I went by there today, even looked at the area from the North Avenue exit ramp, and there's a LOT of concrete ties offloaded into the gap between tracks 6 and 7 from the highway. There were still two center beams with a small amount of ties on them, but no longer 6-8. The caboose is also down by McGrath Lexus on what looks like the track that ends next to People's Gas. What I find interesting is that there's some MOW vehicles up by Clybourn on the eastern stub track with a brand new signal tower on it. Could these ties be for the ongoing UP North bridge work, and they're using the North Yard simply because of the space requirements? There's no spur north until Mryn Mawr, and then it's just a single track, so if a second track was needed for a crane or flatbed, the Bryn Mawr track wouldn't be usable.
You are right though about the Grand Avenue track being in horrible shape. When do the newspaper trains leave and return to North Avenue usually?
