Central Illinois Railroad

[Jsu]

I was driving through Bridgeport today, and I saw that the tracks along Sangamon leading from the BNSF main line down to the Wye that the CIR used on Cermak had been pulled up.  A week ago I saw that the tracks leading into the brickyard on 22nd place had also been torn up, and that seemed like the only customer on that area getting service (until recently.)
In addition, three weeks ago, I noticed that the former Norther Illinois RR tracks running parallel to 26th street were being pulled up.  I am going to assume that all of the former CIR is now abandoned, except for the Elk Grove Village area.

[TBurke]

I drove past Colonial Brick this spring and noticed that the tracks looked unused for a long time.  Same for the tracks to the Kramer smelter.  I believe though that BNSF still services that scrapyard on Paulina south of Blue Island, Battaglia Distributing at their warehouse (the spur goes into the building) on the west side of Ashland and just north of the river, and Domino Foods (Sugar) east of Western Avenue and north of the river via a very long spur. 

[Jsu]

I rode the CIR line from the interchange with the BNSF at Sangamon and 16th, all the way down Cermak and Blue Island, to the overpass at Western Avenue.  All the Tracks Along this route were lightly overgrown, and looked like they had not been used for at least a year.  The Switches at Kramer, Sims, and Battaglia had all been removed.  The track that loops down to Domino Foods looked heavily used, and there were at least four covered hoppers down by the river.  There is also an in-use siding that services LPI Distribution coming off this track.  I talked to an employee at Kramer and he said there had not been any trains servicing there for a long time.

[TBurke]

That's sad that the switches were removed for those three industries.  It makes no sense to me why a railroad would want to drive away business.