The Union Station 100th Anniversary Banquet

Some exciting news as the Blackhawk chapter of the National Railway Historical Society have announced a banquet to celebrate the 100 years of the Joliet Union Station. On October 14th 1912 a grand opening celebration was held at the Union Station. The program of events for that day will be recreated to mark this special occasion, everything down to the menu will be influenced by the 1912 banquet.

This is pretty exciting and I think it is a great way to honor the past and celebrate what is one of the greatest historical structures still standing in Joliet. I guess I know what I am doing October 14th. For more information visit http://www.blackhawknrhs.org/

The Joliet Track Elevation Project - Rock Island Line

With the Union Station as the centerpiece of my layout, the track elevation project that began in 1908 and concluded in 1912 will be a major characteristic of my track plan. It is amazing to think that as recent as 100 years ago, the train traffic crusied directly through the downtown area, which at the time was the place to be in Joliet. In fact, the main Rock Island line sat directly next to the courthouse, and then passed directly through Jefferson St. just east of Chicago. I would like to know how loud and disturbing it would have been during that time to be trying to hold a trial with a steam engine crawling past, undoubtedly shaking the entire courthouse.

This first picture is taken from the clock tower of the old courthouse looking east. The street below is Jefferson St. and you can see the two main lines of the Rock Island crossing Jefferson St. Its hard to imagine the city center with this arrangement today.

Traveling further west, this is the old Joliet Rock Island station that was used prior to the construction of the Union Station. This picture is taken looking west.

Now moving even further west, here is a very early shot of the Rock Island line crossing the DesPlaines river prior to the construction of the lift bridge in 1930. The I&M Canal is on the right. This picture was possibly taken from an upper floor of the Joliet National Hotel which was on the corner of Jefferson (Exchange St. at the time) and Bluff St.

The construction of the track elevation brings the landscape of downtown Joliet to where it is today. The lift bridge was constructed in 1930 and at one time had two active lines. Today there is only one active line. This bridge has seen a lot of railroad history pass over it, everything from steam engines to the Rock Island Aero train.

Standing on top of the track elevation looking west, you can see where a second main line used to exist on the left.

Facing east from the same position you can see the gradual curve towards Union Station which is covered by the trees on the right. The new courthouse dominates this view. To imagine the track configuration 100 years ago, pretend these tracks instead of curving to the right, proceed straight towards the courthouse on ground level.

Trying to match the scenery of this picture will be a challenge on my layout just because of the dried weeds inbetween the rails. Matching the ballast color should be an easier task.

A peek into the past is offered with these next two photographs. I am not sure how long these tracks have been out of service, but it has been quite a long time. This is the Rock Island line over DesPlaines St. It appears these tracks curved down and ran south along the east side of the river.

I wonder what the last engine was to pass over these rails.

The opposite side of the main line facing east shows this downgrade which ran just past Joliet St. for a time. Some old pictures shows passenger cars parked on this line.

The tracks were elevated with a concrete wall which at some spots shows its age at 100 years, though overall it is holding up quite well.

The final shot for today is a view of the line crossing over DesPlaines St. where the Rock Island Lines logo continues to fade. The Rock Island is no more, however the main line above is still quite active. CSX freight crosses this path at least 6 times a day. 

Layout Construction - Track Planning

If you have ever put together a layout that is more extensive than just using a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood, then it is probably easy to understand why everyone is so impressed when they see it. It is obviously because there is so few of us out there who want to put in the insane amount of hours to put something like this together. With that said, the light at the end of the tunnel is at least visible at this point. I have decided to take some advice of a friend on the OGR forums (Ray Marion) and get at least one loop wired up so I can run some trains, before I go insane.

Shown below is the beginnings of my power station setup. I have put this off for as long as I can, now it is time to get to work. You can see my new TIU and AIU for DCS mounted and ready to go. I still need to mount two surge protector circuit boards and two MTH terminal blocks. My ZW and Legacy base will most likely be mounted on a shelf underneath this board.

I finished almost all of the elevated line from the Union Station all the way to the west bank of the DesPlaines river. This was a nightmare trying to finish this by myself and trying to keep it as level as possible.

The most difficult section to complete was the area where the center access door is. I made this section using 2 X 4s and two door hinges. Its swings open with one wheel touching the floor on the latch side. The hinged side is cut at a 90 degree angle. You can see below the latch side is cut at an angle.

Behind the Union Station just past the diamonds is an O-72 and an O-80 curve. The UP switch tower will stand just behind the top left diamond.

Here is another view looking north. The downgrade begins half way through these curves. The old EJ&E passenger station will stand just inside the curves on the upper right hand section.

Here is a view from the corner chair facing south. Once more buildings are constructed, it should break up the drastic curves that are being used. I had to trim 1.5" off of the station platform to fit these curves in, otherwise the O-80 loop was too close to the wall. It is still cutting it very close, but I cannot trim the station platform any further.

Final shot for todays update, looking at the Union Station from the north. I constructed two parking lot configurations for the station, one of which can be seen here. I will elaborate on this when I post the next Union Station update.

I should have some action on the rails by the end of May, hopefully within a week.

Union Station Project - Part 6

Can I get this thing finished before I get to part 10? Hopefully. I have completely lost track of how many hours I have put into the project at this point. With that said, I will say that it is worth it. Having a unique, one of a kind building can really set a layout apart from others. Also I have be criticized by a few, for making the building completely scale, saying that the building is too large for the space that I have. I do agree that the building is too large for the space I have, but I believe that the appearance and accuracy of the project brings so much to the layout that it outweighs the negatives. I am going to be running scale trains, and I don't want them to look ridiculous standing next to a small building.

So what are the negatives? Well, my layout is approximately 11 feet wide, and the station base is right now just over 4 feet wide. This restricts what I can do, but I decided a long time ago, that my primary goal of the layout is to recreate historical scenes of the past. The main focus of my layout is going to be the City of Joliet. I need to change the blog banner to say "Zett's Joliet Layout" because that is what the layout is going to be, a Joliet layout. A majority of the trains that I will run on the layout will be EJ&E, and EJ&E will probably be the second focus point of the layout.

I placed some temporary lighting in the room for these pictures to get some better quality shots. Once the track lighting is installed it should take care of the shadows that show in the pictures. Keeping an eye on the overall picture, I am very happy with the color blue I used on the walls. This first shot is an overall picture of where I am at with the station (minus the stairs which I completed a day or two later, see below). I finally completed the two chimneys that are on each side of the indoor waiting area, which is now a banquet hall. I am not sure what happened to these chimneys. They vanished sometime in the 1960's, I am assuming because of a structural issue, and have never returned. The station was restored in 1991, but somehow restoring the chimneys was not included in that project. Because of this I had to largely guess on the chimney dimensions, specifically the width at the top. I still have not decided if I need to trim them down at all or not, they may be slightly too wide.

Here is a shot of the west wall at street level which is almost complete. My goal is to build the station as it appeared in 1912 when it was constructed. So far I have not found any good photographs accurately showing what this wall looked like in 1912.

This shot shows the curb that I made using 1/4" MDF, which gives a curb height of 12 inches. This is quite high for a curb but I made it this way for a reason. The primary ground covering around the station will be dirt roads, as the station appeared in 1912. When I am running modern trains, or anything in a later time period, I will lay "paved" streets over these dirt areas. This will be made of 1/8" hardboard, leaving a 6 inch curb height for paved roads. The curbs as they appear in the pictures below are of an estimated width because the sidewalks around the station were widened after the station was initially constructed.

I completed the first staircase which is made using the 1/8" hardboard. Compared to scale, each step is slightly small, so this model has 3 extra steps. I decided that this is ok, due to the fact that the stairway is almost completely hidden from view. I don't think that the effort required to make the steps perfect would have been worth the result.

This shot shows a view looking down at the staircase from the passenger platform. Three sides of this stairway will be surrounded so the cut in the floor did not have to be perfect.

This final shot is a view of the staircase looking up towards the platform. I still have to scribe the vertical lines into the walls on each side of the steps.

Thats all for now. Its inevitable that this thing gets finished sooner or later, so stay tuned.

Room Construction - Part 3

Room construction is for the most part complete! Since the last construction update, the drywall, sanding, and taping has all been finished. My father installed all of the electrical outlets, and the carpet has been installed. Overall the room came together very nicely. It took a lot longer than I wanted but I am happy with the way it has turned out.

I have also started benchwork which as of today is probably 30% complete. Most of the benchwork will have storage underneath. I decided to go with 2x4 construction which a lot of people will say is overkill, but if I want to do jumping jacks on the layout, I can. When studs are only $1.66 a piece, it wasn't a hard decision. This first shot shows a view of where the union station will be. It is currently just sitting on the layout so I can finish figuring out a track plan.

I had the carpet guy install as close as he could to the ejector pump, furnace, and hot water heater. I am going to use every possible inch of the room. A standing/viewing area will be right next to this equipment, which will be covered when guests come to view the layout, somehow. This has not been figured out as of yet. The tan box on the floor to the right of the floor drain is a water alarm. I picked it up for about $10. If there is ever a leak it sounds like a smoke detector. I am already keeping my fingers crossed that it will never go off.

This shot is taken standing behind the ejector pump shown in the previous photo. The union station passenger platform is in the middle of the photograph to the left. So far I am working out a track plan where 4 diamonds will be used.

In two corners of the layout there will be a viewing area that is only accessible by crawling under the benchwork. This picture shows one of these areas. It is approximately 48" by 30" enough room to comfortably stand, or sit and watch the trains pass by.

This is a shot taken from the chair shown in the previous photograph. The chair you see is 23' away. This will be a long straight run to the other side of the layout, passing over the DesPlaines River via the use of the Lionel lift bridge.

This shot is taken from the same chair looking to the left. The union station passenger platform is to the right, and the diamonds will be pretty much in the middle of the picture. A future scratch build project will be the old EJ&E passenger station, which will sit in the lower left portion of the photo.

This picture shows some of the cloud work that was created by using two different color blues. For now I am very happy with it. I have not yet decided if scenery will be painted on the walls to achieve a more realistic depth.

Finally here is a shot of my helper, Comet. He enjoys the new carpet just as much as I do. Some work still needs to be completed in the room, such as painting the entry door and adding trim, adding track lighting, and of course finishing the benchwork. My goal is to complete the benchwork in this room by the middle of March, and then move on to laying some track.

Employee's Picnic 1928 - Part 2

Imagine what life would be like living back in the 1920s, or 1930s. Hard to do when compared to todays life of television, cell phones, we have things easy compared to 85 years ago. I guess that is what made the EJ&E employee picnics such a grand event. It seems that it was an event of complete joy and celebration. It seems that the build up, planning and preparation, made the event a highlight of each year.

I do not know too many specifics regarding the annual event, other than it took place for many years, going back at least as far as 1909. In part 1 I shared a photograph that is famous in my family and is a centerpiece of my personal collection. Finally, thanks to my sister, I now have our entire family collection scanned. My grandfather wrote on a few of the pictures, in some cases drawing arrows right through the middle of the photograph (awesome). Although I wish he would not have done this, at least I can view the pictures now and know exactly what I am looking at.

Here is a cab shot of my great grandfather James McArdle, who was an engineer on the 755. As I stated in part 1, the engine was "gaily decorated." That is in his words. According to him in a letter written to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the 755 was cleaned and decorated, all in a day and a half. The engine lost to the Gary Division engine 748, which was prepared for two weeks leading up to the picnic.

A shot of the front of the engine shows even flowers were used for decoration. American flags stand proudly over a curved base painted with the year 1928. Safety first is not a strange addition to an EJ&E locomotive, and was obviously a company priority, even during a day of fun.

My great grandfather is now standing on the left, posing for a picture with the fireman, standing in the center holding an oil can. I do not know who the individual is standing on the right. My great grandfather stated in his 1929 letter that the engineers and firemen would change into the "ice cream vendors" (white overalls). I would assume that they would then serve ice cream to family members and guests, and this is why they are wearing white hats. The first three pictures posted were taken in Plainfield, IL near the grain tower that still stands today.

The final two pictures I have to share show a crowd gathering during a yearly picnic. I am not sure of the date of these pictures, however on the back my grandfather wrote "EJ&E picnic Washington St. and Henderson Ave." This is an intersection in Joliet that is just southwest of the EJ&E east yard, and just east of the Joliet Union Station.

My guess is that these picture were taken prior to 1928. It appears that the crowd is gathering around a Northern Pacific box car. I do not know what the track arrangement was like at this area during that time. Today the tracks in this area are the old Rock Island line which is now a freight line used by CSX, and Metra which still operates a passenger service to Chicago.

The 755 makes a return to the employee's picnic for 1929. I have some amazing photographs of this engine to share in the future, as well as my great grandfathers complete letter to the B of LE. Stay tuned!

Whistle Operations

When the time does come to finally run some trains on my layout, I will run them in a prototypical manner. With that said, I am not an expert, and definitely have zero experience when it comes to actual train operations. So I have some learning to do, but that is part of the fun. In my recent quest to uncover some family train history, my Aunt and Uncle came across some old documents that belonged to my Uncles father. I know he worked on the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railway in at least 1941-1942, and then was hired on with EJ&E. Beyond that I don't know specifics at this time, we will see what I can uncover in the future. My Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to give me some pay stubs, and an EJ&E time table.

The table went into effect in 1942. Once again, I love history, and its amazing to me how much can change over 70 years, but its also interesting what does not change. Reading through this time table was very interesting. When it comes to engine operation, the 40 page booklet started with this inside the front cover:

Still the same today as it was long before 1942. Doing some research I learned that the typical crossing signal of 2 long, 1 short, and 1 long is morse code for the letter Q. This whistle signal was used when the Queen of England was on board a ship at sea, and the signal was sounded to make other ships aware that the queen was on board, signaling a yield to other ships. This practice eventually became universally known as a signal to yield, and was somehow picked up by the railroad industry. I have no idea if this is the entire history of the signal or not, but it makes sense. Some other common signals are as follows:

1 short - stopping
1 long - approaching station
2 short - 10-4 or acknowledge
1 short 1 long - inspect train
2 long - proceed forward
3 short - proceed reverse
4 short - warning or get off tracks

There are many more but when it comes to running a layout, these are the signals that would be most used in operation. I will share more from the time table in the future.

Union Station Project - Part 5

Here is just a quick update on the Union Station project. I have finally got around to ordering some cove, quarter round, and half round pieces to begin working on the decorative trim. This has been a challenge to put together the correct pieces so that I am happy with the result. Here is what I have completed so far.

Finally making some progress again. I have almost made my way to the top of the walls. A tricky part of this step is making all of the trim meet perfectly at the corners. I am going to have to add some type of fill so that the corners appear seamless. The layout itself is now in the benchwork phase, so once the area is complete where the Union Station will sit, I can finally start on the base and make some real progress.