I was driving down Canal St. north of Union Station and noticed them tearing down this building. It is where the MILW curves away from the river and under the C&NW. I wasn't exactly sure what the building was but I was sure it was RR related. I asked my father (father knows best)that night and he told me it was the PRR's old freight house. He went on to tell me that the building was there before the C&NW's station was built and that the C&NW built over the building. By the looks of the building that would have been somewhat complicated. He also told me that the part under the C&NW is Metra's prop. so that part won't be torn down. It always was an interesting little section of the world there to me and now it will just be a bunch of highrises with some trains squeaking between them. Just thought I'd let you guys know.

Christopher

ablemanscurve@hotmail.com

Apparently there are/were 2 Pennsylvania freight houses in Chicago, an 1884 and one from the 1920's. The one you refer to would be the older of the two. A brief description of each is here:

http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/F ... ml#freight

A picture of one of the freight houses is here:

http://knorek.com/RR/Found/PRR/PRR1.htm



bilburns1313@ameritech.net

That is really ashame, it was a neat building with a large granite "Pennsylvania Lines" keystone logo on one end. The other end was torn down and the building shortened some time ago. There was an exterior traveling crane to handle LCL containers or team track freight.

> Apparently there are/were 2 Pennsylvania
> freight houses in Chicago, an 1884 and one
> from the 1920's. The one you refer to would
> be the older of the two. A brief description
> of each is here:

>
> http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/F ... ml#freight

> A picture of one of the freight houses is
> here:

> http://knorek.com/RR/Found/PRR/PRR1.htm

The PRR had more than one freight house prior to 1920. The Panhandle and the Ft. Wayne both had in-bound and out-bound houses. The Ft. Wayne had several of each since traffic grew, but the available land didn't. The house on the curve was the Panhandle's, which operated into the north side of Union Station. An 1884 date would be about right for this structure, as Union Depot was built in 1881 and the Panhandle managed to kick out the C&EI, which then had a small depot on the curve. That depot had no tracks and C&EI trains loaded on the Panhandle main. The C&EI helped form the C&WI and moved its trains to Dearborn Station.

After about 1900, most Panhandle passenger trains used the south end of the Union Depot by running over the Bernice cutoff. The north side was still used by commuter trains to the Union Stock Yards until the Depression, but in addition to the use of the tracks by the Milwaukee, the line was convenient to the PRR for receiving the trap cars which ran between the various railroads' freight houses. The erection of the giant Polk Street house eliminated the need for all of the PRR's prior facilities.


fred_ash@bankone.com