Chicago L Train Tracks Black and White Industrial Photography

Riveted Steel and Signals Beneath Chicago’s Elevated Railway

The underside of Chicago’s elevated railway is a maze of steel. I was drawn to the way the riveted beams, braces, cables and track structure overlap until the practical engineering begins to look almost abstract.

I framed the scene tightly, leaving out the street and surrounding buildings. That decision makes the structure itself the subject. Heavy diagonal braces cross through the frame, smaller members repeat behind them, and the signal lights sit almost buried inside the steelwork. The clearance sign—13 feet 7 inches exactly—becomes one of the few simple graphic elements in an otherwise complicated arrangement.

Black and white suited the photograph because colour was never what interested me here. The tonal range reveals the worn surfaces, rivets, grime and layered construction while the darker recesses give the structure real depth. Light catches the edges of the steel and separates one beam from another, even when several are crossing in the same part of the frame.

Chicago is famous for its architecture, but I am just as interested in the infrastructure that allows the city to function. Elevated train tracks are usually something people pass beneath without looking up.

I looked up. What I found was an industrial landscape hidden in plain sight—a dense piece of Chicago built from engineering, repetition and decades of use.

© Dan Kosmayer, 2024