Chicago Switching Forum
Chicago Switching => General Discussion => Topic started by: David Murray on December 29, 2007, 08:22:15 PM
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Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year from England!
I\'m continuing slowly but surely with the design of a HO model version of the ex MILW Northside operations, now on version 7.4. My design starts in North Yard but I have a question relating to the diffferent levels of tracks in the former CY crossing/North Yard areas.
Am I correct in assuming that North Yard is at a lower level than the North Line itself and a line climbs up out of the north end of the yard to the same level of the North Line where it rejoins it and another curves eastwards onto what was the Bloomingdale Line? Presumably the North and Bloomingdale Lines had to be on the same level at this point to facilitate the crossing on the level at CY Tower?
Hope someone can make sense of this!
All the Best
David Murray
Rugby
England
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If I understand this correctly, I think I have the answer for you. The yard on the UP (former C&NW) North line between Division St and North Ave is actually at the same level as the North line tracks that go through it. It is a raised embankment and at the same level as the bloomingdale line that used to intersect it.
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Hi John
Thank you for your help. I didn\'t do a great job of explaining but I think you did a great job of understanding what I was trying to say!!!
Anyway, my understanding of the track arrangements in question was the same as yours (I think) i.e. the yard is on the same level as both the ex CNW North Line and ex MILW Bloomingdale line. However looking at Tom Burke\'s photos 406 thru 408 in his article CP/UP Interchange:
http://www.chicagoswitching.com/v5/articles/article.asp?articleid=54
you can see the ex MILW MP15AC on a lower level. This caused me to question the height differential.
Can anyone explain the difference in levels?
All the Best
David Murray
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The freight track continues east from North Ave yard separate from the passenger mains, and in places I think is not always at the same full-height elevation as the passenger mains. Two running tracks head timetable east, merge into one at Division (just past the old Chicago Fish House spur--now a Lexus dealer), and split again at Augusta as they head away from the passenger mains.
At the point where it splits away (August and Racine), the freight alignment begins descending to ground level to reach Grand Ave. Yard. The north track (by compass) is known as the Wall Track, and the south track is the Beer Lead. Just east of Elston, a spur used to head off the Wall Track to reach Chicago Paperboard, and another split off at Sangamon to reach Material Service. Material Service is more or less across the river from International Salt at the south end of the Goose Island Cherry St. Spur, but MS has received all of its stone via barge for at least the last 25 years.
The Beer Lead remained primarily to serve the Tribune and Sun-Times printing plants, but prior to the introduction of push-pull scoots, it lead to a ground-level storage yard for Wisconsin Division scoots. Around 1980, the Tribune built its plant on the site of the former coach yard because it was next to the river, and the Tribune had dreams of receiving newsprint via its own fleet of lake boats/barges (not sure which--never seen a good reference). The boats were never used, and everything comes in via rail. I\'m genuinely confused as to why the Sun-Times seemed to be able to handle 6-12 cars of paper/week, and the Tribune seems to handle 20-30 or better. Anyway, prior to moving, the Trib used to publish out of a building along the North Branch, with a separate warehouse building several blocks away. The newsprint was moved between the two using a short stretch of the old Chicago Tunnel Company, hauling the paper in 12\" gauge cars. Two extra rails were added to the CTC track, and the loaded cars were heavy enough to coast all the way from the warehouse down to the printing plant. Never seen any good photos of this operation either.
The track you are looking at in the photos appears to be the Sipi metals lead. The two tracks in the foreground with jointed rail are the freight leads out of the east end of North Ave.
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SF
Thank you for that info, very useful. Just had a quick browse thru Tom\'s North Ave pix taken on the first day of Chicago Termional operations, see link below:
http://www.chicagoswitching.com/v5/articles/article.asp?articleid=103
These seem to illustrate what\'s going on, back up what you are saying and illustrate nicely the east end of the yard.
Thanks again for your help.
All the Best
David Murray
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Glad this is helpful!
Looking at the pictures and reading the previous posts jogged my memory on this a bit. I think this is about right: The yard where they store the Chicago Terminal switcher is at the same grade as the UP Northline that passes through it. There are usually 10-15 freight cars parked there for the UP and a few for the Chicago Terminal RR. However, to reach what remains of the Bloomingdale line, the CTRR switcher follows the Sipi Metals lead. That descends a bit for the sput into Sipi and then comes back up to the original grade for the turn eastward to what is left of the Bloomingdale line.
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Hi John
I think you must be right, your description of the drop down (to the Sipi spur) and climb back up to North/Bloomingdale Lines level makes a lot of sense and ties up with what is going on in the pictures. Thanks again for your continued help - its difficult to check out personally when you are 4000 miles away!
All the Best
David Murray
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Here is an interesting website about the Bloomingdale Line with some current pictures of how it now looks. It is a citizen group trying to develop the line into a park and area to be used to aid in traveling by bike to get toward the Lakefront from Bucktown, etc...
http://www.bloomingdaletrail.org/
GM