Hi Everyone,
I will be taking a trip to Chicago and would like to know on which line there is more freight trains. Are there more freight trains on the old Santa Fe (Joliet, IL) or more freight trains on the old BN ( Hinsdale, IL). Any information would be helpful. Thanks!!
Joe
Hinsdale would be the better of the two I believe.
Ditto. the BNSF fasttrack has a greast display of engines. I go to Lisle every now and then (A METRA stop on the FASTTRACK) and the past two times have seen some very interesting tinngs. Best enjoyed if you spend a day their. Berwyn is better though. (LaVerenge Ave) on the fasttrack.
Ditto,with the view of the CN overpass.[;)] If you ever notice a 4 yr old with
an Adult in hand,it be me.[(-D] Berwyn also has an excellent Railroad Hobbyshop.
Hinsdale will probably have more trains, but not by much. One must also consider that the trains on that line will include a considerable number of Metra trains.
Joliet Union Station will have the BNSF Transcon line, the Rock Island Metra line (one train each way per hour), plus the CN line (with a number of Amtraks) and the Iowa Interstate (1 train each way per day).
If it were me…Joliet would be the choice. Not only for the number of trains, but for the variety. Plus, you have the UD Tower there.
ed
The Iowa Interstate is really that inactive?!?! WOW! That really sucks, I really thought it had more trains that that! WOW!
The Iowa Interstate is indeed more active than what was stated on the former RI now Metra
tracks to Joliet. I find their equipment(power) interesting.[:O] Worn out and absolete is not in their
vocabulary.
joliet is my favorite, but its dangerous there at nite, gangs. a railfan wandered off to the rr bridge and got stabbed 20 years ago. eola is a hot spot too.
Oh My G-d. That is terrible. I don’t want to affend anyone that lives in Joliet, but that is not a nice town. When mom was in her twenties, she worked for the correctional department as a councelor/worker placer. A worker placer is a person that places persons that get out of jail in work. She was at Romeoville States ville prison every other day, and always said to not go their. It was a scary place that had scums everywhere. then again that was then, and today, if what she said was not overexagurated (sorry for spelling) it has really cleaned up! [:)] Like I said, I don’t mean to offend anyone that lives in Romeoville or Joliet.
The Joliet Station had a security guard on duty last time I was there
during daylight hours. The upscale Resturant/Bar is a plus.
Hinsdale is great and is very, very safe and has lots of trains and variety of Metra, freight and Amtrak that Joliet does not, but Joliet is also great with lots of trains both freight and Metra and some Amtrak. You can not go wrong with either, but my personal vote goes to Hinsdale.
Hinsdale is great and far more accessible to me than Joliet. I would stop at Joliet if I were en route somewhere else, but probably would no longer consider it to be a destination. It’s gone downhill again, from what I hear (it was bad before they restored the station, and things were looking up for a while).
But why Hinsdale in particular? You get the same action in LaGrange and Naperville with the same or better amenities, and the gang allegedly assembles at Eola. Western Springs is almost as photogenic, as is Riverside–and LaVeregne has some great potential, but is a little far in for many of us suburbanites to visit regularly.
And if you want freights, head north to the UP main line. I’ll build a few for you, maybe!
At Eola’s west end (McClure Road), you get a lot of local mixed manifest trains that come into the yard from the west – like the 8 pm-ish evening local off Illinois Railnet. Plus, stuff going on and coming off the EJE and all of the Metra dinkies that don’t cross over at Fairview Avenue and return to CUS.
Probably the busiest location on the entire racetrack, IMHO.
Before we went off track it was one of two chioces.[:)]
I prefer Stone Av. myself,no long walk around the safety fence to cross the tracks.[;)]
Two small things, Glen Ellyn the BNSF line is known as the racetrack, not fasttrack. As far as the Joilet area, the downtown has improved a lot in the last 15 or so years since they put the riverboat in. I wouldn’t go too far east of the station, but other than that you should be fine.
Bert
Anywhere along the BNSF racetrack or the UP Geneva Sub west of Proviso Yard are good locations.
Locally (Aurora, IL), I have discovered an excellent location that is just east of Eola Yard/EJE bridge and just west of the Rt 59 Metra station behind a new building on Enterprise Ct. There is a grass lawn raised up @4-5 feet above the tracks that drops down to track level on either side of the property. The field on the other side of the tracks is wide open and it’s @3ft below track level. The view west on the BNSF is limited due to the EJE bridge; although you do get a nice view of the “J” traffic. The unrestricted view to the east is incredible. There is a slight curve that allows you to see @2,000+ feet of train at once. The best time to go is early evening just when the sun is starting to set.
I would provide a link to Google maps, but the building wasn’t there yet and I don’t have any photos.
CC
While I’d tend to agree that Hinsdale is the probably the recommended spot, don’t discount Joliet so quickly. The train station is a very safe spot and lends itself very well to rail photography especially in late afternoon/early evenings this time of year. There is quite a lot of rail traffic and despite what has been said it is pretty accessible from I-80. As for saftey, no worries during the daytime in my experience, they have cleaned the town up and done a lot of restoration work to the downtown area. It is not like it used to be. I’ve not had any run-ins at night either, but some of the bars and clubs have a bit of a rough and tumble notoriety.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Joliet for a NASCAR related celebrity softball game at Silver Cross Field where Joliet’s independent pro baseball team, the Jackhammer’s, plays. You can see both mainlines as well as the station from points within the ballpark and many palces your are eye-level or higher from the tracks. I saw 3 Amtrak trains, and about a dozen freights over a couple hours time. It was a blast.
Mike
Speaking of things that come in from the west, I’ve always been curious about something. What is the name of the branch that takes off from Eola, and the runs north along Rt. 25. I remember occasionally seeing a train on this line back in the days when I would head to school (Marmion) or hang out at the Red Oak Nature Center.
I never really followed that line at all, and don’t know much about it. Where does it terminate at, what are the major customers, how many trains a day does is see, etc?
Thanks in advance for any answers!
It is the route that used to go through Batavia to Turner Junction (now West Chicago) and tied in with the old Galena & Chicago Union RR (former CNW, now UP). It is the original “Aurora Branch Line” of the railroad of the same name that ran 12.5 miles of strap-rail track to West Chicago to connect the businesses of Aurora to downtown Chicago. The line was chartered February 12, 1849 and began operations Sept. 2, 1850. The Aurora Branch Line RR leased a locomotive – the Pioneer – from the G&CURR. The Pioneer was restored and currently is on exhibit in the Chicago Historic Museum.
The Aurora Branch Line RR next built tracks southwest from Aurora to Mendota, Ill. A group of investors in Galesburg had raised monies to bring a railroad to their town, and on February 15, 1851, the Central Military Tract Railroad was organized and a line was built northeast to Mendota, to meet up with the Aurora Branch Line – and ostensibly, Chicago.
In Quincy, Ill., the Northern Cross Railroad (first in Illinois) that ran between Quincy and the state capitol at Springfield built a line northeast to Galesburg. This three-tiered arrangement between the Mississippi River and Chicago later became the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy RR, better known as the Burlington Route.
In the 1860s the CB&Q was told it could no
I haven’t been there in about a year, but Joliet has the diamonds, and at least when I was there some UP traffic as well. The downtown has been extensively renovated from 20 years ago and is reasonably safe especially during the day. BNSF traffic there was largely stacks and intermodals. Trains slow down for the diamonds and it’s easy to get good pictures.
The BNSF racetrack has more variety, but freight traffic is minimal during the Metra rush hours. One difference between the line east of about LaGrange and west of there is speed. Riverside and Berwyn can be really interesting, but freights crawl through there at about 5 mph getting in or out of the Clyde yard. Out west of LaGrange they’re more likely to be ripping along at 50 mph.
I happen to like Lisle because of the big S-curves and the slight grades on either side of the DuPage river. Heavy freights come through with the dynamic brake fans screaming, or if they’ve gone through the crossovers, they’ll be working really hard getting back up to speed again. Westbound empty coal trains seem to really get rolling going downhilll toward the river.