#Metra Electric

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

:3

There's a stairway to heaven and a highway to hell, but the midnight train goes anywhere. Trains are clearly the superior transit method.

[artistmacposts]

Metra 40th Anniversary Museum at the Metra Electric Randolph Station

[vagueconfusion]

chicago Union station tell me what track to expect my train on please. Please. oh my god.

[theinternetisaweboflies]

Art Institute Lion visits other Chicago landmarks

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

1500 Volt DC overhead power?

Train? :3

Choo choo!!!!

I love trains :D

[meerkatmandude]

Homewood Metra Station To Close During Stairway Replacement | Homewood, IL Patch

[artistmacposts]

Metra Electric Holiday Train... followed by a regular train #christmastrain

[fruitgoat]

Mapping/Routing the CTA

I'm still blaming @copperbadge for all of this.

As I am taking this trip in my mind, I have chosen to ignore a lot of the challenges the physical world brings.  Like road construction, neighborhood block parties, day of the week, trains that only stop there once a day in the opposite direction, buses that only run a few hours a day, the actual passage of time, etc.  This trip should not be attempted in the Real World – every route and stop apparently still exists, but you might need to wait hours if not days for the correct bus/train.  For the Extra Bonus Points of LOLs and Nostalgia I have included sections of the Metra (Milwaukee Districts North and West and South Shore Electric), Big Bus Tours, and the Water Taxi.

Again, do NOT try this route in Real Time.  Yet.  My ADHD brain may or may not get back to you in a few days on how long it would actually take just so we can all laugh at the idea of getting lost and being forced to sneak around and spend the night in a mattress store at the Golf Mill Shopping Center or whatever.  (Actually, that’s a hell of a meetcute.  I… I might need to go write something now….)

Starting at Linden.

Ride Purple Line to Howard.  Transfer to Yellow Line.

Ride Yellow Line to Dempster-Skokie. (Resist the muscle memory to catch the bus all the way to Deerfield. I really hated that commute.)

Bus to Morton Grove Metra.

Ride (MN) Metra to Mayfair.

Walk to Blue Line (Montrose).  Ride Blue Line to O’Hare.

Stretch legs and bathroom break.  Refill water bottle.  Refuel if needed.

Ride Blue Line back to Harlem. Bus to Fullerton.

Walk around my old neighborhood.  (I think the walk to Caputo’s is worth it, but maybe don’t buy any fresh squid if you’re getting back on the train.)

Ride (MW) Metra from Mont Clare to Grand/Cicero.

Bus to Blue Line (Montrose).  Ride Blue Line to Forest Park.

Bus to Green Line (Harlem/Lake).  Ride Green Line to Cottage Grove.  (I’m stopping along the way to visit family, get something to eat, and maybe nap while charging my electronics.)

Bus to Green Line (Ashland/63rd).  Ride Green Line to Garfield.

Walk to Red Line (Garfield).  Ride Red Line to Dan Ryan.  Hang Around Like An Idiot.  Ride Red Line to Lake.

Transfer to Pink Line.  Ride Pink Line to Cermak/54th, then back to Cicero.

Bus to Midway.  (Unhydrate.  Rehydrate.)  Ride Orange Line to Halsted.  Walk to River.  Or I think there’s a bus that’s just not showing up at the moment.

Water Taxi to West Loop.

Walk to Willis Tower.  (Bonus point for each instance of calling it Sears Tower.) Tour Bus to Museum Campus.

Metra Electric back to Millennium Park Station.

Walk to Washington/Wabash.  Ride Brown Line to Kimball.

Ride Brown Line back to State/Lake.  (Stop at Fullerton if it’s morning.  Walk to Orange and order the pancake flight and watch them fresh squeeze your citrus juice.  Walk to Molly’s if you like cupcakes.  Double Extra Bonus points if you pointedly reminisce about the Meatloaf Bakery when you pass where it was.  Crash a wedding at my old apartment building if you’re really bored. I really miss my neighborhood at the moment.)

Transfer to Red Line.  Ride Red Line to Howard.  (I’m going to stop at Granville for the Memories.  This was my first address in Chicago – even if I technically wasn’t supposed to receive mail because I wasn’t on the lease.)

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

Interesting a Married Pair with a front door

As you can see all these married pair Multiple Units have a door located on the face of each cab to facilitate movement between each unit

Also get some model trains

鉄コレ遠州鉄道2000形入線。

[moleshow]

something so beautiful about “metra electric district”. i think that’s the name of heaven

[20th-century-railroading]

IC No 6058 at University Park by Craig Sanders Via Flickr: I'm standing on the boarding platform of the Metra Electric station in University Park, Illinois. An Illinois Central freight led by an SD40 is working on the main track. April 9, 1998

[littlewestern]

since there's sadly no train out to union how do pioneer and 999 get to the irm?

Okay I've actually spent like, a considerable amount of time thinking about this because it neatly combines both my love of excessive detail and public transit and it's technically a trip I could do myself, which I find fascinating and fun to daydream about doing. Maybe one day I will.

So the Metra Electric 55th - 56th - 57th street stop is right across from the MSI so they'd take that up to Millennium Station and take a cab from there to Ogilvie Station which altogether is like... 30-45 minutes if traffic is really bad?

From Ogilvie they'd take the UP-NW line to... I think I decided Woodstock was the closest? It's about a 15 minute drive. Since this is all arranged ahead of time I just imagine someone is there to pick them up and take them out to the IRM.

On a weekday this whole thing is like 6 hours roundtrip BUT the hours are actually really flexible and if they left the IRM on the 9:30pm out of Woodstock they could potentially be back at the MSI by midnight on the dot. Totally doable. That old man might be dozy in his exhibit the next day though.

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

YES

the thing about me is that if you ever meet me in person you will find that i am extremely awkward and will probably try to show you wikipedia articles on my phone and tell you random things about trains and buses

[razorsadness]

the time period that’s heaviest on my mind is the final four months of 2003, August-December. it has been coming to me in flashes - Weakerthans songs, but just snippets of them, like I’ve found them briefly thru the radio static and then lost the channel. gray midwestern skies as seen thru the window of the Metra train. orange-red-yellow leaves glowing almost electric thru the gray. and when you’re standin on the fourteenth floor / you can always feel a building swayin. the cobalt-blue walls of my sometimes-bedroom. the couches and floors I often slept on. the various branches of the Chicago Public Library where I worked on my novel, did my schoolwork, wrote emails to my far-away loves; usually Merlo or Harold Washington. the cafes and bars I sat in, scribbling in my journal, writing paper letters, reading novels, reading zines written by friends. the cigarettes welded to my lips. how I was so lonesome, so sad, so free—in love with so many people but beholden to none of them, the whole world made me ache, my heart broke every day and I cried all the time but it was also one of the most intensely creative periods of my life. and of course, love. the girls and boys who made me cry, especially that unholy trinity—A., B., CT; Chicago, Cincinnati, Montreal.

[September 6, 2017]

[apoorconductor]

I put in my twitter bio a good while ago that I'd start "regular train builds coming soon", so today we're delivering on that promise with a new series: TTTT (The Thursday Twitter/Tumblr Train)! To start off: The EMD F40PH, my first stab at a diesel electric in MC, complete with Metra gallery cars

[transit-fag]

Rating Museums Transit Access:

The Field Museum in Chicago is about an 8 minute walk from the Metra Electric Museum Campus Station, trains stop there every 5 minutes

8/10, 1 point deducted for requiring people to walk under a highway to get there