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@@SamLovesTrains you are welcome

Thomas you've got some good history. That's the same Irondale. When I was at the Rail Link the old C&NW yard office was being used by Bulkmatic. There were Cargill salt and Cargill oil terminals along with Bulkmatic. The Cargill grain was not in use but we did stuff 100 car grain trains in Nidera (I think old Lincoln Grain). You had to be pretty wylie working on the Link. At any time you'd better be ready to "join the birds". The track mostly joint bars, gauge rods, busted ties and mud. At that time Rail Link was huge in railcar storage. All of Irondale yard, the Calumet &Western yard to the north and 95% of Burr Oak (Blue Island) and the Port of Illinois yard were stuffed to the gills. Flat switching was mostly done up the hill at the two remaining tracks of CRI&P 95th yard. I loved working there it interesting to say the least. At that time there were still 3 Rock Island guys on the roster and some guys that came from the Chicago Short Line. They knew a lot of local history and the "hows and whys" of the whole thing.

@@mattberg916 thanks for your comments about working at Chicago Rail Link. It has been a while since I was at the C&NW Irondale branch. I do not think that I have been in that area since the early 1990s. You mentioned Chicago Rail Link was into car storage. I remember driving along the Bishop Ford Freeway like 15+ years ago and all the tracks on the east side of the Bishop Ford Freeway north of 130th Street were loaded with stored freight cars. Are those tracks part of Chicago Rail Link?

@@thomasmackowiak that's actually the port of Illinois. I don't know the exact "authority" that the Rail Link used to store railcars there, but that's what they were. At that time Metal Management was still in business there so most were gons for scrap loading but there were other cars stored also. The CSS&SB also accessed the port, they were usually in there at night. Pretty sure the Shore also came in over the Dan Ryan overpass from a connection to the RI main at Kennsington. The Shore also interchanged with NS at that Kensington connection and stored their caboose there. I believe the Rail Link did all the industry switching in the port, not sure why the Shore was there. But we did an interesting interchange with the shore there. After coming down the Rock Island main (controlled by NS Calumet operator) from Pullman Jct. we would cross the Dan Ryan at 130th. Once down into the yard from the overpass we would then shove back south curving east towards the canal, turning south again right at the edge of the water passing under 130th then continuing to curve west run parallel to the CSS&SB electric main up pretty fair incline to the two track interchange. Almost exclusively returning empty coil gons and picking up loaded coils for Unarco in Blue Island. A whole lot of push coming down off the hill with 50 loads of coils. Can't believe we never went in the canal, the track of course was slightly less than pristine.

@@mattberg916 Awesome! Was always interested in the history of the line.

@@SamLovesTrains I love old industrial and railroad history I wish I had more. There was a Chicago Terminal map with Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific company identification on the wall at CRL 104th st office that showed every nook and cranny of the city in railroad terms. Even showed railroad to Chicago Tunnel system interchange. I would've given my eye teeth for that one. It mysteriously vanished when the walls got painted.

Thank you. 1000 is classified as a GP38-3

Definitely so Matt!