Saturday, August 24, 2019

Chicago, IL Depot: Rock Island and Panhandle Depot in Washington Heights

(Satellite, Metra now owns it)

This station was at the crossing of the Rock Islands mainline with the Pennsy's Panhandle. The station where the Rock's branch line crossed the Panhandle was in Beverly Hills.

BRHS posted
The Rock Island station at Washington Heights, as it looked on June 14th, 1970.

Street View

Thanks to Greg's comment below, I finally noticed that the building that was south of the Washington Heights Tower has the distinctive bay window of a depot. This depot is a reminder of how important passenger service was on the railroads in the 1800s. Pennsy's Panhandle, which no longer exists, also used to provide passenger service.

Bill Molony posted
Looking railroad east along the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks at the crossing of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad tracks at Washington Heights on the south side of Chicago.
Greg Burnet Was there passenger service on the Panhandle line? I'm curious whether the station in the photo would have been used for Pennsy riders, or was it only for the Rock?
David Daruszka There was passenger service and that was a combination station for the two roads.
Greg Burnet Thanks. Its position between the sets of tracks made me wonder.
Raymond Storey shared
Dennis DeBruler A comment on the original post motivated me to collect the Washington Heights photos that include the depot.
https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/.../rock-island-and...
Bob Finan commented
Bill Molony posted
The photographer is looking railroad east on the Pennsylvania Railroad's tracks at the crossing of the Rock Island's main line at Washington Heights on the south side of Chicago - circa 1955.
[I contributed comments about the Bernice Cutoff.]

I have copied other photos from the tower notes that include a view of the depot.

Bill Molony posted
This photographer is looking railroad west on the Pennsylvania Railroad's tracks toward Washington Heights, where the PRR crossed the main line of the Rock Island in the vicinity of 104th Street and Vincennes Avenue on the south side of Chicago.
To the left is the Washington Heights station, which still stands today and is used by Metra.
To the right is the Washington Heights interlocking tower, which is long gone.
Bill Molony posted again
David Daruszka commented on Bill's posting
Bob Lalich The industry in the background was Chicago Bridge & Iron Co, which occupied most of the triangle formed by the CRIP, PRR and 107th St.

David Daruszka provided an enhanced image on another post
Greg Burnet Wow, I'd never seen some of those details until you cleaned the pic up, David. And I never realized there was a coal yard on what I believe is now the site of a CTA bus barn. Great stuff.
David Daruszka If you look closely you can see a streetcar running on the track parallel to the Rock.
David Daruszka It appears that the track was actually a connecting track to the Panhandle. There was a freight house located at the junction.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

BRHS posted
Rock Island EMD FP7 #403, leading an outbound passenger train past the Washington Heights depot - circa 1960's.
Dennis DeBruler It looks like some sort of "hot piggyback" service on the head end.
Mike Breski Shiftable next to the head end a big no no LOL. I have seen other older photos with same does anybody know when that rule went into effect?
Dennis DeBruler For those of us who are trying to learn about railroading, what does "shiftable" mean? Does it mean loads tied down with chains? In this case trailers.

Now that I think about it, I've never seen piggybacks up close. When a train goes past at 45mph, you can see the special bracket that holds the fifth-wheel pin. But how is the rear end fastened? If they have to cross chain the rear, that sounds labor intensive.

I know from watching videos about big container ships that containers are held with special locks at all four corners.

Mike Breski commented on a post

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