Freight service was never a big money maker for the North
Shore Line but to their customers, it really was the “Road of
Personalized Service” as the NSL counted their service in
hours when other railroads counted their time in days. While
the North Shore never had the success of its Insull sister,
the South Shore Line, they did earn nearly $1 million a year
in good times.
Even though they started out handling packages, the North
Shore Line was soon a pioneer in intermodal service. They
started operating piggyback trains between Chicago and
Milwaukee in the 1920s and, at the peak, handled 18,000
trailers a year. They also developed mechanically refrigerated
and heated cars before many other railroads did.
In the days of government regulation of railroad rates and
routes, the North Shore would receive cars from one of their
connecting railroads, haul them a few miles and give them back
to the same railroad which explained coal moves received from
the C&NW in Skokie and turned the cars back to them in
Waukegan. Unfortunately, the North Shore was never able to
locate more than 100 shippers and many were lumber and
coal yards.
Two of their locomotive, four truck behemoths, each
produced nearly the
horsepower of GP-7 and they had two
battery electric engines which allowed them to switch
industries without having to string overhead trolley
wire.
Even though the freight business was only modestly
successful, the revenue earned helped keep the North Shore
going much longer than many of its contemporaries and provided
a fascinating counterpoint to the passenger
operation.
DVD Order No. CNSMF/D -
Approx. 70 minutes
Includes chapters and selectable audio
tracks