I know on the Milwaukee North Line their is 40 to 50 trains a day North of Techany, The UP northline runs very few freight Trains When I’ve been in Kensoa see Reltives with my Grandma I’ve only seen 1 frieght Train in all my years and for the Wisconsin Southern I’ve only seen tehir trains once and that was late at night
Years ago, the Green Bay freights used to proceed directly south through Milwaukee through the depot, to St. Francis, then on the Kenosha sub to Lake Bluff interlocking, (then directly south through Lake Forest, Highland Park, etc) rather than take the cutoff towards KO interlocking, then to Valley. These trains did turn SW at the interlocking between Central and Davis streets in Evanston (I cannot remember the name of the tower right now). This track proceeded west to Mayfair (refered to in another thread) on the Mayfair cutoff. This was way back in steam days, way before my time.
After the mayfair cutoff was downgraded to yard track, the 40th street trains used the Lake Bluff cutoff, then used the Milwaukee sub (then known as the New Line sub) to get to Vally interlocking, then proceeded south via the old North Shore tracks to 40th street via Mayfair.
I was so glad when the CNW closed 40th street yard. The tracks were so close together, there was not enough room for a person to SAFELY walk the train; the tracks were in such a bad neighborhood, that we had orders that if we encountered a problem with the train, we were not to get off the engine until a cop showed up. We were also told to lock the locomotive doors, and we were not to stop after hitting anything (other than a person). In addition, the “locals” wold do what they could to stop the train (putting whatever they could think of on the tracks, so they could open up the traincars and steal whatever they could. They would even put mannequ
I guess the use of the Weber line for through freights was a bit before my time (that interlocking, by the way, was “Canal”). I do remember being stopped at Cragin and being unable to start again (someone had closed an angle **** to give themselves a little more time).
As for clearance between tracks at 40th Street, I had a hard time going down through there when I was young and slender! Fortunately, I only had to do it once.