He-he-he-he, watch the video…
http://wgntv.com/2017/01/12/amtrak-seeks-expansion-but-residents-in-north-suburbs-pushing-back/
Ya know that dust on your grill just might be from grilling on it…heh-heh.
Your post should be entitled “North Shore Residents…” Big difference as the entiled North Shore folks complain about anything that might impinge on them. If the line starts having higher speed trains (espcially Diesel), however, sound deadning barriers are the norm in cities and suburbs.
What a bunch of shallow whiners! Close I-94 and see how that works. When you have capacity constrained physical plant you have the situation the weenies are complaining about - build capacity and things move fluidly.
The opposition is silly. The Amtrak Chicago-Milwaukee line in Illinois is also a full service commuter corridor (between Chicago and Roundout) and is also a major CPR freight route. The additional trains Amtrak is proposing would likely not even be noticeable to the locals, if they weren’t being stirred up by whiners.
The biggest whining NIMBY’s on the planet.
How did the situation in Barrington turn out with CN running oil trains on the old EJ&E? I recall organized demonstrations being in the news, but I never heard much else about it.
That’s quite a ways inland from the shore.
Anyway, I agree in one area, they need to triple track the line from the Wisconsin border to the West line split off maybe further in towards Union Station. The two long sidings business strikes me as a solution that won’t last very long. I don’t think they need to park any trains if they spent a little more money.
I would also do a flyover at Rondout so the Northbound trains can just climb a grade and pass over the tracks on a bridge to the line to Fox Lake versus crossing them at grade. That would at least speed things up to Western Avenue.
So here is a Amtrak Hiawatha Train trip from Chicago Union Station to Milwaukee on youtube. Why the train slows to a crawl at Western Avenue is a mystery but this is what gets under my skin about the METRA territory…start and stop just like a METRA train when it should be a fast ride all the way in. That’s why I vote for adding a third track like the BNSF Aurora route has. It looks like they used to have a third track but somebody ripped it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxAV9rOcjyM
The first set of three tracks that veer off to the left is the former Milwaukee mainline across Northern Illinois to the Mississippi and beyond. The second single track that veers off to the left is the former Milwaukee Fox Lake line to Central Wisconsin (Madison eventually then Portage, WI).
A multi million $ flyover to avoid how many conflict minutes? This isn’t the NEC.
No but it is in Chicago that finished the Englewood fyover.
Englewood flyover hosts several trains per hour. A totally different kettle of fish. They are having trouble getting over NIMBY opposition to the Clark Jct. Flyover that would improve flow for trains every couple of minutes. Now how much delay at Roundout again?
If you’re going to build a flyover A2 would be a far better choice, benefiting both Milw district lines, the North Central service, the UP West line as well as the Hiawatha Service.
Amtrak rides on the Metra Milwaukee Distrct - North line. The first tracks that your Hiawatha crosses are the UP (C&NW) mainline to Omaha and beyond just before Western Ave., which also hosts Metra’s UP-West line. The next set of three tracks veering to the left is the old MILW line west to Omaha, now a Metra-owned line called MD-W to Big Timber, west of Elgin. The next small branch is freight and switching, not to Fox Lake. Then you cross the UP-NW Metra Line to Harvard. A bit past Lake Forest (at Rondout) the Metra tracks to Fox Lake diverge. No delay. I do not think the RoW was triple tracked. Does not seem that #331 was held up by your Joe “Lunchpail’s” Metra commuter trains, even though it was inbound rush hour.
BTW, although the communities on the MD-N line aren’t as toney as those on the UP-N line, they are still on the North Shore especially north of Glenview, until it branches off west to Fox Lake at Lake Forest. The speed display is in kmh.
I knew all that already except for the switching line.
No but at some of the passenger stations (Glenview, Technecy, Deerfield, Roundout), they had a third track and the depot was on the third track at least at Glenview…looking at a 1959 profile. I am guessing Metra or Milwaukee tore those out and moved the Depot closer to the tracks or the platform closer to the tracks as time went on. Milwaukee also had a third track passing siding system in place South of Roundout in some places that is now seems to be gone, probably as the sidings were too short for anything but passenger trains. Western Avenue station was triple tracked in 1959 but is double track now.
So they did pull up some tracks after 1959 possibly more prior to 1959.
The line is triple-tracked from Western Ave. to where the MD-W line veers off to the west. Look at Google or the video.
and the bridges north of there show no sign of a former additional track.
Actually there is a bridge north of there that carried a third track, it’s cement.
The Milwaukee District West Line branches off at approx mark 15:11 and there is clearly a cement bridge over a road that has room for a third track (siding) at mark 16:17 before that the siding starts at 16:10 and is truncated.
I checked the video and Buslist is correct. At 16:07 a switching line splits left off from the double track; at 16:10 a third track diverges to the left, ending at 16:16. The concrete bridge is seen shortly after that, but the third track was pretty clearly an old industry siding, as later bridges show no evidence of the RoW once having had a third main.
I agree. This has always been a busy line. In fact, probably busier in the past. And a lot of it runs in open country, especially as you get closer to the Wisconsin state line.
John Timm
I was looking on Google maps to see if CP freights could also use the UP (C&NW) freight line to Techny, but it looks like the connection between the two north of the Kinnickinnic River bridge in Milwaukee is a former rather than a current. And I suppose restoring and using it would create a bottleneck for traffic there instead of Techny.
I do wish some foresight would be taken to overpass/close the grade crossings north of Rondout that is practical long term. A stitch in time saves nine. And now with the announcement of the Foxconn deal for the Kenosha region, if Foxconn follows through, could be a long term opportunity for Metra/Amtrak if they use imagination and action. They’re talking 1,000 acres for the Foxconn plant site alone, let alone what might happen regarding ancillary suppliers.
And goodness gracious…dust on the grill, a catastrophe in the making. They should live in Phoenix or other desert clime for awhile.