B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??


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B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: Doghouse Riley ()
Date: April 16, 2012 07:41PM

When I was growing up on the south side in the early '60s, the Baltimore & Ohio railroad used tracks (now demolished) that ran parallel to the Rock Island - now Metra - line along South 89th Street between Vincennes and Ashland.

Where it went east and west of there I don't know. What I do remember is how much I used to love watching those beautiful blue and gray streamliners.

Can anyone point me to a map or some photos of this abandoned line? It does <u>not</u> appear to be the route described by Jacob Kaplan in his article on the Forgotten Chicago main page.

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: daveg ()
Date: April 17, 2012 02:17PM

Found some track maps here. Don't know if these will answer your questions or not.

http://transit.chicago.il.us/

I'll keep poking around.

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: Rustymuscle ()
Date: April 17, 2012 03:43PM

Does www.historicaerials.com help? I checked it, tracks look the same in old/new photos.

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Date: April 18, 2012 09:29PM

[b]Are you familiar with Loomis and 89th st.? The 8900 block had all kinds of buiseness there. Also I remember in the mid 50's when teen were hanging out there but that's another story.. [/b]

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: jak378 ()
Date: April 19, 2012 01:08AM

I believe that those tracks ran out of the old Grand Central Station on Polk Street and then ran over to the B and O Chicago Terminal Railroad and eventually topoints east an southeast.

89th and Loomis was known at Brainard, wasn't it?

I remember Melody Lane at 87th and Loomis very well.

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: Doghouse Riley ()
Date: April 19, 2012 08:31AM

We hung out at the 8900 block Loomis shopping district all the time. There was a little greasy-spoon grill mid block on the east side, and a record store across the street, that got most of my pocket money when I was about thirteen.

Wasn't the Melody Lane the place that had all the great ice cream creations? I remember it, also remember Skip's drive in which was around 87th and Racine (not the famous north side Skip's).

At the time of all this, we lived at 8948 Morgan. House is still there, looks about like it did the day we moved out in '65.

No one's found a visual of my railroad tracks yet, thanks for trying though.....

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Date: April 19, 2012 05:13PM

[bBack in the 50's we pulled up there and one of the guys I was with jumped out and punched a guy wearing a Calumet H.S. sweater and that's what I remember about that street. Melody Lane][/b]

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: April 19, 2012 08:47PM

I found this in an earlier thread in Forgottenchicago, but did not get a chance to look up your info yet. I think it may have what you are looking for. If I find anymore I will post it.

http://www.abandonedrails.com/Illinois

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: celticjunker1 ()
Date: May 11, 2012 11:21AM

I know Casto's Buffet was on 89th and Loomis just west of the tracks. It was a very popular tavern and supper club. East of the tracks was a bustling shopping district on both sides of 89th. I'll ask my aunt what those stores were. She talks about that area all the time.

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: ambrosemario ()
Date: October 18, 2012 10:26PM

While in high school in the late 1960's, I traveled on the B&O to Michigan. My Mother dropped me off at a station located one block east of the 62nd & Western Sears store. The station, an old-fashioned 19th century type, was east of the Sears parking lot and is long gone, but the last time a traveled that way the tracks were still there. As another writer mentioned, as the train traveled east across the south side it briefly ran parallel along the Rock Island tracks in Brainerd

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Re: B & O RR trackage in Auburn Gresham ??
Posted by: mkmcclure63 ()
Date: March 26, 2013 01:26AM

The original B&O entrance into Chicago paralleled the NYC tracks and then angled sharply NNE to link up with the IC whose trackage rights it used to downtown ending at Grand Central Station(Terminal is in NYC). Bits and pieces can still be gleaned. Someone on the site posted photos from today of the former Right of Way.

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