Messages

16

General Discussion / Re: customer spreadsheet

« on: June 01, 2023, 04:47:10 PM »

I posted quite a few scanned track diagrams with listings of customers over the years on the former Milwaukee Road and some C&NW lines in this Flickr album-

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

17

General Discussion / Re: Buena

« on: May 24, 2023, 07:48:19 AM »

Very cool. I have never seen pictures of it before.

18

General Discussion / Re: Railfanning at Tribune Freedom Center - Sun-Times Article

« on: May 24, 2023, 07:45:54 AM »

Wow...that is really good!

Now you will have to model the Daily Herald's printing press in Schaumburg as the Tribune parent company acquired it and will move production there.

19

General Discussion / Re: What's going on at North Ave. Yard?

« on: November 28, 2021, 07:57:26 PM »

UP stopped using the North Avenue yard in June of last year as a base for local freight operations as business dried up. Remaining freight work is now done directly out of Proviso Yard. From what I can tell the North Avenue yard is now just a staging area for MOW work on the Northwest and North lines.

I wonder how long until UP sells off the excess land at the North Avenue yard for development as it adjoins the Lincoln Yards mega residential and retail project?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/49999302378/in/photolist-2jpQrLD-2jbBEkf-2jccZiV-2jch4dj-2jbguDy-2jbguBQ-2jbkszQ-2ipgbjv-2fnzuxV

20

General Discussion / "New" Freight Customer on the West Side?

« on: November 16, 2021, 08:24:21 PM »

I stopped by yesterday and got some shots of Marcell's Paper & Metal Recycling at 4221 West Ferdinand and got some pictures of a pair of boxcars on a spur that runs between the street and the building and which is attached to UP. At another site I presume they operate at 4330 West Ohio Street were more boxcars on a different spur that comes off what is left of the connection to the Cragin Line which is abandoned on its southern end.

Are they a relatively new customer?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/51684298402

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/51682683301/in/dateposted-public/

21

General Discussion / Re: Chicago Ave pics

« on: October 20, 2021, 04:15:01 PM »

Nice catch.

22

Modeling / Railroad Model Craftsman Features "Kingsbury Line" June 2021

« on: June 02, 2021, 02:51:35 PM »

The latest issue of RMC features an HO layout supposedly based on the Kingsbury Line aka C&E Line in Chicago in the Chicago Terminal era. It's full of nicely done street trackage but it does not resemble any of the actual industries or settings that CTM served. The author is clear that they were not going for a full-on prototype model but instead wanted to capture the feel of the former CTM operations.

The layout was built by a newly reconstituted model railroad club at Illinois Tech formerly known as the Illinois Institute of Technology.

23

Modeling / Re: HO Chicago Terminal SW8

« on: June 02, 2021, 02:45:34 PM »

That is really good. I saw it on Flickr also.

24

General Discussion / Re: Online Collection of Milwaukee Road Track Diagrams of C&E, Deering, Etc. Lines

« on: May 12, 2021, 08:24:35 AM »

Service was cut back to Melrose Avenue circa 1981 with enough track left to serve as a tail when working Reed Candy just south of Belmont. Isolated tracks were left in place in various spots north of Melrose including a section at what is now Margaret Donahue Park which was taken up about ten years ago when the park was built. The vision for the original park was to retain the section of track and integrate it into the park with a marker talking about the railroad heritage of the Milwaukee Road in the neighborhood. At some point the Cubs got involved in funding the park which is named after a long time Cubs employee and the railroad heritage was shoved aside.

There was a building supply company that was served by the Milwaukee Road off Melrose alongside the east side of the tracks. At School Street was what looks to be a coal yard and tower. I believe there was also a piano factory near there too.

Awhile back I posted a couple pics of this plot on School when the track was still visible, just before the park was built-  http://chicagoswitching.com/forum/index.php?topic=516.msg2174

Maybe I'm imagining it but I could swear the initial build of the park did include a railroad tribute (as seen in the diagram further down on that page). I recall some sort of rail-bed graphic in the playground surface, aligned with the actual ROW...

Your memory is correct, there was going to be  recognition of the railroad in this park. I was asked to provide background information on it. Then the Cubs got involved and donated money so the railroad theme was discarded and it became a tribute to the Cubs and the former employee.

25

General Discussion / Re: Chicago & West Ridge Railroad

« on: May 12, 2021, 08:22:39 AM »

I have that book and overall it is interesting though it would have been nice to see it cover more of the suburbs along the North Branch farther up in the suburbs and the streams that disappeared as a result of residential development like Glenview Creek. I was fishing on the West Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River in Glenview a few years ago and I was struck by how clear and clean the water looked. As a boy growing up in Glenview it had an opaque, brownish/grey look to the water.

Since I'm posting in old threads..  Tom I didn't know you grew up in Glenview, I did too and it was all east of Wagner. '72 to '80 we lived on Juniper Rd. between Glenview Rd. and Wilmette Ave. The CNW rolling past a half block away was a regular feature and planted the rail fascination in me, for sure -- in addition to the old MILW spur to Hines/Rugens, of course. Anyway I had never heard of Glenview Creek, very interesting. In the early 80s my "gang" did occasionally visit a fun dirt bike "jump" that was just east of Laramie, a half block south of Glenview Rd..

There's another creek that I believe still flows - it started in the back yards of the houses northeast of Glenview & Wagner and crossed under the dead-end of Greenacres Lane before turning east where it flowed randomly above and below the surface, eventually emptying into the Middle Fork. I suppose I wouldn't know any of this if kids didn't spend all day outside, back then.. 

My family lived on Long Road on the very eastern edge of Glenview from '64-'71 then we moved to Glenview Road at Elm Street and lived there '71-'74 after which we moved to Barrington. While at Long Road I used to wander over and explore the former NSL track then operated by the C&NW. It was a different time for sure.

Glenview Creek from old maps I have seen used to originate in Wilmette on the east side of where the Edens Expressway is today, near Old Orchard Mall, then it ran west by southwest, crossing the NSL and C&NW tracks just south of Glenview Road, before heading SW through the Cunliff Park area. It finally crossed Harms Road by Old Orchard Road. It was buried sometime in the 1940s and put into a storm sewer from Laramie to Harms Road.

You can still see it where it is in the open again after it crosses under Harms Road and goes into the Chicago River. As a boy it ran in the open between the two railroad ROWs but when I was there a number of years ago the area was degraded from trash and invasive brush.

I remember that stream that ran along the northern edge of Wagner Farm. I had a friend who lived nearby and when I visited we explored it. I still recall grass clippings that had been dumped by it.

Another series of streams was in an area we called "Blueberry" south and southeast of where Rugen School (now Swenson Park) was which I later attended. It was east of Shermer Road but by the 1980s was obliterated by a new housing development. We used to ride our Sting Ray bikes over the dirt hills also at that site.

Yes, we all spent time outdoors back then. Bikes were very liberating.

I wrote an in-depth piece on the Milwaukee Road in Glenview a few years ago for The Milwaukee Railroader magazine. It includes pictures of the old Rugen store complex and local freight service. It is Issue 2 of 2015.

https://www.mrha.com/view-article-index.aspx

There have been so many threads I forgot your real first name. I am Tom Burke.

My personal email is tom.j.burke  [at symbol]  comcast.net.

Tom

26

New Site Updates / Re: Splash page has error.

« on: April 23, 2021, 10:00:25 AM »

FYI - when going to chicagoswitching.com, the following appears. Going directly to http://www.chicagoswitching.com/forum/index.php works fine.


Zenphoto has detected a change in your installation.

    Zenphoto 1.4.14[f5b47da52f] has been copied over an unknown release.

The change detected is critical. You must run setup for your site to function.

I notified webmaster Tom Mann.

27

General Discussion / Re: CNW in Chicago

« on: April 06, 2021, 09:44:02 AM »

Here's another one, CNW switcher crossing Grand Ave, 1983.

http://chuckzeiler.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4774702

And across the river to the north of Wallace Business Forms you can see the former Milwaukee Road passenger cars stacked side by side. I believe they were to be part of a restaurant and were moved from the east side of Kingsbury to the west when Kingsbury was rebuilt in 1985 and the tracks were rationalized down to a single track.

Before...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/36318973993/in/photolist-XkoeCM-Y3bwrN-Emamcv-DXg3vZ-Emama6-EsvTP3-DXg3yV-ZNbfhM-YHvdSf-YHvdPj-YHvdTY-ZNbffc-YHvdMf-YHvdKb-ZwbJgJ-XJLWAM-XJLWBi-YnVK6m-YnVK23-YqydwP-XuRzX3-VTjqa9-R6etai-R6et6F-Ldn3v8-LiHihj-HxzHg8-HxzHbZ-HetBGm-HxzGZB-HxzH8H-HxzH3H-HetBXG-HetBQN-F7Lebp-EFUVWh-DUEzmj-DUEzgj-EJbGT8-DUEzpW-DV1aSe-ESoiHx-EiUz5X-DZoVoH-E6j5Gb-DXd7UJ-Dz9Xer-DNEcv8-DUzXQQ-DNEcFt

28

General Discussion / Re: New youtube videos of Chicago Terminal on Goose Island

« on: March 08, 2021, 08:22:21 AM »

Finally posted some videos to YouTube (my first time).
Caught this at Big Bay back in 2/22/13. I had to speed home to the west loop to grab my video camera. This was before I had a decent camera on my phone. I was only able to catch them leaving Goose Island. Wish I captured more but better than nothing.
Unfortunately, this is the only video I was ever able to get of this operation


https://youtu.be/2ji6DldtmxQ

https://youtu.be/z9go2Uy9hFA

Nice job capturing another era. It looks like the cab driver and/or passenger were in a hurry to see the train too at the end of the second video.

It appears they brought a load for Finkl Steel along for the ride in the gondola.

I shot mainly CP Rail on VHS-C back in the day on the C&E North Line. The transfer is not the greatest to digital as you can see on the various videos I uploaded to YouTube. Later I switched to a Sony camcorder with mini-DVD media but even that pales by comparison in terms of quality to what you can get from a new iPhone in terms of video.

29

General Discussion / Re: Online Collection of Milwaukee Road Track Diagrams of C&E, Deering, Etc. Lines

« on: March 08, 2021, 08:12:47 AM »

Service was cut back to Melrose Avenue circa 1981 with enough track left to serve as a tail when working Reed Candy just south of Belmont. Isolated tracks were left in place in various spots north of Melrose including a section at what is now Margaret Donahue Park which was taken up about ten years ago when the park was built. The vision for the original park was to retain the section of track and integrate it into the park with a marker talking about the railroad heritage of the Milwaukee Road in the neighborhood. At some point the Cubs got involved in funding the park which is named after a long time Cubs employee and the railroad heritage was shoved aside.

There was a building supply company that was served by the Milwaukee Road off Melrose alongside the east side of the tracks. At School Street was what looks to be a coal yard and tower. I believe there was also a piano factory near there too.

30

General Discussion / Re: Youtube videos UP switching Tribune Freedom Center

« on: March 08, 2021, 07:53:17 AM »

Added some more videos taken 12/08/09. UPY 707 switching Freedom Center.

https://youtu.be/0Oie_gb81TE

https://youtu.be/vMEuOAQ84yo

https://youtu.be/1J3A_WSNjL4

https://youtu.be/h4ZRUqEUhvY

Nice capture. Back in the days when they still had a healthy amount of business as shown by all of the boxcars. Lou Gerard posted a picture a few days ago of a UP crew with just one boxcar for the Tribune...

Joe