Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Chicago Tribune Freedom Center switching videos

« on: July 07, 2024, 04:20:50 PM »

Thanks for posting them.

Interesting time capsules with so many boxcars being shoved into the Freedom Center. I didn't see a conductor ride the lead boxcar.

And even by 2011 the Grand Avenue Yard tracks are empty. I recall even into the early 2000s those tracks were full of boxcars.

At the one minute mark on the first video I see there was no fence yet installed along Union Avenue where it makes the curve. I had to climb through a hole in the fence to get pictures of the same scene in the last few years and look out for the homeless encampment below the Ontario/Ohio ramps.

At 1:33 in part three it looks like a man is walking toward you dressed in black. Was that a UP crew member of a security guard from the Freedom Center? I noticed the video abruptly stopped as he got close LOL.

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General Discussion / Cool Video of Boxcars inside the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center Being Unloaded

« on: July 05, 2024, 11:44:56 AM »

I came across this promotional video which shows Crown forklifts being used in the Freedom Center some six years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47etZQhbgpE

Of interest is the long string of boxcars, some five or more. The forklift goes inside one of them to retrieve a roll of newsprint.

The last delivery of newsprint to the Freedom Center was in April. The Tribune has until the end of July to vacate the premises then demolition may start as soon as August to prepare for the new Bally's Casino. It is in the permitting stage.

Print production of the Tribune and other newspapers like the Sun-Times, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal is now done at the former Daily Herald printing press in Schaumburg which Tribune parent Alden bought in 2023. That much smaller facility is served by CPKC via a long lead.

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General Discussion / Last Copies of Tribune and Sun-Times Printed at Freedom Center on Saturday

« on: May 20, 2024, 08:14:35 AM »

The last copies of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times were printed on Saturday per an article in the Tribune behind a paywall. Production of both papers is now at the Daily Herald printing press in Schaumburg which Tribune parent Alden Group acquired last year. Print production of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal will continue at the Freedom Center for two more weeks.

Some printing press operators were offered jobs at the Daily Herald plant or buyouts. Most seem to take a buyout as the ones interviewed were in their 60s and did not want to make a long commute on toll roads to reach Schaumburg. The editorial staff, reporters, photographers, etc., will be relocated from their offices at the Freedom Center to new leased space in the Loop.

The last boxcar was pulled from the Freedom Center by UP on April 30.

By July 1 the Freedom Center printing center has to be vacated for the new Bally's casino to start demolition work in preparation for the new casino.

For those of us of a certain age it is a sad part of history. I can recall even into the early 2000s that there used to be rows of boxcars of newsprint lined up at the Grand Avenue Yard for the Tribune. I used to look forward to catching a glimpse of them while taking Metra in and out of Chicago on the UP NW Line.

Once Blommer is done it will be interesting to see what UP does with the Low Line and whether the City of Chicago will acquire it to be a bike trail.

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General Discussion / Re: Mariano's at Ashland and Webster

« on: May 02, 2024, 09:12:58 PM »

A Chicago & North Western track did come off what is now the Metra/UP North Line and it crossed Ashland Avenue, curving gradually to the southeast. It came down a fairly steep ramp from the east side of the North Line. It then curved even more south and went down Mendell Street, ending at Cortland. I used to walk that way every day during the summer of 1981 to and from the Clybourn station to a job at Stewart-Warner on Diversey and Hermitage and cross those tracks. As I recall back then it serviced a scrapyard at the NE side of Ashland and Mendell.

You can see it on www.historicaerials.com especially in the 1963 aerial view where there are at least two freight cars on this line. The topographic view shows the tracks still in place in 1984.

5

Modeling / Re: Train Simulator of Goose Island

« on: April 24, 2024, 07:04:35 PM »

Interesting. I like the map and the view at 6:09 looking south. He gets it right in terms of the tracks. The light tower is in the right place as the original. The Ogden Avenue overpass is cool.

The Goose in Goose Island is from the geese that Irish immigrants kept when they lived on the island.

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Modeling / Re: N Scale Chicago Terminal SW8

« on: April 24, 2024, 06:40:02 PM »

Very well done.

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General Discussion / Re: The end of Blommer

« on: March 23, 2024, 08:41:02 AM »

That is sad and unexpected news. At least we have known the Tribune Freedom Center plant will be closing for a long time now.

I hope to get down there for some final photos of UP switching both of them next month.

UP will be happy to be rid of both of them as it is probably a money loser to assign a crew and a train to make the trip all the way from Proviso and back twice a week.

I wonder how much longer Alpha Baking on the Cragin Line will stay open? At least there is less development pressure in that neighborhood vs. River West and the Fulton Market areas.

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General Discussion / Rare Picture of Blommer Chocolate Tractor Used to Spot Tank Cars on Lower Level

« on: March 18, 2024, 07:15:18 AM »

https://www.flickr.com/photos/uspslabelfan/53574475543/in/photolist-2keYJFS-21i9M8i-2keSWMz-2pCcc5c-22AkcBW-PWji1Q-2pCcMEk-2okaZ3m-26BaYGL-uGv2qH-22D4xyT-2kgfqYv-22Akdhd-2pCdp7Z-2keX8tR-2nGqihi-aa2fCu-21i9Mv2-22AkdNU-2pCb8c7-21yqrE7-2nqxmzT-e89a2V-e8eNDW-2ka4Cv7-ao6oSg-2ksAFdr-vknvGr-2kGQQ1e-26BaXW7-2h5FoEP-VLZ4dB-e897Qn-EP2APE-2hpEbdg-2nwrJyo-2n8ShXU-Q8NnSL-2h5H4jp-e8eMEJ-2okckhf-2n8J3X2-2nwsZos-e8eSvm-e897Kv-2nwrDtb-e8eSp5-e899ev-e89bax-e898FF

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General Discussion / Edit-CPKC Steam Train Will Leave Bensenville at 8AM Thursday May 9 Heading West

« on: March 18, 2024, 07:13:49 AM »

The CPKC steam train tour is stopping in Franklin Park on May 8.

https://www.cpkcr.com/en/media/CPKC-2024-Steam-Tour-Schedule-Dates

Does anyone know about what time it is scheduled to leave Franklin Park? It will be a mob scene there so I am hoping to get photos of the train as it heads west instead.

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Modeling / Re: Miami / Lance Mindheim modeling

« on: December 22, 2023, 11:16:33 AM »

Thanks, Jeff.

I purchased his book too Stucco and Pastels which is a brief, but interesting, read with plenty of pictures of the Downtown Spur before its recent rationalization that eliminated many of the spurs that used to flare off of it.

I wish I had more time to explore the industrial lines of Miami.

11

General Discussion / Re: Bloomer switching in movie "Blink" 1994

« on: December 09, 2023, 08:00:10 PM »

Great catch. I never even heard of that movie.

It's almost as if they timed that shot on purpose to have the two trains go by.

Must have been a hot delivery if C&NW made a special run to drop off a single car to Bloomer.

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General Discussion / Re: Kingsbury Street

« on: August 11, 2023, 09:28:07 AM »

In 1987 there would have been several industries that still regularly received boxcars on this line, the Chicago & Evanston or C&E, and off the attached Goose Island trackage. This train is heading south on Kingsbury just past Cortland.

1. Wallace Business Forms at Grand Avenue and Kingsbury.
2. Midwest Zinc on Kingsbury just south of North Avenue.
3. Plibrico on Kingsbury just north of North Avenue.
4. Midwest Industrial Metals on Goose Island on North Branch at Bliss.
5. Big Bay Lumber on Goose Island, North Branch at Division.

The last train in revenue service on these former Milwaukee Road lines was in 2015 to Big Bay Lumber by Chicago Terminal. Chicago Terminal and its parent Iowa Pacific Holdings went out of business in 2019. That was the year of the final movement on these rails as stored reefers were retrieved and brought back across the Chicago River to the Union Pacific North Avenue Yard.

These former Milwaukee Road lines branched off the Chicago & Evanston Line which at one time connected the tracks entering Union Station on the south with a passenger depot in Wilmette on the north end. The MILW cut back the C&E Line over time, starting with the predecessor of the CTA taking over operation of freight and passenger service from Irving Park Road north. By 1984 the C&E Line was cut back to Diversey on the north and Grand Avenue on the south. Its connection to the outside world was via the Bloomingdale Line, now a trail.

In 1986 Canadian Pacific via its Soo Line subsidiary took over operations of the Milwaukee Road including the industrial tracks on the North Side of Chicago. In 2001 the Bloomingdale Line was put out of service as a through line for transfer runs so CP leased space at Union Pacific's North Avenue yard and connected via the interchange track to its home rails. In 2007 shortline Chicago Terminal took over operations of what was left from CP.

I covered the history of these lines in detail in a Milwaukee Road Historical Association book called The Milwaukee Road in Chicago which was recently reprinted by the MRHA and is available on their website.

I also have photos and maps in these albums among others.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72177720296370340

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157715114878692

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157657870065262

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157657240086290

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157657848232111

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157704913274794

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157704913274794

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157704913274794

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General Discussion / Cool Picture of Streetcar Crossing MILW Tracks Outside Wrigley Field

« on: July 14, 2023, 07:29:43 PM »

Not sure if this picture has been posted here before or not...

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General Discussion / Re: 1921 tracks along river

« on: July 05, 2023, 07:44:44 AM »

Nice catch. I am guessing that the Sun-Times building then later Trump Tower occupied that spot.

Reminder looking at the smoke in the air in the photo that in the old days bad air days were common in the industrial past when homes and industries burned coal.

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General Discussion / Re: CNW shrine on the Mayfair branch

« on: July 05, 2023, 07:42:50 AM »

It's nice that they preserved a relic of the railroad heritage and noted it with a sign. I walked the 606 Trail when it first opened and was disappointed to not see a single rail preserved nor signage unlike the High Line Trail in NYC.

The date is a little off. UP continued to service Sun Chemical north of Touhy through at least 2003 and the tracks were in place as late as 2005.

Also this line at this point was actually the Weber Branch of Line. Mayfair was the line up to River Junction. From there it forked into the Skokie Subdivision to Northbrook and the Weber Line into Evanston.

http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2020/04/abanc-weber-yard-on-weber-canal-branch.html

Good digital copy of this out of print book on the line available here-

https://cnwhs.org/wp1/product/cnw-lines-north-of-mayfair-maps/

I have photos of the line when it was still in service and later, after operations ended but the tracks were still in place, in this album.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157658402425729/with/20903869703/