Aban/UP/C&NW Avondale Yard

The lone bridge in the upper-left corner used to be the yard lead to the land now occupied by an aggregates material yard and a U-Haul company. The rounded end at the west end of that property used to be the funnel of the Avondale Yard.

Satellite

You can clearly see the fan-out of tracks in this 1938 aerial. On the north side of this aerial photo we see the ComEd yard for its Northwest Generating Station.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Excerpt from B&OCT Map

Jorge Pizarro Lara posted some photos of this overpass with the comment: "Been passing this bridge for the past 20 years. Never seen a train pass by. Avondale neighborhood in Chicago. Kimball & Belmont."

Mike Raia: The line ran up to California Avenue and the Commonwealth Ed electric plant. No trains since the 70's.

Scott Greig: It's the lead to Avondale Yard. No regular activity there since the Sandman trains to the Prairie Group plant were discontinued over ten years ago.

Street View

Dennis DeBruler commented on Scott's comment
 There is a covered hopper in a satellite image. These images are normally no more than a few years old in the Chicago area. I wonder if cement still comes by rail.
41°56'32.4"N 87°42'41.4"W
Scott Greig: Dennis DeBruler That's probably for the bakery down on the old 40th Street cutoff, along Cicero. Once in a blue moon I would see a solitary car or work train set out at Avondale, but no consistent activity since about 2009.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Scott's comment
I agree that it is not cement. That hopper is way too long to carry something as dense as cement. I just checked, and cement hoppers have only three covers. But flour hoppers have seven covers. In addition to these two hoppers by the bakery you mentioned, hoppers parked by Pepperidge Farm in Downers Grove also had seven covers. (I had to use Google Earth and go back to 2019 to find hoppers because evidently Pepperidge Farm is now closed.) But the "Avondale car" has six covers. So I wonder what it is carrying. (I looked at three plants that receive plastic pellets, and they have ten covers.)
Scott Greig: Dennis DeBruler How about actual grain, like if the bakery ground its own flour?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Scott's comment on Dennis' comment on...
They have continuous hinged covers so that they can be loaded while the train rolls past the elevator. I know the Mondelez Global/Nabisco plant in Naperville receives wheat instead of flour because it makes Post cereals instead of crackers. But I can't see any cars their because their unloading is inside. But I happen to be studying Iowa Falls, and it has a Cargill biodiesel plant that is unloading grain cars.
42°30'49.1"N 93°15'47.9"W

Dennis DeBruler commented on Jorge's post
This 1938 aerial photo shows the Avondale Yard back when it was a yard. It also shows a yard further north that had its own overpass over Kimball Ave. That was the original yard for interchanging coal cars with ComEd.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Jorge's post
This map shows the original tracks that served the ComEd plant.
1929 Chicago Loop Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Jorge's post
This map shows the service to ComEd has been moved to Avondale Yard.
1963 Chicago Loop Quadrangle @ 1:24,000