Better hurry up and see Moton Salt

[chrism]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-morton-salt-shutdown-0916-biz-20150915-story.html

[TBurke]

Sad news.  That leaves just Blommer and the Tribune as former C&NW rail served customers. 

I wonder if the collapse of that wall earlier this year led to this decision?

[chuck]

You beat me to it!! In case that Trib site goes paywall...
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150915/NEWS05/150919892/morton-salt-to-shutter-elston-avenue-warehouse

So is this still a Monday morning operation?  I'm sure rail service will end a week or two before the actual closing.

[cnwnorthline]

Wonder if the Chicago Terminal will ever take over operations for the UP too.

-Matt

[Jsu]

Has rail been the only thing serving Morton, or have they had barge traffic as well?  On a few river trips going past Morton, they had a dock (it is extremely corroded from heavy use), and all the unloading equipment, but I never saw anything moored there.

[TBurke]

Using www.historicaerials.com it looks like the most recent time a barge was parked there was in 1988. 

I recall talking to a SOO Line crew in the mid-1980s about International Salt (later owned by AKZO) which was just downstream from Morton Salt, on Goose Island.  International received shipments almost exclusively by barge but the channel silted up so much that they were forced to go back to rail.  International even when it was served by barge ordered a shipment of salt by rail once a year to keep the track active as a precaution according to the train crew I spoke to as they were switching International. 

So Morton might have gone to all rail due to a similar issue with siltation preventing barges and their pushers from going that far upstream. 

Dredging it might have stirred up toxic sediments also from earlier years when tanneries and factories lined the North Branch up to Irving Park Road. 

Speaking of salt companies it appears that Detroit Salt on the South Side is no longer rail served and/or is no longer in operation from the most recent Google view.  They were located at 3811 S. Iron Street and they used to receive hoppers of salt off the NS line that services industries in the Stockyards industrial park.  Does anyone have any more information about this Detroit Salt operation? 

[chuck]

I was lurking around that area last week and there were hoppers backed up all the way to the pile of ballast at 37th & Iron.  I assume for Detroit and not storage.

[Jsu]

That makes sense about the dredging.  Up until the 1980's lake freighters used to come through downtown to service Tribune and a cement manufacturer (the Medusa Challenger supplied this) and they had to stop dredging cause of toxic sediments.  I recall reading somewhere that Tribune would love to get shipments by water if they would be able to, but the sediments precludes them from doing so.

[TBurke]

Thanks for the additional information.  It was probably ships and not barges that International Salt used until things got too silted up.  That scrapyard at Cortland as well as General Iron Industries still get barges. 

Was that cement company that received freighters the Portland Cement plant on the east bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River between Ashland and Fullerton?  If so it was also rail served by the Milwaukee Road on the Deering Line.

[Jsu]

I think it was either Medusa Cement or St. Marys Cement.  As far as I know the ship was called the Medusa Challenger when it traveled up the main stem through downtown, and when it started calling out of Lake Calumet (where it still does today) it is called the St. Marys Challenger.

[Brianbobcat]

If you didn't get to Morton Salt yet, it's too late.  I went by last saturday, and there's no rail cars parked on the premises.