Industrial History: UP/C&NW Cragin Yard and Alpha Bakery

Friday, March 2, 2018

UP/C&NW Cragin Yard and Alpha Bakery

Satellite, west (rail) side of Alpha Bakery

We just saw that a bakery, Newly Weds Foods, is still rail served. Thanks to a posting by Doug Kaniuk, I learned that Alpha Baking is not only still rail served, it is the only industry left along the UP/C&NW Cragin Industrial Lead that still receives freight cars. I saved the satellite image because it not only caught a hopper down by the building, it caught two more hoppers up on the mainline of the branch. When you are the only industry left, then you don't have to worry about tying up the mainline with your cars.

Cragin Yard was the now empty strip of land east of the BRC between North Avenue and Division Street. It is no longer needed because the industrial branch that used to run between C&NW's Northwest Main and C&NW's West Main now just runs from the north junction south to just past Armitage. The lead at the end looks barely long enough to hold a locomotive running around its train. The Grand and North Avenue overpasses still exist, just no track.

Satellite

The empty overpass still exists over Division Street. It ran east of the existing BRC tracks.

The overpass at Augusta Blvd. looked wide and it has been "daylighted."

Street View

The branch ran over Chicago Avenue where it then became part of 40th Avenue Yard, which had a freight classification yard well past WWII.

Satellite

Looking at the aerial below, I see BRC also had a yard next to the C&NW Cragin Yard. (Update: BRC West Chicago Yard) It now is a paved parking lot for junked cars. I included the western part of 40th Avenue Yard so you can see how the Cragin branch fed into the yard. I went far enough north with the aerial image to cover what is now abandoned.