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Miscellaneous Transit Stories


sw4400

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Chicago Terminal Railroad runs this line out of North Avenue Yard on the Union Pacific using EMD SW8 switcher 900.

The bridge was purchased by the City of Chicago in 2008 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Avenue_Bridge ) and provides the only rail access to Goose Island. It connects with the former Milwaukee Line along Kingsbury and Lakewood Avenues which was part of the Chicago and Evanston, who's north end is now the Red and Purple lines (from west of Sheridan station northwards).

Until 2001 this was connected to the rest of the Milwaukee system by the Bloomingdale Line which is being converted to a linear park - the 606. Service was then transferred to UP North Ave yard. CP sold the operation to Chicago Terminal in 2007. Service was provided north along Lakewood Avenue to Diversey Ave, south along Kingsbury Ave to Division/Halsted and south over Cherry St Bridge onto Goose Island then along Cherry St and North Branch to Halsted. The lines along Kingsbury and Lakewod have been abandoned leaving only service to Goose Island.

Rail service is infrequent (once or twice a week) and usually only a few freight cars.

A map is on the Iowas Pacific website ( http://www.iowapacific.com/pdf/ChicagoTerminalRailroadNorthAveArea.pdf )

I was under the impression that that was a dead track north of Division. Most likely that is serving Finkl steel on Cortland which is being demolished so I don't know if it is really needed. The steel plants been abandoned since 2007. I'm pretty sure condos were built in the late 90's just north of the Fullerton crossing which no longer permits a train to fit north of there. This would seem to connect with the track that was outside Wrigley Field that fed off the Evanston Express track 1 when it hauled freight. You can still see freight cars on a regular basis I believe on Cherry south of Division (like one or two cars and the #132 goes right past them.) And it also feeds the Chicago Tribune distribution center at Chicago/Halsted there as well as a cement plant across the intersection. But I've personally never seen any train north of Division.

Here's a few links

First to the freight right of way as told by Graham Garfield

http://www.chicago-l.org/operations/freight/index.html

And second to the demolition of Finkl steel

http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2015/01/05/demolition-imminent-at-the-old-28-acre-finkl-steel-complex.php

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So those yellow "Caution: Active Rail Yield To Trains" must date back to the days when the line was used. That might explain the reason why a rail line in the city of Chicago doesn't have any warning lights and bells or crossing gates. But, why would the CTA bus I was on come to a complete stop at the track, then proceed across it if it was an abandoned track?

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I was under the impression that that was a dead track north of Division. Most likely that is serving Finkl steel on Cortland which is being demolished so I don't know if it is really needed. The steel plants been abandoned since 2007. I'm pretty sure condos were built in the late 90's just north of the Fullerton crossing which no longer permits a train to fit north of there. This would seem to connect with the track that was outside Wrigley Field that fed off the Evanston Express track 1 when it hauled freight. You can still see freight cars on a regular basis I believe on Cherry south of Division (like one or two cars and the #132 goes right past them.) And it also feeds the Chicago Tribune distribution center at Chicago/Halsted there as well as a cement plant across the intersection. But I've personally never seen any train north of Division.

Here's a few links

First to the freight right of way as told by Graham Garfield

http://www.chicago-l.org/operations/freight/index.html

And second to the demolition of Finkl steel

http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2015/01/05/demolition-imminent-at-the-old-28-acre-finkl-steel-complex.php

But to get cars south of Division on Cherry St they have to go across the Cherry St bridge, cross North Avenue, traverse a short stretch of Kingsbury from Willow to just before Cortland (C&E Junction) before passing behind the old Finkl Steel site, crossing the North Branch of the Chicago River on Bridge Z-6, then turning south along the UP tacks to reach North Avenue yard. There is no access for those cars south of Division across the River.

You are right the line north was blocked at Fullerton and is also blocked south of there at Webster. The last client was the Peerless Candy Co north of Schubert on the west side of Lakewood, which closed in 2007. Tracks were used in 2009 between Belden and Webster to temporarily store gondolas, which appears to be the last use of tacks north of C&E junction.

The switcher is still at North Avenue Yard and while most of the time it does not move, once in a while it does!

It would have to be flagged across North Avenue.

A great site for images of these lines is http://www.chicagoswitching.com .

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I was searching up random Flxible Videos on youtube and I found former some Golden Gate Transit Metro D's serving in South Carolina. I didn't realize these bad boys had Similar Characteristics to CTA Metro E 6000's.

Ex-GGT #1410

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hn4UL5MlOs

Ex-GGT #1436

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7TI-Zrlg00

Carta Metro D's in Action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUXGuLWKsU

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I was searching up random Flxible Videos on youtube and I found former some Golden Gate Transit Metro D's serving in South Carolina. I didn't realize these bad boys had Similar Characteristics to CTA Metro E 6000's.

Ex-GGT #1410

....

One of the underlying pages on YouTube says that these are 1994 models, which would have been close to the CTA 1995 models. I'm surprised they still had roll signs, which made the fronts look more like the Pace Grummans. They also have the folding front doors, which were more common for Flxs, but not on CTA's, which had the slide guide doors. Also, I didn't see any indication that these were accessible.

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One of the underlying pages on YouTube says that these are 1994 models, which would have been close to the CTA 1995 models. I'm surprised they still had roll signs, which made the fronts look more like the Pace Grummans. They also have the folding front doors, which were more common for Flxs, but not on CTA's, which had the slide guide doors. Also, I didn't see any indication that these were accessible.

Without even seeing it in action, I can tell you they are.... there's a wheelchair emblem by the front door.

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Without even seeing it in action, I can tell you they are.... there's a wheelchair emblem by the front door.

I saw some sticker on the front window, but one thing this guy does not do is focus on the front door. I suppose though, that by 1994 they would have to have been.

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Here's another interesting find.... I don't know the city this bus is from(welcome all guesses), but apparently this Bus Operator doesn't like questions being asked by his passenger...

http://youtu.be/wIIq85Ug0HM

Too many times I've had to use this today. This wasn't regular stupid, this was college 300-level course advanced stupid.

Note: StarTran bus (somewhere in Nebraska)

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Looks like it. It's to be called the Class 345.

Southwest Trains has ordered the Siemens Desiro City, so the competition also has some ground.

The downfall about the 345s that it's slower than the Desiros, especially 444s and 450s. Southwest is going to be more dominant than it ever was. I'm guessing that the new Desiros will be 4XXs. I'm very disappointed that the 345s won't have a high speed of 125 mph/200 km/h
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Transit stories? I was on Route 301 going home from school a couple weeks ago, I get on and some woman is ranting about Kim Kardashian. I'm thinking she's on the phone or talking to a friend, so I just think "whatever" and go into my music. Somehow, she's loud enough I can hear her over my headphones, and I realize she's not talking *to* anyone, just talking to the general public. She's ranting about how Kim K is a "slut" and is very explicit in her tirade.

Eventually she asks if this bus is going to the Blue Line. No, it's going west, not east, cross the street and take that bus. OK, she says, and gets off at Roosevelt/10th.

At Roosevelt/25th, our bus is pulled over. A couple police officers come on board asking if anyone has seen a lady wearing pink gloves, pink hat, white pants, silver jacket. Yep, that's her, she got off at Roosevelt/10th.

She was a mental patient, another passenger and I presumed she was from Riveredge Hospital (Around Roosevelt/1st), a family member of hers had actually called the police since she had gone roaming. Wow.

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Transit stories? I was on Route 301 going home from school a couple weeks ago, I get on and some woman is ranting about Kim Kardashian. I'm thinking she's on the phone or talking to a friend, so I just think "whatever" and go into my music. Somehow, she's loud enough I can hear her over my headphones, and I realize she's not talking *to* anyone, just talking to the general public. She's ranting about how Kim K is a "slut" and is very explicit in her tirade.

Eventually she asks if this bus is going to the Blue Line. No, it's going west, not east, cross the street and take that bus. OK, she says, and gets off at Roosevelt/10th.

At Roosevelt/25th, our bus is pulled over. A couple police officers come on board asking if anyone has seen a lady wearing pink gloves, pink hat, white pants, silver jacket. Yep, that's her, she got off at Roosevelt/10th.

First off, I want to say welcome to the forums! I'm guessing Riveredge Hosptial because it was no way in hell that would've happened at Madden Mental Health Center across the street from Riveredge. That's really insane though but that wasn't the first time somebody escaped from that hospital.

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First off, I want to say welcome to the forums! I'm guessing Riveredge Hosptial because it was no way in hell that would've happened at Madden Mental Health Center across the street from Riveredge. That's really insane though but that wasn't the first time somebody escaped from that hospital.

I didn't know if Madden was still operating. There's also the possibility that the person escaped from Loyola, which has psychiatric and "behavioral medicine" wards.

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