RE: [CBQ] Spurs off the Chicago-Aurora Mainline

["'Charlie Vlk' cvlk@comcast.net [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

Leo-

 

I am not familiar with the West Hinsdale tracks you reference.  Yes, the Lumber District and Stockyards are each articles in their own right!!   Same thing for early track alignments and in-city stations, and the grade separation projects (mainline and Western Avenue Yard).

Did you know that the CB&Q considered building their own line to Joliet which would have looped around and connected back with the main through Sheridan? The primary reason for it was to tap the coal fields west of Joliet.   And it would not have connected on the east end to Aurora, but rather would have joined the mainline at Naperville!!!

I have some material on that  race track connection but just rumors of the line to Grant Works from discussons with Joe Douda.    Joe also noted that he had run across documents that placed a freight office at Mc Cook, Illinois which leads me to think there might have been a line down to serve the quarries in that area before the Chicago, Hammond & Western was built.   Also, photos taken in 1919 by AW Johnson show some really old looking industries down on the IHB at West Grossdale that might have been served by the Q before the IHB was built north of the Q in 1895.  The Lyons Belt could have connected with the CB&Q in the vicinity of the elevated crossing of First Avenue; the alignment works and the road and grade separation would have wiped out any trace of the ROW.  The C&NW guys don’t know anything about the Cut-Off; it might have only existed as an expediency to build the Chicago-Aurora mainline.   It would have been there before the yard at Morton Park got started and all interchange would have taken place at Western Avenue where the CN&W did build a connector to replace the taken up St.Charles Airline west of Western Avenue and east of Harlem after the Q built its own mainline.

 

Charlie

 

Well Charlie that's quite a list !

 

I have been slowly(very) accumulating info on the Lumber District and switch jobs working it.

 

I'll add the Naperville "town " track and the one to the quarry to your list. I keep looking for an old

Du Page county plat map as the key for that possible article.

 

And don't forget the tracks on the North side of the mains that went eastward from West Hinsdale all the way back to Hinsdale to serve industries and the frt house. And the power plant track.

And of course there's the late arriving Naperville Industrial Park/ Nabisco tracks just a few years before the merger. That job had an interesting twist in manning. Since the job(s) were Eola based yard engines and crews but worked outside yard limits in road territory,from time to time,the day job foreman(yard conductor) position was filled by an examined road Conductor to offset the time the yard crews worked in road territory. Bob "rocket" Meade was usually the road Condr who bid the spot.

 

Leo

On Apr 1, 2015, at 12:06 PM, 'Charlie Vlk' cvlk@comcast.net [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Leo’s identification of the Castle Graphics shot west of Lisle at St. Procopius’ coal plant siding brings to mind a long term research alert (?) project for you Q Historians……

 

Over the years there were several significant sidetracks off of the mainline that are not generally known as they often were gone long ago and they were apparently not significant enough to have survived in any company records.  Old track diagram books probably showed them but I’ve never seen any really old ones and they probably went up in smoke in the General Headquarters Fire.

 

For example:

 

Ashland Avenue line to the racetrack that eventually moved to Harlem Avenue & 16^th Street

Was the “Chicago & Northwestern Cut-Off” that shows up on some published maps running from the C&NW West Line connecting down to the CB&Q mainline ever built (pre-BRC but on the same approximate alignment)

Line from Morton Park / Hawthorne to Grant Works (c.1890)

Siding down to industries on north side of tracks at West Grossdale / Congress and on south side line down to quarries at Lyons / McCook also prior to IHB and predecessors (pre-1890)

St. Procopius Coal Plant Siding

 

Extent of CB&Q tracks to Chicago Union Stock Yards and predecessor yards and Lumber District

 

On a related issue…..did the Lyons Belt ever connect to the CB&Q at Hollywood/East Grossdale?

&nbs p;

Purpose of and details of operation of isolated Burlington South Chicago Terminal Railroad Company.

 

Charlie Vlk

 

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Posted by: "Charlie Vlk" <cvlk@comcast.net>

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