There are some places where you can see old trolly tracks in the pavement. One is 56th St between Blackstone and Lake Park. The trolly station on Lake Park is now the Hyde Park Historical Society.
For long time, under the viaducts of Irving Park Rd. were exposed trolly tracks. But then whole new roadbeds were put in under these bridges to give trucks more clearance.
Streetcar tracks are all over the city. Most were never pulled up, which I always found odd. This is the time of the year to see them, just look in the potholes!!
Next time you see a crew tearing up a main street, take a peek. They actually dig up around the trolley tracks.
There was a large rail breaking through at Wacker and Madison up until a few months ago.
There's about 3 feet of trackage with a guard rail coming up on the southbound side of Clybourn, under the Metra viaduct (north of Fullerton), and when 47th and Western were resurfaced a year and a half ago you could even see remnants of a frog and switch!
In Evanston in the middle of Bryant Ave. north of Central St. there is a rectangular manhole cover, 28 x 36 inches that has cast into its surface in two lines "Chicago City/Railway Co." at about the intersection of Chancellor St. and near the now unused CTA substation. The car barn for the Evanston Railway Co. (later Evanston Bus Co.) was at the northwest corner of Bryant and Central. Up until around 1980, streetcar rail was visible in front of the building and in the abandoned building. Sometime in the early 1980s when the barn was being torn down to make way for condos, the demolition bulldozer operator gave me an extremely corroded 4 or 5 foot length of girder rail that had been embedded in the concrete floor of the building. I went to a liquor store for a six pack of adult beverage for him.
Take a drive down Milwaukee through portage or jefferson park and there is a ton of exposed tracks and the coblestone too as they are resurfacing. Got some great pics of this bygone piece of our town.
Because the metal expands and contracts at a different rate than the overlying asphalt, buried streetcar tracks will nearly always work themselves free to daylight.
I wanted to add that last summer Grand ave had been worked on approx between Long ave and Laramie. During that time much of the tracks were exposed. I had to stop for a moment each time to L O O K. If only one could actually travel back in time,,just for a month or so.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2010 09:10PM by Artista.