Eastbound Belt Railway of Chicago maintenance of way truck. Chicago Illinois. August 1986.
I took this photograph on location, at West 49th Street and South Lawndale Avenue on Chicago's southwest side, on a hot and sunny day in August of 1986. The Chicago Transit Authority's Orange line rapid transit to Chicago's Midway Airport was still 7 years away. Back in 1986, there was two ground leval railroad branchlines here at this location. This pick up truck, is heading eastbound at the South Lawndale Avenue railroad crossing, over the Belt Railway of Chicago owned tracks. This heavily ballasted branchline was used primarily for transfer trains coming and going from the nearby Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad "Corwith Yard". Out of view behind the pick up truck, was the light railed and very poorly maintained Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad "Stockyards" branchline. The IHB abandoned the Stockyards branch in December of 1988, and sold the right of way to the Chicago Transit Authority. The rails were pulled up in 1989, and construction began on the CTA Orange line to Midway Airport. The CTA Orange line opened for business in the fall of 1993.
I attended Curie High School just west of this photo location from 1977 to 1981.
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