Have you been to Hinsdale?

thanks for posting. it's been awhile since i've been there, but it was always a great place to watch trains.

A real treat is to watch from Oak Street Bridge.  I don't know if it still has a walkway or not now.

Buzz

Great photos! And a great location to take pictures.

I had a huge victory in Hinsdale last Thanksgiving. Our second son was born at Hinsdale Hospital and my wife has some nice connections so we scored the corner suite in the new maternity ward. Guess what it overlooks?! Yep, you look right down on the "race track" from high above. It provided a cool perspective and viewing angle. Too bad we only had it for a few days, but I think the hospital is missing out on a revenue maker on those slow delivery days!!!

BTW tplee, the walk way on the bridge is still blocked off. I haven't tried it yet, but you may be able to get a decent view a top the new parking deck at the hospital.

Having grown up in Hinsdale, have enjoyed train spotting there my whole life. Transitioned from 50/50 steam/diesel in the mid '50's to fuly dieselized in the late '50's, excepting a marvelous array of steam power on fantrips provided by kindly Burlington management. The best spot remains The Highlands, just east of downtown Hinsdale, what with it's rustic limestone depot of 1879 era and tree festooned park. The Oak Street bridge was always a fun anachronism, and in my youth, there was no stoplight. Cars would meet in the middle and face-off. Folks driving space-ship finned, land yacht Cadillacs were just "too important" to back off! But all was taken with good spirits. The story circulating amoung local railfans is that the Oak Strret bridge was a turntable.....possibly from Riverside, up the pike, when it was an intermediate terminus for some of the commuter trains, and Ten Wheelers ruled the roost.

Mark:

Now you have me going down Q history lane.  I'm a later model than you (1958), but remember well the Q fan trip specials. 

Here is a question I'm hoping you could answer.  When was Clyde Yard put in? 

Looking at Historic Aerials, Clyde was there on the 1928 typographical map, but is not there on the 1920 map.  The west end looked to have been residential (east of Ridgeland Ave and the LaVergne station), and that was gone on the 1928 map. 

I'm assuming that up until that point, Western Avenue was the prime yard. 

Regards,

Jerry

Jerry - I recall reading that Harry Murphy, later the CB&Q President, was involved in laying the Clyde Yard out in 1917. Think he was drawn into WW I then, as he was a fighter pilot. Eola Yard was installed at that time, too, so these must have been unified projects. Clyde replaced Western Avenue as the Q's primary Chicago freight yard, as Proviso replaced C&NW's downtown So Water Street yard, and suspect Bensenville came in probably at the same time, replacing the Milwaukee's intown yard. Business had just outgrown those antiquated yards.   

Harry Murphy's Son and daughter-in-law attended a Burlington Route Historical Society meet a couple of years ago, and he recalled his father being involved in flying in the late teens, when he was Division Supt at Alliance, NE. Harry Murphy not only preserved steam for fantrips, he was a multi-talented man.

Very cool!

Peter

The Highlands train station in Hinsdale was made in O scale around thirty years ago.I wish I would have bought it then,it must be impossible to find now.I also regret not going to the Highlands station to see the Burlington Nebraska Zephyr go by the station in 2012.I didn't know the Illinois Railway Museum was giving tracking updates,so I could have easily seen the rare sight.Oh well,hopefully the IRM will get the Zephyr out on another excursion.I will make sure I don't miss it next time.I was born at the nearby Hinsdale hospital back in 1966.

Dan

Dan - My memories of the Highlands Station and the CB&Q go back to at least 1958. A school friend had a father who was an active railfan and O Scale model railroader, and he advised that a steam powered excursion would be going through on July 2, 1958. My father, I, my friend and his father met at the Highlands, and O5a 4-8-4 #5618 sailed through with  a 4 car train, including solarium car Omaha Club and a dome car. It was an Illini RR Club special bound for the Missabe Range, where a Yellowstone pulled the train around the DM&IR. Wonderful times!

Jerry - Did a bit more research on Clyde Yard and found in a BRHS publication addressing the Aurora (IL) track elevation project (completed in 1922) a further description of the opening of the new/February 1958 hump yard at Clyde. It was noted that property was first aquired by the railroad in this area in 1880, and was called Hawthorne (also site of the famous Western Electric Hawthorne Works). A small scale yard was completed on the property in 1889 - presume Western Ave remained the Q's primary freight yard at that time. A new westbound yard was completed in 1899. The entire area was elevated with fill from 1906-1908. In 1917 a "young engineer named Harry C. Murphy - now Pres of the RR - helped to layout an eastbound yard, that was completed the following year." Another westbound yard was finished in 1919. So presume the land and rr yard occupied by today's Clyde Yard was in operation fully at that time. Presently, as I understand it (Clyde is pretty impenetrable these days), the hump is gone and a fair amount of the yard is devoted to intermodal and container handling.

Mark,

As a retired former Metra rider, I can confirm your current picture of Clyde yard.  Starting about 10 or 15 years ago, the yard was severely shrunk in favor of intermodal and container handling.  Hump is long gone, well before that time, as I used to watch switchers flat switch (my terminology) huge strings of cars well down the yard lead(s) to Pulaski Avenue or maybe even farther east.

Chuck

Thank you for the update, Chuck. The only constant is change (sorry for the cliche) and maybe some youthful railfan in 2064 will reflect nostalgically on that "intermodal yard" that used to be at Clyde!

Yep.

My airline used to put us up in a hotel within walking distance, so I could go downtown on the commuter.  At the time they were running E-8s or 9s.  Nonstop action, and a delightful little burg.

I always enjoyed Chicago - the challenge of Midway and the Hobbyland shop were my favorites.  I am a piece of history, having landed at Meigs field (not in an airliner).