Introduce Yourself!

[themats]

Boy, the 18 hours really shows...

My name is Mike Murray, I\'m 34, living in La Grange Park, IL, and I teach English and Cinema at a high school in the SW suburbs.

[Serhii]

My name is Serhii, and I\'ve been following this site for a while.  I stumbled upon the previous incarnation a while back - I was searching for photos of the Ogden viaduct.

[ray gerard]

I appreciate all the info each of you leaves on this site.  I\'ve some DNA in Chicago Railroading which helps boost my interest in railroadiana and modeling.  My paternal grandfather retired on a R.R. pension in \'68 after 50 years at the Union Stockyards.  He followed his father there.  In his retirement he would visit the R.R. Retirement Bd. HQ\'d at Rush/State and Chestnut. My maternal grandfather\'s career was at the Stewart\'s Coffee warehouse on N.Water St. on the Navy Pier/Carroll Ave. line.  My father\'s career was on the same line first with the Tribune then the Sun-Times retiring in \'96.  As an attorney I\'ve little contact with railroading.  Appearing at the old Chicago Traffic Court on the river @ 321 N. LaSalle I would often see geeps switching pulp box cars on Carroll Ave. to the SunTimes.  Down at 26th&Cal. I would see AT&SF geeps on the ancient CB&Q branch line that arches past the jail. One grade crossing at the blvd. there was pulled-up a few years ago.  Just today a service pickup truck crew was cutting a remaining crossing gate signal from its mount.  How times change.

[q in sac]

Hi, my name is Quintin. I reside in Sacramento, CA. I stumbled on the website via by an article of Bill Denton, n scale model of MILW\'s Kingsbury branch on the north side of Chicago. I was born and raised on Chgo\'s southside 95th and Stony Island.

This web site is great!!! I was curious about the railroad the crossed CNW @ North Ave. Now after reviewing this web site, it has answered a lot of questions. Especally, that bridge @ Enkai Steel.

Question, when did SOO/CP abandon the Bloomington Line and pulled up the diamonds?

Google Earth gives me a good look at the line and the industies in the area.

[TBurke]

CP Rail  has not formally abandoned the former Milwaukee Road Bloomingdale Line though it no longer operates over it east of Drake Avenue.  It is considered out-of-service but not yet officially abandoned in a legal sense.

CP Rail decided it was less expensive to taxi crews in and out of the UP North Avenue yard and keep a switcher there versus maintaining the long Bloomingdale viaduct which generated no revenue of its own since there were no on-line industries between the Kennedy Expressway and Pacific Junction.  CP leased space from the UP at North Avenue as does CTR today.  It helps UP since they get 100% of the interchange now for points on the former Milwaukee Road C&E and Deering Line plus Goose Island versus none if CP took the cars to and from their own lines at Pacific Junction by using the Bloomingdale Line.

In addition there would be no hassles with waiting for permission to cross the busy Metra/UP line or maintaining the diamond.

[shawnmutant]

Hello all! And Happy holidays too.  I would like introduce myself. My name is Shawn O\'Day and I live in Flat Rock Michigan.  I became very interested in the \"Chicago Northside switching area\" in the late 1990\'s while dating my future wife.  She worked dayshift at the Wishbone resturant and we drove southbound Halstead from her apartment near Irving Park in the early hours.  Meanwhile I was into exploring and mapping all kinds of RR tracks , usually here around Michigan, Ohio and some eastern Pennsylvania.  So needless to say the old tracks around the areas peeked my curiousity.  I started to ask questions on one of the few railroad \"listserve\" type discussion boards and John Mika replied and answered them all.  The rest is written on the history section of this fine website.  

 With some actual knowledge gained of the area I started to explore and make map sketches of the MILW and C&NW north of the two Depots.   Doing this on the weekend in the early moning hours was relatively easy traffic-wise compared to the normal workday auto traffic and there seemed to be quite a few relics and remnants of old trackage and industries left.   Back then I did not appreciate the value of a good camera and regrettably did not take photos  very much.  The few I did take I finally scanned and sent them on to Tom.  I wrote up some captions offering up tidbits of some details noticed while making the maps.  I am currently redrawing these and will scan them as well.  

Cheers
Shawn

[chrism]

Hi, Im Chris. I was introduced to this site through Forgotten Chicago. I\'ve had a fascination with trains since I was a kid. I plan on modeling a train set one of these days, time permitting. I looked into the Lakewood branch after having an SIUC fuction at Wellington Tavern. I noticed a set of railroad tracks in the middle of the street in a residential area. I know about Chicago\'s manufacturing past and was fascinated. My great grandfather worked for the railroads in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. He also lived in West Town near Armitage and Milwaukee. I really enjoy this site. Very interesting info.

[Ken Little]

Real cute Thanks

[12bridge]

Hey guys,
 
My name is Paul, I am 22 and live in Michigan, abit working in NYC.  Yeah its a long commute.  Anyway, I love street running industrial RR'ing, and have been spending more time researching Chicago's lines on this website. 

[Brianbobcat]

I joined back in June and never got around to introducing myself.  My Name is Brian, and I'm here for two reasons.  My brother has long been a rail fan, so I got interested in it partly from him.  The other reason is research for a possible documentary about railroads in Chicago.  There's a TON of information here, and going through it all is taking some time.

[TBurke]

Welcome new members and visitors to Chicago Switching.

[tytrain]

I found this site months ago via dedicated Googling after spoting the C&E line in some old aerial photographs of my neighborhood. Looks like I missed having a railfan's apartment by a few decades. I'm a recent transplant to Chicago (1.5 years) and a lifelong railfan. I believe I've read every post on these forums but had some issues registering so I could post. Thanks for the great work everyone on this site has done!

[Niall]

Hi there, my name's Niall Laybourne. I live in Scotland and have always been into railways, particularly North American railroads....and especially street running! I'm a travelling music teacher and my wife's also a teacher. We're coming to Chicago for 10 days in our Summer hols and I really hope I can see signs of the Chicago Terminal Railroad, Union Pacific switching Bloomer or the Tribune job...or maybe even BNSF in the Pilsen area! Does anyone have up-to-date info on when trains run at these sites (eg. Pilsen and Goose Island)? In fact, do these services still run?!

Good to be on the forum! Any info would be greatly appreciated

Niall

[Jsu]

Hello, my name is Joshua Sutherland.  I am from the north side of Chicago.  I am currently attending my senior year at Lane Tech High School.  I first (quite literally) stumbled on Chicago switching last summer while doing driving practice on goose island, where I had a run-in with the Chicago Terminal.  I had never known that there was any active freight rail service in the the city, so I searched it up online when I got home.  I found this site, and I have been fascinated with the north side operations of Chicago Terminal and Union Pacific ever since.  Thanks again to Mr. Mann for helping me register.

[Wyoming Ed]

Hello everyone. My name is Ed Jarolin, aka Wyoming Ed, because that's where I now live.
That's a long way from my growing up on the southwest side near the GTW's Elsdon yard.
Anyway, i came across this site while doing research for a switching layout I'm planning to
build in O scale. Although it will likely be more or less freelanced, I have already found some
great ideas here.