Yesterday, July 9, my timing was lucky and I left the North & Clyborn L stop in time to see a CTR run crossing North Avenue. It was hauling a single car, a load of lumber.
By the time I got to the tracks, the run was at the Cherry Av runaround. They left the load there, and remembering the news that Serious Materials might be a new customer, I hung around to see if they would leave it there. They returned from the lumber yard with an empty center beam car. They pulled behind the loaded car and pushed both back to the lumber yard, then came back with the empty.
It turned out to be their sole business that day.
The renovations to the bridge to Goose Island include the installation of metal matting between the rails over the bridge and new sidewalks crossing the tracks. In each case, the space for flanges have been filled with an odd material resembling rubber. It\'s pretty solid, doesn\'t seem to compress much when a train rolls over it, suggesting that, initially at least, the equipment is running partially on its flanges. I wonder if it\'s designed to eventually compress to allow for the flanges. I wonder what it will be like come winter and snow if it does not compress.
The bridge ain\'t ready for the public yet. The project seems to be at a pause point, possibly waiting for a new (sub)contractor to come in to handle a different part of the reconstruction. But at least one guy on the small crew present kept on checking the progress of the CTR run.
The empty car was Canadian National (CNA), incidentally.
be well,
bob roman
