The Future of Norfolk Southern's 47th Street Intermodal Terminal in Chicago, Illinois

[@whoyouis]

Fellow Chicagoan here: 47th is not as safe as they say they are. The fact that it's one of NS's most important hub is sad. The property is not well taken care of, and safety is not a priority. If you are coming in to either pick up a load or are looking for an empty unit, you basically are forced to take a bad chassis with you. To access the mechanics, you have to drive a very narrow road that risks damages to your tractor. You have about two inches on each side of clearance. Looking for an empty? Good luck. All the good ones end up "reserved" so you get whatever you get. The empty lot in NS 47 is a shit show. From the check in process in the window to the unsafe chassis in the ready to pick list, it's ridiculous they even made a video showing off the property as if they have things taken care of.

[@chicago-l9125]

I knew somebody was going to expose the "real deal", although video appeared to be so impressive. It's the same old story: Companies and corporations are always quick to brag and paint such an impressive picture about their technology, accomplishments and proficiency. Yeah, it all sounds good when you look at it on the surface. But too often, there are so many things they DON'T tell you when it comes to their faults, shortcomings and even the hazards you just mentioned.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

Is this the yard where drivers are often waiting in the hood to get in the yard? And often get their loads "taxed"? NS is essentially using the area for free storage. Stop being cheap and buy more of that disgusting land around there. The Rainbow Push fee to do so can't be that bad.

[@AndreySloan_is_a_cnut]

Say it isn’t so! I can’t believe any of that is true, just ask the people of East Palestine, OH what a great corporate neighbor Norfolk Southern is! Oh wait…

[@HSetonNotes]

Yeah NS has apparently done horrible stuff around safety over the past decade or so

[@jimoconnor6382]

I used to work at 63rd street and I know all to well. NABBER

[@Blaze06]

As someone who lives in the Chicago area, I enjoyed watching this video considering it’s in my area! Not only that but it also perfectly explains how an intermodal yard truly works! Hopefully these yard improvements will improve company strength and traffic movement!

[@Sammydx1]

I worked intermodal yards as a damage inspector for ISS and a yard checker for TTS in the late 90s early 2000s. I absolutely loved it. I was mainly assigned to the Corwith yard but I helped in Willow Springs and Cicero. It was wide open. And so much fun. We used to fly around in our crappy pickup trucks.

[@KeizorSoze1]

This is good to hear. I currently work at this yard with TTX. It's a bit messy but, still enjoy this yard....

[@mk-of6px]

I used to drop and hook trailers in that yard among others we would drop right along the tracks, lots of fun watching those big lifts load and unload those train cars

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

One guy has the market for those cranes pretty well cornered. Mi-Jack is privately held.

[@jdubs78]

47th street yard. It’s just as beautiful as all the other intermodal yards in Chicago and in such amazing neighborhoods. (SaRcAsM)

[@rosekist]

Norfolk and Southern has blocked our crossings in Hammond for a decade forcing children to climb over and crawl under to get to school.

[@dcviper985]

Yeah, they do the same thing in Columbus. God forbid they’d use the massive and mostly abandoned Buckeye Yard to keep stopped trains off of grade level crossings.

[@Steven_Williams]

This was cool. Thanks for the info.

[@richardbW236]

"55 side and 51 side". Legacy names of the PRR and ERIE installations. Can see the shadows of those yards as they were in the 1980's in the current drone shots. The connecting "Y" used to extend crosstown to 59th street yard. I see that the entire 'hood around the turns has been leveled. Used to be a very dangerous place. Wonder how much flat switching they still do in those yards. The work was phenomenal (and awkward): the video indicated that they now have separate yards for that. Good luck NS!

[@dave21286]

Great to see less truck and more train. Our highways and streets are already too full of trucks. Please continue to invest in the port of Baltimore area intermodal too.

[@martypatterson7382]

Fantastic idea! I wonder how congested your roads will be after half of the highway is given up to have railroad tracks laid down instead... but I don't suppose you will be needing those travel lanes anyway. Can you imagine when every time you get caught by a red light, you have weight for an entire train to pass.... Why is it that so many folks, love to hate on trucks? Spend one day riding in a 18 wheeler in any U.S. city, and I promise you will walk away with a completely different point of view, because 9 out of 10 times, the cars who are constantly cutting off trucks, endangering themselves and every other person on the road, are the same self indulging, fart sniffers, who think "our highways and streets are already full of trucks" well no shit 😲. I can't believe it... the interstate highway network, was systematically made for trucks to transport interstate goods... what the hell you talking about?!?! Of course not! Otherwise it would've been bigger... and a railroad.... As the narrator mentioned, an intermodel location is in place for the sole purpose of facilitating truck traffic, not eliminating any.

[@SynchroScore]

@@martypatterson7382Where, exactly is "half of the highway is given up to have railroad tracks laid down instead"? And intermodal is for the sole purpose of eliminating long-distance truck traffic and relegating it to local delivery, where it belongs.

[@amrabdelnabi9844]

U still need trucks to move the boxes off the train 😊

[@martypatterson7382]

@@SynchroScore the sarcasm was lost on you...

[@Ninjadude80]

Ummm, railroad infrastructure can be built entirely independent of highways.......can't say the same about trucking infrastructure! And yes there are too many trucks on the roads nowadays, so much so that an ever increasing subset of truckers don't even respect each other, not to mention the way some "super truckers" drive like they own the roads. Or how about the fact it is the big rigs that are responsible for pounding our roads into oblivion, while only paying a fraction of the costs to construct and maintain them? So is it any wonder why the public sentiment is what it is when it comes to trucks? Trucks excel at the 1st mile and last mile local ends of the supply chain, and thats only what they should be used for.......thus freeing up highway capacity by moving most long haul by rail.

[@svenmartin840]

What a awesome video. This reminds me of the Classfication Yard in Kornwesthiem Germany of the Die Bahn. Where my grandfather my mother's dad worked. And they have a intermodal yard in the classfication yard too. And I think you guys took a book out of the Die Bahn. Which is priceless to me. Sven

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

Europe's rail freight market share doesn't come close to North America. Price is too high per ton-mile and there are too many problems forwarding a car across multiple state networks due to bureacracy. These are longstanding shipper complaints if you do some digging for articles. Companies like NS could fix Europe in 20 years or less if the whole thing was privatized and chopped in to competing continental trunk lines.

[@svenmartin840]

​@@MilwaukeeF40Ckzbin.info/www/bejne/rJbOlYNjrrNsoZYsi=irzsS1qGxr27WZ4u this is where my grandfather worked at. When it was West Germany at the time

[@user-qr7ee2cp4y]

That drone view is so cool... I should try and use that view to design something similar on my railroad software

[@MegaTuroc]

47th is cool because it was the first railyard I went to while training. But my heart goes out to 63rd because I can completely ignore i90 chicago traffic

[@jimoconnor6382]

Fun years at 63rd street. Do they still have shopper problems?

[@kikiMarieH]

As a Chicagoan, this fascinates me. Great video! I'm also excited to hear how you plan to be the first of class 1 rail carriers to phase out PSR (precision scheduling rail) so that incidents like East Palestine don't happen again.

[@tbb236]

They don’t. It’s just PR. When I started as a conductor it was the height of PSR. Trains routinely over 11,000 feet. They scaled them down to normal sizes again once they got in hot water. Now that the public eye has shifted off of them, they’re slowly getting bigger again.

[@maestromecanico597]

Nicely done. A little more detail on the expansion plans, which has been going on for as long as I can remember, would have been nice. Had Amtrak gotten their wish and diverted trains coming south out of Union onto the St Charles Air Line that would be less pax train conflicts to contend with.

[@NSrailfanMKE]

Thanks for an informative video. We pass some of these yards while driving through Chicago on our way to Indiana, to the Chicago Line, to see some of those intermodal trains fly through Porter-Chesterton! 😉👍

[@dodginglions5163]

Thanks Norfolk Southern for putting me out of a job.

[@jacob33drake]

I love this yard !!

[@w9gb]

Norfolk Southern acquired its interest in the 47th Street property with the Wabash merger (1964 NW acquisition). 47th St is the former C&WI coach yard that served all of the Dearborn Station railroads: C&WI, Monon, Wabash, C&EI, GTW, Erie, except the AT&SF (SantaFe). Pennsylvania Railroad TrucTrain facility was part of the PRR's 55th Street yard. - The two yard areas have expanded into each other - over the years. NS has desired to expand to the South, as property acquired.

[@railfanningetc.4252]

Very interesting. Thanks!

[@opathe2nd973]

Super video. Thanks

[@kevinhoward9593]

4:00 whats with that demolished looking section?

[@glenonoko4918]

That is where they plan to expand the terminal. I'm surprised they didn't talk more about that in the video.

[@cameltanker1286]

Norfolk Southern: The Horse will be with you, always.

[@user-vh1uc6in7b]

A Norfolk Southern The Chicago Illinois 47th Street yard 50% double stack train is switching yard 63rd Street yard and it turned on a mentor train yard Atlanta Georgia happy Railroading and thanks for watching.

[@franz-peterkayser722]

Now what about the future? Is there a second part of the video?

[@adrian33161]

1-man crews (eventually zero), drones, and automated trucks everywhere.

[@colinkulasik1128]

130 million dollars over 10 years for a company like this is nothing. That's why our infrastructure in North America is in such disrepair.

[@rtz549]

Well done video.

[@dcviper985]

It’s the only thing NS does well.

[@cyborgsheep6077]

4:49 even the fixed overhead cranes they operate are not electrified much less their mainlines

[@johnsmart964]

Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video presentation which is very much appreciated by us. We are absolutely delighted to see the great work being done in this location and the investment that has been made. It is beneficial for the people that there is a modal shift from long distance trucking to the use of the train. Both modes have their uses but when railroads can be used then that is better for many people.

[@HyenaEmpyema]

Everyday I'm hostlin'!

[@xMIEESHIx]

Booooo

[@cyborgsheep6077]

7:04 which you refuse to work with to help make their service better and continue to cause major delays for both

[@KennyCz87]

Wonderful neighborhood

[@jonfromstearns]

If the current Board of Directors doesn’t stop the hostile takeover attempt, there won’t be a Norfolk Southern. As much as I despise Hank Shaw, I’d rather see him in the CEO spot than the other guy Ancora is trying to put in place.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

Buy stock.

[@jerrybutler605]

I'm assuming you meant Alan Shaw, but, ok. He is driving his company into the ground as far as safety goes. If things keep going the way they are now, Shaw may end up going "bye bye" one way or the other. People like the Claytor bros are rolling in their grave because of how NS is being run in its current state. I hope to God Ancora steps in and does what it needs to do.

[@stringlarson1247]

Heh. In the end they tout $130M over the past decade. That's $1M per month on average. That's nothing if you consider that much of what they are considering investment/upgrades would be general maintenance for that location. That's an assumption, obviously, on my part, as I don't have the information on exactly what routine maintenance costs would be vs. upgrades, etc. As a Southsider, I'm happy to see that they seem to have mothballed the Ashland yard as we don't have nearly the amount of containers going N/S on Western Ave to 111th that we've had in the past. 10+ years ago, Western Ave. and 111th to I57 was brutal. The sad part of all this is that the RR cos. didn't build out intermodal yards before the suburban sprawl (aka the asteroid belt) took over all the land in a 45+ mile arc from the center of the city. Having grown up in the (formerly) industrial Midwest, I watched all of our manufacturing being moved to Mexico and then Asia and talked about the implications to jobs, transport, society, etc.

[@KnightRyder-g5v]

Calumet is the one that needs an upgrade

[@gmac8852]

Calumet is still a muddy mess?

[@Dachamp2001]

How do they have on in Dallas? that's BNSF & UP tracks.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

Through routing.

[@TrainMedia00]

I really hope NS well be better than last year. I hope this new Railroad route is better and no more wreaks if i see one more wreak you need help or im out.

[@glenbard657]

*Wrecks. Our failed education system on display again.

[@derrickdpatton]

I can't image living close to that terminal. I live near 53rd and Indiana and at night, I hear clearly the train horns and the sounds of trains being connected. So those poor souls living on Princeton and Shields --- they just catch hell at night. Regardless, I like the video --- it let me know what I referred to as the 51st terminal was actually the 47th street terminal.

[@ArtStoneUS]

Those tracks have been here since shortly after the Civil War. Anybody who moves near the yard knows it’s there and it’s their decision for their own reasons.

[@_Chicagosfinest]

Imagine living in Long Beach California lol

[@stringlarson1247]

Just imagine when the area was full of livestock.

[@discodave4190]

@@ArtStoneUS Since you are going back in time towards the Civil War, are you familiar with the practices of red lining, using zoning to keep certain groups of people out of neighborhoods, and outright attacks on certain groups to discourage them from moving into communities. The fact is there were limited areas that blacks could live in Chicago. Neighborhoods next to/near railroad yards and industries were not considered desirable. Those who did not have choices lived (and continue to live) in communities in places like those by this railroad.

[@railfannerwes1479]

does this hurt o block

[@Aaronnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn]

Fix duckville in Harrisburg. Please.

[@Rosettasweitzer]

Yeah like there going to listen to 1 person

[@Aaronnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn]

@@Rosettasweitzeroh trust me there is more than 1 of us lol 1000's probably.

[@HOC242]

👍🏾

[@frontcentermusician]

NS47th. Scariest damn place at 2am in the morning when I went in and out of those stinky rail yards dropping and hooking. So glad I am done with that bottom feeding job.

[@cyborgsheep6077]

2:49 yea but you could just build freight spurs and do it yourself

[@jhonsiders6077]

As they say imports saved the railroads but killed domestic production .

[@jozekz82]

Amazing location system you drive around yard for hours looking for your container dodging spotters trains and other truckers

[@mikemancini313]

Why did you guys remove railroad lines around the Southern Tier region of the United States? Do you really think that will help keep trucks off the road?

[@Wheelgauge-bt7ox]

Keep that Horse running NS!

[@davidcollica5797]

Very nice; however, it simply shows their business plan which is about efficiency and output. Where is safety? Considering all derailments.. Any Business Continuity Plans?

[@Daniel-jq4qk]

This is great and all but as other people with first hand experience have explained these places are in desperate need of repair, expansion and modernization... That and this industry single handedly keeps the US Railroad Infrastructure behind that of pretty much every modern nation by lobbying against Higher speed rail and dedicated passenger rail.. Until this changes... I think the hypocrisy is sick...

[@TheSmittenman]

And you take the safety and wellbeing of your train crews as your top priority, or is it profit?

[@dcviper985]

Profit. Always profit. Wall Street money printer must go brrrrrrr.

[@FranklinBurns42]

Chicago is still very congested, unsafe and expensive. Finding reliable and honest employees in Chicago is almost impossible now. Why build there?

[@coleallen3895]

Does anyone know why Norfolk Southern has a horse for its logo?

[@catwithabat7163]

How about you invest more money in safety instead of more rail depots.

[@BeansB17]

Calling the employees at the 47th street terminal 'professionals' is hilarious! The people working there treat you with attitude, disrespect and ignorance. This is my first time watching a video from NS and they are far from telling the truth on showing the public what their facility is really like. SMH. "Maintained with good organization, paving, striping..." Hahaha what a joke. Good luck finding your equipment, getting a good order chassis, getting a crane or yard dog to help you.

[@BeensEpicYt]

Ok.

[@the-terrible63]

Thank you for the information, you guys are the best, @norfolksoutherncorp.

[@keyboard_slap]

You've talked a lot about the present, but very little about the future...

[@ZenerDragon]

lmao even fancy graphics and drone footage won't fool anyone. over 66k view and only 1.3k likes? No one it buying your PR stunt.

[@matthewwach7693]

Well this didn't age well after yet ANOTHER derailment this morning 🙄🙄

[@ix.cryo1]

When will you EVER give way to Amtrak... I really hate yall block Amtrak on purpose and what's worse, accidents and crashes always happen with NS... why? Lack of competence?

[@YaknCamp]

NS could not put together a 1 car funeral without screwing it up royally and then blaming it on the deceased. Shut the door on this steaming pile.

[@flaredradiators]

what are you yappin about

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

flaredradiators I find my way to a lot of industry and corporate commentary and no other labor bcths as much as train service personnel.

[@donurb9659]

I use to drop and hook at this yard and 25 other yards in Chicago. I was a all night driver. I quit because 2 blocks away on W Garfield Blvd and S Wells St at the gas station I watched a car with 4 people in it get machine gunned with many rounds hitting my truck. Everyone died except for me and the killers. It happened so fast but I remember it in slow motion. The car windows exploding towards me with shards of glass covered in blood and brains spraying out. I was stopped on S Wells St getting ready to turn onto W Garfield Blvd. I decided to stay out of Chicago, these neighborhoods are owned by the gangsters that run them and not the city. They take care of there own and everyone else is trespassing on there streets. I have much respect for them allowing me to live, they could have finished me off. I talked to a man from O Block and he said I lived because I was just a innocent truck driver trying to earn a living the hard way. The man from O Block I met randomly in Wisconsin years later, he was just schooling me about Chicago and the different types of people there. If you are a truck driver and have to go to this yard at night best wear a bullet proof vest and tote a machine gun. But keep in mind you and your truck get scanned at the gate and guns are not allowed. Sorry about that.

[@nseasternrailfanner7775]

Meanwhile, near Bethlehem PA.

[@jenreiss3107]

STOP TRAPPING COMMUTER TRAINS IN SIDIINGS--Y"ALL DON'T NEED MILE LONG TRAINS

[@epacm50]

Awesome! Now let's merge with the BNSF.

[@Rosettasweitzer]

Yeah like there going to listen to one person

[@ArtStoneUS]

It’s more likely that one of the Canadian railroads will acquire Norfolk Southern. they started the process a few years ago, but I think they were warned away on the basis of anti-trust

[@jerrybutler605]

I'm down with anyone who can actually get their act together up top.

[@johndeerefan725]

​@ArtStoneUS not just that, it would be a bad monopoly as well due to a lack of competition.

[@ExplodedwarlockD2]

All this bs. Yall can’t even get a train from Elkhart IN to Peru IN in less than 8 hours… or have Chicago to Elkhart in under 8…….. or Cleveland to Elkhart in under 10…….. what a joke!

[@bracdude181]

Out of curiosity how do other railroad travel times compare. Csx in particular.

[@ohboy2592]

I’ve made it to Chicago plenty of times from Elkhart to Chicago in 8 hours. Hell I’ve not only made it there but was back at my home terminal in under 10 with a cab ride. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[@donaldlandi7396]

This yard is in one of the most crime ridden parts of Chicago. Because of their neighbors they experience a lot of container break ins. Why they are choosing to expand this yard instead of moving south or west like a lot of the other railroads is a head scratcher!

[@cwshawk]

47th Yard and the others are elevated and have a high fence or solid wall on top of the embankment. You’d need a 40 foot ladder to actually trespass and good luck leaving with anything of value back down. Plus NS has better controls in place on security and internal shrinkage.

[@oubrioko]

The video indicates that the terminal is 150 acres. That amount of property in a "better part" of Chicagoland would not come cheap, and unless this theoretical real estate is adjacent to existing Norfolk Southern trackage, it is useless for this purpose.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

cwshawk A lot of the shrinkage happens on the streets around the yard because there is a bottleneck for trucks to get in the yard. NS never had enough secure parking.

[@ohboy2592]

@@cwshawkI’ve seen them breaking into the containers while sitting on the mainline at that yard. Container break ins happen regularly even with all the police presence.

[@jimoconnor6382]

@@ohboy2592 i used to toss lit m-80s at those "shoppers ". Ahhhh good times!!! Sheeeeeyit, I remember entire trailers getting stolen at 63rd street.