Railfan Question

I'll be visiting the Chicago area over the Memorial Day Weekend. I'd like to ride some trains over the weekend (2-3 lines). Any suggestions?

I'll be staying in downtown Chicago.

SKM: It depends on what day and times you are in CHI. Purchase a $5 weekend pass-it may be valid all three days maybe and enjoy! My first and obvious choice is the BNSF line to Aurora. Get a few schedules and plot something out-another interesting choice would be METRA ELECTRIC to University Park or one of the former North Western UP lines. With a bit of good luck-the better schedule is the Saturday one-you may be able to cover some lines and visit interesting towns in Chicagoland to boot. The key to line exploration is not to be stuck somewhere for too long a period unless there is something there to occupy the time-like a good meal. MACTRAXX

You might want to consider taking the former C&NW north line to Kenosha. They have a PCC streetcar that I believe runs near the train station to the lake front. The fare is 25 cents.

http://www.kenoshacvb.com/thingsdo/attr ... #streetcar

First, because it's partially Metra-supported, I highly recommend the South Shore, the greatest railroad known to man and the only interurban left. There's a great rib joint a Miller. Also if you get off at Hegewisch, you can watch plenty of CSS and NS freight traffic.

Second, the Heritage Corridor line is a rocket ride - take the first afternoon train out in the afternoon and you can ride a Rock Island train back downtown. Alternatively, if you have lunch time in Blue Island the rail grill is always a fun lunch and typically the IAIS runs a drag through town around then.

Third, the approaches to most stations are great fun to watch. Canal and Kinzie street has a great view of the north throat tracks to Ogilvie (former CNW) and CUS. Roosevelt road is a great place to view the south throat of CUS as well as LaSalle. The lumber street crossing just north of the 21st street bridge is also a fun place. Rush hour at Van Buren is a great place to watch South Shore and Metra Electric trains, as is the street between Michael Reese Hospital and the tracks (just north of 35th). I also used to live by the Clybourn station on UP-N/NW, and thats fun at rush hour as well.

Four - don't forget the CTA. The orange line is totally safe and very fast, being built recently on former Class-I ROW's. You'll also see lots of freight traffic, and have a view of Brighton, an un-interlocked, semaphore-guarded junction. Also, the yellow line is former North Shore interurban, while the Red/Brown are your most traditional elevated CTA lines. However, the red is a long ride - best to catch a purple express that follows the same route.


Food: We've discovered RR.net members like good food with their trains
Miller, IN - rib joint across tracks
Blue Island, IL - The Rail Grill, across tracks from RI station
White Palace - greasy spoon at south CUS throat tracks.
China Town - between RI, CTA Red, CTA Orange, and NS/Amtrak/Metra HC; there's lots of restaurants in a reasonably safe area.

And of course, downtown is up to you - there's so much good food you're going to have to tell us what you like before we can recommend.

Tadman wrote:First, because it's partially Metra-supported, I highly recommend the South Shore, the greatest railroad known to man and the only interurban left.

If railroads or transit systems could talk, and they were sensitive to their old, technical classifications, the Philadelphia area SEPTA Route 100 (formerly and by some still more popularly known as the P&W Railroad) between Norristown and 69th Street Terminal would be yelling "hold on there partner, you have company".

Thanks for the suggestions keep them coming. I will be taking the Aurora line at a minimum. If I can sneak away I'll do as much as I can on my own.

Chip - no disagreement there, P&W is by many means an interurban and a operator of interurban equipment, including the greatest interurban equipment ever, the electroliner. I made my CSS statement because it's a popular folk lore, and I think both lines are equally far in different ways from the traditional interurban definition. That's why traditional interurbans are dead, becuase they don't work in today's world. CSS went heavy-electric, more resembling PRR or Reading than IRR or CNSM. I'm not sure what P&W did to survive, other than appeal to voters and politicians like CSS did at one point. I'm just thankful we have both still.

Tadman wrote:Chip - no disagreement there, P&W is by many means an interurban and a operator of interurban equipment, including the greatest interurban equipment ever, the electroliner. I made my CSS statement because it's a popular folk lore, and I think both lines are equally far in different ways from the traditional interurban definition. That's why traditional interurbans are dead, becuase they don't work in today's world. CSS went heavy-electric, more resembling PRR or Reading than IRR or CNSM. I'm not sure what P&W did to survive, other than appeal to voters and politicians like CSS did at one point. I'm just thankful we have both still.

Yeah, I'm not what I'll call a "railroad techie", i.e. someone that pays attention to the equipment side of things or the technical classifications of various railroad equipment. But I definitely do agree the functionality from a ridership perspective of CSS Railroad and the SEPTA Route 100 are much different - the former is like an extended commuter rail or short intercity-style route, while the latter is a suburban feeder route, much more commonly seen with bus routes connecting to a rail station. (The SEPTA Route 101 and 102 trolleys function in a similar way, even if the equipment and the locations of the tracks themselves - they lack dedicated ROW in many locations - are different.)

Having said the above, if you look purely at the term "interurban", you'll realize there are many routes in the country that actually fit the definition, that is, they connect 2 different, fairly close cities/urban areas and have significant ridership to each. Most of the time, these services are disguised as commuter/regional rail or Amtrak services. In the east there are a number of these routes, but services like NJ Transit NEC Line (New York/Newark-Trenton), SEPTA R2 (Philadelphia-Wilmington), SEPTA R7 (Philadelphia-Trenton), MARC Penn and Camden Lines (Washington-Baltimore), and Amtrak Keystone Service (Philadelphia-Harrisburg) fit the interurban service definition, if not the interurban "equipment" definition. Heck in the Midwest you have the Chicago-Milwaukee Amtrak Hiawatha Service, in addition to the CSS Chicago-South Bend service, and if the former isn't truly interurban in its service pattern, with most people presumably making Milwaukee-Chicago or Chicago-Milwaukee trips in the morning and the opposite in the evening, I don't know what is interurban.

Okay, back to the Chicago sites to visit. One of these days I'll get to Chicago for a trip (and will probably go to Milwaukee for a day or part of a day when I'm there), so the discussion in this thread will help me too!

If you take the BNSF route to Aurora, you may want to stop at the "Walter Payton Roundhouse" restaurant adjoining the station.

Their website is: http://www.walterpaytonsroundhouse.com/

Be sure to click on "History" for a background on the building.

I've heard good reports on it.

Good luck!

skm wrote:I'll be visiting the Chicago area over the Memorial Day Weekend. I'd like to ride some trains over the weekend (2-3 lines). Any suggestions?

I'll be staying in downtown Chicago.

It's a long ride from end to end, but if time allows, definitely pay a visit to the Milwaukee North route to Fox Lake, one of Metra's most underrated lines, IMO. The western end of the line is a single track branch that passes through some of the best scenery on Metra's network, with trees and lush, grassy plains dotted by small lakes, and is especially spectacular during the fall season when the colors change. Even though you're in deep suburbia here, this gives the ride a rural feel to it which makes for a refreshing and relaxing experience. Which, in and of itself, is pretty impressive, especially given all of the residential and retail growth in this portion of Lake County over the years; the line's rustic charm is still intact for the most part.

One note about the Blue Island round trip: Using Heritage Corridor for the trip south to Joliet is only possible on weekdays, since there is no weekend service on this route, but I firmly second Tadman's recommendation otherwise...

About the Heritage Corridor, if you want to travel that on weekends, you might have to pay more, but you can ride Amtrak's Lincoln service. They have added like two trains I believe. I barely have ridden Metra, except the entire BNSF line covered by Amtk SW Chief and CZ. The BNSF is one cool line because you travel through some of CHI's suburbs, and its fast. Express trains running end to end do the trip in like under an hr. I did a cross country trip to Cali last Jan. I only confined myself to downtown CHI. I checked out Roosevelt Road, Oligivle, and Van Buren and Millenium sta.
Maybe in the next five years, I will make a trip back to CHI and ride as much transit as possible. I would probably stick to commuter rail and maybe ride one Amtrak corridor route; probably the Hiawathas.

Good Evening:

I posted a note in April about railfanning on Metra in Chicago. I was able to ride the Aurora and the Electric Line over the Memorial Day Weekend.

I'm not a railroad techie, but I was impressed with both lines. The Aurora line is very scenic. I was surprised at the number of at grade crossings. I saw a mix of frieght and passenger trains on both lines. I'm assuming that there are tracks dedicated to frieght?

I enjoyed the Electric line as well. The row (is that the correct term) is very wide.

This was my first time riding a bi-level car. I had the impression that the top level contained as many seats on the lower level. To my surprise there were mostly single seats or long benches.

I walked from Millenium Station (impressive) to Union Station. In the main area I could see workers setting up tables for some gala event. It was a very busy day at Union Station.

The 5$ weekend pass was a great idea. I wonder why it isn't down on Septa. By the way the Conductor were very friendly and helpful.

I wish I could say something profound, but I had a great time on Metra.

SKM

skm wrote:I'm not a railroad techie, but I was impressed with both lines. The Aurora line is very scenic. I was surprised at the number of at grade crossings. I saw a mix of frieght and passenger trains on both lines. I'm assuming that there are tracks dedicated to frieght

Within the city limits, this line is a 4-track ROW, with the southernmost track dedicated for freight moves. And as a rule generally in rush hours, the center track in suburban territory is reserved for Metra expresses, but otherwise, any train can run in either direction at any time on all three tracks.

Glad you enjoyed your visit...