NS Switching east end of Metra Milwaukee District

[lstone19]

As a now daily rider of Metra's Milwaukee District West line, I was surprised the other day to see an NS engine switching the one (?) industrial customer (an ADM facility) between Tower A-2/Western Avenue and Chicago Union Station. This line is the last 2+ miles of the PRR Panhandle line into Chicago (jointly owned with the Milwaukee Road from the early 1900's). It makes some sense. I assume the PRR retained switching rights after selling the partial interest to the Milwaukee and that in turn went to Conrail and then NS. But it seems so inefficient. The Panhandle line was abandoned south of A-2/Western Avenue years ago (yea, I know it was timetable east but a quirk there was, as I understand it, the Panhandle was eastbound both directions from A-2).

So my question is how does the NS get up there from wherever they come from? I'm guessing an NS train coming up there eventually ends up on the UP Rockwell Subdivision (the line from Global One up to the Geneva Subdivision - parallels the abandoned Panhandle), turns east towards Chicago, and then onto the ex-Milwaukee on one of the double-slip switches at A-2 (considering the way we rock and roll on them everyday, they better get used as something other than crossings ), and onto the ex-Panhandle a few feet later on the curve where the Milwaukee and Panhandle used to join.