3 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

Part 2 of Chicago is our longer time in the city, starting from whenever the Empire Builder shows up on Sunday 7/19, through the official end of the Fest on early Tuesday afternoon 7/21 or upon your own departure from Chicago, whichever comes first. It includes any rides on Metra, CTA, O'Hare Airport Transportation, or any Amtrak points runs within the area. 

[KevinKorell]

Upon our late arrival on Sunday evening, we went to respective hotels, or in some cases, home.

 

Monday's day in Chicago went well.  We had the nice long run up from Union Station to Antioch on North Central Service.   8 of us started out from Union Station, and we became 9 when one more joined us on the outbound trip at Rosemont. On the return trip we got off at O'Hare Transfer, took an airport shuttle bus about a mile, and then rode the Airport Transportation System people mover end to end from Parking Lot E to Terminal 1.    Then it was time to hit the CTA, taking that monotonous trip downtown on the Blue Line to the Loop.  At Clark/Lake 7 of us transferred to the Green Line, while Don and Dave went to get lunch elsewhere.  The 7 who took the Green Line got off at Randolph/Wabash, and were met on the  street by Penny, making it 8 walking over to Millennium Station.  We had lunch in the station concourse, and then went to its comfortable waiting area.... to wait.  Penny chose to remain in town and would take the Mendota points run later.  We saw Don and Dave again at the station, but they decided to just stay there and take a later South Shore Line train back to Indiana. Steve and Roz met us there and would also join us for this trip.

 

And so it was 9 of us who took the afternoon Blue Island turn over two different lines.  We did the Metra Electric Blue Island branch outbound, carefully watching the time since this was a dangerous 10 minute scheduled turnaround for us.  The train did run a little late, and so when we got to Blue Island-Vermont Street, we had only 4 minutes left to cross Vermont Street and access the Blue Island express platform.  Had we missed it, we would have crossed over to the local platform on the other side of the station and taken the local, which would have taken much longer.  As it turned out, our Rock Island got back to LaSalle Street Station before 4:30, and we split up for the day, with several heading to Union Station to take their evening points run or go home.   I hope you all enjoyed your 4 minutes in Blue Island, IL !!

 

I am sure that somebody else will report on the points run, since I am currently positioned in my hotel in the Mag Mile section of Chicago doing my Fest trip laundry.

[pennyk]

Five of us decided to go to Mendota on a points run. We left CHI on time at 5:55pm on train 383, the Illinois Zephyr. We were able to sit together even though the train was fairly full. We lost about 10 minutes waiting for a freight and arrived in Mendota a bit late.

In Mendota, three of us scooted across the street for some very reasonably priced liquid refreshment.

Returning to Chicago, we took train 382, the Carl Sandburg, which departed 8 minutes late. After arriving back in Chicago pretty much on time, all 5 of us went separate ways either to different hotels or by taking a different mode of transportation to same hotel.

[KevinKorell]

We also had a total of 5 on the Glenview points run.  As folks had already begun to head home, a small number was not unexpected. It was a routine run both ways.  The outbound trip was on time, while the inbound left Glenview 7 minutes late and arrived Chicago 3 minutes down.  In between, lunch was two of us at Viccino's Pizza, and three at Grandpa's.