Midweek Photos - 1/10/2018

A blast from the past.  Illinois was never a hotbed for RDC's, but they appeared on Amtrak's Blackhawk.  Here's a trio on the Illinois Central trundling through North Riverside in 1974:

Rusty

Thank you, Montclaire, for starting the thread. With the deep freeze we experienced last week, combined with a terrible knot in my back, I was unable to see any railroad action lately. 

I always look forward to advances in the streetcar preservation, along with the steam and historic diesel restoration. The week is off to a good start!

My girlfriend gave me an awesome Christmas/Birthday present this year consisting of train tickets and a hotel room in Chicago for a couple days.

I managed to find several train related things to do of course... 

Newer Siemens Amtrak locomotives outside of Union Station

We visited the Chicago History Museum, home of the 1840 Baldwin 4-2-0 "Pioneer" and Chicago "EL" car #1.  Both fascinating pieces of equipment from an earlier time.  The Baldwin is 57 years older than the 1897 Baldwin 4-4-0 I work on.  I always think of our locomotive as being a fairly early example of steam power, but this puts it into perspective how much longer steam locomotives have been around.

"EL" car #1 started life as a passenger car pulled behind Baldwin forney locomotives on the elevated railroad.  Not too much later it was converted to a self propelled electric car.

I hadn't been on an Amtrak train in at least 10 years, so it was pretty neat getting to see Union Station again.  We had a nice experience with the train this time and ended up being 20 minutes early to Chicago and only a few minutes late getting home.  I hadn't ridden the "Wolverine" since Amtrak purchased the Michigan line from NS several years ago and upgraded portions for 110+ mph.  Aside from my visit to France 19 years ago, this was probably the fastest I've ever gone on a train.