Quincy, IL to Chicago – Burlington Comes Later – CB&Q – Get It? – Part 1

Part 1 – One of the goals of my trip was to visit Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy – the name sakes of the CB&Q railroad.

On August 12th 2023 before 6:00 AM, I headed over to the Quincy Amtrak Station to catch Amtrak 383, the Illinois Zephyr. The station was a quaint, and as I learned, a newer station. There was decent lighting and good parking, vending machines, and a waiting room. The weather was really nice, so I hung out on the platform with a few other passengers and a big toad.

While I was waiting, I wanted to the check out the Virtual Railfan Quincy Web Cam. I have been a big fan of Virtual Railfan for years with my favorite cams being La Plata, MO, and Fort Madison, IA. I have a dashboard at home that has 9 going at once! I was able to get a few pictures of me waiting for the train as well as boarding. That was pretty fun!

At 6:06, Amtrak 4613 SC-44 Charger built by Siemens Mobility for PMSC (Owned by the states MI, IL, WI, MO – reporting mark IDTX) in July 2017 rolled into the station. I took a fun YouTube short of the arrival.

It was followed by Amfleet Food Service Car 48165. The original number was #20027 if you are on the same spectrum as me. It was manufactured in April 1976 when I was 6 years old! The car was configured with Business Class in Front, with 2-1 seating. I took the bulkhead seat in on the “1” side. the rest of the Food Service Car consisted of Food Service in the middle, and the party in the back (tables).

The rest of the train consisted of newer Siemens Venture Cars. I was hoping that when I chose business class, I would have been able to sit in one of those cars – they had one business class car semi-permanently coupled to a coach, but since there was not a Venture food service car available, they gave that seating to coach customers as a freebee. I should have toured the Venture cars, but I will save that for another trip – maybe KC to Alton, IL?

Business Class service in the Amfleet car consisted of spacious (but tired) seating, free beverages and snacks. All of this was fine. It’s a different level of service than what you may expect from airlines.

The train hustled along between many farms with long rows of tall corn. Our speeds were up to 79 MPH. I was seated directly behind the Charger Locomotive, and the horn was pretty constant as we passed many rural grade crossings. there were a few quiet zones as we passed through the BNSF Speedway leading into Chicago though, where many bi-level gallery car equipped commuter trains ply the many local stations between Chicago and Aurora, IL.

We're scooting along near 80! — We’re scooting along near 80!

The ride quality of the train unfortunately seemed pretty rough. Although we were maintaining 79, there was a lot of surprising bounces, and lateral movements that made it hard to drink and type. If this track was good for 79, I wonder what really rough track was like. This is no fault of Amtrak, as the host railroad maintains the track, but it must be good enough. If this level of bouncing and jostling occurred on the flights I take, the crews would be hunting for a smother flight level, and the flight attendants would be seated, and our seat belts would be on.

Some of the interesting scenery I saw along the way in was a crop duster working parallel to our train. It swooped in low, released it payload, zoomed ahead of us, climbed up in a steep banked turn, and flew back in the opposite direction.

Crop duster working next to our train.

We passed through Galesburg, IL, the location of another Virtual Railfan Cam. I liked seeing the station and tracks beyond the camera. Web cams can distort the size and distance of the reality of what you see on the ground.

Once we started to approach Chicago, we passed a station called Naperville, the scene of a terrible tragedy and local heroism. As we passed the station, I looked out the window (I was on the right side of the train) and saw a very stark sculpture remembering the “Naperville Train Disaster”. It was this event that led to the standard max speed of US Passenger Trains to be limited to 79 MPH unless expanded safety features are in place.

The last highlight of the trip into Chicago was passing by another train webcam that is always on in my office, MH Tower from Railstream.net. MH tower is available on their “Engineer” tier and can be streamed via the App Store or the Web. This cam shows the BNSF line between Chicago Union Station and Aurora, and we see many bi-level commuter trains, Amtrak’s California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Illinois Zephyr, and Carl Sandburg coming and going, as well as many Amtrak trains being turned on the wye and finally, transient freight trains.

I took a video of the arrival into Union Station, from before “MH” and taking the left turn on the wye, passing the Amtrak locomotive shops and coach yards, and finally coming to a stop in the station.

I enjoyed the ride into Chicago. I saw scenery you don’t see from a car, or a plane, and I enjoyed the coming and going of the passengers. The onboard service was really good, but I wish all the Venture Cars were in service. I especially liked seeing the world beyond the web cams that I watch every day.

Part 2 will consist of checking out Union Station, exploring the areas around union station, including parts of the Amtrak coach yard and locomotive shops that you can’t see from the train.