Agreed! I so enjoy reading about and seeing photos of the massive railroad projects that took place in the teens and twenties. Flush with cash and engineering skills, improvements like cutoffs, tunnels, line extensions, new lines, signaling, electrification and terminals were built that were astonishing in their scale and promise.
In July 1991, my family and I arrived at Union Station in Chicago on Amtrak's Cardinal. We were going to ride the commuter train out to Des Plains to spend time with my aunt and uncle. We dragged our baggage over to the old C&NW station to catch the train. Walked right past that chrome and glass monstrosity looking for the old depot. Did not realize you had to walk through it to get to the old station platforms which were still there. Finally figured it out and caught a train. Here my two kids and I are looking down from the upper level of the double-decker commuter car.
Probably supposed to express some sort of imaginative concept, etc, etc. Yawn. Looks like a pile of old broken mirrors- junky.
That's a great shot! Your kids are having a great time. I'd forgotten about the ticket holders I circled for riders in the gallery. The Conductor could simply reach up, pull the ticket, punch it and put it back in place. In many hundreds of rides, I don't think I ever sat downstairs. It was just more fun upstairs.
C&NW station at Arlington Heights, IL in the mid-1970s, in triple-track commuter territory on the Harvard Sub of the Wisconsin Division. I think (but am not sure) that this station was demolished in favor of a larger station I see in modern photos.
A beautiful photograph from a time when many of us were just teenagers. I see what I believe to be a 1965 Ford at the curb, one of which I had in the seventies (a gift from my grandparents) until it was totaled in an accident in 1978. In spite of its idiosyncracies (the gas pedal bracket was attached to the floor pan with sheet metal screws), I liked that car. Doug
Yeah, there are some beautiful glass and steel buildings but that is definitely NOT one of them. Doug
Not sure if I've posted this one before. Two GP-7s (1562 and 1641) are on the double track main at Barrington, IL. The crossing of the EJ&E is at left just beyond the signal. You can barely see Barrington Tower just beyond. The weed grown track in the foreground is a rarely-used connection between the two roads.
Looks like a troubled loco, by the open door near the back, and the guy looking at it from the ground...?