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Recollections of Gibson Yard Operations •
Leonard Keen was hired as a trainman/yardman at Gibson in 1955 and held seniority there until 1969. Over those years, he worked as a yardman, conductor, car retarder operator, yardmaster, clerk/train crew caller and tower operator (Calumet, Grasselli, Gibson, Osborn and East End). Here are his recollections of Gibson Yard back in the days when it was a double hump yard, and one of the largest in the Chicago area. Our thanks to Leonard for contributing this essay.
by Leonard Keen
“Gibson Yards” consisted of the North Hump and the South Hump; each had their own receiving yards and classification yards. The North Hump receiving yard consisted of 14 tracks. The "East End Tower" controlled the switches at the east end of the North Hump and interlocking movements at the “East End”. The receiving yard trains came from Michigan Avenue and the Lakefront yards on the IHB; NYC trains from Elkhart (what were referred to as "Lake Shores") and NYC South (Danville) trains with IHB setouts en-route to their Englewood yard in Chicago. Occasionally trains were received from Calumet City yard on the IHB if they were behind in their “flat switching”.
The North Hump normally consisted of at least one hump crew for each of the three “tricks” worked, 24 hours a day and 7 days per week. These crews consisted of an engineer, conductor, head man and “field” man. They were directed in their duties by the North Hump yardmaster as were the classification tower operators. When traffic became extra heavy, a “North Hump Helper” crew was assigned to assist the daily hump crew. With two hump crews working, more cars could be humped during the eight hour period and was a challenge to keep them working efficiently by the yardmaster.T he North Hump classification yard tracks and their "normal" classifications were: 1 & 2, Michigan Avenue yard; 3, Calumet City yard; 4, Rock Island; 5, IC West; 6, CGW; 7 & 8, CNW; 9, Milwaukee or STP; 10, CBQ; 11 and 12, Norpaul yard; 13, Burnham yard; 14, Holds; 15, Grain Inspection track; 16, Chicago Junction. I'm not sure about 17,18; I remember (west) "locals" were in 19, 20, 21. Track 22 was for Argo; 23, ATSF; 24, ATSF Eldson; 25, IC South. I can't recall 26 through 29 and 34 re-humps (for the South Hump which included bad orders that didn't need special handling). Tracks 30, 31, 32 and 33 were on the south side of the North Hump class yard for westbound departures. Generally these trains were moved west by Blue Island crews that delivered to the Erie railroad (interchange), IHB Calumet City yard, IHB Burnham yard, Michigan Avenue, the Nickel Plate at Osborn yard (interchange), etc.
Sometime in the mid 1960s, four of the five retarder towers on the North Hump were consolidated into two "high-in-the-sky" towers, referred to as the north and south lead towers. Initially the five towers were known as the Junction, with 10 and 6 lead towers on the north side and 18 and 26 lead towers on the south side. With the retarder tower consolidation, there were only the Junction and the north and south lead towers left which eliminated two retarder operators for every shift the North Hump worked. There was also a "weigh in motion" scale on the classification side at the crest of the North Hump.There were car department employees stationed at the west end of the classification yard and just below or west of the North Hump itself. These were the car inspectors (AKA "car pecks") that inspected the cars for mechanical fitness for their westward movement as well as seeing that proper air brake tests were performed as they are the employees that performed the tests once the IHB "outbound" crews had their engines on and ready to depart.
There were generally three engines working at the west end of the North Hump classification yard. They were responsible for keeping the classified cars moved into the westbound train departure yard allowing the hump to continue their ever-constant humping operations. There was a yardmaster at the “West End” that issued instructions for the crews working there.
The South Hump receiving yard consisted of eight tracks and access to them was manually by the train crews of the trains delivering cars to be humped from the west. The South Hump was normally operated with one hump engine and crew; similar to the one that worked the North Hump. They were directed in their duties by the South Hump yardmaster, as were the classification tower operators. (As time passed, the South Hump yardmaster was eliminated and the North Hump yardmaster assumed his duties.) The South Hump’s 34 classification tracks were controlled by only 2 retarder operators; one in "A" tower and the other in "B" tower. The “A” tower operator was the first to retard all the cars being humped and classified cars in tracks 21 through 34. He was also responsible for separating those humped cars for the “B” tower operator into the “north” lead and “middle” lead. The north lead contained classification tracks from the scale track (a manual scale for weighing cars) to include track 14. The middle classification tracks were 15 through 22. I'm not going to attempt to recall the classifications for these tracks; although I would like to note I was qualified as a retarder operator in all of the retarder towers noted on both the North and South Humps and worked them often. There was no train departure yard for the south hump classification tracks; the trains, after being coupled together by one of the east end yard jobs and “worked” by the car department, departed from the classification track.
The South Hump primarily humped cars for local IHB serviced industries, as well as Michigan Avenue (including the Lakefront's Inland Steel), the old LCL house east of Kennedy Avenue, and some NYC East and NYC South. There was a NYC South local that went to work at the East End Yard office (as best as I can remember) Monday through Friday mornings. The train crews stayed in their assigned cabooses on the caboose track located between the east end yard office and the North Hump receiving yard. This was also near the east end tower that controlled the switches at the east end of the North Hump and interlocking movements at the East End.
The North and South Humps were still functioning when I resigned in 1969.
Another item of interest--there were "skate men" for both the North and South Humps. These jobs went to work and were located in the middle of both of the classification yards (the North Hump in an old grounded caboose, as was the South Hump before they build a pretty neat building to keep out of the elements). There were generally two skate men per shift, and their job was, first, to protect tracks that had been cleared of railcars with the first car coming in; then to see that it “caught” a wheel skate* and then tie a handbrake on it. They also worked with the hump engine crews to "shove" tracks for additional classifying room when cars “backed up” (filled the track) on the hump end. One of the hazards of this job was it involved moving over and through "live" tracks (tracks being humped into) to get to the track referred to as a "clear alley".
Finally, there were 14 receiving tracks on the North Hump that could be filled with inbound trains to hump. The North Hump crew could always go down the round house lead and use the main track back to the east end to begin their humping operations. The eight receiving tracks on the South Hump could only be filled if the hump engine was in the process of humping. One of these tracks had to remain clear to enable the hump engine to get behind a track to begin their humping operation.
*A wheel skate is best described as a 50-pound piece of steel that had flanges to fit on the rail with a pointed “nose” and “wheel-stop” a railcar wheel would roll upon. It was approximately 24-inches in length and once the wheel was on the skate it could not roll. It could only slide this 24-inches of metal on the rail as well as the other wheel sliding on its rail thus applying a “braking” measure.
Photo courtesy of Lightnin'