Do any trains use the through tracks at Union Station?

Do any trains use the through tracks at Chicago Union Station? That is, pull in on one side and pull out on the other?

It doesn't look like Metra *or* Amtrak does so in revenue service.
Arguably they should, but that's another matter.


It would be really odd if freight trains did. I'm going to guess that deadhead movements to the Amtrak yard from the North do?

Does Metra ever?[/i]

All 3 HC trains do come into the south end of CUS and pull out the North end to continue to Western Avenue Yard. I wouldn't be surprised if those inbound trains unload on track 28. Some SWS trains also pull into track 28 during the morning rush, however they do not continue to the north end of the station.

Hiawatha #342 usually ties up on track 19 at night. A yard crew comes up to take it down to the yard overnight for servicing, cleaning and whatever else. Then someone brings it back up to track 28 for #329's departure in the morning. 329 boards on 28 and pulls north out of the station.

Trains 8 and 7 work in a similar fashion, except the outbound #7 is pulled all the way back up to track 19 instead of stopping 'short' on 28 as above.

Everyone: I recall that when SWS ran with just three equipment sets they regularly used the thru tracks so servicing could be at Western Ave. Yard. Lack of thru tracks has always been Union Station's biggest drawback! MACTRAXX

SWS and HC both used Western Avenue Yard on the Milwaukee District until Amtrak started construction on the north side of the station. At that point, all 6 SWS/HC sets were stored at 14th Street. HC has since returned its 3 sets to Western, while SWS keeps its 5 sets south. Given the old schedule for SWS, I don't think there were any conflicts with using track 28.

When HC was serviced at 14th St., track 16 was used for all 3 afternoon departures, while track 14 was reserved for SWS. In fact, 14th St. yard would send both the 5:25 and 6:12 trains to track 16 after the 4:50 left. Arriving SWS & HC trains in the morning rush used either 14 or 16 as well. The use of track 28 for morning arrivals is a recent phenomenon, necessitated by a combination of HC's servicing yard being moved to Western Ave as noted above, plus the extra trains added to SWS last year...

neroden wrote:Do any trains use the through tracks at Chicago Union Station? That is, pull in on one side and pull out on the other?

It doesn't look like Metra *or* Amtrak does so in revenue service.
Arguably they should, but that's another matter.


It would be really odd if freight trains did. I'm going to guess that deadhead movements to the Amtrak yard from the North do?

Does Metra ever?[/i]

I know that at least for a while, the Empire Builder and City of New Orleans shared equipment. The train would use the run-through tracks in revenue service. I put my daughter on the "City" once and it departed from the north side of CUS.

Wasn't there a time when Amtrak had thru trains from Milw to StL?

CB:YES-when the French RTG Turbos ran back in the late 70s at least one run at some point ran MKE-STL. Only after METRA took over everything commuter did they begin to use Union's thru tracks. MACTRAXX

CarterB wrote:Wasn't there a time when Amtrak had thru trains from Milw to StL?

Yes, albeit briefly. With one daily train in each direction, Amtrak's Milwaukee-St. Louis through train was an experiment that began in late 1971 and lasted only a couple of years, but it was among the routes that used the new Turboliner equipment. In the Amtrak era, this train, plus the temporary equipment sharing of the City of N.O. and Empire Builder as noted above, pretty much sums up Amtrak's minimal history of CUS "run-through" trains...

I wonder if the hiawathas use the through tracks, as all it really takes is for the sets to come in from the yard.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:I wonder if the hiawathas use the through tracks, as all it really takes is for the sets to come in from the yard.

Allow me to refer you to Eric L's detailed description of the Hiawatha's use of track 28 several posts above in this thread. The Empire Builder is also included in the description, which he refers to as 7 and 8...