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This is a view of the long spur into the Water Filtration Plant which is still in use today.

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This picture captures a boxcar parked outside Naz-Dar on Chicago's Goose Island on a muggy Sunday morning. Naz-Dar is a printing supplies company so a presumption is made that the boxcar contains something related to printing. [edit: 10 Jan 2005. This is actually for Big Bay Lumber. Naz-Dar does not receive rail shipments.] The runaround track on the other side was built during street reconstruction of Cherry Street in 1991 for switching cars intended for International Salt further south.

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Looks like someone had trouble deciding whether to turn onto Cherry Street or continue on North Branch Street across Goose Island the previous night, and drove head-on into the posts at the intersection. Maybe the sight of a boxcar parked in the middle of Cherry Street threw the driver off, as you can see in the background. Airbags deployed, this car was awaiting a tow early on Sunday morning, July 7, 2003.

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Appropriately, a former Milwaukee Road boxcar sits outside Naz-Dar (www.nazdar.com) on Cherry St. on Goose Island. According to the manifast on the side of the car it contains paper. This view dates from December 27, 2003.

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On a cold New Years Eve 2003, a CP Rail M-P15 waits with the empty boxcar from Big Bay Lumber on the Goose Island lead at Kingsbury St. We'll see soon why it's stopped…

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A close-up view of the front of the former Milwaukee Road MP-15 reveals its nickname-"Stormy"-as stenciled onto the side.

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Here's the problem-an old Buick Regal is parked over the track despite signs warning drivers to not park there. Business Is booming on New Years Eve at Sam's Liquors across the street, leading to parking congestion. To the left is Kingsbury St.

There is no rail service on this section of Kingsbury past the Goose Island lead as the area rapidly converts to retail and residential use. Even a Starbucks coffee shop is now open at Kingsbury and North Ave. just a block or two down on the left-overlooking the old tracks in the street.

To the distant left in the picture is the former Peter Hand Brewery which closed in the early 1980s. It's been converted to other uses. The old Milwaukee Road line used to serve two other breweries at one time farther up the line, Birk Brothers near Clybourn and Best Brewing near Belmont. The Birk Brothers complex is long gone, while the Best Brewing site was converted to upscale apartments during the 1980s.

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The owner of the Buick Regal seems nonchalant about holding up a train, as does his passenger. They seemed more concerned about their picture being taken.

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Now that the car is being moved, the crew can prepare to move forward-but doesn't. Perhaps there is more congestion at General Metals further north on Kingsbury blocking the way.

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The sign on the wall outside Sam's makes it clear that parking is not allowed on the railroad tracks around Kingsbury St. but it's generally ignored.

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Farther north, another UP locomotive and caboose are parked in the North Ave. yard awaiting their next assignment. UP successor C&NW referrred to cabooses as "waycars."

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UP MOW equipment is parked at the North Ave. yard. It wasn't that many years ago that the North Ave. yard was stuffed with freight cars which could be seen from the Kennedy Expressway. The biggest customer today is the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center printing press.

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The CP Rail MP15 which services the former Milwaukee Road lines is parked at the North Avenue yard of UP. CP taxis crews in to work this job since the connecting track was removed where the Bloomingdale line crossed the UP's North Northwest Lines.

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This rare picture from 1988 shows a boxcar just spotted in the Midwest Industrial Metals spur (right) as the CP Rail train begins to return from switching on Goose Island with a load of empties in tow from Akzo Salt, its job done for the day. On the way back it may pick up empty tank cars set out from the National By-Products plant on Goose Island which rendered animal parts, or empty boxcars from the team track on Division Street. Today, Midwest Metals is closed and the Division team track and ramp alongside it are gone, while the National By-Products building is now a vandalized hulk. This scene took place on North Branch Street between the Ogden Avenue overpass and Division Street and looks north.

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Another shot of the track rebuilding a few weeks later with more trackwork and a switch in place. In the background is Halsted Street, the Chicago River, and the Montgomery Ward headquarters and warehouse complex detailed in Bill Denton's N-scale Kingsbury Branch layout.

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Rebuilding the spur to Akzo Salt in the summer of 1991 along North Branch Street just west of Halsted Street. Akzo was the most remote CP Rail customer on Goose Island at this time.