SWEET HOME CHICAGO

[sniper297]

Warning, lots of pictures. Spring Vacation for the critters the week before last, Mike and I took advantage of the break to do some home-town touristing. Like most downtown trips, we start on the Lake Street EL (CTA "Green Line"), watching the Metra and UP trains while waiting at the EL station;

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Looking back at Tower 18 after crossing Lake & Wells;

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Quincy & Wells is the only original station in the loop that was preserved and restored to it's 1890s glory;

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And it's only a few blocks from Sears Tower, ah, lessee, here it is;

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So when train nuts go to the Sears Tower skydeck, what do we look at? Trains, of course! Assorted commuter and Amtrack routes going north, northwest, and west;

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More Metra and Amtrack routes;

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Well, that was fun, couple days later we went down to the Museum of Science and Industry, 55th and Lake Shore Drive, to look at the new indoor Pioneer Zephyr exhibit and take an imaginary time travel ride in 1934;

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The primary reason we went was to look at the new 3 million dollar HO scale train layout;

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Gotta wonder how long it took to build that HO scale Sears Tower.
Downtown Chicago in HO, here's the EL train;

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Metra, "The Way To Really Fly";

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Using the classic selective compression, they even got the Rocky Mountains into the Prairie State;

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Hard to get a good angle for any kind of overall shot, let's go up to the gallery;

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Can't these guys hang 1/72nd scale models over the layout intead of full size aircraft?! Oh well, here's a better view;

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There's also assorted other train stuff to look at, as much as I love my new raildriver I wanna take this home and hook it up to MSTS!

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[IcyFire]

RE: SWEET HOME CHICAGO

Nice Pictures, Jim
Thanks for sharing them, I'll Have to remember to visit Chicago sometime, somehow, I'd like to see the sears tower in person sometime

[shadowr434]

RE: SWEET HOME CHICAGO

Great pics Jim.

[BNSF1959]

RE: SWEET HOME CHICAGO

Great Pictures Sniper! I should take a ride down to the Museum of Science and Industry someday. I always wanted to see that new HO scale layout they have and you can walk in the rebuilded CBQ Pioneer Zeypher. I wonder if they still have the BNSF or ATSF O scale layout. Thanks for the preview!


Ken ;-)
Muschka Activity Works

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(F-Units are courtesy of Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society)

[sniper297]

RE: SWEET HOME CHICAGO

Ride down from where? You live in the Chicago area?
Answer to your question, no, the old O gauge layout is gone, this is in its place. It covers more area (subjectively, when I was a kid that layout seemed huge, but this looks even bigger!), and Mike and I spent almost 2 hours just walking around it watching dozens of trains running simultaneously. Worth the trip and the $8 buckazoids per person for the model railroad alone, IMAO.

[BNSF1959]

RE: SWEET HOME CHICAGO

>Ride down from where? You live in the Chicago area?

I live in the southwest of Chicago (see my profile).

>Answer to your question, no, the old O gauge layout is gone,
>this is in its place. It covers more area (subjectively,
>when I was a kid that layout seemed huge, but this looks
>even bigger!)

Same here. I used to see the famous Santa Fe El Captian passenger train running simultaneously in the older days.

> Worth the trip and the $8 buckazoids per
>person for the model railroad alone, IMAO.

Then I should really take a ride there soon. My neighbor would like to go there, too.

BTW, There is pictures and story in the June issue of Model Railroader magazine. I just got it in the mail today and it's spread over 12 pages. It also showed old O scale layout. I will read up on.

Edit; the last paragragh

Ken ;-)
Muschka Activity Works

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(F-Units are courtesy of Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society)