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Discussion related to commuter rail and rapid transit operations in the Chicago area including the South Shore Line, Metra Rail, and Chicago Transit Authority.

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 #1071759  by Tadman
 
In 1970, the Kennedy Expressway extension was opened, and the former Logan Square trains were now routed down a tunnel and under Logan Square rather than over the south edge of the square on elevated tracks. The elevated tracks were dismantled. My question: was the large brick CTA shops dismantled, or is it, much modified, the same building that still stands immediately south of Logan Square?
 #1071762  by MACTRAXX
 
Tad: This question is best addressed by Graham Garfield at www.chicago-l.org
If he can't answer this himself he will know where to direct this inquiry...

MACTRAXX
 #1072097  by byte
 
A glance at historicaerials.com and Google street view seems to indicate that the building was replaced outright.

Unsure of the scrap metal prices circa 1970, but (aside from the fact that there's no benefit in using a 2nd floor capable of supporting trains for office space) it was probably just more cost effective to reclaim the shop building's structural support members for scrap $$$ than to leave them in the building, extensively modify it for "municipal" use, and then try and sell it off.
 #1073016  by Tadman
 
Thanks guys. Appreciate the info.

Also, scrap prices for normal carbon steel were never historically significant except in war time or after 2000. It's not that you didn't get *anything*, it just wasn't much, so businesses left a lot of carbon steel to lay around the boneyard. That's all changed since the BRIC countries took off economically and it makes financial sense to clean up your boneyard.

Railroads often scrapped their used equipment for a few good reasons: they had a lot of it, it rolled (easy to move to a scrapyard), and it takes up track space otherwise. Not like a few old beams or Chevies you can park in the weeds. That said, I can recall seeing plenty of dead MUs in places like Michigan City Shops (CSS) or Brookpark Yard (Cleveland RTA) in the 1980s and into the 1990s. Who knows why Cleveland kept the Pullman-Standard "Airporter" EMU fleet around 20 years after it was retired...