The Belt Railway of Chicago’s West End

The West End of the Belt’s Clearing Yard serves the C&NW, Southern Pacific, Burlington Northern, Wisconsin Central, Canadian Pacific/Soo Line, CSX, Canadian National and the Indiana Harbor Belt! And of course, the BRC’s own jobs. This was all daily fare in 1996. Today half this list are fallen flags. Let’s go back to a more colorful railroad time and see the moves and motive power involved. The Belt runs with ALCOs while EMD’s SD70M and GE’s AC4400CW models show up on various trains. We even see a SD70M in Susquehanna colors.

Please note: This is a wonderful look at an important time in our railroad history, especially for BRC’s ALCOs, which are now gone. However this was shot on less than ideal equipment in the late 1990’s. Do not expect high-def video. These scenes are no longer available to us railfans and the narration is a great look at railroad operations.