This may be old news, but the movie "Union Station" tonight on TCM has significant scenes filmed in the Chicago tunnel railway. One scene made me a little nervous. The heroine climbed out of one of the package cars, and her head came very close to the overhead wire. I wonder if they had the power off for filming.

Those little tunnels had a height at the top of the arch of only about 7 feet, as I recall. The electric locos ran on 600 volts DC, as did street railway equipment in Chicago. Many of those tunnels survive today under the Chicago Loop as a way for fiber optics and communication cables to be laid.

AND - a locomotive and some of the cars were salvaged and are on display at the Illinois Railway Museum, in Union IL.

Bob Kutella

I believe the tunnel company ran on 250v DC, not 600v DC. The equipment salvaged by IRM includes two flatcars, which have been cosmetically restored; four ash cars, which are on display in their original condition, and locomotive 508 (a Baldwin, I believe), which has been cosmetically restored. All are displayed indoors at IRM.

Frank and Bob -

Any plans to dig a tunnel under IRM property for operation?

Les

Actually there has been discussion of punching a hole through one of the barn walls and using 7 foot diameter concrete culverts to portray a length of the tunnel. That would not be horseshoe shaped in cross section, but might add an interpretive dash to showing this equipment. No permanent location has been selected, and so it remains a concept.

Bob Kutella

Well, as long as you don't have any wayward badly-aimed pile drivers about, wouldn't that be perfectly prototypical? <:-D

They make concrete culvert with a flat base and arched roof. It should be available in 7 foot heights without much problem. If all else fails you could form up your tunnel and pour it in place. Given the sharp curves these trains will go around you could lay a short length of track disappearing around a curve, string a little wire, and have the motor and cars appear in the scenes for an operating display. It could almost be treated like a model railroad. I think that would make an excellent display.

John Bohon

As I recall, one of the surviving tunnels had a "cameo" in the first Blues Brothers movie--the scene were Jake and Elwood are escaping from the assorted law enforcement agencies after leaving the ballroom stage, and the "mystery woman" (Carrie Fisher) tries to blow Jake away with an automatic weapon. And later on there's a reference to Illinois Highway Four Seven--Route 47 is one way to reach IRM.

I have the impresson that the machine-gun scene was photographed in a replica tunnel, not the real thing. But it's accurate according to the photos in Bruce Moffat's book "Forty Feet Below." Which I recommend along with the matching videotape, containing old tunnel documentary footage. Moffat says the tunnel is usually dry, not leaky and dank.

Incidentally, PM 1225's auxiliary tank (ex CRI&P 4110 series 4-8-4) came out of a steel mill in the territory near Lemont, Illinois which we think is the background for the opening scene in "The Blues Brothers."

"It's 106 miles to Chicago.
We've got a full tank of gas,
half a pack of cigarettes,
it's dark, and
we're wearing sunglasses.

"Hit it."

Correct on the opening scene I think. The car was parked outside JOLIET penitentiary, a little south of Lemont. Of course the disctance was exagerated by double or more. The shopping center scene was shot at a south side mall, Ford City I think, about the time it closed for a nearly total renovation. At least that is the way it turned out after the filming.

And the car they were driving was an ex police car form Mount Prospect IL, a town I find I am living in now. There were several clones and duplicates used in all the auto carnage, but the original one was sold or auctioned to a collector a few years ago.

Bob Kutella

I had reference to the oil-refinery/chemical plant scene behind the opening titles, which was next to the Lemont steel mill where I spotted the tank while riding the Santa Fe. The 1225 tender-retrieval expedition risked arrest for violating the "no stopping" signs in from the the Joliet Prison gate by stopping for a photograph.

"What happened to the Cadillac - the Bluesmobile?"

"I traded it for a microphone."

"Okay. I can see that."

The mall demolished in the movie was the Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, IL

At the time, it had been closed for about a year. I believe that some of the store "tenants" paid for some of the refurbishment of the "store fronts" to help offset movie production costs, and gain some free advertising.

I also beleive the tunnel scenes likely were staged, not done in the actual tunnels, it seems that the movie tunnel is a bit too tall.

"Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don't fail us now!"

When that movie came out, I was in high school. I was (and still am) tall and skinny, I had a best friend that was short and stocky.

My first car was 1974 Plymouth Fury II, the Plymouth equivalent of the Dodge Monaco. It was not an ex-police interceptor, but was an ex-company car, complete with rubber plugs where the radio antennas went.

When we saw that movie, that was it...we were on a "Mission from God". The cigarette lighter disappeared with pomp and circumstance.

We had many, many happy memories centered around that car and that movie. A mechanic "fixing" the A/C caught it on fire during a test drive which totaled it; my dad got back the same amount of money in repayment as he paid for it at auction several years earlier. It had about 120,000 miles on it. I lost my friend to cancer about 4 years later.

Thanks one and all for the memories. (Did you know that the gas tank on a 1974 Plymouth Fury can support the entire weight of the back end? I do....)

You know. Maybe I've got my movies mixed-up. But the thrilling climax of this movie (as least I think it was this movie) where Lyle Bettger gets wacked by Bill Holden, I swear the tracks in the floor were wider than 2 feet. Can't say they were standard guage but they seemed wider than the Chicago Tunnell system's track guage. I also didn't notice any overhead in the final scene.

I wonder if this was a studio set rather than an actual tunnel? Or did LAUPT have some sort of baggage handing system under the tracks using this subterranian tunnel and track system with push carts or battery locos? I just wonder whether the film company would go to the trouble of hauling everybody and all the equipment all the way to Chicago for the tunnel scenes.

Any LAUPT experts out there who can shed light on this mystery of mine?

Onre more point. Union Station was filmed in 1950. According to Bruce Moffatt's CERA bulletin No. 135, a portion of the system was operating at least thru 1959 and its likely that by the mid-1950s there were parts of the system that were out of service for some time. So I suppose the Company could have allowed the film producer to use a small portion of the tunnel system for their tunnel shots. But maybe not?

Thanks!