Dear List Members,
I was delighted to see mention of the Conrail "Bottle Trains" (as all the
"locals" call them in the Calumet Region). Having grown up in Riverdale,
Illinois, in the shadow of Acme Steel's Riverdale Works and having spent
countless hundreds of frames of film on said trains, perhaps I can shed some
light on some aspects of the Bottle Train's method of operation.
The Bottle Train (whose CR symbols elude me at the present time, as the
information is still at my home in Minnesota--I am currently in the Chicago
area) originates at Colehour Yard on the former Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, Fort
Wayne & Chicago) main line to Fort Wayne and Pittsburgh. The trains used to
originate at a facility located around 110th Street, where it intersects CR's
former PRR Calumet River Industrial Track. There was a small, white clapboard
structure used as a crew office and welfare building located just west of the
tracks. I believe the crews referred to this place as 110th Street. It was
located just south of Acme Steel's blast furnace facility, northeast of the
former Republic Steel coke plant and blast furnace shop. Several years ago (at
least ten), the structure at 110th Street was demolished, and the crews were
relocated to Colehour Yard, a scant mile or two northeast.
Typically, if I recall correctly, there are presently two crews per day called
(I will try to confirm all this information as soon as I can, as I know most
of the men who presently work these jobs; these are high-seniority positions,
as I am sure you can imagine)! The crews typically work two roundtrips per
Acme Steel shift--note: this may vary, as business activities dictate! The
crews typically report to Colehour for their clearances and train bulletins,
then taxi to Acme Steel's ironmaking facility at 108th and Burley, on the East
bank of the Calumet River, south of the 106th Street Bridge.
What actually happens is this: Acme has three separate facilities in the
Chicagoland area which it utilizes to manufacture iron and steel. The process
starts at the coke making facility at 112th and Torrence Avenue on Chicago's
south side. Here, bituminous coal is baked in ovens to produce coke.
Impurities are driven off and byproducts are collected, for use in manufacture
elsewhere. The Torrence Avenue facility is served by rail, being just west of
the former Chicago & Western Indiana main line, just west of South Deering
Junction. It has used many exotic locomotives for intra-plant switching over
the years, among them an Interlake Steel Co. ALCO RS-2, which is now preserved
at Illinois Railway Museum at Union.
The coke is transported to the Acme Steel South Chicago Ironmaking Facility by
overhead conveyor, a massive structure which vaults over Torrence Avenue,
heads northwest past the former Wisconsin Steel Works site, passes high over
the Calumet River, and ends at the blast furnaces on the eastern bank. Other
raw materials, such as taconite (iron-ore concentrated pellets) and limestone
arrive by ship. These materials are all offloaded and stored adjacent to the
furnaces.
At South Chicago, there are three blast furnaces. These behemoths rise up
almost 200 feet above street level. They produce the molten iron which is
transported to Riverdale Works by rail. An Acme Steel crew will typically pull
one of the cast houses at a time. Usually, three bottle cars will emerge fully
loaded. The switch crew spots them near the plant gate, where the Conrail crew
is standing close-by. After the Acme crew cuts off, the CR crew ties on,
performs a brake test, and pulls out of the plant, heading northward toward
106th Street. These trains always used to carry two cabooses--one Acme Steel
ex-Norfolk & Western transfer hack and one Conrail cabin. These were typically
former Penn Central transfer cabooses, although I have photographed every
conceivable kind of CR caboose on these runs--including ex-PRR N5c and N8's!
The power pulls the train onto the CR Calumet River Industrial Track, runs
around to the South end, then departs southward. It uses the Cal River to Wolf
Lake Junction, just southeast of the former Republic Steel Works. Here, the
train gets on what is left of CR's former PRR South Chicago & Southern (SC&S)
Branch. This line started at Colehour Junction on the PFW&C and ran southward
to Bernice Junction, where it met the rails of PRR's former Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis (PCC&StL)--known locally as the "Panhandle."
At one time, the bottle trains traversed almost the entire length of the
SC&S, heading around the wye at Bernice Jct. and heading northwestward
(timetable westward) on the Panhandle to access Acme Steel just west of
Riverdale Interlocking. Eventually, CR downgraded, then abandoned parts of
both the Panhandle and the SC&S south of CP Calumet Park; thus, the trains can
no longer use this route.
Instead, the trains head southward on the northern remnant of the SC&S,
parallel Burnham Avenue, and head through wetlands of the Calumet River and
Wolf Lake Basins. At Burnham Junction, the SC&S crosses the Chicago, South
Shore & South Bend (South Shore Line), Chicago & Western Indiana and Norfolk
Southern's former Nickel Plate Road mainline to Fort Wayne. The trains
continue southward through fairly inaccessible lowlands to CP Calumet Park,
site of the former Calumet Park Tower. Here, they head around the connection
at the northeastern quadrant of the junction, cross CSX's former Baltimore &
Ohio Chicago Terminal's Barr Subdivision, and access the Indiana Harbor Belt.
The power then runs around the train to the West end, does a set and release
brake test, then departs westward on "The Harbor."
It is a fairly quick trip over the IHB westward to Dolton Tower. At Dolton,
the train uses a facing-point connection installed by PC to access the last
remnant of the Panhandle for the short journey northwestward to Riverdale
Works. Once on the Panhandle, it is less than one-half mile to Riverdale
Interlocking. Riverdale was once the location of a tower, which stood along
the PCC&StL, hard to the west of the Illinois Central embankment. The
Panhandle formerly crossed the B&OCT at grade, then passed under the IC's six-
track mainline. Nowadays, the diamond is gone, as is the tower. Crews must
call the CSX RA dispatcher on AAR 14-14 to get on a short stretch of CSX
track, cross both CSX mains, then access CR tracks again.
Once at Riverdale, the CR pulls into the Acme yard, cuts off and usually gets
on a string of empties, placed by the Acme switch crew, for transportation
back to South Chicago. The Acme crew pulls the bottle cars back into the
plant, located at Acme Bend on the Little Calumet River, where they are towed
toward the Basic Oxygen Process (BOP) shop, adjacent to the river. The iron is
"blown" in vessels with pure oxygen to drive out impurities and produce high-
quality steels of various grades. The finishing mills are also located at
Riverdale.
Whew! My wrists are sore! I hope this information helps explain just what the
bottle trains are and what they do. I apologize to list members if I took up
too much space; this is obviously my favorite rail subject! If anyone has
any additional information to add or corrections to be made, feel free to jump
in this discussion. If you have any more questions, feel free to post to the
list or contact me off-list at the address provided herein.
Markers,
James E. Humbert
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
BLE Div. #494, Canadian Pacific Railway
St. Paul, MN
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