We left off arriving at the dark underground platforms of Chicago Union Station around 15 minutes late – 10:30 AM. That was no big deal for me; it’s all about the trip. When I visit Union Station, I always think about all the platforms and all the trains. Where are they coming from, and where are they going. I think about the people on the trains, their stories, and the lands they are passing through. Farms, fields, forests, mounts, streams, rivers, and oceans. The trains pass by all of it. But the station, it’s the start of an adventure, waiting in anticipation, or its the completion of the journey, meeting friends and family, about to have fun, or maybe conducting business, or having to confront challenges. The main waiting hall at Union Station is the nexus of these events, and its size and grandeur always draw me in. I could spend all day here watching people, listening to the arrival and departure announcements, and just taking it all in, but I had a city to explore, and only a few hours before I headed back to Quincy around 6:00 PM.
Waiting Room in Chicago’s Union Station
The Famous Stairway (From the Untouchables) in Chicago Union Station exiting onto Canal Street.
Across the South Chicago River on W. Jackson Blvd. is 300 S Wacker with a 440 foot tall mural of this part of Chicago.
Looking back towards Union Station, you can see the Empire Builder preparing to depart to the north, the destinations are Seattle and Portland and points in between.
You can see the Sear’s (Willis) Tower north up South Wacker Drive.
I believe this was a support for the train shed, or a signal post. If you know, leave a comment.
The Union Station power house, looking north from the W. Roosevelt Road bridge.
Amtrak’s Chicago coach yard looking south from the W. Roosevelt Road bridge.
A Gallery of the Amtrak and Metra Yard South of Union Station.
320 South Canal – a striking building across from Union Station. Recently completed, and complements the sky.
Finishing my walk south of Union Station, visiting railroad related sites. Here is the main Union Station building, the station concourse was demolished years earlier for an office building that you can see in front of the Sears (Willis) Tower.
Getting ready to depart from the Union Station waiting room, looking towards the track gates where the station concourse used to be,
Join me for four minutes as we depart Union Station, passing by the Zephyr pit and join the west-bound main toward Aurora and Galesburg.
After getting off the train in Quincy. What a day! Everyone was off the train at this point. The Amtrak departed to the west, over the Mississippi River to lay over at the BNSF yard, to be turned and return to Chicago the next day.
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