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Chicago Switching => Frequently Asked Questions => Topic started by: JohnColeman on August 27, 2006, 08:49:49 PM
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Hi Everyone,
I was just looking at the item on the site titled \"The Decline of Railroad Customers Chart\". It shows that as of the year 2000 there were only four customers left. I think I can count five as of today: Sipi Metals, General Iron, Finkle Steel, Peerless, and Big Bay Lumber. Am I missing something? Is Sipi Metals actually severed by the UP (ex CNW)?
Best Regards, John Coleman
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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
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That makes sense about Sipi Metals service being part of the bloomingdale line.
I remember seeing boxcars on the sput on the east side of Elston between buildings around 2000 or so. I was on my bike and the buildings looked abandoned, so seeing the rail cars there surprised me. That must have been Aetna Plywood!
Thanks, John
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Good catch. I made that graph a long time ago when the CS site was smaller in scope.
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Thomas Mann
http://www.chicagoswitching.com