Harbor depots in or near Chicago

It depends on what you mean by "harbors with depots". If you mean passenger depots for direct transfer from water craft to train, I believe the only one might have been the old Illinois Central Grand Central Station in the later

1800's on the south bank of the Chicago River near Lake Michigan. There were extensive harbor facilities along the river adjoining the IC depot and lake steamers were still in common use.

The Chicago area had/has major harbor facilities for cargo vessels on the far south side along the Calumet River, and in northern Indiana at Gary and more recently Burns Harbor. These were primarily for boats supporting the major steel works in those areas, but also carried grain and other commodities. My understanding is that there was little interchange of coal and iron ore between the lakers and the RRs, but I believe there was significant transfer of agricultural products at the large elevator complex on Lake Calumet. There were passenger stations within a few miles of all of these harbors, but I believe there were few if any passengers on the lake freighters in the 20th century, and any transfers would have involved a trolley or taxi ride.

There is one other current, active harbor/depot that comes to mind - the AMTRAK Hammond, Indiana depot is not far from the Hammond Marina where 3 or

4 gambling boats dock. Geezer

Thanx Geezer, i should have been a bit more informative , i mean in the transition era and not passenger ( although that seems a nice theme aswell ) but a small river or lake harbor with a depot to serve store and packing buildings or maybe a manufacturing company of whatever.

Grtz Jan

Google Earth for Gary, Indiana, and poke around the docks. You'll find lots of industry by the water with tracks. But be careful, you can get trapped in Google Earth and not even notice that it's already four AM!

The Metra depot at Waukegan is less than a half-mile as the crow flies from the slips where the cement boats put in. Maybe even as little as a quarter-mile. The UP "yard" is just north of there also, and the Waukegan marina (the old if it hasn't been demolished yet, and the newer one).

Waukegan had a cement tower, a C&NW (now UP) yard, and the passenger facility on the North Line.

Here's a link to a 1998 aerial photo.

Thanks Jay Now to get some pictures of this harbor in the 50's, knowing the name to google for should make it a lot easier.

Grtz Jan

The only real changes to the area I know about are the new marina (the more southerly one) and a new passenger depot for Metra. The old station was actually at the foot of Clayton Street, but built up. The road at the front of the station perpendicular to Clayton Street sloped downward both north and south and parking was parallel on the road. One entered the station up top, purchased tickets, then took the stairs down to the trains. The tracks sit below a roughly 30-foot bluff that runs along the lake for miles. This slope has caused problems. At one point prior to

1920 a streetcar ended up lodged in the station after its brakes failed to hold it on upper Clayton Street. It rolled downhill across Sheridan Road and into the train station. No one was hurt. I could find the exact date if you care.

The buildings bordering the north end of the inner harbor (where the cement boats dock) was Larsen Marine (I think they're still in business). Across the road to the north from there is Outboard Marine Corp. AKA Johnson Motors (now shut down; my father worked there for 33 years). There is a small turntable still extant from steam days just south of the station, but I'm not sure how far. It's not big, probably big enough to turn an F7 or an E9, possibly a 4-4-2. Commonwealth Edison (formerly Public Service of Northern Illinois) has a coal-fired electrical plant just north of there also, so that's another site to model if you chose.

There was a tannery along the east side of the yard that had burned down sometime prior to 1966, but I remember the smell. It lingered long after the building had gone.

The only new building I'm aware of down there is the big new yacht club building. That went up sometime in the 1980s.

You could try the Waukegan News-Sun or Lake County Historical Society for photos of the area. The News-Sun website is through the parent company, but I forgot the publisher's name. There's also a Carnegie-funded library just a block south of the train station that would make an interesting model. There was talk of it being torn down, but the Historical Society wanted it. I have no idea if it was preserved or not.

Many thanks Jay, the mentioning of thecoal plant and other business was more then i could ask for.

Grtz Jan

Just glad to help answer a question. Of course any weekend passenger train in Waukegan will be full of sailors on weekend liberty from Great Lakes Naval Training Center (est. 1908), just down the (rail)road.

BTW, does anyone know a source for HO US Navy sailors? I'll need some to fill a North Shore Line "Swabbie Special" in a few years. I haven't been able to find any.