Wednesday, May 10, 2006

News Update! My old Neighborhood Railroad. The end of the line?

Hello everyone.
Welcome to Eddie's Railfan Page. Today we will begin our journey with a follow up to a photo story I wrote 3 days ago on Monday, May 8 2006. I had wrote a photo article entitled "My old neighborhood railroad today. April 2003".
Today on My way to My scheduled soft drink sales route, I had to pass through the Little Village Neighborhood I grew up in, on Chicago's near Southwest side. I had mentioned that there were only one or two customers left and are switched as needed. As of todays visit, The line has unfortunately been "Cut Back" to Spaulding Avenue just north of 31st street. The line now ends approximately 70 feet east of Spaulding Avenue. The end of the line now has Temporary -Construction / Demolition fencing in place, and the rails on the other side of the fence are slowly being ripped out. In 1995, The Santa Fe railroad who had operated the old Illinois Northern industrial branch line merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad and became BNSF. In 2000, BNSF sold this line to DRS Rail Services. The line was then Cut Back to California Avenue alongside the Cook County Jail. The businesses on line eventually left one by one as our local economy was suffering. Whatever is left of the old Illinois Northern railroad line today may be on borrowed time. I actually consider the old Illinois Northern branch line -An old neighborhood friend I grew up with.
This photograph was taken in October 1988 looking west on 30th street from Kedzie Avenue.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed with your site, very nice graphics!
»

Anonymous said...

Your are Nice. And so is your site! Maybe you need some more pictures. Will return in the near future.
»

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed looking at your site, I found it very helpful indeed, keep up the good work.
»

Anonymous said...

Hey what a great site keep up the work its excellent.
»

Anonymous said...

Really amazing! Useful information. All the best.
»