A Day at Downers Grove, Illinois.

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Greetings,

Well, I actually did make it to the Chicagoland area last Thursday, Mar. 23. As some of you may remember from my post “Where to go in Chicago”, I had planned to ride the Amtrak Cardinal from Indianapolis into Chicago and then go out on Metra for some train watching. I didn’t take the Amtrak. Instead, I ended up going on MegaBus. It runs a dedicated nonstop to Union Station in Chicago and gets there an hour ahead of the train. Since this was a one day trip I needed to get there as quick as possible.

After getting to CUS, I took Carl’s advice and caught a Metra out to Downers Grove on the BNSF line. What a beautiful day at a great train watching spot!! The weather cleared off (rain on the way up) and it was a perfect sunny day to be outside. Since I’m not a regular rail commuter, I asked questions and directions and everyone I met was most helpful. The Metra personnel were ready with directions and advice, I give them high marks.

I caught the 10:30AM train to Downers Grove and as we were waiting to depart, the Cardinal pulled in on track 10 next to us, right on time!

At Downers Grove you can get a trackside seat on either side of the triple track raceway. The view is excellent for seeing approaching trains. As for traffic, I got there at about 11:15AM and left at 4:48PM and saw about 15 to 20 trains. This isn’t counting the ones that went through while I was walking around the town area. There were Metra trains, of course, and three Amtrak runs along with inbound and outbound coal, intermodal, and a couple of incredibly long grain drags. The Amtraks were on the center track and going full tilt, hammer down!!

Went to Berto’s deli on Main St. for a sub and drink. For desert, it was down the street to the Busy Bee Bakery as suggested by our fellow forum member Poppa Zit. And I agree with him…its the real deal, some good eating there.

All in all, it was a great day. I plan to go back again soon. Would like to go out to Elm

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G Mack - looks like a great day.

Thanks for sharing.

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Glad to hear you liked our favorite…THE RACETRACK…y’all come back now, hear?

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If I hadn’t spent some time today at Cajon, I’d really be missing the place (thanks, Chad!).

Glad you had a good time in our fair country–come back again and spend a few days!

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Anywhere along the Chicago-Aurora main is a good spot!! It’s hard not to have a good day along that line.

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I think the best site on the Racetrack are anywhere between Brookfield & Downer’s Grove. I hope the development at Aurora is a big success?

For the UP lines, you don’t have any Amtrak action. I don’t know how any foreign road moves you get. Most scenic may be the river communities of Geneva-St Charles? Not sure about MILW lines into Elgin? IMHO Elmhurst may be the best place along the UP. I hope Al’s hobby shop is still there?

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Yes, Elmhurst is the place–plenty of places to grab a bite to eat, and, yes, Al’s is still there–with the train department in its own building now. Tell Charlie or Ken that Carl sent you!