So I’m trying to figure on what’s going on here - I’m talking about the little branch of track just south of Pershing Rd. in the city that goes over the Dan Ryan expressway - the same track that’s the eastern exit from NS Ashland Yard, but the portion east of the NS north/south main that goes over the Dan Ryan and connects with the Metra RI District (and back in the day used to go all the way to the lakefront IC line). So in the Jul 1 2010 Google Earth Imagery update there is a lot of construction going on around the junction of the line going eastwards out of the Ashland Yard and the NS North/South main. Here’s what I don’t get - the tracks continuing eastbound over the Ryan have been cut at that junction BUT, the actual wye, the bridges over the Dan Ryan, were recently reballasted, apparently going to nowhere now. So, is that track cut just temporary and the intention is to restore the track? Or is there something else going on here? And if the track is restored, for what freight would it be used anyways?
Description is kinda fuzzy, but:
The E-W line is the old Chicago Junction/Stockyards Railway…East of the Metra CRIP line is NS (CR/PC/NYC/CR&I) owned, West is Chicago Rail Link (CRL/OmniTrax) owned with CRL trackage rights on Metra going back to the CWP&S/LS&BC circus of the 1980’s after demise of the Rock.
CRL does occasionally wander into the stockyards area a few times a month. Most of their business is over on the old Rock Island South Chicago Branch and old CW/CWP&S property parallel to it and two tracks at Blue Island. NS does not interchange with CRL at that location and no longer serves the stockyards, so it sits pretty much unused.
Yes, I am referring to that Chicago Junction / Stockyards Railway. A few things though: 1. It’s abandoned east of the Metra CRIP line - so is the CRL owned track the portion west of the CRIP line and east of the NS former CWI North/South Main? Because the west of the former CWI main doesn’t NS use that track for access to it’s Ashland yard?
Sawtooth: Just a side note. I am really amazed at the changed landscape of the Bridgeport Area. I worked a 2600 Archer Ave twenty years ago. The "Rock Hole just south of 26th was rally just a very deep hole that the city was trying to fill with dirt and junk pavement, one truck at a time back then. Sure looks different now!
About the only thing at the Stockyards back then was the 76 Truck Stop, and a Kosher Meat Packer, and some scattered warehouses that housed trucking related businesses in those questionable buildings. The rail yard to the East of our company yard was the MoPac I believe it was a small intermodal and storage yard. The only rail access to buisnesses in the Stock Yards area (Spiegel and Marshall Field;s was from the west), a line that was by Ashland Ave.
I think the exit off of the Dan Ryan was at 32nd St. (low underapss at RR) it was about 13’8’’ on the north trabffic lane and about 13’ on the south lane( in other words to get under it you had to drive in the opposing traffic lane. Pershing Road farther South was the only normally safe route in and out of the area and Truck Stop.
Thanks for the trip back in time !
P.S. [ Is Ricobene’s still over by China town? I Loved their Italian Steak Sandwich!] [dinner]