Re: (erielack) CWI entering downtown chicago

[ANDOVERJct_@_aol.com]

The C&WI main line into Dearborn crossed the Dan Ryan at about 26th Street 
(about at a location on the Dan Ryan known as "the narrows of 21st Street"), and 
the C&WI's Hammond branch (used by EL) crossed the Dan Ryan on an impressive 
bridge around 90th Street. Last time I was down that way, I think there was 
still C&WI markings on the bridge, which it share with other carriers.

At 26th Street, the Dan Ryan is in an east-west tangent, and the ex-C&WI 
track is still in place, I think, as Metra had been using it to get the Orland 
Park trains on to the PRR main (they might be doing this farther south now; I 
don't know, but there used to be a connection just south of 21st Street 
interlocking). Anyway, the track or at least the R-O-W, lays right next to the former 
PRR main, which Amtrak uses, pretty much all the way down to about 47th Street, 
where the C&WI swung over to a more westerly alignment.

The Dolton main line of the C&WI (now UP) crosses I-57 just south of 95th 
Street, shortly after I-57 begins (where it splits from the Dan Ryan) and for a 
short distance heads due west; the C&WI is on a north-south alignment here, and 
this bridge over I-57 actually had a metal C&WI herald, which I believe is 
still there but rusted over!

The Skyway did not cross the C&WI anywhere.

Mike Schafer
Lee, Illinois

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