circus train??

[ray gerard]

if anyone\'s interested this morning on the pre-ohare \"new line\" alignment (North of Touhy and the NW tollway and West of Wolf Road) I saw four or five 1930\'s era(?) silver baggage cars with what looked like small circus emblems apparently in very temporary storage

[ray gerard]

I should\'ve googled first, ringling bros is at the allstate arena in rosemont Nov.10, that train is probably longer than what I observed

[TBurke]

It\'s too bad that the many spurs off the former Soo Line that went west across Mannheim and south of Touhy are all gone now.  They would have come in handy for the circus trains.

Up into the early 1990s the area just north of the Allstate Area/Horizon used to have several rail-served industries.  I recall a pair of spurs that ran almost alongside the northern edge of the parking lot for the Horizon.  

Nowadays the area west of Mannheim and south of Touhy where the rail served industries once were is a vast expanse of strip shopping centers, fast food restaurants, and huge parking lots.

[SlowFreight]

About 20 years ago now (IIRC), I saw RBBB indeed using those spurs--when it was still the Rosemont Horizon--for holding some of the cars for elephants and big cats.  It was kind of a shocker to me when I saw that all those spurs were gone as of about 10 years ago, especially in that WC was always pushing so hard to attract customers.

[TBurke]

It seems that when Metra began operations on the former Wisconsin Central/Soo Line that\'s when all of the spurs were cut off north of the O\'Hare area and into the suburbs.  The line was upgraded at that time with long passing sidings (and later, double track) added.  Perhaps it was just a coincidence.  

As far as I can tell, the first rail served customer north of the O\'Hare nowadays on this CN line is the plastics company in Buffalo Grove at Deerfield Road.  There\'s a spur in Mundelein but it seems to be used mainly for MOW equipment storage.  CN just pulled out another spur in Lake Villa off Grand Avenue this past year.

[GM]

I wonder where they will tie up when the show comes to United Center. It would be something if Kingsbury Street saw their action again.

GM

[cnwnorthline]

I don\'t think that can happen because the problem hasn\'t been solved.  Remember \"When the CP Rail discontinued its Bloomingdale line for access to the remaining Milwaukee Road freight operations clustered on Kingsbury and Lakewood a few years later circus trains could no longer use this stretch. The reason given is the connecting track used by CP Rail from leased space at UP\'s North Avenue yard was too tight for the long circus trains to negotiate.\"

-Matt

[TBurke]

Last year the circus trains tied up on the CP/Metra line in the area of the former Galewood Yard on Chicago\'s West Side, about where Central Avenue crosses over the tracks.  I got some pictures but there was a lot of security in the area and didn\'t stay long to be on the safe side.

[ray gerard]

I wonder where the train is right now.  Yesterday and Monday\'s Sun-Times featured single fotos of elephants walking from the train to the the United Center.  No train in the shots.  The pix are on the S-T\'s website.  Walking from where, the UP\'s Geneva Sub.??

[SlowFreight]

Now I\'m really getting OT...

Does this mean that the industries in Des Plaines north of Northwest Hwy are gone, too?  And Wheeling?  When NCS first started in 1996, there were still quite a few customers between Des Plaines and Grayslake.


I\'d expect further decline in WC local traffic under Canadian National.  The VP-Marketing at WSOR told me two years ago that his boss was going to fire him because he wasn\'t needed anymore--CN was the best marketing tool WSOR had going.  More precisely, dozens of former WC customers were calling WSOR begging for any means of delivery via WSOR because CN cut all of the high-quality service WC used to provide.

CN is an unfortunate juggernaut in the industry.

[ray gerard]

the circus (train) is coming to town, last cleveland OH show today, 1st rosemont show Nov.6, 1st United Center show Nov.18

[Ben]

The train, or at least what seems like the passenger cars that house the circus employees, s sitting where it was last year, on a siding at Central Ave.  My Metra train passes it everyday on its way to Elgin.

[JohnColeman]

Is that at Central Ave in Chicago, or in the Suburbs?

[Ben]

They are located on the South side of the tracks at the Hanson Park Metra Station in Chicago.  The bridge for Central Ave. going over the tracks actually seems like it would be a good place to shoot pictures from.

On the map it is here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Hanson+Park+Station&sll=41.91633,-87.763424&sspn=0.012135,0.024633&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FZKYfwIdtMXE-g&ll=41.920704,-87.766171&spn=0.012134,0.024633&z=15&g=Hanson+Park+Station&iwloc=addr

[ray gerard]

the circus is back in town.  Sun Times website complete with pictures shows several ringling bros. elephants walking nose-to-tail visiting orchard place elementary in des plaines.  The train must be nearby.