Driving my son to DePaul for classes ran in to Chgo Terminal by Finkl at Cortland about 1PM. Traffic was backed up while the box car and centerbeam were blocking Cortland before heading down to Goose Island. Must have dropped some Gondolas off by Finkl first then backed down to Cherry St. Nice to see some Chgo Northside operations for once especially with all the negatives lately.
Then heading home on the Metra my train was late (Milw North line) because of engine problems. This was a first the announcer came across saying two train routes were coming in on Track 11 together. I thought it was a mistake. But the Nort Central line train which had engine problems was cut in the North line with the North Central engine in the middle of the train.
Quite a sight. THey had the crowd for the North Central waiting toward the concourse on track 11 and the North line people down by the Madison entrance. They had a replacement engine stationed just outside the station waiting to replace the bad engine. We had to get all passengers in first then they backed the train up to get slack and to cut off the North Central train. THen I imagine they switched engines after we left. If you Model Railroad anything is possible for an operating session scenario!
Then when we got by the Bloomingdale line and a candy red CP freight engine was waiting on the wye to go work Newleywed Foods by the Healy station. There were about 11 hoppers that were visible.
All in all a quite unexpected rail fan day!
GM
