In 1987 there would have been several industries that still regularly received boxcars on this line, the Chicago & Evanston or C&E, and off the attached Goose Island trackage. This train is heading south on Kingsbury just past Cortland.
1. Wallace Business Forms at Grand Avenue and Kingsbury.
2. Midwest Zinc on Kingsbury just south of North Avenue.
3. Plibrico on Kingsbury just north of North Avenue.
4. Midwest Industrial Metals on Goose Island on North Branch at Bliss.
5. Big Bay Lumber on Goose Island, North Branch at Division.
The last train in revenue service on these former Milwaukee Road lines was in 2015 to Big Bay Lumber by Chicago Terminal. Chicago Terminal and its parent Iowa Pacific Holdings went out of business in 2019. That was the year of the final movement on these rails as stored reefers were retrieved and brought back across the Chicago River to the Union Pacific North Avenue Yard.
These former Milwaukee Road lines branched off the Chicago & Evanston Line which at one time connected the tracks entering Union Station on the south with a passenger depot in Wilmette on the north end. The MILW cut back the C&E Line over time, starting with the predecessor of the CTA taking over operation of freight and passenger service from Irving Park Road north. By 1984 the C&E Line was cut back to Diversey on the north and Grand Avenue on the south. Its connection to the outside world was via the Bloomingdale Line, now a trail.
In 1986 Canadian Pacific via its Soo Line subsidiary took over operations of the Milwaukee Road including the industrial tracks on the North Side of Chicago. In 2001 the Bloomingdale Line was put out of service as a through line for transfer runs so CP leased space at Union Pacific's North Avenue yard and connected via the interchange track to its home rails. In 2007 shortline Chicago Terminal took over operations of what was left from CP.
I covered the history of these lines in detail in a Milwaukee Road Historical Association book called The Milwaukee Road in Chicago which was recently reprinted by the MRHA and is available on their website.
I also have photos and maps in these albums among others.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72177720296370340https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157715114878692https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157657870065262https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157657240086290https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157657848232111https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157704913274794https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157704913274794https://www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157704913274794
