I took this photo on location at South Lawndale Avenue at approximately what would be West 49th Street around sunset. An eastbound Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad switching local train, is viewed traveling over the Belt Railway of Chicago owned tracks.
Prior to December of 1988, The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad had their own Stockyards branchline approximately 60 feet to the north of the adjacent Belt Railway of Chicago single track heavily ballasted branchline shown here. The Chicago Transit Authority was in the process of constructing the CTA orange line rapid transit to Chicago's Midway Airport at the time of this photograph, wich utilized part of the Stockyards branchline right of way.
The stockyards branch was in very poor shape with many rotted ties, kinked rails and roadbed whos ballest had long since sank in to the mud. Slow speed derailments were quiete common along this line. The IHB Stockyards branchline trains traveled between 5 and 10 miles per hour.
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