Messages

31

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

« on: March 02, 2021, 08:40:05 AM »

I posted a new track diagram from the Milwaukee Road that shows the C&E Line from Altgeld north to School yesterday on Flickr.

For those who have not seen them before or do not follow me on Flickr there are a number of vintage track diagrams posted in this collection that cover the C&E, Deering, and Bloomingdale Lines plus Goose Island and more.

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

32

Modeling / Re: HO scale modeling notes - Griswold crossing signals, MILW Thrall caboose

« on: February 24, 2021, 06:41:13 PM »

I'm in a "deep" research phase right now, in part seeking out suitable models. A couple things of note that I've come across lately:

Griswold crossing signals

• NJ International Griswold style crossing signals #1096 (may have to search online to find one to buy):
  https://njisignals.com/collections/ho-scale-crossings/products/1096-griswold-crossing-signal-1
  
• Mark's Model Railservices Griswold style crossing signals, with and without rotating stop sign (currently sold out as of April 2020, but there is hope):
  http://www.marksmodelrailservices.com/page4.html
  
  In action, really cool:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahtuFF8LLQ4
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2KHnOyjxdk
  

Milwaukee Road Thrall cabooses

• https://lineswestproducts.com/product-category/ho-scale-2/caboose/
• https://lineswestproducts.com/product/milwaukee-road-thrall-caboose-ho-scale-assembled-80s-era-992175/

I have no stake in any of the companies above, but was happy to find these very specific models.

Next up: finding suitable 1970s era CCLX corn syrup tank cars. No easy feat - so far Tangent seems to have something close, but not exact.

Best,
Ethan

Good research. I use NJ International N-scale crossing signals on my two dioramas including cantilevered signals to represent what the Milwaukee Road used at the busier crossings like Belmont and Addison. It was years ago but I ordered mine from Walthers.

Here's are images of a Griswold signal on the C&E line on Lakewood by Peerless.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/40415559573/in/photolist-2iceqZP-Rqyp9x-24zoiND-xT8VVw

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/20925748284/in/photolist-2iceqZP-Rqyp9x-24zoiND-xT8VVw

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/49353859601/in/photolist-2iceqZP-Rqyp9x-24zoiND-xT8VVw

And another one I believe, this time at School Street-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/28487390604/in/photolist-2eNAZKi-2eNAZDr-SEu1U9-Si25nw-GAZtKa-YvHRsN-KQpRgR-KpkjJY-L3jS1J-ybwqeP-xFuWZM-xEExBY

33

Modeling / Re: Lakeview Racine Fuel/Oil info?

« on: February 24, 2021, 12:11:45 PM »

Thanks Chuck, great suggestion.

I had looked at the options and unfortunately the granularity of the photos ain't great, which is of course not too surprising. It is better than nothing, but most detail is had to discern.

Best,
Ethan

Ethan-

There is a crisp, aerial photo of the line north of Belmont including of Racine Fuel in the book The Milwaukee Road in Chicago which is back in print. I scanned a photo of it but this site limits me to 500K attachments and it is 3.5 MB in size.

I will try to send it to you via FlickrMail.

You will probably want to look at the images of John Smatlak on Flickr as he lived in that neighborhood in the late 1970s and has many photos of the C&E line.

I make no money from that book where I was the lead author. I recommend it for the many aerial photos from the McCoy collection (he worked for the Milwaukee Road).

https://www.mrha.com/store/product.aspx?Product=253&Name=The+Milwaukee+Road+in+Chicago

I planned on modeling the "gap" between my two N-scale dioramas which would have gone from Belmont north to Eddy but I don't have the space to put a third diorama at this point. I purchased an N-scale set of CTA 4000 series L cars to place on a bridge over the Milwaukee Road line by Racine and Newport.

Tom

34

General Discussion / Re: 1999: Freight Cars Parked along Magnolia

« on: February 22, 2021, 11:09:31 AM »

Also- does anyone have photos of that Magnolia Ave. scrap yard lot when it was active? I'm modeling that spur on my HO Morton Salt layout and would love to see if there's any particular details of the site I could model.

This view might be helpful.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/5632/9102453406/in/photolist-AY87n3-eSmsgQ-eSkStS-MYuqwV-Q8Ex1m-QCAEAY-LkimZc-NXF7Zj-oq2unF-PA2Vbn-QatVoC-Qvbg64-RiidqQ-QhZo39-2ka8xvP-QugEz5-2hPGFfm

And these images-

http://www.chicagoswitching.com/chicago/former-cnw-up/north-line/Halloween-Outing-Part-2-N-Magnolia-Ave/

35

General Discussion / Re: 1999: Freight Cars Parked along Magnolia

« on: February 22, 2021, 11:05:01 AM »

Also- does anyone have photos of that Magnolia Ave. scrap yard lot when it was active? I'm modeling that spur on my HO Morton Salt layout and would love to see if there's any particular details of the site I could model.

I don't have any photos of gondolas or trains working that scrapyard but here is a view of Magnolia before it was rebuilt.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/25190170421/in/photolist-PGqxPV-2dsx7mR-2dsx7ip-PGqxNn-EnYd48-xDW5eJ

36

General Discussion / Re: ADM mill being demolished

« on: February 17, 2021, 05:08:38 PM »

The subject says it all. Sterling Bay was going to try to re-purpose part of it but apparently it's all coming down. I lived right across the tracks from here. My son and I spent many hours watching the evening switch job. He developed a love for trains; a nice hobby we'll always be able to share.
One of these years, when I have free time, I'll post the numerous videos I took of those switching jobs.
With Continental Paper Grading being relocated,  the only immediate downtown area industries left are Tribune and Blommer. And we all know that Trib plans on selling off that land in the near future.

Joe

Chicago gets lets interesting every year with the loss of its industrial heritage.

The Tribune was bought out this week by an investment group known for its aggressive cost-cutting. They will probably gut the paper with yet more layoffs and try to sell the land on which the Freedom Center printing press operates. The Tribune prints in addition to its own paper the Sun-Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times there under contracts.

I suppose they could outsource production to the go-to regional printer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which has extra capacity at its printing press in West Milwaukee that is only some twenty years old and truck the newspapers to the Chicago area. CP services this printing press as it does with the much smaller Daily Herald printing press in Schaumburg.

37

General Discussion / Re: Possible newly discovered photo of Wrigley Field area

« on: February 04, 2021, 07:57:00 PM »

In doing some searches, I came across this article with a nice 1950s era photo looking north across Clark towards Wrigley Field. I searched the forums here and did not see a reference to it, so hopefully something new:

https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2018/11/25/18109222/wrigley-field-historical-sleuthing-1950s-mystery

Regards,
Ethan

I have not seen that photo posted before. Nice find.

It looks like a white '55 Packard Clipper on the left. Streetcar service ended in 1958 so that would place this scene between late '54 when that model of Packard would have come out and 1958.

38

General Discussion / Re: Southside Switching?

« on: February 04, 2021, 07:52:37 PM »

Hello all, hope everyone is staying safe.

Just wondering if there is any update on a southside switching section to the website?
I remember it being discussed a couple years back.

Not that I have seen. Webmaster Tom Mann has the site in maintenance mode for the most part nowadays.

39

General Discussion / Re: Introduce Yourself!

« on: January 20, 2021, 05:12:27 PM »

Welcome!

16" softball does mark you as a Chicagoan.

This board used to be more active a few years ago but with local switching operations now vanished on Chicago's North Side there is less new material for discussions.

40

General Discussion / Re: City of Chicago Zoning Website

« on: January 20, 2021, 05:10:44 PM »

That's pretty cool.

I was trying to figure out a way to see if it showed who owned the land such as the strips of ROW that Chicago Terminal acquired from Canadian Pacific between Elston and the Kennedy Expressway that they used to park their "ghost train" after operations ceased.

41

General Discussion / Re: 1995 Metra Milw west on YouTube

« on: September 21, 2020, 02:11:35 PM »

Found this video on an inbound Metra ride on the Milw west line ftom 1995. Nice document to see how area has changed.

https://youtu.be/GVnjFe4VITs

I had read that a stub of the CNW low line was kept and used for a recycling industry.  This video shows a boxcar spotted just west of Racine.  The only other evidence I've ever seen was Tom Burke's picture from '97.

https://flic.kr/p/z15V3u

Joe

Very interesting.

I noted the following-

The photographer didn't lift the pause button soon enough to start recording after leaving the Mars station to capture the Dunning Line which came off on the north.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/20747349530/in/album-72157657848232111/

Starting at 2:50 the massive Zenith TV factory, abandoned.

Former Rubenstein Lumber spur which was still in service in 1995 at 4:39

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/20909150266/in/album-72157657848232111/

C&NW Cragin Line at 6:14. I was not aware it was still double tracked at that point since it was eliminated as a through route in 1988. Now of course this diamond is gone and the Cragin Line is down to a single track to service Alpha Baking.

Pacific Junction at 8:56. Soo Line freight trains in 1995 took this route then down the Bloomington Line from the Bensenville Yard to reach the former MILW customers on Chicago's North Side. Former Schwinn bike factory in the background, since torn down and replaced by the YMCA. Former Playskol factory on the opposite side of the Bloomingdale Line.

Glad I got some ground level photos a box car at 13:25.

42

General Discussion / Re: RIP Cherry Street Tracks

« on: September 06, 2020, 09:30:29 AM »

Paul got some good shots of the tracks being pulled up on Cherry St: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulfortini

Soon it will just be memories! 

-Matt

Very depressing!

43

General Discussion / Re: Chicago & West Ridge Railroad

« on: September 04, 2020, 04:51:33 PM »

I recently read Richard Lanyon's Draining Chicago, about the North Branch and the North Shore Channel.  Interesting book if you want to learn about the early days of sewage disposal.  It deals with the north side exclusively and there are lots of old pictures of the Mayfair Division being built in the area of the Channel as well as the narrow gauge RR used to move the fill from the digging of the Channel.

One of the things that caught my eye was the Chicago & West Ridge Railroad. In this post and the comments below I've attached some maps and the description from the Appendices of the book.  Interestingly enough, there is still evidence of this line, as there is rail embedded within Channel Road.  Here's a link showing the streetview:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0177812,-87.7092957,3a,75y,223.53h,70.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sR0CrWQLZ7Tp4l2_wfaUMEg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Also in the final PDF is a brief description of the MILW swingbridge onto Goose Island being dislodged and falling into the river.

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.

Here's a shot I took along the remains of the Chicago & West Ridge.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/21526920528/in/album-72157658402425729/

The C&NW Historical Society's two volume set Lines North of Mayfair that came out around 2005 are the definitive history of these lines including a lot of historic maps and history of the C&WR which was founded by Barney Weber to service his clay pits then was later absorbed by the C&NW.

44

General Discussion / Re: Chicago & West Ridge Railroad

« on: September 04, 2020, 04:44:16 PM »

4th pdf

  I never knew that story about Milwaukee Road swing bridge Z-6A being damaged like that. I know a switcher at one time came nearly went into the water back in the 1960s when it proceeded while the bridge was not yet locked in place.

45

General Discussion / Re: CNW caboose

« on: September 04, 2020, 04:33:24 PM »

When is the best time to catch it working the Cragin Line down to Alpha Baking? I was over there last month but no trains were in the area. I saw several covered hoppers on different tracks. Does Alpha have its own TrackMobile type device to spot them, or does UP come down and switch the cars in and out as necessary? I didn't see any place where a car mover like a TrackMobile could be stored plus it's a sharp rise up from ground level.