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Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
hipoldguy
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: March 09, 2008 10:19PM
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.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
tomcat630
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 10, 2008 12:52AM
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.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
chuck
(---.176.244.66.biz.sta.networkgci.net)
Date: March 10, 2008 05:53PM
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.
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.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
paw
(---.austin.res.rr.com)
Date: March 11, 2008 12:10PM
Have seen several when construction was done on Archer.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
JonnyOYeah
(---.sac-1.depaul.edu)
Date: March 13, 2008 11:38AM
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!
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
ashk3
(---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: March 15, 2008 08:26PM
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.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
phunk09
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: September 21, 2009 11:49PM
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.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: October 25, 2009 09:10PM
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.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
graylander773
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: April 28, 2010 11:24AM
There is some road work being done in Avondale, on Milwaukee just north of Central Park Ave, and you can clearly see exposed tracks -- very cool!
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
Artista
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 30, 2010 12:05AM
Isnt that just fantastic? Thank you for posting that great photo Gray'. I just LOVE this type of stuff.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
Artista
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 30, 2010 12:08AM
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 04/30/2010 12:10AM by Artista.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2010 12:10AM by Artista.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
the_mogra
(---.hfc.comcastbusiness.net)
Date: April 27, 2015 07:05PM
right now the largest extent of old exposed streetcar tracks I have found anywhere in chicago is on pine st (about 5500 west) where lake st jogs from running along the south-side of the commuter train viaduct over to the north-side of that viaduct. underneath that pine st viaduct there are many feet of old rails including curvatures, both directions too
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
davey7
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: May 06, 2015 07:17PM
56th Street at Harper is getting new curbs as we speak - have been looking for evidence of tracks, etc, but nothing so far...
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
davey7
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: May 08, 2015 06:09PM
The tracks were exposed on Lake Park heading south from 56th Street this morning for ADA curb & crossing work. Quite a lot of scrap metal that the city could be selling to help pay for the pension short fall they didn't pay when they should have (oh, did I just say that?).
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
Jeff_Weiner
(---.sub-70-194-100.myvzw.com)
Date: May 08, 2015 06:41PM
davey7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The tracks were exposed on Lake Park heading south
> from 56th Street this morning for ADA curb &
> crossing work. Quite a lot of scrap metal that the
> city could be selling to help pay for the pension
> short fall they didn't pay when they should have
> (oh, did I just say that?).
It wouldn't be near enough to cover pensions (and being a retired City employee, I ought to know), and many of those tracks serve as a current return for the L system. Even if there isn't a branch of the L nearby. If you take them out, you have to replace the current path with some big cables, otherwise the current will short-circuit through water and gas mains, which can cause corrosion and leaks.
-------------------------------------------------------
> The tracks were exposed on Lake Park heading south
> from 56th Street this morning for ADA curb &
> crossing work. Quite a lot of scrap metal that the
> city could be selling to help pay for the pension
> short fall they didn't pay when they should have
> (oh, did I just say that?).
It wouldn't be near enough to cover pensions (and being a retired City employee, I ought to know), and many of those tracks serve as a current return for the L system. Even if there isn't a branch of the L nearby. If you take them out, you have to replace the current path with some big cables, otherwise the current will short-circuit through water and gas mains, which can cause corrosion and leaks.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
WayOutWardell
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: May 09, 2015 01:23AM
There are some tracks starting to poke through at the old turnaround just south of the corner of 63rd & MLK, east to Vernon.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
davey7
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: May 18, 2015 07:29PM
Jeff_Weiner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> davey7 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The tracks were exposed on Lake Park heading
> south
> > from 56th Street this morning for ADA curb &
> > crossing work. Quite a lot of scrap metal that
> the
> > city could be selling to help pay for the
> pension
> > short fall they didn't pay when they should
> have
> > (oh, did I just say that?).
>
> It wouldn't be near enough to cover pensions (and
> being a retired City employee, I ought to know),
> and many of those tracks serve as a current return
> for the L system. Even if there isn't a branch of
> the L nearby. If you take them out, you have to
> replace the current path with some big cables,
> otherwise the current will short-circuit through
> water and gas mains, which can cause corrosion and
> leaks.
So you're telling us that the current returns from the el via streetcar tracks? I totally don't buy that at all. As I understand electric traction the third rail or overhead wire provide one path and the tracks in use the other. I don't understand why they would ever have been linked in the first place*, let alone currently still linked.
*Especially since they were built by different companies and you'd have current feeding down the el structures to street level. And somehow, that would have shorted out the streetcars.
-------------------------------------------------------
> davey7 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The tracks were exposed on Lake Park heading
> south
> > from 56th Street this morning for ADA curb &
> > crossing work. Quite a lot of scrap metal that
> the
> > city could be selling to help pay for the
> pension
> > short fall they didn't pay when they should
> have
> > (oh, did I just say that?).
>
> It wouldn't be near enough to cover pensions (and
> being a retired City employee, I ought to know),
> and many of those tracks serve as a current return
> for the L system. Even if there isn't a branch of
> the L nearby. If you take them out, you have to
> replace the current path with some big cables,
> otherwise the current will short-circuit through
> water and gas mains, which can cause corrosion and
> leaks.
So you're telling us that the current returns from the el via streetcar tracks? I totally don't buy that at all. As I understand electric traction the third rail or overhead wire provide one path and the tracks in use the other. I don't understand why they would ever have been linked in the first place*, let alone currently still linked.
*Especially since they were built by different companies and you'd have current feeding down the el structures to street level. And somehow, that would have shorted out the streetcars.
Re: Trolly Tracks
Posted by:
Jeff_Weiner
(---.sub-70-194-65.myvzw.com)
Date: May 19, 2015 12:14AM
davey7 Wrote:
>
> So you're telling us that the current returns from
> the el via streetcar tracks? I totally don't buy
> that at all. As I understand electric traction the
> third rail or overhead wire provide one path and
> the tracks in use the other. I don't understand
> why they would ever have been linked in the first
> place*, let alone currently still linked.
>
> *Especially since they were built by different
> companies and you'd have current feeding down the
> el structures to street level. And somehow, that
> would have shorted out the streetcars.
Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but that's what I thought when I started working for the City of Chicago as a traffic engineer in 1983. I think it's mostly from the formation of the CTA, and since they acquired CSL substations, they were able to use them to increase traction power available to the L. But the City has, or had, a "Corrosion Prevention Task Force" under what was several City agencies (including what was then Public Works, who I worked for) and the CTA, to deal with this, either maintaining the old tracks as a current return, or replacing them with cables. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!
I do remember one of my supervisors took a contractor to task, who had cut one rail clear through with a power saw, and was starting on the second. The supervisor said he knew that track was still live, and there would have been a nasty 600-volt arc if the contractor had finished that cut.
Another consideration is that those tracks are deep to reduce deflection as streetcars moved over them, so the cost of digging them up would be prohibitive.
There's also many places where the cable car conduits are still extant under the tracks, so they would have to be dug up too. We had a heck of a time when we modernized the traffic signals at Ogden and Madison, because we had to dig under the tracks [u]and[/u] the cable conduits. Those tracks were still live current returns, as well.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2015 12:32AM by Jeff_Weiner.
>
> So you're telling us that the current returns from
> the el via streetcar tracks? I totally don't buy
> that at all. As I understand electric traction the
> third rail or overhead wire provide one path and
> the tracks in use the other. I don't understand
> why they would ever have been linked in the first
> place*, let alone currently still linked.
>
> *Especially since they were built by different
> companies and you'd have current feeding down the
> el structures to street level. And somehow, that
> would have shorted out the streetcars.
Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but that's what I thought when I started working for the City of Chicago as a traffic engineer in 1983. I think it's mostly from the formation of the CTA, and since they acquired CSL substations, they were able to use them to increase traction power available to the L. But the City has, or had, a "Corrosion Prevention Task Force" under what was several City agencies (including what was then Public Works, who I worked for) and the CTA, to deal with this, either maintaining the old tracks as a current return, or replacing them with cables. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!
I do remember one of my supervisors took a contractor to task, who had cut one rail clear through with a power saw, and was starting on the second. The supervisor said he knew that track was still live, and there would have been a nasty 600-volt arc if the contractor had finished that cut.
Another consideration is that those tracks are deep to reduce deflection as streetcars moved over them, so the cost of digging them up would be prohibitive.
There's also many places where the cable car conduits are still extant under the tracks, so they would have to be dug up too. We had a heck of a time when we modernized the traffic signals at Ogden and Madison, because we had to dig under the tracks [u]and[/u] the cable conduits. Those tracks were still live current returns, as well.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2015 12:32AM by Jeff_Weiner.
