CTA frieght service

[Kimball]

What buissness did the CTA frieght service serve?

[TBurke]

Kimball:

First, a little background.  The Milwaukee Road originally ran into Evanston via their Chicago & Evanston (hence the C&E name still used today) in the 1880s.  The Chicago Rapid Transit inherited the Milwaukee Road\'s common carrier freight obligations on the C&E when it leased the former Milwaukee Road line north of Irving Park Road about 1917 which was elevated onto a viaduct.  A pair of Westinghouse electric freight locomotives were used by the CRT.

This electric freight service continued into the Chicago Transit Authority era in 1947 and ended in 1973.  Cars were interchanged with the Milwaukee Road at the Buena Yard in Chicago\'s Uptown neighborhood, just north of Irving Park Road.  The Milwaukee Road passed in front of Wrigley Field to get to the Buena Yard.

Typically the carloads were made up of coal, fuel oil, and lumber though other commodities were carried from time to time.

Tom

[SlowFreight]

Railfan and Railroad had a nifty 3-page article with photos on the CTA freight service  by Walter Weart in the February 1988 issue.  Without referencing any specific names but Lill Coal Co. (the last major customer), it mentioned \"several coal yards, a warehouse, two power plants, a lumber yard [at Howard St.] and a team track.\"  It also mentions the lumberyard closed after burning to the ground(!)

I also know from another source (which I apologize for having totally misplaced) that there was track in Evanston installed to deliver fuel (either heating oil or gasoline, don\'t remember which) dating from the 1940\'s or thereabout, but it apparently never saw service--I think this was different from the fuel oil traffic Tom mentioned.  It also appears that the Milwaukee initiated the abandonment petition, not the CTA, and that the remaining customers were not happy with the decision.

Oh...and the article mentioned something about CTA interchanging cars from the Milwaukee at Buena Yard and handing them over to the North Shore in Skokie until the 1930\'s.

Hope this helps!

[Kimball]

I only know the location of two buissness one is a building with two loading doors by the wilson station and it has 2 loading doors but it must have quite a squeze to position two cars on that siding, I saw in a photo taken in 2000 there was still tracks in the siding.  The other buisness that I have seen reminents is the Evanston team track.  It is still used ocassionaly used to load balest cars.  I wonder if the Chicago Terminal railroad could rebuild the track to Wilson and eiether interchange with the CTA again or put thrid rail shoes on their desial and haul frieght to the team track which nearby buissness could pick up without the need for sidings.

[TBurke]

That Railroad and Railfan piece is worth seeking out at local hobby shops that sell piles of old magazines.  The article unfortunately refers to it as the \"El\" which is the New York way of spelling vs. our own \"L!\"

Another excellent article with pictures, maps, listings of freight customers served by the CTA came out in First & Fastest magazine a few years ago.  F&F backissues are often available at Chicagoland Hobby on the northwest side of the city.

[djohanns]

Another way of finding business that may at some point had rail service on this line would be to look up Sanborn insurance maps of the area from 1920-1940.

If there is interest in this I might go through the Evanston maps.

One business with a spur that I remember seeing on the Sanborn maps was a quite large Oil/Fuel dealer at the site of the current Jewel-Osco on Chicago Ave / Greenleaf St in Evanston.  The other day when looking around there I felt like I could see where the spur may have come down from the raised tracks.

Dan Johannsson

[SlowFreight]

That\'s the fuel/oil dealer I was refering to.  As I mentioned, it appears that they never received any shipments, but track had been in place.