In article <telecom24.242.7@telecom-digest.org>,
Robert Bonomi <bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com> wrote:
> In article <telecom24.241.5@telecom-digest.org>, Joe Morris
> <jcmorris@mitre.org> wrote:
>> Wesrock@aol.com writes:
>>> Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com> writes:
>>> (Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad were associated from some time
>>> in the late 1800s.)
>>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Remember also the "Harvey Girls" who
>>> were like 'stewardesses' on the Santa Fe trains and the 1940's movie
>>> about the Harvey Girls, and they were always singing that song about
>>> the railroad ... how did it go? Something about " ... my day, and the
>>> Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe ..."
>> Tying this (barely) into the thread currently running about WU clocks,
>> part of the lyrics went:
>> See the old smoke risin' 'round the bend,
>> I reckon that she knows she's gonna meet a friend,
>> Folks around these parts get the time of day,
>> From the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.
>> Joe Morris
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Right you are, I do not have any prize
>> for you, however. The AT&SF railroad _originally_ ran between
>> Atichson, Kansas, through Topeka, Kansas and southwestward on to Santa
>> Fe, New Mexico. Then, as Chicago became the railroad capitol of
>> America (start of 20th century) the AT&SF continued pushing eastward,
>> making its new terminus at Dearborn Station in Chicago, and relocating
>> its headquarters in the 'Santa Fe Building' at Jackson Blvd. and
>> Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. I hear your question now: ...
>> ... *what was/is 'Dearborn Station'?* Well, along with Union Station
>> (Canal Street and Madison) which still exists and is now the terminus
>> for most intercity railroad traffic, there were Dearborn Station
>> (Dearborn and Harrison Streets), Grand Central Station, (Baltimore &
>> Ohio RR, Chesapeake RR's and others at Harrison and Wells Streets),
>> Central Station (Illinois Central RR at Michigan and Roosevelt Road),
>> LaSalle Street Station (various lines, LaSalle and Van Buren Streets)
>> Northwestern Station (Canal and Randolph Streets) and others. All are
>> gone, except for Northwestern Station and Union Station, and the
>> various railroads still offering passenger service all merged their
>> depots/terminals into one of those two locations.
> "Not exactly" applies.
> La Salle station (as the name at least), a rebuilt, greatly reduced
> facility, still exists, and has commuter service (only) running out of
> it. Tracks terminate a bit south of Congress Ave.
> 'Central Station' also nominally still exists; in use by electrified
> inter-urban (Illinois & South Shore Rwy) to Gary-Hammond.
> All long-distance passenger rail (AMTRAK) is out of Union station,
> With commuter rail out of Union and Northwestern stations, as well as
> the aforementioned La Salle and Central stations.
>[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Begging pardon, sir. I was talking
>about _inter-city_ rail traffic, not a commuter line.
OK, what inter-city traffic has run out of Northwestern Station after
1973?
In article <telecom24.243.8@telecom-digest.org>,
<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I still recall how Chicago Transit
>> Authority used to switch between 'third rail' and overhead (catenary)
>> wires north of Howard Street on the Evanston line and the Skokie
>> line. Train would pull out of the station (using third rail), get a
>> short distance up the track, coast to a stop and while they were in
>> the process of hoisting the catenary pole into place, one or more of
>> the clerks would walk through the cars like the proverbial train
>> bandits of old times, telling the passengers "five cents more to
>> continue your ride, please". People would get in their purses to find
>> a nickel to hand over, but thoughtful passengers who made the trip
>> each day and knew what to expect had already paid their five cent
>> surcharge at the station where they boarded the train and instead of
>> a nickle for the clerk would produce a a scrap of paper instead which
>> I think was entitled 'proof of payment' and hand that over to the
>> clerks instead. PAT]
> I got burned with that.
> I was joyriding the Evanston Line to the end and decided to stay in
> the station to avoid paying another fare to get back in. The train
> left and stopped as you said. The conductor had this heavy belt with
> a series of fare registers (counters) for various fare types. I ended
> up paying a full fare anyway. If I had paid at Evanston that cashier
> would've given me a reciept for the conductor. Apparently the little
> stations in between are unmanned.
Depended on day, and time-of-day.
At peak times, all stations were manned, and no on-board collection
was done. (Except for the Chicago 'surcharge' collected for folks
riding South of 'South Boulevard', that is. During peak times, a
separate fare collector would board at South Blvd, and collect fares
before Howard St. The train would hold short of the station, until he
got all the fares collected.)
At off-peak times, the station turnstiles were bypassed, and a "pay on
train" sign was lit at trackside. And the conductor doubled as fare
collector. Late nite, they had one-man operation, with the old 6000
series cars. with a farebox at the motorman's booth.
> If I knew that operation I would've gotten off and checked out the
> ancient station and surroundings and got a few pics.
> The Evanston Line is 3rd rail all the way but AFAIK the manual
> fare collection continues.
A reduced fare for Evanston only service, and/or a 'surcharge' for
continuing into Chicago have been gone for 15-20 years.
The only on-train fare collection after that was evening and late
night hours. circa 7PM to 7AM.weekdays, and most,if not all, of the
week-ends.
Any form of manual fare collection on the Evanston line went away when
fare cards were introduced system-wide. September, 1997.
Definitely _not_ a labor-saving change on the Evanston run -- although
the trains were reduced to single-person operation, every station now
had to be manned. For evening hours, this meant 2-4 less train crew,
and 6-7 additional station staff.
> I've heard the Skokie Swift line will convert to all 3rd rail.
> That had an automated home-made pantograph conversion.
Done. Sept, 2004.
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Evanston is now third-rail entirely,
> but many years ago it was catenary for most of its distance. PAT]
Converted to all 3rd rail in 1973.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I was speaking about the 1950-60's era.
PAT]
Robert Bonomi (bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com)