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Crew member lifts off the protective plate that covers the switch mechanism in the street. He then throws the lever over that will send the MP15 back down the spur.

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MP15 backs down the spur, and it will have to carefully squeeze past the late model Audi parked too close to the track as it gets closer.

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Crew couples onto the empty tank car which once held corn syrup.

View looking south onto the longest intact stretch of active street trackage on Chicago's north side. The CP Rail train pulls forward with the tank car in tow, then it will switch back onto the main track in the middle of Lakewood.

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Train backs down Lakewood to the runaround track at Wrightwood where it will change places with the tank car for the journey back to Kingsbury.

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Almost two decades earlier, in 1985, here is what the same area looked like at the start of the massive redevelopment on Chicago’s North Side which would replace almost all of the industries lining the right-of-way. This view looks north from just past Clybourn Ave. at the Milwaukee Road yard where the Treasure Island grocery store and strip shopping center now sit.

The track to the right that veers behind us in this view still went inside a machine shop building off Clybourn in 1985. Customers in this immediate yard area at one time were Birk Brothers Brewery, A. Lakin & Sons Tire Yard, Belden Oil, and Clybourn Coal. The Lakin facility is on the right behind the fence, while the others have been torn down already. At the vanishing point in the distance you can make out the Lakeshore Athletic Club at Fullerton.

Just three years earlier there were four customers north of Fullerton served by the Milwaukee Road-a fuel oil company on Racine Ave., Reed Candy Company, Hostess Bakery, and Peerless Confectionary. By the time of this 1985 photo only Peerless remained as an active, rail-served customer. In another year, the Milwaukee Road itself would be history as well as this view.

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A view from the cab of the SW-8 as it makes its way towards the Elston Avenue bridge.

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The train has crossed Elston Avenue and is slowing as it nears the bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River. The former Roth coal yard is to the left or north, while the former Hanna Cylinders building is to the right. At one time both were Milwaukee Road customers. In later years Soo Line served the former Roth site when it became a scrapyard. Now barges and trucks handle the loads though the track and switch are still in place.