Street running along Cermak Road

[Anonymous]

Does anybody know if the tracks east of Halsted Avenue are officially abandoned or not? There is quite a bit of street running trackage,but doesn't seem to be any action...Most of the action seems to be west of Halsted Avenue...Also,does anybody know if the Fisk power plant recieves any freight via rail or are the tracks not in service anymore?

Cway

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I'm familiar with the area and I would assume that the side-of-street running west of Halsted is primarily for industrial leads and probably sees only minimal operation at night as a result. I don't know about the tracks around the Fisk plant but its location suggests that it receives its coal by barge.

[DrummingTrainfan]

What city are you talking about? I probably won't be of any help but you never know.

[CShaveRR]

Drummer, you caught me in an evil mood!

How many cities would have a street named for a former mayor named Cermak (who happened to be with a president when he got shot)? Or garner responses such as those from Paul and me (check our locations)? Or have a power plant that needs to be named to distinguish it from other plants in the area?

(By the way, I've not heard about any unit trains into Fisk, so I'm pretty sure you're right about the barges, Paul. There is one plant further down the canal that now gets trains instead of barges!)

[MP173]

The tracks west of Halstead (south of Cermak) have some lumber brought in. There is a locomotive that is parked about 4 blocks west where Canalport meets Cermak. Next time I am down there, I will go take a look and take a picture.

There is a pretty big lumber yard there...cant think of the name of it, might be Siegels. That whole area from there on west is interesting with lots of businesses, including a scrap yard.

A little further south on Damen is a very interesting spot. You turn east off of Daman right before the Stevenson and go back to a new produce terminal. The Chicago River is there and a HUGE old elevator sits, crumbling. There is a walkway to the north that parallels the river. In the foreground is a scrap yard, in the distance is the skyline of downtown. On a clear sparkling day, it is quite a site...even with the dead carp floating by!

A bonus is the CN switches newsprint into the SunTimes printing plant.

ed

[Anonymous]

Ok,

I've seen some hopper cars on the west side of Halsted,but what about the east side of Halsted?[?]The track looks decrepit and has weeds along side it. However,there is a stretch of street-running on the east side of the river right across the street from Lawrence Fisheries...Usually has one or two boxcars there...

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

As a regular customer of Lawrence's, I've observed that the street running across Canal Street serves Allied Metals so it is also an industrial lead with occasional service, probably late at night. The street trackage on Lumber Street (across the river from Lawrence's) has been abandoned.