July 25, 2024:

 

            I got up and got dressed. I had some of the cereal bars. I then got my stuff together and walked to the bus stop. I caught a route #84 bus to the Peterson/Ridge Metra station. I bought a ticket to Waukegan as that is where I would be meeting Karl. While waiting for my train, I photographed a few Metra trains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            My Metra train arrived. I photographed it and filmed it pulling in.

 

 

            I boarded the train and we soon departed. I texted Karl to let him know I was on my way. Just before I got to Waukegan, I found out Karl would be an hour later. (I would have liked to have known that earlier! Oh well.)

 

            I decided to stick around and got off at Waukegan. I photographed my Metra train.

 

 

 

            I photographed the Union Pacific work train that Karl would be working on later.

 

 

 

 

            I always liked seeing freight trains with a caboose on the end since I was a kid. I was saddened when cabooses started disappearing in the early 1990s. So it’s a treat to see a train with a caboose on the end; even if it’s just a shoving platform.

 

            I went to a park near the marina. It was a pleasant area. I received a text from Karl saying he’d be there around 10:20 am. I made my way back to the Metra station and photographed my train as it prepared to return to Chicago.

 

 

            I went between the park and the Metra station until Karl arrived. Shortly after Karl arrived, we were joined by another friend of Karl’s he hadn’t seen in awhile.

 

            Karl walked over to his train which has a single locomotive; Union Pacific SD70M #5200. Karl let me follow him. He mentioned the engineer was a good guy. I photographed #5200.

 

 

            We then walked over to the caboose which was repainted into Missouri Pacific colours. The Missouri Pacific was a smaller railroad that was taken over by Union Pacific in 1982. It is one of six fallen flag railroads represented with Union Pacific’s heritage locomotives.

 

            Prior to the repaint, Karl mentioned it was painted in maintenance of way orange and looked ugly. Some railroad workers brought cans of paint and eventually repainted the caboose. I would like to see the caboose paired with Union Pacific’s Missouri Pacific heritage unit but don’t know if it will happen.

 

            This reminded me of some pictures I had seen on CSX. While they are painting GEVOs into heritage liveries (with the cab still being in CSX colours) some Geeps have had their noses painted as unofficial heritage units. I wonder if these units were done as an inside job.

 

            Regardless, I photographed the caboose.

 

 

            Karl and I talked about what happened since I last saw him in 2013 for the CTA 2200 charter. I mentioned how the Scarborough RT line in Toronto had shut down last year a few months early after a derailment sent five people to the hospital. I mentioned that Halton County plans to acquire a car from the line and Detroit is buying 18 cars from the line for the Peoplemover which uses similar cars. While the TTC cars are older, they were rebuilt a few years ago and so are in better condition than their current fleet.

 

            This reminds me how Sault Ste. Marie Transit was going to rebuild their Orion 6s but they saw Ottawa was retiring their Orion 6s and the Ottawa units were in better condition so they bought some buses from Ottawa.

 

            Another potential acquisition by the Halton County Radial Railway is PCC #4601 from the Michigan Transit Museum. This was the car that I met Karl in order to visit on my quest to visit all 19 PCCs. If this goes through, the Halton County Radial Railway Museum would have my three childhood favorite PCCs though they’ve had one before I was born. However, I don’t know if #4601 will be a parts car or if it will be restored. Hopefully the car is restored.

 

            Karl had mounted an SBU onto the rear of the caboose. I heard from Karl that the plan was for #5200 to pick up five gondolas on a side track, recouple to the six cars #5200 was coupled to when I got there, then follow a Metra train out. I eventually left and took some photos of the switching move.

 

 

 

            I filmed Karl’s train pulling past me. I liked that it had a caboose on the rear. I took one more photo of the train.

 

 

            I could have filmed Karl’s train heading out but I would have had to wait an hour for the next Metra train. I decided to take the Metra train before. I photographed a CNW bay window caboose on a siding.

 

 

            I photographed an inbound Metra as it went out of service and went into the yard.

 

 

 

 

            My Metra train soon arrived. It had originated in Kenosha. I photographed it before I got on.

 

 

            I boarded the cab car and the train soon departed. I rode to the Ogilvie Transportation Center. I got off and took some photos.

 

 

 

            I had lunch at the food court in the Ogilvie Transportation Center. After lunch I walked down Clinton to a rail crossing. I photographed an inbound Amtrak Hiawatha train.

 

 

            I photographed a few Metra trains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            I then photographed Metra SD70MAC-H #501 as it passed without any coaches.

 

 

            I photographed an outbound Hiawatha. I saw it had the same coaches as the train I filmed earlier.

 

 

            I photographed an inbound Metra train with an ex Amtrak West F59PHi still in Amtrak colours.

 

 

 

            I then photographed Metra’s Milwaukee Heritage unit on an inbound train.

 

 

 

            I photographed some more Metra trains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            I then photographed a Metra train with an ex GO Transit F59PH.

 

 

            I photographed some more Metra trains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

            I photographed the Milwaukee heritage unit again.

 

 

            I then photographed two more Metra trains.

 

 

 

            I then walked back to the Clinton station on the Green/Pink lines. I rode one stop south to Clark and Lake and transferred to the Brown line. I boarded a Brown line train to Chicago station.

 

            I was going to ride CTA’s electric buses. According to Transsee which I use to check which vehicles are on which routes said there were some running on route #66 which stops at Chicago station on the Red, Brown, and Blue lines. The Brown line stop was in the middle so I could ride a bus to either the Red or Blue lines whichever came first.

 

            Transsee also showed CTA D40LF #1122 was also in service. #1122 is the number of my favorite GO fishbowl. I thought it would have been nice to ride. However #1122 was running on a route in the south side of Chicago. Both Karl and Greg have warned about the south side being dangerous due to high crime rate. This has kept me out of the south side and I decided that a D40LF wasn’t worth putting me at risk of mugging or worse. The crime rate is what’s keeping me from riding the El in its entirety as there are some parts of the Red and Green lines that I have yet to ride. If I knew I could go with a 100% nothing bad, I would as in addition to riding D40LF #1122 and riding the El in its entirety, I would like to visit the intersection of State and 61^st as it was the scene of the worst accident involving a PCC streetcar.

 

            In 1950 when Chicago still had streetcars a Green Hornet PCC streetcar numbered 7078 was traveling south on State Street. At State and 63^rd, an underpass had been flooded so streetcars were being short turned two blocks north. The person driving PCC #7078 didn’t know of this arrangement and was traveling pretty quickly. When the car hit the switch that would have sent it into the loop, it derailed due to excessive speed. The streetcar then collided with a gasoline tanker which burst into flames which spread to the streetcar and nearby buildings. Some people were killed by the impact, but others were killed because the doors on the streetcar opened inward and the crush of people forced them closed. However some people did escape the streetcar. Another factor in the high death toll was that there had been bars installed on the outside of the windows to prevent passengers from sticking arms/heads out the window. In all, 33 people were killed in this crash.

 

            This accident is known as the Green Hornet Streetcar disaster. My late friend Greg’s mother had just missed the streetcar involved in the accident. If she hadn’t then Greg might not have been born four years later. There is no memorial to the lives lost at the site of the accident. Still, I would like to visit the sight of the crash if I could do it safely.

 

            When I got to Chicago, I waited for an electric bus to come. While waiting I photographed various buses and El trains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Eventually, I saw an electric bus in the distance. I went to the bus stop and photographed Proterra electric bus #607 before I got on.

 

 

            I rode the bus to the Chicago Blue line station. I got off and photographed the bus.

 

 

            I filmed the bus pulling away and went into a nearby store. I went to the Blue line and photographed a train of 7000 series El cars before I got on.

 

 

            I rode to the Illinois Medical District station. I got off and photographed the train.

 

 

            I filmed the train pulling away. I then left and walked past the hotel I stayed at last time. I walked to Polk station on the Pink line. I photographed the Willis tower.

 

 

            I photographed a couple Pink line trains including the train that would take me to the Loop.

 

 

 

            I boarded the front car and the train departed. I filmed the area that looked festive when I was in Chicago last November. It looked more like a street festival now. As we passed the Transportation Center I attempted to photograph Metra’s Chicago Northwestern heritage unit.

 

 

            I rode to Washington/Wells station and got off. I walked to Millennium Park. I photographed the Bean which is one of Chicago’s landmarks.

 

 

            I figured my late friend Greg would be satisfied as this was one non transit thing I did in Chicago. I bought dinner and walked to the State and Lake El station. I boarded a Brown line train and rode to Western. I got off at Western and photographed the train.

 

 

 

            I was going to film the train but the driver gave me crap about not wanting to be filmed. I repositioned and filmed the train pulling away. I saw that cars 2601 and 2602 were the last cars on the train. They are the first two 2600s and are the oldest cars in service with the retirement of the 2200s and 2400s in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

 

            I went downstairs to catch a bus to my hotel. After several minutes I learned the last bus on the route that runs past my hotel has stopped running for the day. Fortunately I had a backup. I took a bus on route #49 to Peterson and then transferred to the route #84. I then headed back to my hotel.

 

            I went online and chatted with Karl. He had also seen the Chicago and Northwestern Metra heritage unit while at work. After awhile I went to the CVS across the street. I eventually called it a night.

 

Click to read about the next day and when I headed off to IRM:   Chicago and IRM