Segment 4: Galesburg, IL To Chicago, IL On Amtrak's California Zephyr

I woke up around 8:30am , had breakfast at the hotel restaurant (Pancakes, Sausage & Home Fries) and called a taxi to pick me up from here so I wouldn’t have to go through that ordeal again of lugging around my bags another half a mile!!!! I checked out of the hotel around 11:20am and my taxi arrived shortly after that, I got back over to the station in time to photograph the Eastbound Southwest Chief. After photographing the Chief, I waited inside the station for a bit until about 10 minutes before my train, #6 – The California Zephyr would arrive. At 1:01pm , running about 55 minutes late, the California Zephyr arrived with P42’s #71 and 84 for power. The consist for today's train is shown at the bottom of this page.
I was seated in Superliner I Smoker Coach #31513, I noticed that the downstairs smoking room had a note on the door along with duct tape covering it up saying that it was closed. This really doesn’t matter to me because I don’t smoke anyway. We left Galesburg at 1:04pm , running 58 minutes late. I went over to the Sightseer Lounge for a bit and met up with a retired commercial photographer from Michigan while I enjoyed a lousy Amtrak Hot Dog and Diet Pepsi. We discussed a lot about photography techniques for about a half hour, I also chatted with a few other younger passengers, we talked mostly about beer! I then went upstairs and met an artist and his daughter who were selling colored drawings of characters from The Wizard Of Oz, they were from Burlington, IA and both spent a fair amount of time coloring the pictures while we chatted. We stopped in Princeton, IL and let off a few passengers. Meanwhile, I took in the views of the heartland as we zipped by doing 80mph! At our stop in Naperville, the entire lounge car closed and we all headed back to our seats. I took a few more photos on the way into Chicago Union Station where we finally arrived at 4:30pm about 58 minutes late. Upon entering Union Station, I went over to the luggage lockers as I did yesterday and stored my luggage, this time, the machine wouldn’t take a $5.00 bill so I had to use my credit card to activate the locker which would end up costing $12.00 per day. I continued my “mission from God” today as I would go up in the Sears Tower to see Chicago the way it was meant to be seen, from about 1500 feet up!!! To see Chicago from a "bird's eye view", please click in the table at the bottom of this page...

Amtrak's California Zephyr - Tuesday, September 28th, 2004 - 68 Axles
Number:	Car/Engine Type:	Name:	Description:
71	P42DC		Power
84	P42DC		Power
1761	Heritage Baggage		Baggage Car
32050	Superliner I Sleeping Car		Sleeping Car
32078	Superliner II Sleeping Car	Illinois	Sleeping Car
32025	Superliner I Sleeping Car		Sleeping Car
38007	Superliner I Dining Car		Dining Car
33048	Superliner II Sightseer Lounge		Cafe/Lounge Car
31513	Superliner I Smoker Coach		Coach
31014	Superliner I Coach/Baggage		Coach
34016	Superliner I Coach		Coach
?????	Box Cars (2)		Box Cars
?????	ExpressTrak Reefers (3)		Reefer Cars
?????	Box Cars (1)		Box Cars