North Avenue Yard Area

[Jsu]

I biked down to the North Avenue area yesterday, and I found a few interesting things.  First, the North Ave. yard is absolutely full of MOW equipment.  There was a transfer caboose, ballast cars, flatcars with sets of tracks (rails and wooden ties, unused) on them and at least a couple dozen flats and center-beams full of concrete ties.  I did not see any revenue freight other than three hoppers destined for Morton Salt.  About Morton salt, the spur leading to the building directly south of the tail track is completely covered in dirt, mud and gravel, so it does not look like they have had service in awhile.  On the upside, all the hoppers in Morton salt and the yard looked fresh out of the shops.  Because it was a Sunday, I was able to ride through Sipi Metals' parking lot and discover their track setup.  I did not go any farther into their property than the blacktop lot, however.  They have a track running through the west end of their new blacktop parking lot, able to fit about one gondola, and another spur in the gravel lot able to fit about the same.  Does anyone know which one they use?

[TBurke]

There's another thread on this forum that speculates as to what all of that MOW equipment and the ties are for.  Guesses included rebuilding the North Avenue Yard and/or rebuilding the lead to the Tribune's printing press and the street level spur of Blommer that gets occasional tank cars. 

Freight cars for Sipi are spotted on the spur that ends in their parking lot.  That spur used to continue into the plant itself but was cut off about eight years ago.  There's a picture of a gondola inside the plant if you search this site.

The track covered in gravel or mud to the west is a remnant of the former Rolling Mill Yard that was used by the Milwaukee Road to service the Procter & Gamble plant that was located at the end of Wabansia, east of Elston.  It gets its name from an earlier customer on that same location as P&G, an Illinois Steel plant.  The Rolling Mill Yard was also an interchange point between the C&NW and the Milwaukee Road.  In later years it was used as a runaround track by CP Rail and later Chicago Terminal.  A couple of years ago Chicago Terminal sold or leased this area to a car dealer which used to store new vehicles there.  Chicago Terminal then built a new runaround track on part of the Elston Street bridge.

Not sure which tail track you are referring to-can you provide street coordinates?  The tail track used by UP to service Morton Salt is north of the plant, not south.  At one time this track that runs alongside Magnolia serviced the Procter & Gamble plant that stood north of North Avenue and west of the river.  The plant closed circa 1991 and was replaced by Home Depot.  The Milwaukee Road serviced the same P&G plant on the north, running east on Wabansia to reach it.  The City of Chicago uses the northern half of the old P&G plant and you can still see where freight cars entered the plant where it faced Wabansia with the two entrances.  P&G shipped out finished goods via the MILW and received raw materials in tank cars from the C&NW to the south.  Attached is a picture of the old P&G plant.

The track alongside Magnolia serviced a scrap yard also that was located between Magnolia and the river.  It stopped operating sometime circa 2000. 

[Jsu]

The track that I was talking about is on magnolia, just north of Blackhawk.

[TBurke]

That is the remnant of the former C&NW industrial lead into the Procter & Gamble plant on the north side of North Avenue.  What's left is used as a tail track to serve Morton Salt.