CSSSB station cuts in the 70s/80s

My SPV atlas shows an interchange with Chicago Rail Link to the south, and I know CSS geeps use that interchange to reach the CRL yard alongside the Bishop Ford I-94. It also shows IHB as active on the ex-MC to the south, and that's been gone for a while. Bottom line, the tracks to the north around 124th are CRL, which I believe to be former RI and former NKP owned.

THat ex MC is still there..mostly. It doesn't connect at kensington anymore but farther east it's still used to get to ...something? Once I actually saw an IHB engine with some cars on that line..covered hoppers i think.

PRRGuy wrote:Don't you just love the "smooth" ride over there by the M.P.74 x-over? lol

Every so often there's a car at that crossing..not sure what's over there though.

On another some what related note. There's a small yard on the west side of our main over there sometimes it has a few cars in it. Whose tracks are/were those?

I recall riding the IC's south extension, brand new track.
Getting there the track was your usual bumpy.
When you hit the new track, not even a cup of coffee would see a ripple, it was so damn smooth.

Tadman, there are industries back by the 124th Street crossing; that's why you sometimes see cars and trucks (mostly trucks, in my experience) there. If you go there sometime by auto rather than by train and spend a little while there, you'll see there is actually a rather steady flow of traffic at certain times.

PRRGuy, the tracks west of the South Shore at 124th Street are former Rock Island. Look in your old employee timetables and you'll see a Rock Island interchange there.

It wouldn't have been much trouble for an interurban to have lots of flag stops, would it? That's an advantage of electric MU equipment, right? So maybe those flag stops only got a few passengers a day. Any passenger would be another fare without much cost, especially if there wasn't much of a platform. Back before WWII, more rural people didn't have cars and used the interurbans, so even if there's no obvious source of passengers someone may have walked in from a farm half a mile away. After WWII the trolley-like service of the old interurbans didn't get many passengers; the CSSSB turned survived by focusing on longer commuter trips. At least, that's my guess; experts please correct me.
Via Rail has some flag stops where the train stops at a grade crossing with one door over the street, which doubles as platform. They also have some areas where the train will stop anywhere you want it to, within reason. I wonder if US safety regulations/tastes demanded more formal stations around and after WWII.

Mystery Solved! Check out spring 05 F&F magazine, it states there was a flag stop at 130th, not 124th. Further, after the war, it was renamed to "Altgeld" for a nearby public housing development. They refer to Altgeld Gardens, and the public housing development.

Check out google maps, especially the hybrid map/satellite version. You can see CSS serving the NE corner, while IC covers the western border of Altgeld.