Topics

1

General Discussion / UPN Bridge Phase 1 Complete

« on: May 10, 2015, 10:29:21 PM »

Hi All,

In case you haven't heard, the new outbound Platform 1 at the Ravenswood Metra station opened today, sunday May 10th.  It's a very nice station.  Two large ramps for bike and wheelchair access from both Lawrence and Leland, both a partially and fully enclosed warming shelter, tactile edging, concrete platforms, and the most striking feature, orange glazed tile walls.  Missing though are ANY security cameras.  That seems very weird considering that both ramps leading to the platforms are quite long and completely enclosed.

With the station open, that also means that UPN outbound trains are utilizing the new western tracks.  Does this mean that phase 1 is complete?  Does that also mean that Phase 2 will be starting shortly?  The original schedule called for Phase 1 to be finished in 2014, and Phase 2 in 2018, but that was before the whole 1-track fiasco, and a more recent press release by Metra states: "The first phase, which will cost $112 million and take until November 2015, will cover bridges over Balmoral, Foster, Winnemac, Lawrence, Leland, Wilson, Sunnyside, Montrose, Berteau, Irving Park and Grace."  There's no way that the middle bridges can be removed and completely rebuilt in just 6 months.  Anyone know of an updated timeline?

2

General Discussion / Former Lee Lumber active yard photo

« on: October 26, 2014, 05:43:02 PM »

I came across an aerial photo of the former I.C. Berlin Press printing plant at Belmont and Kimball.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/29821940@N00/6955984721/  In the background is the former Lee Lumber and Prairie Materials yard, FULL of tank and box cars.  Several box cars are offloading at Lee, but not many.  I take it the rest of the cars are for industries located along the CNW NW line?  Who would the tankers have been for?  All the businesses I am familiar with being on that line used box cars.

Enjoy!

3

General Discussion / Roundhouses, past and present?

« on: February 13, 2014, 07:27:42 PM »

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd start a discussion on roundhouses, past and present.  Past roundhouses that I know of include the Illinois Central ones down on the site of McCormick Place West, the Chicago Northwestern one on the site of the Tribune Freedom printing plant, and the old Briar Bottle 1/4 roundhouse that sat immediately adjacent to the tracks leading into Ogilvie Station where Left Bank at K Station now sits.  Current roundhouses are more limited, but there's a small locomotive facility left from the Hawthorne Works plant immediately south of the Menards.  There's also the Aurora roundhouse that was beautifully restored into a restaurant.  Random, I know, but I found another restored roundhouse in Kansas City.  A printing company called DST Output has restored almost a full roundhouse located at 2600 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64108.  There's articles discussing how it was a superfund site from the Kansas City Terminal railway, and how it was extensively restored.

What other notable roundhouses do you know of in or out of Chicago?

4

General Discussion / Central Manufacturing District

« on: December 28, 2013, 02:11:35 PM »

The former Wrigley Gum factory at 35th and Ashland is being torn down right now, and I went to take photos of their rail aspect.  They had two tracks leading into the factory, that at some point were pared down to one track.  South of the factory the line split multiple times to feed all sorts of warehouses, factory, loading docks, a bakery, and even chlorine tanks.  I got a great picture of that sign, and of switches and missing rails, which I'll see about posting at some point.  There's still more rails around the CMD that I need to explore, but check it out if you're looking for something new.  Since most/all of them seem abandoned right now, trespassing wasn't an issue.  No one cared except for the demolition company at Wrigley so I wasn't able to actually get on their property.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Manufacturing_District

-Brian

5

General Discussion / Brach's Candy has new tank cars?

« on: November 14, 2013, 06:11:27 PM »

Brach's candy on Cicero north of Lake Street is being demolished.  This photo posted in the Forgotten Chicago Facebook page:
appears to show two new tank cars in the parking lot.  At first I thought they were just sitting on the mainline, but the UP West Line is only 3 tracks there and I highly doubt that two tankers would just be sitting there.  I'm going to venture over there in a couple days, but if this photo appears correct, then they would've needed to reactivate a long disused spur and lengthen the tracks.  Probably using these to collect contaminated water or other chemicals as they tear down the buildings.  If those are there for the demolition, I wonder whether they came from the Milwaukee District West line or right off the UP West line.

6

General Discussion / Hidden Tracks?

« on: November 06, 2013, 10:08:38 PM »

Where do you know of tracks that remain but that have been hidden, paved over, covered over, or maybe just forgotten about?  I remember reading about the tracks on Paulina just north of Wolfram Street.  Here's a map and photo of them: http://goo.gl/maps/sK4JF http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianbobcat/10717856225/  Paulina was repaved this summer and they're now gone.  I know of two areas in front of the MicroCenter on Elston where the tracks are making their way to the surface again.  Know of any other locations?

7

General Discussion / HUGE U.P. MOW cluster at Lee Lumber

« on: October 09, 2013, 11:59:48 PM »

Hi All,

On the way out the Kennedy Wednesday evening, I noticed a HUGE amount of MOW equipment on the former Prairie Materials & Lee Lumber sidings.  I stopped over at 8:45 and started to get some photos, but just 5 minutes later, a black SUV with a UP security guard politely asked me to come back during that day.  I got some photos, but the most interesting part was the gigantic pile of used railroad ties right next to the tracks.  I remember reading a news story saying that used ties can go for $10 each, so maybe they're afraid people are going to steal them, or vandalize the large amount of rail equipment.  Any clue why they're all there?  I've seen a lot of workers on the UP North line now that all the bridges are complete, so I would almost guess maybe they're there to lay the new rails for the UP North, but is this the closest location for the equipment to live?  Will they be working during the weekends?  Anybody want to chime in with their two cents?

I posted all the photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianbobcat/sets/72157636376519584/

8

General Discussion / New Google Satellite Imagery

« on: June 03, 2013, 11:25:04 PM »

Google Earth/Maps has been updated with new imagery from they say April 2nd.  Judging by the activity at the North Avenue yard, I think it's the 1st of April instead.  Big Bay has two cars, there's a load ready to leave North Ave yard that day, and the new Finkl doesn't yet look up and running.  In other rail news, the UP North line bridge replacement is well underway, the Englewood Flyover is now seen for the first time in satellite imagery, the Orland Park Metra station features it's new bridge and track alignment, the bridge collapse over Shermer Road in Glenview is now evident, the new bridges in Evanston for the Purple Line are present, and many of the street crossings along Blue Island and Cermak have been paved over, but the tracks are usually still there when they're not on a street.

Anyone else spot an image of interest?

9

General Discussion / Alpha Baking Derailment

« on: April 25, 2013, 02:01:45 AM »

On the way into the city wednesday, April 24th, I spotted what looked like the  Alpha Baking delivery derailed.  There was North Avenue's Yard engine 712 closest to the UP-NW line, then it looked like a gap between it and the two rails cars.  At that gap were two mini-cranes which I assumed to be lifting it back onto the rails.  I snapped these three pics, but the first one is the best.  (Sorry, I don't know how to scale the images down for the forum, so they're the full size from my phone.)







I kept an eye out on my way back, and as of 10:45pm, the engine was still there as I could see it's cab's lights.  There weren't any portable spots out there, so my pure guess is that they weren't able to get it back on track, literally, and since it's not on a busy line and it sounds like the engine isn't used much if at all on thursdays, the workers would finish the job thursday.

On another note, there was a larger UP engine on the spur east of Arthur Road in Arlington Heights.  This was the first time I personally have seen anything on this MOW track.  It was just sitting there with no cars, so I wonder if it's waiting to move downtown, or waiting to go on the line that skirts the west boundary of O'Hare.  My bet is the later as this is the last siding before the O'Hare line breaks from the UP-NW line.

10

General Discussion / UP on the spur towards Kingsbury?

« on: April 18, 2013, 02:46:44 AM »

I took the 11:30 Metra home wednesday night, and as we passed the North Avenue yard, I saw a short 13-car train loaded up on the eastern most track.  It's the track that drops down to street level and runs next to Sipi Metals before rising back up to go over Elston, the river, etc.  The weird part was that the train was hooked up to 3 UP engines and looked ready to move that night.  What I found weird about that is that the train then needs to rise up as it starts it's journey, and then cut across all the Metra tracks to get to the UP-NW line.  I'm guessing it was so that it's out of the way of Metra, but aren't there other tracks to the east side that could accommodate the train without getting on the line that the Terminal Railway uses?

Just wondering.

11

General Discussion / Move times?

« on: March 11, 2013, 12:28:10 AM »

Thanks to D. Kaniuk, we now all know that Alpha Baking gets their deliveries "Monday-Wednesday-Friday. The train comes out of North Ave yard, usually around 10am, gets to Milwaukee around 11:00am and returns around 1:pm."  I've seen the North Avenue yard active around 10am three monday's so far this year.  Outside of that, when else are scheduled moves?  I've never seen a move to or from Tribune, and certainly never seen one at Blommer.  Are either of these routinely scheduled?  How about Big Bay?  General Iron?

On a side note, it was briefly hinted that Sims Metal Management at 1509 West Cortland Street may be a new rail customer.  Another user, I forgot who, mentioned that there were empty gondolas parked over Elston next to the former Aetna on the bypass track.  I've kept a close eye on those cars, which are perpetually sitting there, and haven't gotten proof either way.  Yes there's cars parked there, and there's now a front end loader with a long arm, but I've never seen anything in them and there still looks to be a fair amount of plants and trees in the way.  That would explain why the trackage in this whole area was redone a couple years ago.  McGrath parks cars on the former bypass track, so I just thought that they moved where it was located.  One last note, from Google Maps it looks like there's an opening in the retention wall leading to Sims where something used to be poured into the site.  Obviously materials would go the opposite direction now, but maybe the site used to be rail served for an entirely different business and may now be again.

Anyone have specific info on freight move times for Morton, Tribune, Blommer, Big Bay and anyone else I'm forgetting (am I forgetting anyone else)?

Thanks.