Messages

1

General Discussion / Possible Bloomer Sale

« on: August 29, 2018, 12:30:06 AM »

They're certainly hyping it up that it could get re-developed.  It would be an absolute shame to see it go  We shall see.

https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/8/28/17788004/blommer-chocolate-company-sale-report

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General Discussion / Re: Some northside scenes with streetcars

« on: February 12, 2018, 06:43:35 PM »

I like how you can also spot the terminal of the long-gone Humboldt Park branch of the Metropolitan El in the North Avenue shot.

3

General Discussion / Re: Chicago Terminal Locomotive Missing from North Avenue Yard

« on: July 01, 2017, 08:13:27 PM »

In an earlier thread "The Chicago Terminal Shrinking" I said that I found the SW8 behind the Lakin building that is on the South Side of of Cortland.  This was almost a month ago and I'm not sure if it is still there.

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General Discussion / Re: The Chicago Terminal shrinking

« on: June 04, 2017, 05:34:53 PM »

Oh man, I was literally just down there today because I saw the SW8 parked on the east side of the river when I was driving north on 90 yesterday.  I found the switcher between the Lakin building and General Iron, and there were three beat-to-hell gons parked from just south of the Cherry street bridge to Kingsbury.  I managed to catch one of the General Iron employees outside and I asked him about weather any trains would be running through any more and he said no despite all the gons lined up.  In retrospect I should have asked him some other questions but he looked like he wanted me to bug off.

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General Discussion / Re: Unused CN (Soo) Bridge in Melrose Park Site of Teen Drowning

« on: May 17, 2017, 03:48:25 PM »

I go down 1st Ave a lot to see family on the SW side, every time I pass the CSX tracks I always see a dozen or more people hanging around that bridge.  Seems to have become a really popular recreation place.

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General Discussion / Re: More redevelopement

« on: May 17, 2017, 03:44:08 PM »

Oh man that's great news!  Good to know Chicago Terminal will probably still be kicking on the north side for 10 years.

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General Discussion / Re: New Trains Magazine Feature Article on South Shore Freight Operations

« on: May 05, 2017, 10:09:59 PM »

Awesome, I just got myself a subscription to trains, eagerly awaiting this one.

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General Discussion / Re: A couple of good cnw pics from the low line

« on: April 03, 2017, 05:54:23 PM »

Oh man that's a lot of really cool shots of the F-M units in the UP.  Cool to see those three big high-nose units tugging ore jennies across that embankment.

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General Discussion / OpenRailwayMap

« on: March 05, 2017, 02:12:41 AM »

I found this though a facebook group, it's an edit-able railway map much in the way wikipedia is.  Finding it very useful and accurate, (probably because railfans are not the kind of people who grief each other to my knowledge.)
http://www.openrailwaymap.org/

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General Discussion / Re: "Chicago:America's Railroad Capital" Trains Special 2017

« on: January 25, 2017, 08:52:14 PM »

I saw about this from another source, thanks for the short review.

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General Discussion / Re: It's Alive! Chicago Terminal Still Active Out of North Avenue Yard!

« on: November 30, 2016, 11:14:57 PM »

I was reading about a few similar urban & suburban switching lines in and around the Seattle area, and in similar cases there, people jump on the idea of converting any semi-underused (or even regularly used, but just 'inconveniently' placed) rail lines into bike trails.  I love to bike and all, and I love riding on rail-trails for many reasons, but pushing for the conversion of still-used rails to bike usage just isn't right on many levels.  On the upside, with rail-trails at least the ROW is preserved instead of bieng built over.

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General Discussion / Re: It's Alive! Chicago Terminal Still Active Out of North Avenue Yard!

« on: November 19, 2016, 02:35:00 PM »

This is really amazing.  Nice to know there will still be some traffic for me to hopefully catch in the future.

13

General Discussion / Re: Goose Island report

« on: August 17, 2016, 09:45:45 PM »

Is the small scrapper you talk about marked as "Payless Appliance" on Google Maps?  Because I thought they were still in action.

14

General Discussion / Re: Well, we all saw this coming...

« on: June 03, 2016, 09:52:50 AM »

I have friends who live next to where the Skokie Sub splits off from the Weber Sub at Bryn Mawr, I personally think the Lincolnwood tracks will fare much better than the Weber line.  For one, the Skokie Sub still has the tracks in place in quite a few areas.  It would be a good candidate for a trial, especially because there are already informal trails going up to Touhey.  The Weber line, while still traceable south of Simpson, is just so much more built over.  Ideally, you could have a Trail on the Weber line all the way to James park, and a Trail for the Skokie Line all the way to Illinois Rd to meet with the N Branch trail (actually in an ideal world there would still be trains running on these tracks, oh well  )

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General Discussion / Re: General Iron on the way out?

« on: April 07, 2016, 03:48:34 PM »

http://www.chicagoswitching.com/forum/index.php?topic=557.0