north side C&NW shot on rp.net

[Jeff Wingstrom]

Just curious - anybody know where this is?  Looks like the Hancock tower visible at top right.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=293170&nseq=44

[chuck]

That looks like the Pickens and Kane building at Kinzie and Union.  Cool shot!!

-=Chuck=-
Mail: chuckjanda(at)hotmail.com
Home: http://www.chucksphotospot.com

[TBurke]

My guess is that the picture was taken in the throat of the previous C&NW downtown station, just north of the trainsheds and passenger platforms.  It was torn down in the 1980s to make room for the current Ogilvie Station.

You can see a photo of the front of the station at:

http://www.dhke.com/CRJ/station.html

The building with the two antennae is Sears (now Willis) Tower, not the Hancock Building, so this view looks southeast.  Behind the grey buildings would be Canal Street.

The C&NW (and now Metra) stored locomotives on these tracks during off-peak hours between rush hours.  In more recent years a GP-9 was also kept on these tracks.

The Beaux Arts architecture of the buildings in the background is the same as what is left of the old terminal which you can see along Clinton Avenue just south of Lake Street.  The old powerhouse which is being converted into condos has the same architecture.

[chuck]

I\'m sticking with Picken & Kane!!
Check out the street view from kind of the same area...

http://maps.google.com/maps?source=ig&hl=en&q=kinzie+and+union,+chicago&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=W+Kinzie+St+%26+N+Union+Ave,+Chicago,+Cook,+Illinois&ll=41.888868,-87.645831&spn=0.002728,0.00434&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=41.888781,-87.645825&panoid=CedIck6hfsFbboQ2oVS35g&cbp=12,13.41,,0,7.78

Even if I am wrong, which I might be, was the track in this area a yard for the Navy Pier branch?

-=Chuck=-
Mail: chuckjanda(at)hotmail.com
Home: http://www.chucksphotospot.com

[TBurke]

I considered then ruled out Pickens-Kane due to the orientation of the photo.  The Pickens-Kane spur tracks left the C&NW West Line viaduct just west of Bloomer and traveled west into the PK building as well as along covered loading ramps outside.  There are no loading ramps alongside these tracks.

Both the Sears Tower and the Hancock Building are to the east of PK.  Going with the first guess by jwingstrom that it\'s the Hancock Building in the background then this view must look east.  The PK complex is to the south of the West Line.  In order for it to be the PK complex in the foreground then PK would have to be north of the C&NW West Line viaduct which it is not.  Hubbard runs along the viaduct\'s north side.

I also considered a location on the east side of the North Line but there were no buildings that looked at all like this one.  Same for the line to Navy Pier, no matches to this building.

So by process of elimination I came up with the building in the background being the Sears Tower and the one in the foreground the former C&NW station at Madison Street.

[Jeff Wingstrom]

hum.  interesting    if you click back and forth between the old shot and the google street view, it sure seems like a dead-on match.  Yet TBurke\'s analysis makes sense...  ?  Can\'t see how there were ever tracks like the \'74 shot on the south side of the Pickens-Kane building.

I had a big A-HA moment after chuck\'s post because something looked vaguely familiar about the \'74 shot -- I often bike-commute on Halsted through there and sorta admire the P-K bldg.  again.. hmmmm...  

parting shot:  wasn\'t it the Hancock\'s antennae that were red/white striped like that back in the day?

EDIT:  uh oh, foot in mouth, sorry for my ignorance!  The 1973 overhead:

http://www.historicaerials.com/?poi=9078

Whole area was a glorious spread of tracks back then...

[TBurke]

According to Doug Kaniuk it is the Pickens-Kane building viewed from ground level along Kinzie.  I was considering only the viaduct level access to PK on the north side.

Good catch by Doug.

When I looked closer at the photo the ramp up to Des Plaines Avenue is visible in the background on the far right.

[JohnColeman]

Yes, If you maneuver the google street view a little you can find the 3 little windows on the right of the original picture and the rectangular opening with the roll shutter just next to them. While the rest of the building has changed a lot, it looks like the roll shutter may be the exact same, just closed now and open in the original picture.  Good stuff!

[haggar]

I travel down this street every day going to work.  Looks like on the far right of pic is at Union where Kinzie slopes upward to meet Des Plaines.
On a related note, I recently got Schwarzenegger\'s \"Red Heat\" on blu-ray.  This is the area at the end of the film where the bus is hit by a CNW locomotive.  There are some ex Rock boxcars, CNW gondola, and FGE insulated boxcar visible also.

Joe

[shawnmutant]

Hello -  Somewhat off the original topic but still related to the old C&NW mainline along Kinzie ...

Is the old signal bridge still standing east of Ogden?  I mapped this area out in 1998 and there was still a track back there with a concrete unloading dock east of the signal bridge west of Racine.  This was connected to the west of there and severed and abandoned/pulled up east of Racine. The loading dock was off the old main to the south and my notes say that there were C&NW boxcars there as well.  The track on the north side of the old double track main was pulled.  My notes also indicate that there were flashers for crossing protection on the old C&NW at Racine.  I did not take any pictures back in the pre-digital days of this area but my memory recalls that it was pretty shrubbed in.  Following Kinzie east of here I found a couple of old remnants of rail spurs serving old industries:between Arberdeen and Carpenter, between Peoria and Green St - both on the north side of Kinzie.  

Have a good day
Shawn O\'Day