Thursday, January 09, 2014

GTW #1501 at Elsdon Yard (Chicago IL) in 1975.

I found this now historic photograph from Chicago's Elsdon neighborhood, at one of the many Flickr photo pages that appear on the internet.

One local place that brought me many happy memories while I attended nearby Curie High School from 1977 to 1981, was the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's old fashioned steam era Elsdon Yard.

Grand Trunk Western Railroad EMD yard switcher locomotive # 1501, is viewed passing the Elsdon depot, with a cut of cars in tow. This locomotive is more than likely performing several back and forth switching movements at the GTW Elsdon Yard site along the southside of West 51st Street in this vintage 1975 photograph, and blocking all automobile and pedestrian traffic on West 51st Street. The West 51st Street railroad crossing gates, were controlled manually from an old fashioned wooden elevated operators tower, which was located across the street from the GTW Elsdon depot.

The GTW Elsdon depot, was located along the southside of West 51st Street, just east of South Lawndale Avenue.

This two story wooden former passenger train station, was built in 1881, and demolished in November of 1983, after the GTW closed Elsdon Yard.

Thanks.
Eddie K.

1 comment:

Anthony C said...

Cool shot from an angle I can't say I've ever seen before, inside the yard looking back toward the station.

I very well remember those switchers going back-and-forth, back-and-forth, kicking train cars almost non-stop.