| Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad SW7 8839 and New York Central Railroad SW1 611 at the Chicago Junction yard in Chicago, Illinois on May 9, 1965, photo by Chuck Zeiler. Number 8839 was built in January 1950 (c/n 8130) on EMD Order E1136, became PC 8839 and possibly CR 8867, scrapped by the CR at Hollidaysburg. Number 611 was built in October 1950 (c/n 11768) on EMD Order 6115, and later became NYC/PC/CR 8437. This is an interesting location, by the date of this photo, it is the property of the Chicago River & Indiana Railroad, a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad. From the beginning of the 20th Century, this had been the property of the Chicago Junction Railway (a company formed by merging the Chicago and Indiana State Line, and Chicago, Hammond and Western on April 26, 1898) to form the Chicago Junction Railway, with the Union Stock Yard & Transit Company of Chicago (USY&T) as the parent company, and although the CJ owned but 2.185 miles of track, it appears that it was the last two miles into the Chicago Union Stock Yards, so if your intention was to get livestock delivered to the stockyards, you had to deal with the CJ (NYC). On May 19, 1922, the New York Central Railroad bought control of the Chicago River and Indiana Railroad (CR&I) and simultaneously leased the Chicago Junction to the CR&I. On August 26, 1958, the CR&I acquired the property of the Chicago Junction and lessor USY&T, and in 1976 the Conrail acquired the CR&I's lines. |
