There's a new railcam at my old stomping grounds in Chicago. It's mounted on the former powerhouse stack overlooking the throat of the former Northwestern Station (now the Ogilvie Transportation Center). We're looking north in this screen capture. The trains seen closest are inbound and will soon arrive at the terminal. The former MILW line to Union Station is at street level where the crossing is located and you'll see plenty of trains there too, including Amtrak. Union Station is out of view to the right, behind the camera. Obviously, rush hour is prime time on both lines.
I'm not sure @BoxcabE50 . There were some remaining moves of newsprint to the Sun Times and some baled recycled paper moves as well, but I don't know if these survive today. The MILW's freight route along the North Branch of the Chicago River is gone as is the C&NW's line to Navy Pier. As a kid, arriving and departing from Northwestern Station was such a thrill as the train threaded its way through all of the puzzle switches. At night with all of the dwarf signals lit, it was pure magic.
Dang, bet it's busy in the morning and afternoons here with all those commuters! Some loooong trains for sure! Cool watching that signal bridge, constantly changing signals!
With it being a new webcam, the camera set up guy was communicating with website fans to get that signal bridge in the view. There's also a southward view that contains the station only. That's the Chicago Transit Authority's (I forget what it's called today) elevated line crossing the tracks there.
I took this picture at the platform end in March 1975 with the CTA bridge as it was then. The webcam is mounted on that smokestack. To the right just beyond the bridge is Lake Street Tower and in the distance at the left of the train is boxy red Clinton Street Tower. Lake Street still stands I think, but I don't know in what capacity. Clinton Street has been razed.
This is Lake Street in its golden age, pistol-grip machine and all, controlling 16 station tracks. I think I count 16 today.
@BocbabE50 - it's mostly passenger service there. I used to take that line in (under METRA) back in the day. You might catch some local frieght movements there, but not too much. The CNW used to park the circus train out there too.
I tried watching the cam a bit yesterday but some joker was constantly moving it around to the point I felt motion sick. Turned it on again this morning about 6:45am Chicago time and it's better. Been a nice stream of Metra trains in the fist 20 minutes of having it on
I found the same thing and felt seasick too! I think that it also shakes some in high winds. Hopefully they'll finally set it in place and leave it alone. One fan complained that it needed to be moved to the right to see more of the former MILW and I thought, open your eyes man. There are buildings in the way!
LOL, you are right, can't see through buildings. I can live with the wind shakes but the other was pretty rough.
Fascinating! Thanks, Dan! The trains look like trains and not some pages out of a paint-by-number coloring book. Doug
I took this picture from Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) in March 1975 and circled the area we see on the webcam. You can also see the station's powerhouse smokestack where the webcam is mounted and how the MILW's track curves beyond the bridge to follow the Chicago River south into Union Station. Union Station is not in this view. Stupid teenage me should have thought to include more of North Western Station in the photo. You can see some of its roof below the AT&T building in the lower left.
Nice photo! Yes, the arched windows at the top of CNW station are visible. Many of the buildings presently alongside the track toward the north were not there in '75! The track alignment must still be pretty much the same. I wonder if the truss bridge became unsafe or if they just wanted a nicer looking one so they replaced it with the girder bridge. Doug
"Say Mayor, all my guys, who, by the way, all contributed to your campaign, don't have anything to do right now and they'd like to still be able to afford going out and having beers. You know that CTA truss bridge over there near the CNW station? I sure would hate to see anything happen to it like, you know...if it were to "collapse" or something. My boys could build a brand new girder bridge there in no time! Whaddya say?" All in a Chigaaago accent, of course. Speaking of which, when I worked at Telex and did expediting for a while, I used to call a guy at the Armour Screw Company in Chicago (his name was also Doug) and when he answered the phone, he would always say, "Hey Doug, how ya doin') and he sounded just like those guys on SNL when they did the "Dikka" skits. Doug
Yep. Chicago was once known as The City That Works. The city that I knew some 40+ years ago has changed in that regard and in others too.
