Interesting Train

Yesterday (01/25/2006) I took Milwaukee West Line train 2227 to Wood Dale. As I was walking through the parking lot, an eastbound went through. I was too far away to get numbers, but a CP GP running backwards was hauling 5 Pullman coaches in RTA livery followed by some hoppers with scrap and a few miscellaneous cars and a caboose. The first four Pullmans looked in real good shape, the fifth had rust along the roof.

Probably being dragged to Goose Island.

Look for a coffee can with an RTA logo on it at your local grocery store.

Some of those old RTA coaches were recently stored at Spaulding awhile back, but I thought they had been moved from there by now. It's also possible they'll be lined up with the rest of their retired brethren along the dead track at California yard, before heading to their final resting place at Goose Island...

I had seen them at Spaulding over a year ago with the logos painted out, but more recently I have not seen them there. I also saw them stored beside the MILW just across the main line from Western Ave, next to the auto junkyard.

I wonder why CP would be moving them east past Wood Dale? UP could have moved them instead since everything going to Goose Island has to be interchanged from UP. Just seems inneficient to me.

Milwaukee_F40C wrote:I wonder why CP would be moving them east past Wood Dale? UP could have moved them instead since everything going to Goose Island has to be interchanged from UP. Just seems inneficient to me.

If I'm not mistaken, CP switches Goose Island. Regardless, if the cars were being taken east by the Spaulding Patrol (that's the train that runs east long-hood-forward on the Elgin Sub in the late afternoon), they must have come from Spaulding or somewhere else on the Elgin Sub, so UP would have had no business handling them anyway.

If I'm not mistaken, CP switches Goose Island. Regardless, if the cars were being taken east by the Spaulding Patrol (that's the train that runs east long-hood-forward on the Elgin Sub in the late afternoon), they must have come from Spaulding or somewhere else on the Elgin Sub, so UP would have had no business handling them anyway.

I guess they must have been at Spaulding then. So that means Metra or CP keeps moving them around.

Anyway, CP switches Goose Island, but it is separate from the rest of the CP and all the cars going there are interchanged from the UP at a small yard on the UP North/Northwest line.

CP switches Goose Island, but the cars are actually scrapped at General Iron at Clybourn/Cortland - I live about five blocks from there. The CP used to have the MILW Bloomingdale line, but traffic is not dense enough to merit the upkeep and they now have UP deliver cars to the UP yard on the east side of the Kennedy. CP rents space and keeps a Bandit and Golden Rodent MP15 there. I HIGHLY reccommend watching the Kingsbury street/Goose Island local that comes through 1-3 times a week. A real treat.

To view the RTA cars being cut up, cross the river on Cortland going east, and pull into the parking lot on the right. The cars should be behind the Finkl buildings. But mind your manners, thats private property (not posted, but don't ruin it by being rude/in the way)