Author Topic: Lakewood branch truncated  (Read 2124 times)

haggar

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Lakewood branch truncated
« on: November 29, 2011, 08:24:02 PM »
There is a condo built right on the ROW just north of Webster.  I would have thought they would have kept that as an alley, but that land must be pretty valuable.  Glad I got some pics of those gondolas being stored there last year.

Joe
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 08:37:21 PM by haggar »
 

TBurke

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Re: Lakewood branch truncated
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2011, 09:47:37 AM »
That did not take long at all, especially in this down market for housing.
 

gordg3

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Re: Lakewood branch truncated
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2011, 12:50:24 PM »
Joe - Were the gons there last year or in 2009? I photographed gons on the Peerless spur on October 7, 2009. When I returned to the area on November 17, 2009 the gons were gone and the Peerless spur had been removed. It would be nice to know exactly when the Lakewood Branch was used for the last time. Please let us know the date of your photos.

 I post my CTR photos at: http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/chicago_terminal_railroad
 

TBurke

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Re: Lakewood branch truncated
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2011, 11:46:55 AM »
That land underneath the C&E North Line from Kingsbury north to Wrightwood was retained by the corporate successor to the Milwaukee Road, the Chicago Milwaukee Corporation (CMC), when it sold the railroad operations to the Soo Line in 1985.  The Soo Line operated up to Peerless and back using trackage rights on the land owned by CMC. 

CMC only existed to liquidate and/or develop the former Milwaukee Road's once vast real estate holdings including timber lands out west and pay it out as dividends.  The stub of the C&E North Line kept alive by Peerless Confectionery stymied CMC's attempts to sell the land for decades.  CMC eventually became CMC Heartland Partners, then just Heartland Partners.  One of its last projects was the sale of the land in the West Loop area that was once a Milwaukee Road yard where today high-rise condos and stores sit. 

It finally liquidated in 2007 and the remaining properties were sold off.  In Heartland Partners' final SEC filing it was unclear which of several possible buyers acquired the land underneath the tracks on the C&E North Line.  So the C&E North Line outlasted CMC/Heartland-barely. 
 

haggar

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Re: Lakewood branch truncated
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2011, 07:16:12 PM »
Yeah, it must have been two years ago that those gons were on the Peerless spur. 

Joe
 

beto

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Re: Lakewood branch truncated
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2011, 11:09:47 PM »
The ROW just north of Altgeld are also built over.  I assume the rails in the health club's parking lot will live quite awhile.