Messages

766

Frequently Asked Questions / Are there five customers left, not four?

« on: August 31, 2006, 06:04:39 PM »

John-

Sipi Metals was left off the list since it technically is/was switched off the eastern extreme of the Milwaukee Road\'s Bloomingdale Line and not the Milwaukee Road\'s Chicago & Evanston (C&E) line east of the river.  The graph perhaps should be better labeled but it was meant to represent shippers along the core C&E north/south line and Goose Island from Grand Avenue north to Belmont and beyond.

CP Rail services Sipi Metal via a spur that enters Sipi\'s fenced lot alongside brick-paved Besley Avenue, a block west of Elston Avenue.  The spur was reworked a few years ago and gondolas now are dropped off outside the main Sipi plant versus right in the middle of it.  You can still see the old tracks though.  My guess is they wanted the extra room for other uses.

At one time C&NW and Milwaukee Road trains took turns servicing Sipi.

In 2000 Aetna Plywood was still serviced by CP Rail off the Bloomingdale Line also, east of Elston Avenue and west of the river.  This site is now vacant and fenced off.

Tom

767

General Discussion / C&NW Navy Pier Line Under Trump Building

« on: August 07, 2006, 06:56:46 PM »

Walking from Lower Michigan Avenue in the direction of the former Sun-Times building I noticed a pair of former C&NW tracks re-emerging from the asphalt.  They were at Rush Street and Illinois Avenue and apparently recent roadwork associated with the Trump Tower construction  on the old Sun-Times site had scraped off enough asphalt to reveal them.

On another, hopeful note, it appears that the new Trump Tower developer is allowing space underneath the building for possible busway or railway use sometime in the future.  A wide opening is under the tower which is being built over Carroll Avenue and the old C&NW ROW on the site of the former Sun-Times building.  The new opening has a lot more daylight and is definately less \"spooky\" that the old loading dock area of the Sun-Times!

Tom

768

General Discussion / Rail Yards

« on: August 06, 2006, 01:02:49 PM »

The former Milwaukee Road Mill Yard is located west of Besley Street, near Sipi Metals.  The closest major streets or expressways would be North Avenue on the south, Elston Street on the east, and the Kennedy Expressway on the west.  Besley parallels Elston one block to the west.  It\'s easy to miss.

CP Rail uses the Mill Yard to switch out Sipi Metals and interchange with the UP.

Tom

769

General Discussion / Another bit of track along Kingsbury Street gone

« on: August 06, 2006, 12:59:12 PM »

John:

Thanks for the update on the street tracks on that section of Kingbury being paved over.  I was at the Starbucks at North and Kingsbury a few weeks ago and didn\'t notice anything so it must have just happened.

That section of track south of the Goose Island lead to the best of my knowledge has not seen trains since 1998 when Midwest Zinc shut down.  Midwest Zinc was just south of Weed Street and on the west side of Kingsbury.  It\'s spur is still in place though the site is a fenced-off, vacant lot.

There might be more changes coming as the city rebuilds the North Avenue bridge and approaches over the Chicago River.  I suspect that the track to Goose Island might be reconfigured.

Tom

770

General Discussion / Another bit of track along Kingsbury Street gone

« on: July 22, 2006, 10:32:03 AM »

The former Milwaukee Road tracks in the North Bank Club parking lot at the SW corner of Grand Avenue and Kingsbury Street in Chicago are gone now thanks to a new condo building under construction there.  These tracks were the southernmost remnants of the former Milwaukee Road\'s C&E line.

771

General Discussion / Rail Yards

« on: July 22, 2006, 10:29:18 AM »

There are literally dozens of former Milwaukee Road yards in and around Chicago and Milwaukee which have been replaced or redeveloped as times changed.  The Milwaukee Road Historical Association would be a good place to start your research.

772

General Discussion / Rail Yards

« on: July 22, 2006, 10:27:46 AM »

There are a few former Milwaukee Road yards still in use around Chicago.  Ones that come to mind include the huge Bensenville Yard at I-294 used by CP Rail, the Western Avenue coach shop and yard used by Metra in Chicago, and the Mill Yard used by CP Rail for interchange with the UP west of Besly Street in Chicago.

In Sturtevant, WI, there\'s a yard near the Amtrak station now used by CP Rail.  CP Rail also maintains several former Milwaukee Road yards around its namesake city, including one in the Menomonie River valley just west of 6th Street.

773

General Discussion / unloading site

« on: May 07, 2006, 08:02:01 PM »

That\'s easy, use the CP Rail\'s line which crosses Fullerton just down the street from your location.  It crosses Fullerton between Southport and Racine.

There\'s a runaround track at Altgeld which would allow you to take the rail car off the tracks and load it onto a flatbed truck for the short ride to your site.

774

General Discussion / Proctor & Gamble

« on: May 07, 2006, 07:59:36 PM »

Yes, that is correct.  P&G shipped out finished goods via the Milwaukee Road from the NW side of the plant.  A single track (still partly in place by Sipi) ran down Wabansia east across Elston, then divided into two tracks where it entered an enclosed dock.  My guess is that the C&NW tracks from the south served more to deliver inbound raw materials.  

You can see an aerial view of the Milwaukee Road tracks and the P&G plant in the newest issue of The Milwaukee Railroader.  I have a feature piece on the Deering Line and one of the photos includes the P&G plant by the river.

775

General Discussion / Chicago Tribune Yard...

« on: May 07, 2006, 07:55:33 PM »

The Tribune yard normally has quite a few boxcars parked there from Chicago Avenue all the way to Grand Avenue.  Not sure where the reports came from about it not being used.  The Sun-Times relocated in 2001 so the overall number of boxcars is down slightly though the Sun-Times only received three or four per week at their underground loading dock by the river.

776

General Discussion / Goose Island team track

« on: May 07, 2006, 07:53:06 PM »

the most common freight cars at the team tracks were boxcars from my recollection, for various building supply companies.

777

General Discussion / Goose Island team track

« on: May 07, 2006, 07:51:14 PM »

Various offline customers once used the Division Street team tracks at Hickory including a dog food company.  I\'m not sure what was being loaded or unloaded that day at the team tracks-perhaps plastic pellets from the look of things.

778

General Discussion / New Member

« on: May 07, 2006, 07:48:17 PM »

Finkl Steel receives several gondola and an occasional flatcar from CP Rail at their main plant at Cortland and Kingsbury each week.  A short stub of the Deering Line is used to access the plant.

Excelsior Steel has been gone for decades.  It used to be on Goose Island.

779

General Discussion / Deering Line Photos

« on: May 07, 2006, 07:45:51 PM »

Tom Mann is in charge of the posting of information so hopefully he will see this message.  BTW, I wrote an extensive article about the Deering Line which appears in the current issue of The Milwaukee Railroader by the Milwaukee Road Historical Association.  Lots of old photos, track diagrams, etc.

How did you learn about the Deering Line from down under?

Tom B.

780

Modeling / Latest Trains Magazine Features Navy Pier Line

« on: May 29, 2005, 09:51:41 AM »

Check out the latest issue of Trains magazine which features a story on the former C&NW/UP Navy Pier in downtown Chicago.  It puts the line into historical context as the first mile of Chicago railroad going back to the Chicago & Galena Union days in the mid-1800s.

Some operating photos are shown around Canal Street as well as crossing the Chicago River on the bascule bridge.