Joliet, IL: Santa Fe Freight House and Depot

(Satellite The depot was south of US-30 Westbound/Lincoln Highway/Cass and the freight house was north of it. The tracks would have still been at grade level.)

Bill Molony posted
The Santa Fe Railroad's freight office in Joliet was on the north side of Cass Avenue (US Route 30), immediately west of the Santa Fe's elevated main line tracks.
It was constructed in the late 19th Century of locally quarried dolomite limestone.
Joe M McMillan Yes, the Joliet freight house was torn down....after it was destroyed by fire in April 1991.
Bill Molony posted agian

The traditional design of a freight house has a two story office building at the end of a one story freight handling wing. The office is a reminder that it took a lot of clerks to keep track of the Less-than-Carload-Lots and the boxcars before computers were invented. Compare this operation to a modern "small freight" operation. First of all, IF a railroad is involved, it is using piggy-back and/or container cars instead of boxcars. Secondly, the package is touched by humans twice. Once at the receiving dock when a person takes the package out of a trailer and confirms that it has a readable "Maxicode label." If not, the unloader creates one. The package is then put on one of the 65 miles of rollers and conveyor belts. It is touched again when a loader takes it off the outbound chute and "manually double-checks the package's destination city, state, and zip code, then scans the label with a wrist scanner. That sends a message to UPS's central database that the package has made it through the facility successfully and is loaded on the trailer ready to go." [Trains]

Stuart Pearson commented on the above posting
SantaFe Bldg. Joliet Head-on

Stuart Pearson commented on the above posting SantaFe Bldg. Joliet Side Entrance

Satellite

It appears the footprint of the station still exists. And some of the track that served it. But they should invite a scrapper to remove the track because it is no longer connected to the mainline.

Satellite

The retaining wall for the embankment that brought the track down from the elevated mainline to the ground level freight/team tracks is still present.

Satellite

At the south end of the embankment, you see some track peaking through the trees. But as you go north the track stops and then the trees stop.

Update: Marty Bernard caught a nice 3/4 view in 1971.
Stuart B. Slaymaker A leftover, from when the tracks were at street level, through J.U.D., pre-1912.
Joe M McMillan It probably wasn't preserved because it burned down in April 1991.
Andy Zemlicka The three tracks are all that's left.
Rob Schreiner although there isn't an connection any longer.
Andy Zemlicka Right the connection was taken out in 2005 or 2006 from what I can remember.

Bill Molony posted
In the left photograph is the Santa Fe's Joliet passenger depot in the foreground and the Santa Fe's Joliet freight depot in the
background - 1900..
In the right photograph is the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad's Joliet (combination passenger and freight ) depot - 1900.

Bill posted again
Bill Molony The EJ&E had scheduled passenger train service between Joliet and Aurora up until 1907.
Nelson Gregory Right by where the J yard lead connects with the C&A, GM&O, IC, CM&W, SP, UP main. The last four were during my career.
Dennis DeBruler Nelson Gregory It was ICG after GM&O.The Chicago, Missouri & Western was sold by ICG (1987) before they changed the name back to IC (1989). So IC should be replaced with ICG in your name list.

Bill Molony posted

The above photo came from an advertisement for Joliet.

Thomas Fabianski posted three photos with the comment:

A huge case of perfect timing, perfect location, and what the actual hell just happened.
Of all the meets I have shot, this takes the cake. A pair of IC SD70s in Deathstar paint take a cut of Oil cars to Arc Terminals, as L-CHI104 comes around the corner with a Santa Fe Bluebonnet leading! I never thought IC and Santa Fe would ever cross paths like this.
Santa Fe, All the Way!
Taken 3/25/2019

Dennis DeBruler You're second photo shows that the CN train is coming from their EJ&E asset, not their GM&O asset. https://www.google.com/.../@41.5357614,-88.../data=!3m1!1e3 How far south does CN have trackage rights on UP?
Thomas Fabianski Only a few miles I think. At least up to CP Cytex Where the plant is.
Dennis DeBruler Since it is hauling tank cars, I would think it would be going to Zenith Energy Terminals. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4... I'm If I remember correctly, it was built to receive shale oil from Canada and feed a pipeline to a refinery. I would assume it is supplying Exxonmobile.
Thomas Fabianski Probably. They ran it as Arc Terminals a couple times over so who knows lol

Dennis DeBruler Thanks for helping me to better understand the railroad operations implied by the photos.

Thomas Fabianski Anytime
[The railroad in the tank terminal is now operated by Joliet Bulk Barge & Rail.]

[In another dialog with Thomas, I learned that UP and BNSF timecard east/west, but CN timecards north/south. And the boundary between CN and UP is 100' north of Jackson.]

Dennis DeBruler These photos trigger a question that has been on my mind for many moons. I assume L-CHI104 runs out of the GM Yard. What is the purpose of the Joliet Railroad Yard? A satellite image shows that it has several tracks that are being used. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...
Dave Zeman Dennis DeBruler L-CHI105 is the one that runs out of GM. L-CHI104 is the counterpart from Galesburg.
Dennis DeBruler Dave Zeman Thanks. I did not know a local comes all the way from Galesburg.

1
[Note some track remnants still exist next to the retaining wall. Satellite]

2

3

The Santa Fe Depot was across the tracks from the EJ&E Depot.

Engineering News, Volume 69

In this map drawn from Sanborn Maps, you can see how the C&A and Santa Fe crossed around Van Buren Street so that each railroad could built a depot next to its tracks.
The C&A is pink, Santa Fe is blue, EJ&E is yellow and Rock Island is green.

John Smith commented on Bill's posting