CNW Low Line questions

[haggar]

I live right next to the former CNW low line that ran along Kinzie.  Thinking about possibly modeling this area someday.  When was the last time this line was used?  When was the last time cars were stored at Kinzie St. Yard?  I saw some of the last movements across the Kinzie St. bascule bridge in early 2001 while working construction at River Bend Condo.  I think at that time the Sun Times was only printing flyers there.  Pretty sure Kinzie St. Yard was gone by then.  Did those Sun Times cars come from Grand Ave. Yard?

Thanks,
Joe

[TBurke]

Hi Joe-

2001 is the last time as far as I know that a train went to the Sun-Times.  The Kinzie Street yard was gone by then.  Yes it was served by the North Avenue yard.

Before this site was reorganized I had before and after shots of the Kinzie Street C&NW yard looking west from about Canal posted but I cannot find them anymore with the new layout.  The captioned after shot would nail down the date the yard was taken out since the photo was taken soon after the tracks were removed.

Tom Mann-do you know where to find those shots now?

Tom

[haggar]

Thanks Tom.  Hopefully those pics will be found.  One more question about Kinzie Yard.  Before Tribune's Freedom Center was built, both the Sun Times and Trib newsprint boxcars could be found in the Kinzie St. Yard. Once the Freedom Center was built, did Trib use Grand Ave. Yard and Sun Times still used Kinzie Yard? 

Thanks,
Joe

[TBurke]

Joe-

Yes, that is my recollection that the C&NW used the Kinzie Street yard for Sun-Times deliveries and Grand Avenue Yard for the Tribune's Freedom Center until the Kinzie Street yard was removed and the land sold. 

It will take some digging to find my photos from just after the Kinzie Street yard was taken up to date the event but I want to say around 1990.  It was reached off a track that extended past Grand Avenue and went in a semi-circle behind Bloomer Chocolate.

Tom

[haggar]

Thanks again Tom.  Any additional photos you have of the Kinzie Yard while still in use would be most welcome too.

Thanks,
Joe

[Brianbobcat]

You've looked at Historic Ariels, right?  I was just looking at the Kinzie yard area tonight, and I was amazed to see how many cars there were serving Pickens Kane storage.

[haggar]

Yes, I checked out historicalaerials.com.  Lots of cool railroading from Canal west to Ogden.  Wish those pics were as clear as the new Google or Bing satellite images.

Joe

[haggar]

Found nice pic of Kinzie St. Yard while perusing David Wilson's impressive collection on flickr.  It was taken in 1987.  Lots of refrigerated boxcars. Fulton Cold Storage probably? Don't see any newsprint boxcars for Sun Times.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwilson1949/4413921633/in/set-72157614049704111

Joe

[haggar]

Found some pics of this location on George Elwood's Fallen Flags site.

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cnw/cnw1119jfa.jpg

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cnw/cnw1118tga.jpg

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cnw/cnw1214tga.jpg

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cv/cvc402066jfa.jpg

[TBurke]

Joe-

Fulton Cold Storage at Morgan and Carroll was serviced by the Milwaukee Road and later SOO/CP Rail.  Those freight cars appear to be on the Milwaukee Road tracks that paralleled the C&NW.

I will try to dig out my before and after photos of the Kinzie Street Yard and rescan them since they disappeared from this site after the redesign.

Tom

[TBurke]

Joe-

I did a search on "Kinzie" among photos on chicagoswitching.com at the home page and it produced a thumbnail of the picture I took showing the Kinzie Street C&NW Yard from under the viaduct looking west.  However when I tried to expand the photo it produced an error message.

I will notify Tom Mann.

Tom

[haggar]

While not cnw, here's a pic in the same vicinity of adjacent milw line taken from the Milwaukee Ave. bridge near Clinton and Fulton.

http://tinyurl.com/mjmgr9d

Joe

[TBurke]

Joe-

Tom (Mann) fixed the issue with images not loading properly. You can see my picture of the C&NW yard looking west across Des Plaines at-

http://www.chicagoswitching.com/chicago/former-cnw-up/navy-pier-line/Far-West-on-the-Navy-Pier-Line/tb_CNWNavyPier_1988_19.jpg.php

Tom

[TribuneFreightFanatic]

I just happened to come across these photos on rrpicturearchives.net.. I believe they may be of relevance to this subject. I never knew UP once used a SW1500 to switch Sun Times!!   
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=740794
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=740804

And this one is of the CNW switcher running the Navy Pier Line in the 70's
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2600034

                                                                                                        ~TribuneFreightFanatic

[TBurke]

That last picture of the switcher on the Navy Pier line is great.  It's the first one I have seen that shows the various spurs branching off it including the one to the Tribune's loading dock.  I believe the track on the right that is partly paved over is the former lead to the area between the river and the Ogden Canal which included Curtis Candy Company. 

Looks like there is evidence of derailments and cars dragged down the asphalt in between the rails. 

And it looks like the Ogden Canal was not yet partly filled in as it was in later years so that it terminated in a line with the western end of the North Pier Terminal (large brick building in the far left background).

Time capsule from an automotive perspective too. That's a '74-'77 Mercury Comet on one side of the white truck and a '76-'77 Oldsmobile 98 on the right, and a '75-'77 Pontiac GrandAm or LeMans in the distance.  Now Mercury, Oldmobile, and Pontiac are all gone too.