…and I saw some interesting stuff. Many thanks to Carl for showing me around on Saturday morning. Maybe you can help me remember where I took these first couple photos – I remember we went to LaGrange and Elmhurst but can’t remember what I saw where!
Had a load of fun getting home; got stuck in a nasty snowstorm, at one point taking 78 minutes to get 2 miles. Finally arrived home a day later than planned and work called almost immediately to ask if I could take a trip to Toledo, which I did…I got home around 8 this morning and have had about an hour of sleep. [:D]
Metra train leaving a station (train is moving away from camera)
UP train with a neat bell
CN engine I saw in Flossmoor, IL…it is one of those covered up ones without outside walkways, I haven’t seen one of those before (well I did see 2 CSX ones once).
Boxcar I saw in Homewood, IL
And a couple other weird things I saw not related to trains:
Most bizarrely named store I’ve ever seen
Um, if you can’t remember what CITY you left your car in, you have a problem…
(Actually, this parking garage was in downtown Chicago and each floor was named after a different city. I still thought the sign was hilarious.)
The first two photographs (Metra and UP) were taken at Elmhurst, Illinois. It was a pretty mad whirlwind tour of the area!
Just as funny as the parking lot sign is the CTA announcement for Chicago Avenue on the Red Line: “This is Chicago!”. Then, “This is GRAND!” (Just Grand!)
Beside being green with envy for you ability to get great photos, I can tell you the Metra train and the UP engine were probably at Elmhurst. (UP-ex C&NW). In LaGrange, the trains would be on the “right” track.
Also rode Metra Electric, formerly the Illinois Central’s suburban service from Homewood for many years. As a former IC employee, I suppose I should mumble something about “ferners” invading us with their wierd locomotives. One learns very quickly to carefully note the location of the car, or spend the better half of a lifetime walking up and down ramps.
What… no South Shore pics ??? Snow be damned ! Get the catenary with ice and snow on and whatch the fire fly !
Randy
BTW … Zach these are the CN SD- 50 fs that I had so much fun with!
Nora, glad to have had you in our town and that you had a good time. Sorry about your trouble getting home, sounds like you got stuck in the two foot snow in Northern Indiana around South Bend. They get a lot of snow down at the tip of Lake Michigan this time of the year…out here in Aurora (about 30 miles west of Chicago and about 1.5 hours drive from the snow storm) we got ZERO snow this weekend. Y’all come back to Chicago, 'ya hear!
The lake effect snow that hit Michigan City was unusually heavy but not too surprising. Northwest Indiana, western Michigan and the southeast corner of Chicago all get more snow due to winds over Lake Michigan. This snow has long had a major effect on South Shore Line schedules during the winter. Prior to the re-equipping of South Shore in 1980, schedules were trimmed drastically in the winter as the old orange cars were taken out of service for burned out traction motors and other electrical damage.
Too bad that you didn’t get to the Cicero Avenue overpass over Clearing Yard (just south of Midway). BRC power is a lot more straight vanilla than it used to be with remote GP38-2’s in pulldown duty and SD40/slug sets on the hump but it is still a fascinating place.
My favorite train announcement will always be at either Randolph or Van Buren Street stations: “South Bend train; Hegewisch, Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Michigan City and South Bend.”
Nora, Glad you had Fun, But you didn’t hit Navy Pier while you were in town? They have an Awesome Replicated Victorian station with model railroads running inside it right now.
