Looks like Permian Basin started with the Chicago Terminal just to get a toehold in the market. Most likely, they were negotiating for this purchase before CTRR started running on Goose Island. And yes, these are the properties now switched by Central Illinois--I guess they decided it wasn\'t worth the investment.
Don\'t look for Chicago Terminal to connect the downtown and Elk Grove operations unless UP quits North Avenue Yard entirely--not an impossibility, but dependent on how much they value the Tribune traffic. I guess DOT Rail Services probably has limited trackage rights to reach the CP lead from Elk Grove Yard (the small one west of York Rd.), since they usually had two ex-IC switchers in the yard there.
I think UP also still bases one wayfreight out of Elk Grove Yard, to serve the New Line and Harvard Sub freight customers--which aren\'t very many. I couldn\'t tell if UP had also retained some of the Centex site customers or not, but I don\'t think so. It did appear that DOT Rail Services wasn\'t real ambitious about recruiting new business. The yard always looked fairly empty, and they seemed to serve fewer customers than UP did 10 years ago--but this is conjecture on my part.
Long-term, I think it\'s likely UP will give up more of the local switching rights to Chicago Terminal, radiating either from North Ave or Elk Grove. There\'s a few more spurs off the New Line as you head up to Des Plaines--some active, some not.
IMO, the old Weber Spur up to Skokie is probably finished in that most of the recent (last 10 years) customers appear to be vacant and the last customer at the end quit receiving chlorine by rail a few months ago. It\'s really hard to attract industrial customers in the older suburbs where real estate prices are high even for industrial properties. I wish I knew better the businesses still left along the line, so I\'m a little bit guessing that there\'s not a lot of good freight potential here. It would, though, be nice to be proved wrong and see it resurrected, especially to connect with CTA in Skokie. This was the route that all of the 2600-series L cars were delivered on--now everything is trucked on and off the CTA property. IIRC, it takes 2 grade crossings and about a mile or so of track to make this connection--probably on the order of $150k to complete. THIS is the biggest long-term potential customer now that CTA ships its mid-life rebuild work to Hornell NY, and is looking at another round of new car acquisitions. The 3200 series delivered at a rate of two per day, five days a week for many months.
