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Here we are at Blommer. There's a lot of activity here for a Saturday Morning - both hoppers and trucks are being unloaded. The trackage here has just been upgraded last year.

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We're at Wolf Point looking northwest towards the north branch of the Chicago River. The Carroll Ave. Bridge, not expecting rail traffic anytime soon, is forever fixed in the raised position.

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Walking a few blocks north places us on the west bank of the Chicago River, staring straight up.

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Taking a few steps back allows us to frame the bridge against the backdrop of Chicago's buildings. The bridge was the gateway of CNW's Navy Pier line and hasn't seen traffic in over two years.

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Swinging around over the Kinzie Ave. bridge to the east bank allows us to take a look at the massive counterweight.

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A closeup shows that the 1960's era CNW advertising is still visible. Compare with Tom Burke's shot from 1984 and Mark Kolodny's from 1991.

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Directly behind us is the start of the long underground run to Navy Pier. This is a fascinating stretch of railroad that once was very busy.

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The first photo looks northwest towards bliss street. The Pickens-Kane storage building is on the right. Trackwork is still in good condition as a result of a 1991 street rebuilding project, but little hope is left as whether it will be used again as evidenced by the pole between the rails.

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In between the halves of the Pickens-Kane building is the remains of a long-ago used spur.

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Looking southwest reveals a stop sign between the rails. By the looks of that concrete in the foreground, at some point in time a car hopped the tracks. That’s the old Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Headquarters buildings in the background, across the river from Goose Island.

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We're looking south on Cherry Street to duplicate Otto P. Dobnick's lead photo that appeared in Tom Burke's 3rd Quarter 1995 The Milwaukee Railroader article, Milwaukee Road Knocking at Chicago's Back Door.

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Saturday, August 9th 2003 was the first gathering of the Chicago Switching Society. It also marked Tom Mann's first time to Chicago since developing an interest in the area's railroad operations. We met at the corner of Kingsbury and North and walked up to Peerless Confections at the corner of Lakewood and Schubert. Attendees included Tom Burke, Doug Kaniuk, and Tom Mann. If you're interested in next year's walk, please contact one of us. Our Journey starts here, at 10:30 am at the NW corner of Kingsbury and North. This area is very different than Bill Denton's Kingsbury Branch N-Scale model railroad. The industrial buildings and warehoused that Bill models are now converted apartments and condos. We're looking across the intersection towards the SE corner; behind us once was Wallace Press.

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The Kircheimer Bros. building (across Kingsbury from Wallace Press) is modeled by Bill. In a few more years, the sign will completely fade.

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Our first sign of railroad operations is a short piece of rail under the Ohio Street overpass.