tb_aroundkingsbury_1988_01

This view shows a boxcar parked on the track at Kingsbury St. and below Ohio Street. It's probably a load of paper waiting to be spotted at one of the Wallace Business Forms docks just to the south. Note the curved building in the background that appears on Bill Denton's excellent N-scale layout of this area. Looking east, the sun is rising on this early morning during the summer of 1988.

tb_aroundkingsbury_1990_04

An MP15AC lettered for new owner Soo Line, but in Milwaukee Road colors, is paused on Kingsbury St. just past the Ohio Street overpass. The crew is waiting to retrieve an empty boxcar at Wallace Business Forms. As far as I can determine, this was the last train on this stretch of track. June, 1990.

tb_aroundkingsbury_1990_05

The Soo Line MP15AC waits to retrieve an empty boxcar from Wallace Business Forms before heading back north for the last time. Train service south of Chicago Ave. would end with this final switch job, and the tracks would be paved over and removed in a few years.

tb_aroundkingsbury_1990_06

Rail service ended several months earlier south of this point, but a delivery was made to the Commonwealth Edison substation in the fall of 1990. A drop-center flatcar carries some heavy electrical equipment for the installation to the east in the photo, near Cosby St. and south of Division St. The out-of-service track in the foreground continues south through the Montgomery Ward catalog and headquarters campus down to Grand Ave. In the background is the Ogden Ave. overpass, Division St., and the Cabrini-Green housing complex to the right. In the distance to the left is one-time rail customer Superior Coffee. Within a few years the Ogden Ave. overpass would be dismantled, and tracks removed except where they crossed Division St. with the rubber grade crossing. It was very rare to catch a delivery to this Commonwealth Edison location. This was probably the last rail operation south of Division St. as service continued to retreat north.

tb_belmont_1985_01

On the corner of Lakewood and Nelson Street, the last surviving Chicago & Evanston (C&E) RR depot (converted to a residence) stands at the upper right. This gabled frame structure was built in 1896 as the C&E's Belmont Avenue station. Sadly, it has since been demolished.

tb_belmont_1985_02

Looking south on Lakewood from Nelson, the switch in the street reminds the onlooker that this area was once double-tracked. A spur track also went to the left to serve two industries further south, Acme Continental Foods and George Street Packing.

tb_belmont_1985_03

Again turning north, we can see the vacant Reed Candy Company building at the right in this view at Barry Avenue. Today, northbound Lakewood Avenue dead-ends at this point and the tracks shown ahead are now paved over.

tb_belmont_1985_04

This is the Reed Candy plant at Lakewood and Fletcher Street. Reed's parent company had shifted production to a Naperville plant in the early 1980's. Note the multiple tracks still visible and the crossing signal still guarding them. The Reed complex was replaced by a townhouse development named 'Sweeterville".

tb_belmont_1985_05

The paving gives way to dirt and grass at the switch for the Reed plant's spur track just south of Belmont Avenue. At one time, other nearby freight customers here included a scrap metal yard and a brewery!

tb_belmont_1985_06

This interesting shot shows the multi-talented crossing signal at Belmont. Not only does it warn traffic on Belmont with added overhead flashers in both directions, but it also has signals pointed at a 90 degree angle toward northbound traffic on Lakewood!

tb_belmont_1985_07

The rails disappear under a patch of asphalt paving at the Belmont Avenue grade crossing, but manage to emerge on the other side…

tb_belmont_1985_08

...in this narrow, overgrown right-of-way, which was used by trains backing into the Reed Candy spur track. The fenced area at the right was another former industry served by the line, Bel-Ray Building Supply. Although this was "the end of the line" in these 1985 photos, there once were many freight customers even farther north, including a team track at the Cubs' Wrigley Field!

tb_BigBaySwitch_01252000_01

While driving across Goose Island one day, I came across a CP Rail truck and work crew at Big Bay Lumber clearing a street switch of snow and ice. The switch that is being cleared out in this picture is actually to the runaround siding on North Branch just south of Division Street, not the unused switch into the Big Bay Lumber yard to the left (east) in the foreground. The two full bulkhead flatcars for Big Bay are just past the switch points where they are normally left in the middle of the street for forklifts to unload. The CP Rail crew is using a high-pressure hose to free the switch of ice and snow. I like the Sears Tower in the background on this one too. The date of the photo is January 25, 2000, so rail service on Goose Island lasted into the new millenium!

tb_blommer1_06112005_01

This view looks southwest towards Blommer Chocolate\'s factory from the window of a Metra coach. It's a sweltering Saturday afternoon so the air-conditioned cars are appreciated. The Blommer upper level spur has an interesting consist of a Trackmobile and two freight cars loaded with what appears to be gravel. Perhaps UP was parking them here temporarily in MOW service. Normally pressurized hoppers are parked here for Blommer. At this point the former C&NW West Line and North/Northwest Lines diverge. Blommer Chocolate is served off the West Line. Below the West Line viaduct is the "Say Goodbye Gallery" which has depicted vanishing wildlife since the 1970s in mural fashion.

tb_blommer2_06112005_02

Another view of the Blommer upper level spur which is reached from the UP (former C&NW) viaduct. A lower level spur is also in place at street\r\nlevel but trucks normally crowd the area.

tb_Blommer_011990_01

Oops...this incoming boxcar loaded with cocoa beans has run out of rail at Blommer Chocolate Company on Chicago's Near North Side. It stands with wheels digging new flangeways directly into the asphalt pavement on Jefferson Street! Without any bumper at the end of this spur, this was bound to happen sooner or later.