A Day on the ‘L’

I've loved trains ever since I was a little kid. I have no clue why – it goes back as long as I can remember.

From an early age, my parents fed this fascination by taking my brother and I to the Illinois Railway Museum. It's an awesome place – the largest railway museum in the United States. They have lots of railroad equipment from a variety of eras, and many pieces operate on their demonstration railroad. It's located in Union, Illinois, about 75 minutes Northwest of Chicago. If you're ever looking for something to do in the area, I highly recommend it.

Last weekend I had the immense pleasure of attending a museum trip where they chartered a CTA train made up of 2200 series cars, the oldest cars still in service on the 'L' system (built in 1969-70). This was a fundraiser to help purchase and transport two 2200 series cars to the museum, as the CTA will be scrapping them later this summer.

We spent the entire day (10 hours) riding around nearly the entire 'L' system. Our tour guides pointed out all kinds of facts about the neighborhoods and the train route. For someone like myself who loves trains and local history, it was an amazing experience.

For anyone who's interested, I'm happy to share the photos I took. They're all geotagged and most have lengthy comments so you'll know what you're looking at. Enjoy!