tr_bloomingdale_12281993_01

The first photo shows the Goose Island turn heading east down the Bloomingdale line towards CY tower. I forget what street this is at, but it's west of the CTA Logan Square elevated line (O-Hare/Congress/Douglas). There was a runaround track west of this location, along side an alley, where The crew would sort the cars they'd pulled from Galewood Yard into industry order. Don't know why they didn't do that in Galewood where the track was less suspect... Anyway, once shuffled, they headed east toward CY with the train in the order of Aetna/Peerless/Finkl/.../Azko (can't remember if they had any Big Bay, but it would have been ahead of Azko). I don't know what Finkl was receiving, but Aetna was only plywood as far as I know.

tr_kingsbury_12281993_01

Here, you can see the conductor flagging an intersection as the train heads toward C&E junction. At C&E, the train had to pause briefly while a flat bed driver pulled into the clear.

tr_LakeshoreAthletic_12281993_01

Things were uneventful until reaching the Lakeshore athletic club, where someone had decided the stanchions and chains didn't really mean anything. A tow truck arrived to meet the train--I think it's a regular Tuesday-Thursday thing, because the crew didn't call for a tow truck that I'm aware of. Anyway, we waited while he cleared two vehicles off the track--took the first one around the block, came back for the second.

tr_NBranchScrapYard_12261992_01

This was the scrap yard [Cozzi Metals] next to the North Branch swing bridge. They didn't ship by rail, but as you can see, they did receive rail cars for scrap. All of their outbound scrap was shipped by barge. They were, in fact, the last river-served customer on the North Branch, and the only reason the CP is still required to keep a movable bridge. Would that they were on the other side of the tracks…. Anyway, the switch begins on the approach span for the bridge and curves down into the scrap yard--the Soo box is at a right angle to the running track.

tr_peerless_12281993_01

At Peerless, there were no empty pulls, so it was just a matter of shoving the loaded tank of corn syrup into place. You'll note that like everyone else in the candy business, Peerless now uses mostly corn syrup instead of the costlier cane or beet sugar. When was the last time you saw an airslide hopper spotted there? At the time, the remains of the bakery spur were mostly intact, but the points and frog had been cut from the switch. There was also evidence that someone had probably had to do a pull-two/spot-two move and crossed Diversey and gone a few carlengths north into the abandoned track. At the time, there was also about 3 more blocks of rail mostly in place, but no one much cared anymore.

tr_swingbridge_121993_02

tr_swingbridge_12281993_01

The train in the first photo is now heading across the river. After cutting off all the drops for Goose Island proper, the crew spotted the MD&W box at Aetna Plywood while a bridge tender showed up to close the river span. After switching Aetna, the crew proceeded across the river with one car for Finkl and one for Peerless. The Finkl car was shoved down into the bowels of the plant somewhere, and the crew proceeded to run around the Peerless car before backing into Kingsbury St.

tr_treasureisland_12281993_01

Ignoring the "do not enter" signs, we immediately followed the train into the parking lot for Treasure Island shopping center. I know of nowhere else that SW1500's and MP15AC's must routinely dodge shopping carts... If you look, there is a locked gate with a RR standard lock on it between the two townhouses to keep vehicular traffic from cutting through.