Chicago Firewood?

[GM]

Is this the name of the firewood place that Chicago Terminal was servicing on Kingsbury last year? I am wondering because there is a picture of them in the Chgo Tribune website tonight under\"pictures for the snowstorm\" delivering firewood in Old Town. The picture # is 17. Has anyone seen any evidence of delivery to this business so far this year by Chgo Terminal?

GM

[raisin]

Yes, that\'s the company.  But, I haven\'t seen any gondolas outside.  I\'m thinking the STB filing may have been accurate that last year\'s delivery was a ploy.  Someday, when I\'ve got some time, I\'ll go inside and buy some firewood and ask if they are getting any rail deliveries.

[cnwnorthline]

So the question remains, \"Why did the CTRR fight to keep a line that has no customers?\"

-Matt

[raisin]

So the developers of that shopping center would give them some money for the easment?  Just a theory.  Unless they figure the line might actually develop a customer at some point.  There\'s some paint company still there along Kingsbury that I always thought was a decent candidate for rail service.

[TBurke]

I believe that the firewood company at the end of the line on Kingsbury sent an OUTBOUND load of firewood in a gondola to another Iowa Pacific (parent company of Chicago Terminal) railroad out west last winter for delivery.

My guess is that Iowa Terminal simply wants to keep its options open for future rail service on that stretch of Kingsbury from North Avenue south to almost Halsted St.  Potentially a ramp for a team track could be built alongside the track at the end for offline customers wanting rail service.

The Home Depot on North Avenue just west of the river might be interested in using the nearby Chicato Terminal tracks for rail deliveries of lumber and drywall much as Big Bay Lumber receives loads in the middle of the street today.

The Carbit Paint & Stains plant on Kingsbury looked vacant and had a for lease sign in front the last time I drove by.  They haven\'t had rail service since the mid-1980s though some of the tracks that once serviced it are still in place though cut-off from the main track.

[raisin]

I had thought the paint company was gone, but the website is still up showing that location as their headquarters.  www.carbit.com

Your point about Home Depot is interesting.  Do other Home Depot locations use rail service?

[cnwnorthline]

Looks like Home Depot usually ships by rail only to distribution centers.  Check out the discussion at:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1037878

-Matt

[TBurke]

Good catch on the discussion group, GM.  Raisin, thanks for the research on the Carbit website.  I called their phone number on the website and they are still in business despite the appearance of their facility.

BTW, I caught a mistake in my last post when I said Iowa Terminal.  I meant of course Chicago Terminal.  Iowa Terminal is an interesting little shortline that uses electric steeple cab locomotives in common carrier service to this day.

I wonder why Carbit dropped rail service in the mid-1980s?  It always makes me wonder why an industry would deliberately reduce their shipping options.  The trackwork in front of Carbit was always very interesting with a siding and spurs indicating a lot of shuffling around was needed to get cars into position.

Perhaps they gave up trying to work with the bankrupt Milwaukee Road in the 1980s or the caretaker Soo Line?  I cannot recall a single, all-new industry that Soo Line attracted to any of the North Side lines they inherited.