My Community
Chicago Switching => General Discussion => Topic started by: D. Kaniuk on June 15, 2009, 03:16:50 PM
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I was in the area and decide to swing by and check out operations.
Here is what I found, the gondolas have been removed from the track on the Lakewood line between Webster and Belden. The CTM loco and 2 gondolas were parked on the track between Kingsbury and Clybourn. Another 2 gondolas were on the Goose Island track between Kingsbury and North ave.
There is a box car at Big Bay Lumber.
The asphalt that covered the tracks in front of the cars wash on Kingsbury near Division has been removed. Looks like the rail was being uncovered.
The swing bridge on the river near Cortland was in the open position.
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I wonder if they are going to store the gondolas on Goose Island now instead of Lakewood to avoid upsetting the neighbors. They could also store some at the end of Kingsbury where that asphalt was uncovered. Fascinating times.
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For what it\'s worth, the two AOK gondolas were still parked on the Goose Island line just north of North Avenue on Saturday, wheels a bit rusty though, curiously, the Goose Island rails had a bit more of a polish than I would expect for not having been used. Maybe they have been?
Also on Saturday, at least 3 AOK gondolas were parked in the yard just south of North Avenue on the eastern most track. There may have been a 4th but I didn\'t bother to check.
be well,
bob roman
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Three gondolas are now parked on the southernmost portion of the Kingsbury line by the corner of Division and Halsted.
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The lead gondola on the stretch of track between Kingsbury and Halsted derailed and is off the tracks. It\'s the gondola closest to Halsted. Looks like an effort was made to re-rail it with a 2 x 4 on the ground next to it. The wheels are sunk into the dirt.
The gondolas were riding on packed dirt and asphalt-and not the railheads-for much of the distance from the car wash area south. This section of track on the private ROW-south of where the gondola was placed in 2007 for the firewood load right at the end of Kingsbury-had not seen a train since 1991 so it\'s no wonder that the track was buried in dirt and debris.
I\'m surprised that the Chicago Terminal crews didn\'t first try to dig out the rails and flangeways more.
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As of yesterday, there are 4 gons down there.
-=Chuck=-
Mail: chuckjanda(at)hotmail.com
Home: http://www.chucksphotospot.com
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Hey, have the Gondola been put back on the rails?
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No, the lead gon is still off the tracks, looks like it was pushed derailed all the way from the car wash since the dirt was all messed up under the gons. I\'ll put some pix up later.
Two gons were still on the former Peerless siding as of Friday morning.
-=Chuck=-
Mail: chuckjanda(at)hotmail.com
Home: http://www.chucksphotospot.com
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Last Tuesday, 10/6, the Arkansas-Oklahoma gondolas that had been parked in the North Avenue yard were on their way out... to where I don\'t know. Possibly Chicago Terminal had outbound loads. Possibly business is picking up for AOK. Possibly they just found somewhere else to park them.
As of Saturday, there were still gondolas parked at the end of the Kingsbury line, but I didn\'t walk down there to see if any had been removed.
Quite a bit of barge traffic on Saturday, too.
be well,
bob roman
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The gondolas at the former Peerless site were still there on Friday. The graffiti taggers are enjoying them being there.
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If I have time to look today, I will as there was not yesterday. But there were a string of AOK gondolas waiting to be picked up from the North Avenue yard Thursday afternoon. They were at the far north end of the string and thus hard to examine, but it looks like the Chicago Terminal has removed their inventory from the end of the Kingsbury track. I wonder if the ones parked at Peerless are gone, too?
Also awaiting pickup were a BNSF hi-cube boxcar and three other gondolas: two old SP and one Missouri Pacific. They looked as though they may have had loads, but I was at the wrong angle to be able to tell.
be well,
bob roman
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I was by the area today and the four cars north of Division Street (on Kingsbury) are gone.
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CTR ILSX 900 was pulling some gondola cars (southbound) today. I posted two photos at:
http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/118400808
http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/118400820
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Good action photos of a hard to catch area of the CTR. The first photo shows the former Milwaukee Road lead to the Proctor & Gamble factory to the east of the camera and across Elston Avenue. The City of Chicago uses part of the old P&G facility and you can see the double doors where Milwaukee Road spurs used to enter the building.
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I second the motion.
The gondolas are Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad Company, not what CTR had been storing.
be well,
bob roman
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There were lots (maybe 15) of gondolas full of scrap metal in the North Ave yard on Monday. All gone now.
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The gondolas at the old Peerless site were moved about a week ago.
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I have been posting images from October 7 and 17. I am about 25% finished. It has taken a little longer than I thought to go through the images. All are geotagged. http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/chicago_terminal_railroad
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Those were some of the last photos ever of cars at Peerless. The siding tracks and the entire parkway area was torn up and removed last week. The tracks in the middle of Lakewood remain.
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Oh no! Glad that the last trains and freight cars on that line were documented. I wonder who pushed through the removal-the developer or the city?
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Finally finished with geotagging and posting my photos of the CTRR at:
http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/chicago_terminal_railroad
Any comments would be helpful as I am not really sure of some of the boundaries (Kingsbury vs. Deering, etc.). Also one image I am not sure on about exact location is a cutoff spur: http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/118882554 (off Kingsbury near Magnolia). Any advice would be helpful.
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I\'m surprised CTRR didn\'t fight for the Peerles spur. Now there is nothing on the line. Drove by yesterday and the spur has been cut back to were the (new) curb is.
-=Chuck=-
Mail: chuckjanda(at)hotmail.com
Home: http://www.chucksphotospot.com
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Chuck - I was out there yesterday also (around 12:30 p.m.). Posted some photos starting with: http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/119492344/original (then hit \"next\" in upper right-hand corner of page).
Sorry to see it go. I was lucky to get out there when CTRR parked the two gondola cars there. Too bad they weren\'t able to save it.
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That isolated spur in Gordg3\'s link above used to enter Finkl\'s property from the south along Kingsbury, just north of Cortland. It was always a very short spur. It probably had wheel stops at one time on the end of each rail before the building. The spur\'s name was 127A per Milwaukee Road engineering diagrams. It was cut off in 1985 when the City of Chicago repaved Kingsbury and rationalized the remaining tracks.
There\'s a picture of this spur from 1980 when it was still intact on page 22 of my article \"The Chicago Files: Milwaukee Road\'s Deering Line\" which was featured in the First Quarter 2006 issue of The Milwaukee Railroader magazine. The photo shows Kingsbury as paved in dirt and gravel with a caboose and a covered hopper on the C&E North Line in the distance at the junction with the Deering Line. Weeds and grass covered much of the tracks at that time.
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Tom - Do you recall which side of the street it was on (east or west)? I was back there photographing today and could not locate it. Should have taken some notes last time.
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There was a lumber delivery to Big Bay Lumber. Photo at: http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/119809119/original
Also, looked like some new concrete work at the switching point in General Iron\'s yard: http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/119815017/original Can anyone confirm. Also, two gondola cars (all I could see from my location) just to the west of General Iron: http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/119815319/original
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Gordg3:
The isolated section of spur track into Finkl Steel is on the west side of Kingsbury, opposite from Magnolia Avenue, just inside the Finkl complex. It is normally behind a closed gate and not easily visible from the sidewalk. Your picture was probably taken when the gate was open so it might be tougher to spot it with the gate closed. You can see the track between openings in the fence and gate however from the sidewalk.
Tom
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Thanks Tom. I am amended my photo with your information.