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The stranded Milwaukee Road boxcar outside the Chas. Levy Recirculating facility on the left in the background. The photo dates from the late 1980s. The spur where the boxcar sits has been cut off from the rest of the tracks on Goose Island by recent repaving of the street. On the right is the interesting Druth Packaging building where you can still see evidence of the spur in the asphalt street surface.

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On a nice early August 2003 day, aficionados of Chicago's North Side Switching Operations met at the intersection of Kingsbury and Grand. The goal was to visit the many places featured on this web site. Across from Com-Ed, Tom Mann finds a old railroad spike recently unearthed by a massive street rebuilding project.

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On a grey, snowy December 1, 2005, a UP local switch job pauses on the tail track alongside Magnolia St. after picking up a pair of empty hoppers from Morton Salt. This track gives the crew room to back into and out of the Morton Salt spur out of the picture and to the right or south. The crew member shown will throw the switch to let the train return to the yard via the connection across Elston Avenue.

The new tail track and bumping post was put into place during reconstruction of Magnolia Street in the fall of 2004 by the City of Chicago. It relocated the previous track alignment in the street-then paved in broken asphalt and dirt-onto its own right of way. Previously UP predecessor C&NW tracks extended all the way down Magnolia and across North Avenue to reach a large Procter & Gamble plant which was torn down in the early 1990s. A scrapyard was also located on Magnolia just south of this spot until the late 1990s which used to receive gondolas.

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The crew now heads south back to the North Avenue yard once the switch was thrown, shoving the cars ahead of the locomotive.

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Freight car first, the train crawls across Elston Avenue while a crew member flags down vehicular traffic.

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The train crosses Elston and uphill towards the North Ave. yard.

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The job finished at Morton Salt, the train enters the North Ave. yard. Within a few minutes this same locomotive will uncouple then head north, perhaps to other switching duties.

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On a quiet Saturday morning in late September, 2004, a Union Pacific MP15 travels south on the viaduct over Kinzie St towards the passenger terminal at the Ogilvy Transportation Center. In the background on the right is the Blommer Chocolate factory which receives inbound shipments off the UP on the ground level and via a spur off the viaduct on top. At one time the C&NW and Milwaukee Road had active tracks passing in the foreground of this picture. The UP/C&NW's Navy Pier line curved around under and in front of the viaduct while the Milwaukee Road's C&E line cut across Kinzie St. at the river where it linked up with the terminal trackage into and around Union Station. The C&NW line is still in place but out of service while the Milwaukee Road track was cut back to Grand Avenue in 1973 and is long since gone. Ironically, Ogilvy was the court-appointed trustee of the Milwaukee Road during its finally bankruptcy and breakup in the early 1980s, as well as a former Illinois governor.

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A closer view of the UP MP15 passing over one of the one-time approach tracks for the C&NW's Navy Pier line.

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The Blommer Chocolate Company is located on Kinzie, just south of the Metra Line. On occasion, commuters are treated to the smell of freshly baked chocolate. Here, we find several tank cars on CNW's former Navy Pier Line. According to Tom Burke, Blommer stores tank cars of corn syrup here.

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This area is a stone throw's from Blommer and is well shaded. The Sears Tower peers out of some intense early morning cloud cover.

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This switch is just south of North Avenue; the left route takes us to the tank cars in storage (and to the Carroll Ave. Bridge), the right takes us to Blommer.

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More tank cars are awaiting deliverly just north of Blommer. The elevated tracks are the Metra line.