Messages

46

General Discussion / Re: CNW caboose

« on: September 04, 2020, 04:33:24 PM »

When is the best time to catch it working the Cragin Line down to Alpha Baking? I was over there last month but no trains were in the area. I saw several covered hoppers on different tracks. Does Alpha have its own TrackMobile type device to spot them, or does UP come down and switch the cars in and out as necessary? I didn't see any place where a car mover like a TrackMobile could be stored plus it's a sharp rise up from ground level.

47

General Discussion / Re: 1998 pics of Soo switching Goose Island

« on: September 04, 2020, 04:31:10 PM »

I added some pics of a Soo SW1500 switching Goose Island in 1998 to my flickr account.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/35990458@N03/260jHA

They are scans of prints. Hopefully will find the negatives one day.
I approved them to be added to the Chicago Switching Milwaukee Road flickr group. I would like to join this group but it says I have to be invited.  Guessing that account is run by somebody on this site?  If so, please send an invite my way.

Joe

Joe-

Send an email to webmaster Tom Mann. He is at "tom[at symbol]mannresearch.com"

48

General Discussion / Re: URGENT: Final Day of North Ave Yard Operations: 06/12/2020

« on: July 31, 2020, 03:34:39 PM »

Does it go to Alpha Baking first, then back to Tribune Publishing and Blommer, or vice versa?

49

General Discussion / Re: URGENT: Final Day of North Ave Yard Operations: 06/12/2020

« on: June 17, 2020, 10:53:44 AM »

I was able to get pictures and posted some on Flickr-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/49999302278/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/50000075882/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/50003237196/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/50009934843/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/50010728422/in/dateposted-public/

50

General Discussion / Re: Info on S. Side Sun-Times Plant

« on: June 11, 2020, 08:31:11 AM »

That plant only lasted a year or two after it was built following the sale of the Sun-Times building along the Chicago River.  I read that the printing presses were sold for scrap as even in the early 2000s the print industry was in decline.  They outsourced printing and distribution of the paper to the Chicago Tribune and its Freedom Center.  I recall that the South Side Sun-Times plant was then converted into a data center.

51

General Discussion / Re: URGENT: Final Day of North Ave Yard Operations: 06/12/2020

« on: June 11, 2020, 08:29:04 AM »

I will try to get down there.  A sad day indeed.  Do you know about what time they operate? 

That will be a long haul to go all the way from Proviso.  I imagine some track(s) will be maintained as run-around tracks.

52

General Discussion / Re: Erie Railroad Carfloat Operations in Chicago, 1920

« on: April 27, 2020, 10:11:56 AM »

Hi Matt-

It says it is a private video on YouTube and cannot be accessed. 

The Erie actually had two different carfloat connections on the North Side, one at Erie Street (coincidentally) with the Milwaukee Road off Kingsbury Street then another connection to the C&NW farther upstream at Webster. 

Tom

53

General Discussion / Re: UP YNO68(?) now switching Blommer top level

« on: April 27, 2020, 10:09:35 AM »

ADM's now closed West Side plant was switched by Norfolk Southern as a legacy of the former PRR Panhandle line, not UP.

Years ago from a high floor of an office building I watched a UP freight train entering Ogilvie train station from the North Avenue Yard and using ladder tracks to make its way across to get to the West Line and work Blommer.  I am guessing that is how it is being switched now. 

Blommer for years was an unusual operation from a switching perspective in that two different C&NW and later UP subdivisions switched it from two different levels.

54

General Discussion / New Photo of Boxcars Alongside Wrigley Field in Facebook

« on: January 31, 2020, 10:32:09 AM »

This image was uploaded to a Facebook group for Abandoned Railroads this week.

55

General Discussion / Re: ADM mill finished

« on: November 14, 2019, 12:34:45 PM »

Went by ADM mill today and saw no hoppers. Found article online that said the new Mendota mill just started operation.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailyherald.com/amp-article/20190921/business/190929883/

Joe

That's too bad.  I wonder what happened to their TrackMobile?  When I was there a year ago they were quite suspicious of me taking photos even though I was on city property.  I drove off when several employees walked toward me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/44772870435/in/photolist-2gy6qKB-2gy6QWZ-2e9dF5P-2e9dF34-29QAcVj-2bdqEvZ-2bdqEKM-VxRERA-SnsCge-Qh4bQS-Qh4bJQ-Qh4bAU-JCN7t8-zhFGJc-y2meeu-xFuWE8

56

General Discussion / Re: CNW Low Line questions

« on: November 14, 2019, 12:32:04 PM »

Thanks TribuneFreightFanatic!
Never saw that one yet.
Was just at Trainfest and asked the CNWHS if there are any articles on this line. They didnt know of any off the top of their heads. Strange how I can found so little info on such an historic rail line; the very first in Chicago.
Joe

The low line was partly covered in the C&NWHS North Western Lines in the 1990s in the first of a three part series on the original stations that were east of the river.  But you are right, no one has really done a thorough treatment of the line.  How about you?

57

General Discussion / Re: Mystery C&NW North Line Siding

« on: October 31, 2019, 03:43:26 PM »

If you are talking about the east side of the C&NW mainline between Chicago Avenue and Division Street that was a C&NW lead that came down to street level and serviced a paper company-I think they made cardboard boxes-along Elston whose name escapes me plus the Peoples Gas facility.  The big Fletcher Jones Audi dealership is there now. 

58

General Discussion / Re: The Chicago Terminal has left the city...

« on: September 14, 2019, 02:55:26 PM »

Are the reefers gone also?  It was depressing to see them all wasting away like that.

I guess UP will handle switching out Sipi Metals until Sipi relocates as they sold their land already.

What is MALSS?

59

General Discussion / Re: Blommer gets a bumper

« on: September 14, 2019, 02:52:31 PM »

Good catch.

Here's when a boxcar of cocoa beans overran the end of that track.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/46729483712/in/photolist-2fnzuxV-2daUWqE-2ecjPAd-2daUWnU-2ecjPtE-2d9QDg3-29QAcVj-2bdqEKM-2bdqEvZ-FnjJMB-22gveQ5-Z3zkXb-RnnKNV-SBnweF-z13b51-xDW51Y

60

General Discussion / Re: A couple interesting shots from Ello

« on: August 05, 2019, 03:39:57 PM »

Good catches.  On the one labeled Navy Pier Teardown there's a boxcar in the background, to the east, along the North Pier Terminal Building.  So my guess is that they had to clear the debris over the tracks in the foreground for the C&NW to retrieve it.  As you can see from this Flickr photo the tracks were in place several years after abandonment.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/45814250341/in/photolist-2cNs1rn-2cNs1tX-2ecjPAd-2d9QDg3-QFUiuA-2cPBCvx-2cPBCxX-2cNs1sp

According to www.historicaerials.com that building being torn down was already gone by 1972 and service continued out to Navy Pier at least into the the late 1970s, then was cut back to Lower Michigan Avenue in 1981 when the Tribune moved newspaper printing to its new Freedom Center plant on the west.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckzeiler/26696759359/in/photolist-GF6Sst-oyuKiT-HEYniE-STR2dT-cTC7zW-9hthB2-9q8BmK-FsbLh7-J5do7a-sWWazA-4V5F22-raedEy-s4VjoC-KFbseY-JU7nVr-rMP4VX-zrK9KB-z9iRQ5-zrDoUp-zrFnxt-ovRzZa-cpcDKo-aq4i8z-offkB6-dwfkkF-oyuHGr-onosyE-aWHzYx-7FpRSE-HizuTf-otPDj3-thEoqK-d2kGcU-oh4zqJ-i38m6y-h89poR-eZJ5WR-akQcUN-9XqRu6-8teU4a-8thT6S-8sZ6Pf-8pmfDw-8pmemb-7pdWgM-7hTNiB-7hXr3y-7hTv1F-7hXqT1-7gFoQp

I believe the building being town down belonged to the Tribune and was used to receive and store newsprint by ship off the Ogden Slip which was later filled in in this section in the mid-1980s when North Pier Terminal was redeveloped into a retail and dining entertainment spot.