Brighton Park crossing

Last updated September 27, 2024

The Brighton Park crossing is a major railroad crossing in Chicago, Illinois, hosting three major freight railroads. The crossing is northwest of the intersection of Western Avenue and Archer Avenue, in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The railroads involved in the crossing are CSX, Canadian National and Norfolk Southern. The crossing consists of the CN's two-track Joliet Subdivision in a roughly east–west orientation intersecting five north–south tracks operated by NS and CSX. Collectively, these railroads operate approximately 80 trains per day through the crossing.^[1] The junction is visible from the CTA Orange Line trains that pass on an elevated structure immediately southeast of the crossing.

The CN line was formerly the main line of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio and its predecessor Alton Railroad, and this location hosted the GM&O's Brighton Park passenger stop. The line currently carries Metra Heritage Corridor commuter trains to Joliet and Amtrak passenger trains to St. Louis. Metra formerly operated a Brighton Park station located near the crossing, but this station was closed in 1984.^[2]

Until July 6, 2007, the crossing was controlled by a human switchtender in a cabin near the crossing using semaphore signals to govern train movements through the diamonds. Because the crossing was not interlocked, all trains were required to make a stop before proceeding over the crossing as signaled by the specific semaphore signal governing the track the train was on. As a major crossing, and one of the few remaining locations with this classic method of operation, Brighton Park was a major attraction for rail enthusiasts, but had become increasingly inefficient for Chicago area rail operations. As part of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) project, the Brighton Park crossing, the semaphore signals, and switchtender's cabin were taken out of service on the evening of Friday, July 6, 2007 and conversion to an interlocked crossing ensued over the following weekend. As part of the conversion project, some of the tracks at the crossing were realigned and new crossing diamonds were put in place.

History

By the early 20th century, the Brighton Park crossing comprised tracks belonging to the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad; the Chicago Junction Railroad, eventually controlled by the New York Central Railroad as the Chicago River and Indiana; and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly known as the "Panhandle Route", which was controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) running north to south and crossing the Chicago and Alton main line running east to west.^[3] The PCC&StL was the first railroad to cross the C&A at Brighton Park in the 1860s and therefore was responsible for arranging the safe crossing of trains. As other railroads built along the Panhandle right of way, this arrangement remained in effect with the responsibility passing to the PRR.

For the PRR the Panhandle Route connecting Pittsburgh and Cincinnati via Indianapolis was of secondary importance to its Main Line via Fort Wayne, Indiana, with the latter having direct access to Chicago Union Station from the south, while the Panhandle route ran west of the city to loop around and access the station from the north. The Baltimore and Ohio was somewhat late arriving into the Chicago market and had to use trackage rights and the Panhandle right of way to eventually reach Grand Central Station via a similar out and back loop route and arrived south of downtown via the St. Charles Air Line Bridge. The Chicago Junction Railroad was a switching and terminal railroad that served the stockyard area and was eventually purchased by the New York Central.

At its peak the crossing involved a total of 8 tracks of the PRR, B&OCT and CR&I crossing the two tracks of the C&A. Also included in the complex were a number of hand-operated crossovers and wye tracks. Each of the 4 railroads involved in the crossing employed switchtenders on site to manage any crossover or connecting movements, with the PRR maintaining two tender stations, north and south of the crossing, to protect the two B&OCT to C&A wye tracks where they each crossed the Panhandle main line and the C&A crossing itself.^[3] Switchtender cabin "A" managed the Alton crossing and would continue to do so until the crossing was interlocked in 2007.

For both the B&OCT and PCC&StL, Brighton Park was one in a string of non-interlocked railroad crossings at grade with others at Ash Street, 26th St and 12th St.^[4] Maximum speed on the route was between 20-30 mph.^[3] Interlocking the Brighton Park crossing would have been of limited value without upgrading the entire line. As passenger traffic on the route dried up and the railroads entered financial hardship, investment in the line became less and less of a priority. With the formation of the Penn Central and later Conrail, the PCC&StL and CR&I lines through Brighton Park were united under a single railroad. The Panhandle route was ultimately abandoned with Conrail shifting traffic to the C&RI, ripping up the two Panhandle tracks, thus reducing the number of tracks crossing the Alton to 5. Under Conrail the CR&I was designated as an industrial track, its lowest classification. Since the PRR era crossing agreement with the Alton successor Illinois Central Railroad was still in effect, Conrail had little incentive to upgrade the signaling on the line.

Modernization

Model board showing the layout of the new Brighton Park interlocking. SafetranBrightonParkPanelMockUp.jpg — Model board showing the layout of the new Brighton Park interlocking.

The modernization effort to automate the Brighton Park crossing was undertaken as part of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) in 2007. It involved Safetran Systems, (part of Invensys Rail) with the crossing's application development, site mock-up, and preliminary factory testing taking place in Rancho Cucamonga, California in an in-house project called "Brighton Park / Pershing Main." In addition to the full automation of the crossing, additional interlocked crossovers would be installed north and south, eliminating a number of hand-operated switches. This was all done in conjunction with a centralized traffic control project on both the ex-Conrail and B&OCT lines, upgrading them from dark territory and automatic block signaling respectively. Ultimately control of the new remote crossing would pass to the Norfolk Southern railroad, who had previously employed the switchtender.

Future

As a part of the CREATE project, a flyover on the CN/Heritage Corridor over the Western Avenue Corridor tracks would be constructed. The flyover project would reduce congestion to the 76 freight and passenger trains that go through the diamond crossing every day. The project is currently unfunded.^[5]

Preceding station	Alton Railroad		Following station
Glenn toward St. Louis		Main Line	Halsted Street toward Chicago
Preceding station	Metra		Following station
Glenn toward Joliet		Heritage Corridor	Halsted Street toward Union Station

Related Research Articles

The Pennsylvania Railroad, legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its peak in 1882, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world.

The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC roughly parallels Interstate 95 for most of its length. Carrying more than 2,200 trains a day, it is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency.

The Lehigh Line Connection connects Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (NEC) with the Conrail Lehigh Line 2 miles (3.2 km) south of downtown Newark, New Jersey. It leaves the NEC at Hunter Interlocking, and the line is sometimes called the Hunter Connection. Used by New Jersey Transit (NJT) Raritan Valley Line trains since 1997 when it replaced an older connection, it splits from the NEC just north of the former connector, with wider radius curves with a maximum speed of 45 mph, compared to the 15 mph of the original alignment.

The Lincoln Service is a 284-mile (457 km) higher-speed rail service operated by Amtrak that runs between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. The train is a part of the Illinois Service and is partially funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The train uses the same route as the long-distance Texas Eagle, which continues to San Antonio and Los Angeles. A connection with the Kansas City-bound Missouri River Runner is available in St. Louis.

A frog war occurs when one private railway company attempts to cross the tracks of another, and this results in hostilities between the two railways. It is named after the frog, the piece of track that allows the two tracks to join or cross and is usually part of a level junction or railroad switch.

The Junction Railroad was a railroad created in 1860 to connect lines west of downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and allow north-south traffic through the metropolitan area for the first time. The railroad consisted of 3.56 miles of double track and 5.3 miles of sidings. It owned no locomotives or rolling stock. The line connected the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road line at the west end of the Columbia Bridge over the Schuylkill River, crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad line, ran parallel to Market Street, and turned south to connect with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at Gray's Ferry.

Conrail, formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.

The Keystone Corridor is a 349-mile (562 km) railroad corridor between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that consists of two rail lines: Amtrak and SEPTA's Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg main line, which hosts SEPTA's Paoli/Thorndale Line commuter rail service, and Amtrak's Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian inter-city trains; and the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Line. The corridor was originally the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway was a major part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, extending the PRR west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, via Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Chicago, Illinois. It included the current Norfolk Southern-owned Fort Wayne Line east of Crestline, Ohio, to Pittsburgh, and the Fort Wayne Secondary, owned by CSX, from Crestline west to Tolleston in Gary, Indiana. CSX leased its entire portion in 2004 to the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad (CFE). The remaining portion of the line from Tolleston into Chicago is now part of the Norfolk Southern's Chicago District, with a small portion of the original PFW&C trackage abandoned in favor of the parallel lines of former competitors which are now part of the modern NS system.

The Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad was the owner of Dearborn Station in Chicago and the trackage leading to it. It was owned equally by five of the railroads using it to reach the terminal, and kept those companies from needing their own lines into the city. With the closure of Dearborn Station in 1971 and the Calumet steel mills in 1985, the railroad was gradually downgraded until 1994 when it became a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Corporation.

The Chicago Union Station Company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Amtrak that owned Chicago's Union Station, the largest intercity station in the Midwest, as well as the approach tracks. It was originally owned equally by four companies - the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway and Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad - and has been wholly owned by Amtrak since 1984. In 2017, the Chicago Union Station Company was dissolved into Amtrak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panhandle Bridge</span> Bridge over the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

The Panhandle Bridge carries the three lines of the Port Authority Light Rail Network across the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The name comes from Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, also known as the Panhandle Route, which operated over the bridge.

The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program is a $4.6 billion program to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of freight, commuter and intercity passenger rail and to reduce highway delay in the Chicago region. The Program consists of 70 projects, which includes constructing grade separations, flyovers and other rail projects to ease both rail and roadway congestion. The status of each of the 70 projects varies, with many having been completed, others in design or construction and some not yet started. Costs for the projects are covered by public and private funding from the Program's partners: the United States Department of Transportation, the Illinois Department of Transportation, Cook County, the City of Chicago, and public and private railroads.

The Conemaugh Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Conpit Junction, Pennsylvania northwest and southwest to Pittsburgh, following the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas, and Allegheny rivers, on the former main line of the Conemaugh Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). At its east end, it merges with the Pittsburgh Line; its west end is where it merges with the Fort Wayne Line at the northwestern tip of Allegheny Commons Park. The line was used by the PRR as a low-grade alternate to its main line, which is now part of Norfolk Southern's Pittsburgh Line, in the Pittsburgh area.

The Fort Wayne Line and Fort Wayne Secondary is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad (CFE), and CSX Transportation in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. The line runs from Pittsburgh, west via Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Gary, Indiana, along what was once the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pittsburgh to Chicago main line.

The Shellpot Branch is a former Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central through-freight railroad owned and operated by Norfolk Southern since its acquisition, along with CSX Transportation, of Conrail in 1999. The branch allows Norfolk Southern, since the opening of a new bridge in 2001, to bypass the city of Wilmington, Delaware and allows direct access to both the Port of Wilmington and the New Castle Secondary, which connects to the Delmarva Subdivision of the Delmarva Central Railroad that runs to Central Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia's Eastern Shore. Both ends of the branch connect with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and, like all of the PRR's through-freight lines, was electrified from 1935 until the Conrail era. The line was originally built doubly tracked, but was subsequently converted to single track.

North American railroad signals generally fall into the category of multi-headed electrically lit units displaying speed-based or weak route signaling. Signals may be of the searchlight, color light, position light, or color position light types, each displaying a variety of aspects which inform the locomotive operator of track conditions so that they may keep their train under control and able to stop short of any obstruction or dangerous condition.

Pulse code cab signaling is a form of cab signaling technology developed in the United States by the Union Switch and Signal corporation for the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1920s. The 4-aspect system widely adopted by the PRR and its successor railroads has become the dominant railroad cab signaling system in North America with versions of the technology also being adopted in Europe and rapid transit systems. In its home territory on former PRR successor Conrail owned lines and on railroads operating under the NORAC Rulebook it is known simply as Cab Signaling System or CSS.

The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combined rail corridor.

The Mon Line is an 85-mile long Norfolk Southern rail line which runs along the Monongahela River for most of its route.

References

↑ Gustason, Bill (2006). "Brighton Park Crossing". Chicago Area Rail Junctions. Retrieved 2006-07-20.
↑ Ridership Trends - Annual Report 2017 (PDF) (Report). Metra Division of Strategic Capital Planning. February 2018. p. 32. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
1 2 3 "Brighton_park.gif (2094x1662 pixels)". Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
↑ "PRR Interlocking Diagrams Logansport to Chicago Main Line". Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
↑ "P5 Brighton Park Flyover" (PDF). CREATE. November 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 18, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2018.

External links

41°49′36″N87°41′14″W / 41.8267°N 87.6871°W / 41.8267; -87.6871

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Gustason, Bill (2006). "Brighton Park Crossing". Chicago Area Rail Junctions. Retrieved 2006-07-20.

[2017_trends-2] Ridership Trends - Annual Report 2017 (PDF) (Report). Metra Division of Strategic Capital Planning. February 2018. p. 32. Retrieved December 2, 2018.

[prrDiagram-3] 1 2 3 "Brighton_park.gif (2094x1662 pixels)". Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2013-06-17.

[4] "PRR Interlocking Diagrams Logansport to Chicago Main Line". Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2013-06-17.

[5] "P5 Brighton Park Flyover" (PDF). CREATE. November 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 18, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2018.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]