19-03-27b PHOTOS: Heritage Corridor

The first leg of my actual journey on Amtrak's Train #21, the Texas Eagle, runs along the Metra "Heritage Corridor", which gets its name from the Illinois and Michigan Canal Heritage Corridor along which the rail line runs. In railroad Terms the line is the old Chicago and Alton which ran between Chicago and Alton in a similar fashion to the way Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac ran a single line between rail hubs in Alexandria and Richmond Virginia. The Alton was purchased by the B&O in 1931 then transferred to the Gulf Mobile and Ohio, which later merged with the Illinois Central before being ultimately purchased by Canadian National. The route below Joliet was sold by the IC and eventually passed to the Southern Pacific that finally became part of Union Pacific in 1994, but CN/IC retained ownership of the Heritage Corridor section due to a sizable amount of local industry. Today the line is part of the larger Lincoln Corridor, 110mph high speed route that connects St Louis, Springfield and Chicago with a 5 daily round trips, however due to the large amount of conflicting freight traffic, METRA service only consists of a handful of peak direction weekday runs.

Freight conflicts are endemic to this route due to the presence of four major at-grade crossings that can be tied up for long stretches by freight movements trying to negotiate the congested Chicago terminal area. Closures of interlocking towers and increased dispatcher workload has made coordination impossible and it is not uncommon for Amtrak traffic to get hit with sizable delays on this 30 mile stretch. Fortunately my train only lost about 20-30 minutes for a variety of reasons. You can view the entire set of photos here (mirror) and a video of the entire run here.

After turning onto the old Alton at 21ST ST crossing, the line parallels the CTA Orange Line to Midway . Here we see a CTA Orange Line train led by 2600-series car #2958 pacing the Eagle near Bridgeport.

Here we see the same train after passing the old BRIDGEPORT drawbridge over Bubbly Creek. The CN Joliet Sub's speed in this area of 40mph allowed the transit train to keep up even with its frequent stops. With new 7000 series cars getting ready to replace the 2600-series, the Budds were moved to the Orange line which had previously been the domain of M-K built 3300 series cars. 

The first of the major at-grade crossings is BRIGHTON PARK where the Alton crosses the former PRR "Panhandle" and B&OCT main lines that loop around the backside of Chicago. Until 2007 the crossing was non-interlocked, instead protected by stop signs with a switch tender displaying proceed signals to trains using a system of mechanical semaphores. 

A bit to the south sits the Amtrak Brighton Park car shoppes. Built to support the RTG Turboliners in the 1970's, the shoppes continue to be used to perform a variety of maintenance tasks on the midwest single level coach fleet.

This ancient cantilever signal structure is a remnant of the line's B&O heritage, which resulted in B&O Color Position Light signals being present from the 1930's through until 2018.

CORWITH interlocking and its three sets of diamonds sits at the immediate west end of the former Santa Fe Corwith Yard, their gateway in the Chicago terminal. Until the merger frenzy of the 80's and 90'd, only the Santa Fe and Milwaukee Road offered "one seat" service to the Pacific coast. CORWITH tower, located on the left between the two sets of diamonds, was closed and demolished in 2009.

BELT JCT marks where the Alton crosses the Belt Railway of Chicago, the innermost of the three Chicago terminal railways. Note the strange rusty crossover.

The Summit station is served by both Metra and Amtrak Lincoln trains with the latter using it as an option for people traveling to/from the Chicago suburbs. 

We happened upon a CN local switching a local industry with a cut of cars occupying Track #2. The Grand Trunk Western

The final set of diamonds belong to the Indiana Harbor Belt at what used to be known as ARGO crossing, and since renamed to CP-CANAL.

The crossing is named for the nearby Argo Corn Products megaplant that was being switched that day by RSSX GP10's #1062 and #8238.

Truss bridge over the Chicago Ship canal and the northbound home signals for LAMBERT interlocking. CN has worked to decrease delays by installing an excessive number of crossovers between Joliet and 21ST ST. The 36 mile line now has a total of 11 CTC crossovers. 

Another pair of GTW/CN units sits just north of the FLAGSTONE crossover with CN painted GP38-2 #4915 ahead of another GTW unit.  Not sure exactly what was going on, but there was a cut of cars a mile or so back with some railroaders waiting for something to happen.

METRA Lockport Station. The MP 32.8 automatic signal was flashing Advance Approach. 

Some sort of work in downtown Lockport was cause for crossing tenders to be deployed.

Fixed approach boards were set out at the northbound signal for STATEVILLE interlocking for the MoW possession in Lockport. To the right of the image can be seen a guard tower from the famous Illinois State Correctional Institution at Joliet, which was once home to notable musician Jake Blues.

End of the line comes at MP 36.8 where the CN/IC Joliet District ends and the Union Pacific Joliet Subdivision begins. 

Next week we continue onto UP territory en route to Springfield and St. Louis on the Lincoln Corridor.