On 4/3/2015 3:33 PM, qutlx1@aol.com [CBQ] wrote:
The industrial tracks at West
Hinsdale came off main 1 eastward. The switch was directly
across from
where the Hinsdale municipal pool is today on the south side.
Can't
think of the name of the cross street at that point. There was
an
inside switch with a short spur going westward about a car
length. It
may have been longer in past times.
The track going east was
parallel to the main and then another split off to a lower
elevation.
There may have been more in the past. The one next to the
mainline went
all the way back to the second street xing west of the Hinsdale
depot. Soltwich (sp) Plumbing,or what preceded it seems to have
been
one customer. I've been told these tracks also went to the
Hinsdale
Freight
house. In the 70s a company was receiving box cars of
bricks on this spur. Pretty regularly at a couple cars a
week.
The latest Sanborn maps for Hinsdale (updated 1947) show the siding
came off between Bodin and Monroe Streets. Bodin ended at the tracks
and siding crossed Monroe Street going east. The siding continued
and then crossed Vine Street. Continuing it shows the siding serving
a contractor yard before crossing Lincoln Street and terminating
prior to Washington Street. Though one always has to be careful with
track placement on Sanborn maps, the track placement is fairly
consistent in several series starting in 1898. The 1909 series maps
do show track reconfiguration when the new depot was built in
Hinsdale depot was built on the south side of the main. The maps
also show the names of streets changed over the years, so it is
possible they changed again after the period which the Sanborn maps
are available.
Bill Hirt