A heartwarming story...

[eolafan]

A really BIG thumbs up to METRA for a simply wonderful expression that reassures me that even in these cold and impersonal days a public agency like METRA can exhibit a bit of a heart. Way to go METRA. I will save my goose bumps for when I next see loco number 401 on the tracks.

[Anonymous]

That gave me goose bumps from head to toe, God bless you Ollie, and you to Metra.

[dharmon]

That was a very cool thing to do.

[CShaveRR]

I saw this on the UTU site before I came here--I, too, had tears in my eyes when I got to the end of it. Metra does have a reputation for doing the right thing when possible.

[Anonymous]

That is truley a touching thing.

[gabe]

I think I am going to go make a donation to make a wish foundation after I stop crying.

[Anonymous]

Metra train delivers on boy's dream
CHICAGO -- When Oliver "Ollie" Tibbles was 4 years old, he announced to his mother that he wanted to be a train someday, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"I said, `Don't you mean you are going to be a train conductor?'" his mother, Debi, recalled.

No, Ollie replied in a loud voice, shaking his head vigorously. He was going to be a train.

A little more than a year after he died of a brain tumor, Ollie's wish has come true.

Metra announced Saturday that it had named locomotive No. 401 after the train-loving little boy, marking the first time the commuter rail agency has named a train engine after a child.

On Tuesday, the Oliver "Ollie" Tibbles train will make its inaugural run on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line, departing Union Station at 5:04 p.m. and running express to the Main Street station in Downers Grove, Ollie's hometown.

Commuters may not know about the special run, but the Tibbles family--his parents, 11-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister--will be there, watching Ollie's wish come true. His father, Peter Tibbles, said he may take the train home from work.

For Debi Tibbles, the gesture is not only a wonderful tribute to her son, who rode the same Metra route on a Make-A-Wish Foundation trip in 2003, but also a lasting memory as the locomotive travels the region for the next 30 to 50 years.

"That's going to be like the rest of my lifetime that the train is going to run," she said. "Even as my children grow old and have children on their own, they can take their children to see this engine and talk about their brother."

Metra has named several locomotives after towns on its routes, but only on rare occasions has it named one after a person. The agency was approached several months ago about naming one for Ollie, whose passion for trains was more than a child's fancy with Thomas the Tank Engine.

In addition to a bedroom full of train sets and pajamas with train prints, Ollie had a subscription to adult train magazines--even though he couldn't read--and even watched educational videos on how to assemble a train engine.

On trips to Children's Memorial Hospital, where he sought treatment for the brain tumor he was diagnosed with at age 5, his imagination turned mere stripes on the floor into railroad tracks that he would "ride" to the elevators.

"He was completely and utterly fascinated by the whole aspect of trains," his mother said. "If he was old enough to go on his own, he would have been on the platform with binoculars, train spotting and recording all the names."

Metra officials first learned of Ollie more than two years ago when the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois arranged for him to ride in a locomotive on the Burlington Northern. Though Ollie wanted to be a train, he also was thrilled at the thought of being a train engineer, according to Jessica Miller, a spokeswoman for the foundation.

Clad in pinstripe overalls embroidered with the words "junior engineer," Ollie traveled in a limousine on a spring day in 2003 from his home to Union Station, where he and David Hood, star of the children's video "There Goes a Train" climbed aboard for a ride to Downers Grove.

Though gravely ill, Ollie tooted the train whistle. When he arrived, hundreds of people welcomed him by waving red bandanas. His mother had to carry him from the train.

Ollie died in March 2004 at age 7. His family has remained involved with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but when Debi Tibbles was asked to speak at the group's black-tie fundraiser on Saturday night, she hesitated. Then she learned it was at Union Station, saw the train motif on the invitation, and knew she had to go.

She had no idea what Metra had planned.

She spoke about her son, his love of trains and his memorable ride that April 2003 day. But then she was left speechless.

Metra Chairman Jeffrey Ladd announced that he had a secret to share with her. Showing a video of Metra staff affixing a light blue decal to the locomotive, Ladd told her it had been named for her son. Then he led the family to the tracks to see and touch the Oliver "Ollie" Tibbles locomotive.

"It's truly, truly amazing," Debi Tibbles said Monday, still reeling from the honor. "Words can't describe enough how much it means to us all."

(This item appeared May 24, 2005, in the Chicago Tribune.)