New All-Time List of C&NW/UP NW Line Industries

[TBurke]

Guys:

Looking for feedback on this first pass website.  For years it\'s been obvious that the remaining industries still served by rail along the C&NW/UP Northwest Line are rapidly disappearing so I created this compilation to document the last ones as well as industries that are now memories.

http://sites.google.com/site/cnwnorthwestline/

There are a lot of blanks in the spreadsheet as you can see.  Any help you can provide with filling in those blanks would be appreciated.  Please post to this forum so others can see the updates-and it might create some lively discussion. Also, if you have any photos you would like to add let me know.

I limited coverage to the point where the Northwest Line diverges from the North Line at the Clybourn station out to the Wisconsin border past Harvard.

Indicate if the industry was in place prior to the Northwest Expressway (now known as the Kennedy Expressway) construction.  Many rail served industries were eliminated during this 1950s Eisenhower era project.

I created this website since it is off-topic from the main charter of the Chicago Switching website which is focused strictly on freight operations within Chicago itself.  

Tom

[Cway]

Hey there,

This is quite helpful. Thanks a lot. I am curious to know if there were any industries along the Craigin line besides the bakery at Diversey Avenue. And if there were, when was the last service and where was the spur?

Cway

[Chooch1]

Tom,

There was a lumber yard in Mt. Prospect with a spur off the south track. The spur hasn\'t been used at least since I\'ve been commuting on the NW line since 2000. The lumber yard went out of business in the last year and half two years or so. The spur was removed maybe in the last 6-8 months. The site now appears to house construction equipment and trucks, large sewer pipes, etc.

[TBurke]

Chooch1 and Cway:

First of all, Chooch1, I plead ignorance on the Cragin Line though Doug Kaniuk who frequently posts to this site probably knows as much as anyone.  You might want to start a new topic on Cragin to stimulate discussion.

Second, Cway, thanks for the Mt. Prospect lumber yard catch.  I had forgotten about it.