By Scott Lothes

Chicago is the railroad hub of North America and the most-represented city in the archives of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. We’ll likely return to the Windy City several times over the course of this blog; for this initial look, the focus is 21st Street Crossing and the photography of Wallace W. Abbey.

At its zenith, 21st Street—also called Alton Junction—involved five railroads and no fewer than 26 diamonds. They were located on the south bank of the South Branch of the Chicago River, a mile and a half south of Union Station. The Pennsylvania Railroad’s double-track main line crossed five curving lines of the Chicago & Western Indiana, and then all seven of those tracks crossed two more tracks, one each for the Illinois Central and the Santa Fe. In the northwestern quadrant of the crossing, the Chicago & Alton—Gulf, Mobile & Ohio after 1947—split off from the Pennsy to follow the IC and the Santa Fe to the southwest. Additional connecting tracks on the eastern side further complicated the mess. Immediately to the north of all this, Pennsy’s two-track Canal Street bridge crosses the river. The current structure features a lift span with 185-foot towers; it opened in 1914, replacing an earlier drawbridge with a swing span. C&WI operators controlled the complex interlocking plant out of a two-story, brick tower in the northeast quadrant of the intersecting tracks, next to the southeast corner of the bridge. 

The tower

On assignment for Trains magazine, Abbey spent most of October 3 and 4, 1950, at 21st Street. He photographed many of the trains that passed for a photo essay titled “Nation’s Crossroads” in the December 1950 issue, highlighting the density of traffic: some 150 train movements every 24 hours. Passenger trains predominated, but there was also plenty of freight, with frequent transfer runs between various yards in the vicinity. Abbey recorded an incredible variety of motive power and rolling stock. While there was still some steam, diesels already held the edge, with cab units from EMD on many of the passenger assignments. There were also end-cab switchers and both cab and hood units from other manufacturers. Light engine moves were also common, with locomotives running between passenger stations to the east and terminal facilities to the west. Switchers pulled and pushed empty passenger trains in and out of the stations, and they even moved some through cars between stations for connections. On either side of the junction, rail-related infrastructure filled much of the land along the river.

1953 topographical map

While 21st Street is still a busy junction in the 2020s, the crossing itself, the trains using it, and the land surrounding it have all changed greatly. The five curving tracks of the C&WI are gone; now the primary crossing is between two double-track lines, Norfolk Southern and Canadian National. The former used to be the Pennsylvania main line, while the latter was previously the Illinois Central and the Santa Fe. The former GM&O still veers off to the southwest, while Union Pacific has the one remaining ex-C&WI track running south. The one major addition is the Chicago Transit Authority’s elevated Orange Line, which soars over everything just south of the crossing, running parallel to the CN tracks. 

The sprawling yards and engine terminal facilities that once clustered along the river are mostly gone. Immediately to the east of the NS tracks, recent developments of Chinatown occupy the former site of the Santa Fe coach yards, while Ping Tom Park has replaced the C&WI trackage as well as the Santa Fe engine facilities. 

Passenger traffic is still heavy, consisting entirely of Amtrak and Metra service. Every Amtrak train running between Chicago and the East and South passes through 21st Street, about 40 trains every 24 hours. Metra’s Southwest Service and Heritage Corridor both run through 21st Street, totaling 36 trains on weekdays. Freight amounts to perhaps 8-12 trains daily and includes CN as well as handoffs between NS and BNSF.

In addition to the many railroad-related changes, the experience of photographing trains at 21st is vastly different since Abbey was there in 1950. He enjoyed free reign to shoot from anywhere he wanted on the ground using his 2¼-square Rolleiflex camera. Legal access is impossible today for nearly every angle Abbey recorded; the southwestern corner of Ping Tom Park offers the only public viewpoint from the ground. But the advent of highly capable consumer drones has opened up a new world of possibilities for aerial photography, at least as long as federal regulations allow.

Let’s go back to 1950 and join Abbey at trackside on October 3rd and 4th. He exposed nearly 90 frames of black-and-white film on those two days, capturing much of the essence of 21st Street with its great volume and diversity of traffic. He stored his negatives out of sequence, likely due to the needs of the article—only the published photographs include details about the trains depicted. Based on sun angles and timetables, I’ve tried to reconstruct more information for some of what he saw, and I welcome additional thoughts and information. Drop me a line at scott [at] railphoto-art.org, and let me know if you have ideas for future installments of Collection Tracking.

Contemporary map