If you were crossing Clybourn in a taxi and drove across tracks a few blocks northwest of the Goose Island Brewery than you went across the dormant (but not legally abandoned) \"Chicago & Evanston\" or C&E line of the Chicago Terminal.
It was operated by the Milwaukee Road until its 1985 purchase by the Soo Line. The Soo Line used it to service Peerless Confectionary and staring in January of 2007, by the Chicago Terminal shortline railroad. Unfortunately Peerless shut down a few months later.
Finkl Steel\'s main connection with the Chicago Terminal is off Kingsbury Street. Are you sure you weren\'t on Kingsbury instead of Clybourn? It\'s hard to see the fenced off area where freight cars are spotted in Finkl\'s property from Clybourn.
In the middle of the street on Kingsbury, about a half block north of Cortland, the track divides into two with a switch in the pavement. The track that goes north and crosses Clybourn is the C&E line.
The track that continues northwest on Kingsbury and past Southport is the remmant of the former Milwaukee Road Deering Line. At one the Deering Line meandered northwest along the east bank of the Chicago River, crossing Fullerton Avenue and entering the Deering Industrial Area. Now all that is left of the Deering Line is short segment that only goes as far as Dominick Street, with enough of a tail track left in place for backup moves into Finkl Steel.
Like the C&E Line, the Deering Line was another Milwaukee Road freight branch line that was taken over by the Soo Line in 1985 then by the Chicago Terminal in January of 2007.
