How Far Do You Think To The Next Gas Station?

Day 11 : 1st October 1996

“Can‘t see this working very well back home in Birmingham!”

Another bright, sunny morning and off we headed to Big Timber Road. This is the end shack of the ex Milwaukee road commuter route and it was here we encountered a very peculiar parking system. All the spaces in the lot have a number. At the platform are large cabinets with correspondingly numbered slots. You park, note your number and place a dollar in the corresponding slot. Later in the day someone comes and opens the cabinets and Talley’s the monies against the spaces. Bear in mind this is a deserted spot in the fields at the edge of an industrial park! The first comment that sprang to my mind “Can‘t see this working very well back home in Birmingham!”

Next train out was and F40C, but dud from the night before. Next train produced a standard F40 but we took it anyway for the long blast into Western Avenue. Here Barry and Smurf continued into Chicago while I doubled back to the car for a trip out. The purpose of this was to cut across for some line siding on Burlington Northern’s 3 track main line to Aurora (yes that Aurora) and after yet more crap map tomfoolery I finally stumbled upon it in the Hinsdale area.

At this time Burlington Northern had just Merged with The Santa Fe and the joint company had painted about 10 locos in an experimental “Joint” livery and a phot of one of these would be good. Marvellous, first train up had one on the front, not bad to get one of only 10 locos on a system that stretched from Chicago to almost every point some 2000 miles to the West.

At the Racetrack. BNSF GE and BN SD40 get an intermodal away to the West.

The BN “racetrack” as it’s know, was a great source of entertainment. Awash with freight and commuter trains it created some great phots, especially round the picturesque station at Highlands. Push pull commutes came and went, a freight with 12 locos up front, even Amtrak’s Eastbound California Zephyr put in an appearance with a mess of locos on the front.

Twelve locos up front. West bound from Lisle yard at Highlands.

On the last leg from the coast. The California Zephyr blasts through Highlands.

Time up and after a quick look around my employers local dealership it was another blunder through the suburbs to Wood Dale on the Elgin line for a scoot into Chicago to cover the evening outbounds.

Metra F40 125 slows for it’s stop at Hanson Park.

This provided a nice selection of the big F40Cs out through stops at Hanson Park and Galewood before a lull at Montclare brought on the idea that a swift beer might be in order. An approach to one of the commuters going to his car brought the response “a bar? Er, I think there’s one just round that corner, but I don’t know what it’s like, I just live round here!”. This speaks volumes for commuters the world over. The bar, as it turned out was quite good. It even had a local beer although the bar maid seemed unsure of exactly where in town the brewery was. If there was a fault, well, in a long thin bar a game of darts going on 2 ft past the back of your head is a bit disconcerting. Mind you, it’s no worse than a certain Irish pub in Poland where the door to the gents comes out between the dart player and the dart board. EEP!

Back at the station, a couple more locos up to Wood Dale and a long wait to pick up Barry and Smurf. A long drive later found them actually back at the Motel due to a mis-understanding. No matter still time for a quick beer.

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