is of any use to you, but I stumbled upon this article and engineering drawings of a bridge over the Chicago River that rotates out of the way of water traffic. "The Engineer", May 18th, 1900.

[Genma Saotome]

Thanks Tim!

This is the Z-6 bridge that carries the Bloomingdale line between the Galewood and Division St Yards (basically two industrial service yards). I've modeled the Division St Yard on Goose Island and have truncated the Bloomingdale line a mile or so west of the river. Which means I have to model this bridge. Your document shows me some things I need to know.

The bridge is still in place but is not in use. The location, looking SE:


Hard not to notice the background.

[timmuir]

Ah, good! I was hopeful it would be useful to you!

[timmuir]

Is Halsted Street within your modeling radius, Dave? I have yet another article on the street's lift bridge over the Chicago River with drawings.

[Genma Saotome]

Yes, that bridge is about in the middle of everything.

[timmuir]

Well, then, here are the pages devoted to that one. Is this bridge still there?

[Genma Saotome]

Ahhh... this is South Halstead. Huge amount of railroad activity on the south side of Chicago. I'm working the north side in the hope that eventually something can be (approximately) finished.

Neat bridge. No longer there... been replaced by a draw bridge, same style as most of the bridges on the river so I'd guess it replaced the lift bridge more than 70 years ago. FWIW a few hundred feet south of the bridge Halstead crosses the ATSF mainline into Chicago.

[Genma Saotome]

Yeah, the lift bridge was replaced in 1934. Hereis an article about both.

[Genma Saotome]

Chicago is sometimes called the City of Bridges. I suppose it's a fair statement. Hereis a bridge I need to build... immediately to the right of the photographer is the south branch of the Chicago river and on it's far side is The Loop (downtown). The angled bridge is owned by the MILW that rotates to open clearance for ships going north; the building to it's right is one of their freight houses (already modeled).

The bridge in the lower right corner is an old center swing bridge that was once very common in Chicago. It was replaced by a drawbridge that carried a long CNW industrial lead along the river over to the Lake. The western half looks like this:


All of the track on the left half are for the Merchandise Mart -- a showroom with rented space for any company -- cars to washing machines. The draw was buyers for any retail firm could see multiple product lines, often from competing manufacturers, all on one business trip. All the merchandise was delivered by rail and spotted under the building. The center area was cold storage, lot lots of reefers there, the right end was a switching yard for servicing everything off to the right. The north 2/3rds of this route are about the same.

[timmuir]

Interesting reads! Chicago has so much to look at and study in the way of bridges, architecture and the Elevated, not to mention the railroad action. That swing bridge you have to model is pretty cool. Do you have anything on it in the way of drawings, data, date of build?

[Genma Saotome]

timmuir, on 23 December 2021 - 10:27 PM, said:

Interesting reads! Chicago has so much to look at and study in the way of bridges, architecture and the Elevated, not to mention the railroad action. That swing bridge you have to model is pretty cool. Do you have anything on it in the way of drawings, data, date of build?

No. But the MILW built two bobtailed swing bridges and I've already built the other one. Perhaps it's similar enough that i can use parts of it here.

I need 4 railroad bridges, 33 street bridges. I've built 1 railroad bridge and have started on 1 street bridge. A lot of modeling... fortunately most of the street bridges use the same basic design so perhaps there will be something I can leverage across multiple models.

This 1939 photos shows a number of bridges on the north side of the Loop (north is to the right).


Second from the top is the one I've started to build (N. Wells St). It's different because they put the CTA Commuter rails up on top. What I've done so far:





I think the most interesting one is one of the older rail bridges:


This is draw bridge for the east:west line that once carried the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin between far western suburbs and downtown. To the left the rails are above the glass topped trainshed of Union Station; to the right is a stub ended terminal squeezed between a couple of buildings. I think it looks really cool.

[timmuir]

A generally interesting read, although a bit before your route's era, this 1914 100 page booklet has some very cool graphics, maps, charts and photos dealing with railroad transit and transportation within Chicago. From the City Club of Chicago.

.Through Routes for Chicago's Steam Railroads

[Genma Saotome]

Cool. Thanks Tim!

[eric from trainsim]

Catching up on this thread... I'd partly modeled the CNW track underneath the Merch Mart, but only as a stub to eventually do the line to Navy Pier. That diagram really helps.