Clybourn (5:26 – 10:50)

At 5:32 we pass the Chicago Fish House on the left, with a caboose spotted on the spur. According to former C&NW engineer Doug Davidson this building was constructed new in the 1970′s. C&NW employees were surprised when a spur was included. Apparently they received some rail deliveries in the early days. But this soon ceased. At 5:54 the train passes Morton Salt. An icon for decades, it closed in 2015 and is supposed to become an entertainment complex. Morton Salt received regular rail deliveries. At 5:57 we pass North Avenue Yard. North Avenue Yard was relocated at one point. Before the Kennedy Expressway was constructed North Avenue Yard was on the opposite side of the main line. In 2021 the yard is only used for maintenance of way equipment. But at this date it was full of freight cars. At 6:15 the Kennedy Expressway looks much less crowded than it is in 2015, even for a Sunday. At 6:27 the iconic Coca-Cola electric advertising sign comes into view. Recognized by generations of Chicago drivers and train riders, it later became a similarly dramatic Miller Lite sign. At 6:50 our train passes Tower CY and the crossing with the former Milwaukee Road Bloomingdale Line, then operated by the Soo Line (CP Rail). At 9:23-9:29 is the spur that went down the east side of the embankment and crossed Ashland to reach a scrapyard and cement plant. From 9:28-9:40, on the right-hand side you can see the remains of trestle that led to ground-level industry switching. The track followed the west bank of the river before curving west across Elston Avenue and connecting with the Harvard Sub near Western and Diversey. At 9:38 the North Line crosses the former Strawberry line. This crossing was also the location of the former Deering Station. At 10:21 the spur to Chicago Transparent Products comes into view. This was the last rail served customer on the North Line in Chicago. At 10:45 we see the spur to the former Stewart-Warner plant. A few seconds earlier another spur is shown on the east side that led to fuel oil dealers off Ashland and north of Diversey.