I was born after it was renamed bu I still comsider it Northwestern Station :D
CSSHEGEWISCH It would appear to me that UP has less of a freight curfew in the PM rush than BNSF. I ride the UP West Line occasionally (the grandkids live in Elmhurst) and I've seen some inbound freights while riding on a 5:13 departure from North Western Station to Elmhurst.
It would appear to me that UP has less of a freight curfew in the PM rush than BNSF. I ride the UP West Line occasionally (the grandkids live in Elmhurst) and I've seen some inbound freights while riding on a 5:13 departure from North Western Station to Elmhurst.
In answer to CSSHEGEWISCH (I'm including this notation because it no longer appears possible to reliably quote prior notes in a reply due to the recent website upgrades), my info is that the BNSF doesn't have as tight a curfew as UP. Nonetheless, it's not surprising you might see some freight activity, if the UP dispatchers think they can fit some traffic in. I note, for example, that you saw inbound freights during the evening rush. Because UP doesn't normally use the center track for Metra passenger trains on the West Line and runs left handed, inbound freights during the evening rush can currently move all the way into Proviso without interefering with any trackage used by the outbound rush hour parade.
One of the things the upgrade is supposed to do is to to expand the triple track on the West Line and allow all three tracks to be used for all types of traffic (more like the BNSF Aurora line now operates). That can't be done now because of lack of an adequate number of power crossovers to support such an operation.
In response to HarveyK400, the west line project is about more than new signals. The project includes additional crossovers, including triple tracking the segmetnts through Geneva and Maywood that are currently double track. It also includes station changes to allow trains to pass each other without stopping for unloading passenger trains, which is currently a major issue on this line. All of these changes, taken together, are supposed to creat new capacity on the line, and reduce the need for freight curfews.
Last week I rode out to Elburn. Intermediate signals between West Chicago and Wheaton are operational. These are spaced a mile apart at 25.6, 26.6, 27.6 & 28.6. Signals from east of College Av through Finley Rd, Lombard are installed but not cut in and don't have the ID plate. Little if any track or signal work could be seen around where the crossovers would be located or east through Villa Park.
Sorry I can't embed my photos like KP. Microsoft licensing doesn't extend to the replacement hard-drive;and I'll be darned to buy it all over again.
I'm old and lucky enough to remember seeing the UP domes on the C&NW at Maywood waiting for a bus and from the Churchill forest preserve in Glen Ellyn while fishing.
Be that as it may, if new signals can be seen, the UP and Metra are going to some considerable, I think unnecessary, expense for wayside signals; but maybe there's a new rule.
Sadly, from that dark day in 1955 to the beginning of Amtrak, Overland Route (City) trains ran on the Milwaukee to Union Station.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
But when the "overland" trains ran to Union instead of NW, they came to Chicago on the Milwaukee and not the C&NW.
I noticed today that some of the new signals are working on the Metra UP West line today.
DeggestyI have trouble remembering that horrible name, and think of it as the Northwestern Station.
North Western, please! (Two words, with a space)
schlimm I noted an error in the story. All Metra UP lines go to Ogilvie Transporation Center (horrible name), not Union Station.
I noted an error in the story. All Metra UP lines go to Ogilvie Transporation Center (horrible name), not Union Station.
I have trouble remembering that horrible name, and think of it as the Northwestern Station.
Johnny
It's still North Western Station to me.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=373892
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