A Great Train Journey

Part Two

All Rail Train Travel Across USA

by

Robin Bowers

September 13 2023

Wednesday

Chapter Fifteen

Text and Photos by Author

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent

Comments are appreciated at...yr.mmxx@gmail.com

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Train ride

Interior views of Metra Electric (former Illinois Central Suburban) Van Buren Street Station.

The building was designed and built by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1896 for their suburban line trains. It also serves trains of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transit District (South Shore Line). It is an underground station that is within the confines of Grant Park. It is the oldest surviving train station in Chicago.

Looking North.



Looking South.



Pic # 5

Platform view for tracks 2 and 3. Beyond the platforms are former tracks used by Illinois Central freights going to the South Water Street freight terminal. The yard was closed in the 1970s and developed into high rise offices. condos and apartment buildings that line Wacker Drive along the south side of the Chicago River between Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue.

Museum of Science and Industry

The building that houses the Museum of Science and Industry was built for the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition and was the Palace of Fine Arts Building. It was the only building constructed as a permanent building for the Fair and it is the only surviving building that remains at the Fair's location in Jackson Park.
After the Fair closed, the building housed collections left from the fair. It eventually became known as the Field Museum of Natural History. Retail magnate Marshall Field was the main contributor. The Field Museum moved out in 1920 leaving the building vacant.
During this time, a movement started to create a science museum. Sears chairman Julius Rosenwald was the founder and main contributor to converting a museum in the former Place of Arts Building. Even though he refused to have his name put on the building, the museum was informally called the Rosenwald Industrial  Museum. The name Museum of Science and Industry was formally adopted in 1928. The new Museum of Science and Industry held its initial opening during the A Century of Progress International Exhibition in 1933. The A Century pf Progress International Exhibition was a world's fair that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the City of Chicago. It was also know as the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

Zephyr 9900 The Pioneer Zephyr at the entrance to the Museum of Science and Industry. The train was built by Budd for the Burlington in 1934. It was the second streamlined train to enter service after Union Pacific's M-10000. The train's Dawn to Dusk dash between Denver and Chicago set a speed record traveling at an average of 78 MPH. It was the inspiration for the original Silver Streak movie which featured the train. Zephyr 9900 was retired in 1960 and donated to the Museum

Locomotive Zephyr 9900

Train Diagram. A diagram of the train which consisted of a power unit-Railway Post Office-Baggage combination (number 9900), a baggage-buffet-20 chair car seats (number 505) and a 20 chair car seat-12 seat observation lounge (number 570)

Interior view observation section of car 570.

Pic # 10

10. The museum's transportation wing featuring a United Airlines 727, New York Central steam engine 999, a space capsule, and a German Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber

New York Central 999 Empire State Express and a space capsule

German Junkers Ju 87 World War II dive bomber

The Great Train Story. This is a 3,500 square foot HO scale model railroad layout of the BNSF between Seattle and Chicago. Buildings shown here are Chicago Union Station and the Crain Communications Building. When it opened in 1984 it's original name was Associates Center. Other names have been the Stone Container Building and the Stone Smurfit Building. Chicago based Crain Communications in March, 2012,

Pic # 15

Chicago city view. The black building is the Willis (Sears) Tower. The tall tan building in the right background is the Colgate Palmolive Building.

Chicago Union Station

Great Northern passenger train

Truss Arch Bridge.






Pic # 20



Small town scene.



Unknown station.

Container Ship at the Harbor Island container facility

Seattle skyline.
 The dark building is Columbia Center and the building with the pointed top is Smith Tower.

Pic # 25

The Seattle waterfront and skyline. The elevated highway is the Alaskan Way Viaduct, It was replaced by the State Route 99 Tunnel which opened in 2019. The viaduct was torn down in 2020 opening up new views along the waterfront. The building behind the crane is King Street Station.

One of the mobile cranes unloading a container at BNSF Stacy Yard. Press the button and watch the crane work at unloading the container.

    King Street Station and the Smith Tower. King Street Station opened in 1906 serving the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads. The clock tower was modeled after St. Mark's Campanile de San Marco tower in Venice, Italy. After World War II, as passenger traffic declined several attempts at modernization were made. Despite these the station deteriorated until it became an eyesore. In 1971, Amtrak chose King Street Station as its Seattle terminal. In 2006, the City of Seattle acquired the station from BNSF Railway for $10 and renovation began. Renovations included repairing the clocks and clock tower, removal of the drop ceiling and restoring the chandeliers. The restored building opened in April, 2013. In 2000, the two bypass tracks were converted into platforms for use by Sounder commuter trains with new tracks constructed for BNSF freight trains. Today, King Street Station hosts Amtrak Cascade trains to Portland and Eugene, OR and Vancouver, BC, the Empire Builder and Coast Starlight as well as Sounder commuter trains.

    Smith Tower was built starting in 1911, opening in 1914 and named after typewriter magnate Lyman Smith (Smith Corona typewriters) It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until eclipsed by the 1931 Power and Light Building in Kansas City but remained as the tallest building on the West Coast until eclipsed by the Space Needle which in turn was eclipsed by Columbia Center. Smith Tower still uses elevator operators and has an observation deck on it's top level offering 360 degree views of Seattle. The pointed top is a private residence.

The Space Needle which was built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair in Seattle, WA.

The Seattle skyline from the waterfront

Pic # 30

Logging in the Pacific Northwest

A Chicago Scene.

A representative of one of Chicago's Metra commuter train

A typical Chicago railroad scene with a Meta commuter train, different types of freight trains and an Amtrak long distance passenger train

A Metra commuter train

Pic # 35

The location where the Chicago River spits into the North and South Branches. The area is known as Wolf Point and was the first settlement in Chicago. Shown is Upper and Lower Wacker Drives and the Nuveen Building

Chase Tower, the former First National Bank of Chicago building.

Willis (Sears) Tower and the statue on top of the Chicago Board of Trade Building is an aluminum three story tall Art Deco statue of Ceres, the Goddess of Agriculture.

The elevated tracks along Wabash Avenue

    Union Station. Designed by Daniel Burnham, the station opened in 1925. It was owned by the Pennsylvania, Milwaukee Road and Burlington Railroads. The Chicago and Alton (later Gulf Mobile and Ohio) was a tenant. It was built as a two ended stub terminal. Trains of the Pennsylvania, Burlington, and GM&O use the south tracks while trains of the Milwaukee Road use the north tracks. A concourse connected the two sets of tracks. The building was managed by the Chicago Union Station Company with each railroad having a 1/3 ownership in the company (The GM&O was a tenant had had no ownership rights). Passenger trains of the New York Central moved into the station in 1968 as a result of the Penn Central merger. With the advent of Amtrak, passenger trains of the Santa Fe and Illinois Central moved into the station in 1972 when Amtrak consolidated all of its passenger trains into a single station. In 1969, the concourse was demolished to make way for a high rise office building called 222 South Riverside Plaza.

Pic # 40

An Amtrak train departs Union Station

The Vortex. A water vapor tornado that opened in 2010 as part of the Science Storm exhibit

Baby chickens exhibit. This exhibit was opened in 1956 to show eggs being hatched into baby chicks in an incubated setting. It is part of the Genetic: Decoding Life exhibit

Pic # 45

I'm not sure what this is, but in the upper right is one of the Type R "Mystery Ships". This one is "Texaco 13".

These were a series of wire braced low wing airplanes built in the 1920s and 1930s by the Travel Air Company. They got the name "Mystery Ships" because the first three were built in complete secrecy.

Fin