Hi Everyone,
Can someone give me an idea of how many UP freight trains go through Elmhurst, IL on the old Chicago and North Western? Also, what is the best time of day to catch the most trains? Thanks for any help anyone can give!!
Joe
To the best of my knowledge the answers to your question are:
a. Over 100 per day.
b. Any time of the day but I have found mid-day to be best.
Ever try Rochelle where the UPRR & BNSF cross @ grade?
Elmhurst is a great spot to watch trains and a very nice town. Ok, so I’m a little biased because I used to live there right accross the street from the tracks for @10 years!
There’s a lot of variety and you usually don’t have to wait very long for a train to arrive. There are three main tracks at Elmhurst and the large Proviso Freight Yard is directly east of Elmhurst. Actually, Proviso is a bunch of smaller yards that make up one big yard. Yard 9 handles eastbound manifest train receiving and coal/hopper train run-throughs from the New Line (Milwaukee Sub). Global II is the intermodal facility and of course there’s the westbound departure yard. Also, just east of Elmhurst at Bellwood is the connection to the IHB that a lot of UP freights use. There are also freights that bypass Proviso on there way to/from Chicago connections. This all adds up to a lot of activity. Multiple trains and overtakes at Elmhurst is a normal occurence. The signals at the Park interlocker will tell you when and where an eastbound is going. I would recomend using a scanner as there is a lot of radio chater between trains ready to depart Proviso or comming down off the IHB with UP Omaha Dispatcher 11.
As for the best time… really anytime is good. There is the morning and evening Metra rushes. Metra has the top priority and the general rule of thumb is that everything else follows the Metra “scoots”. The east and west local scoots make a stop at Elmhurst at @10 minutes past the hour just about every hour between roughly 5am - 1am Monday through Friday. There is also Metra service on the weekend, but it’s not as frequent. Freight traffic usually picks up towards the end of the week. My personal pick would be on a Saturday between 10:30am and 2:30pm. Pick the perfect Saturday and you might see a non-stop parade between those hours. If you’re into to cars, then Wednesday night might be a good choice. Elmhurst has their, “Cool Cars Under the Stars” every Wednesday night in the summer and it draws a large crowd.
As for your first question, I can see more than a hundred depending on shipments. The UP Geneva Sub is one of the mroe active freight lines through Chicagoland.
Now, when is the best time to see trains… Wensday at 6:30PM-8:00PM. Their are about almost thrity trains sometimes in that time. IT IS GREAT! You can also find some really good stuff in that time. Thursday night is very inactive as a result of that. You might find a UP intermodel and UP coal, and that’s it.
Also, Elmhurst has plenty of places to eat (we just got home from dinner at our favorite pizza place there!), and probably the best hobby shop in Chicagoland is a short walk away from the tracks (right, Charlie? [;)])
The weekend Metra frequency is one train every two hours (with an extra round-trip on Saturday) throughout the day. Still not too shabby.
For my hobby of freight-car research, the platforms at Elmhurst are nearly ideal, as the trains generally go by fairly slowly. It’s interesting, though, to see and hear the westbounds open up as soon as the hind end clears the yard. Also, it can be neat to see the eastbounds come in with dynamics howling as they slow to enter the yard.
Not much variety in locomotive paint schemes, but nearly everything UP operates will be seen there at one time or another. If volume is what interests you, Elmhurst is the place!
As it happens I was just there Monday and Tuesday of this week.
I’ve never counted, but I’ve never been bored while there, so I doubt you will be either.
If you like to photograph Metra (like I do) then from 3-7 would be a good time since you’ll see a healthy dose of frieght from about 3-5 then the rush hour Metra’s.
One other thing to point out… There are a couple of model railroad clubs that occupy the basement of buildings on the northeast corner of York & First. I know that both are open to the public, but I don’t know the hours.
I agree that Al’s hobby shop is great. Elmhurst+pizza=Mama Maria’s (a local family run place that is located @2 miles south of downtown at York & Vallete). (True story… I picked that pizza place out of the phone book one night because I reasoned that with a name that italian, they better know how to make a good pizza.)
CC
There is only one now, the Salt Creek layout has been torn out and the club moved to West Chicago. I do know that the other club there, the Elmhurst Model Railroad Club, has open houses every Friday night.
Bert
Chris, our spot is Two Brothers from Italy, which is on Park across from the tracks. There are several restaurants on both Park and First. My favorite thing to do is buy a dog from the Hot Dog Lady and take it back to the tracks–wash it down with a drink obtained at the White Hen. A sandwich from Fontano’s is also good, especially if Vicki or Kim make it. The bakery on First is also a great place, if you’re not on a diet. That’s where Al’s Hobby Shop used to be, before they went around the corner.
I encountered nothing when I came through Elmhurst after work today–was about ten minutes ahead of the scoots.
Two days ago, however, I was blocked by no fewer than six freights within about 15 minutes, including a unit ethanol train.
I need to save this thread. My Grandmother lives there on York about a mile from the Metra station.
I almost forgot, there is also a club underneath the restaurant that is just south of the tracks on the west side of York Road. I don’t know the name of it, and I have only been down there once about 10 years ago, so I don’t have too much information on it.
Bert
“There’s a lot of variety and you usually don’t have to wait very long for a train to arrive.”
Yeah, you might see 25 DIFFERENT UP SD70Ms!!!
If you like to watch trains & eat… Elmhurst is great. Two Brothers… always good. In the ten years that I lived there ('95 - '05) Mayor Marcucci (sp) did an excellent job bringing people into downtown Elmhurst with good restaurants and special events.
There was even some local switching up until @5-6 years ago with service to a cement making facility at the Chicago Stone quarry. Sand loads in jennies were shoved from Proviso to the quarry every other night spring through fall. The next night the empty jennies would be picked up for another run to Beloit, WI. Sometimes the Friday night shove to the quarry turned into a Saturday morning job. The quarry/cement maker had a small switching engine that would unload @5 cars at a time. This service appears to be gone forever as the tracks that cross over First Ave. have been paved over. The switch and the lead track are still in place for MOW equipment. The reality is that the sevice for the cement maker probably pales in comparison to local service for the quarry itself that had dried up long before I ever lived there.
CC
Yeah, that 45-ton GE, with its side rods, was a fascinating creature to watch. I think the stone company demolished a lot of its infrastructure within the plant–I keep hearing that they’re going to shut down completely, but that’s still quite an operation. The cars, by the way, were old DM&IR ore jimmies. Some of them were old enough to have the Duluth, Missabe & Northern logo on them! They had age restrictions on their movement, but I think they just got too old.
Any idea what happened to the engine? I don’t think it’s still there unless I missed it and it look like it was still in good condition. (Maybe somebody dropped it into the quarry!)
CC
I remember that it was taken somewhere–possibly to their Beloit operation.
The tracks are still inside the plant, by the way–just covered over.
Is there anything of the CGW left in Elmhurst? (maybe a depot or something)
The depot is still standing on York Road. It has been restored, I don’t know what is inside of it. That is about all that is left of the CGW, the right of way east of Villa Park is grown over, but easy to spot along the CA&E.
Bert