Slice of Life: Historic High Speed Rail

The current plans to bring high speed passenger rail service to the Midwest aren't bringing us anything news.  In fact, they're just restoring something we once had, but let fall apart.

This is a photograph taken in 1943 of the Midwest Hiawatha as it cruised past Bensenville near what we now call O'Hare Airport.  It was operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul, and Pacific Railroad.  It originated at Union Station in Chicago, where you can still see "Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul & Pacific" etched on a door on the South Canal Street side of the old building.  The train split in Iowa and terminated in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Omaha, Nebraska.

The last "Midwest Hiawatha" run was in 1955.  Over the years it was merged with other runs and other railroads.  Its ghost lives on in Amtrak's California Zephyr route from Chicago to San Francisco.

If you've never taken a train across the country, you really must.  I did it for the first time back in March.  I rode the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle.  It's quite a little adventure.  But be sure to go first class.  The people in coach looked like they were having a bad time.

On Track To The Past

Whether most people see them or not, railroads are still the lifeblood of Chicago's economy.  But there once was a time when train lines were far more intertwined with daily life in the city than they are now.

This old line runs along West Carroll Avenue -- a street in River North many people don't even know exists.  It carried newsprint to the old Chicago Sun-Times Building before trucks made the line redundant.  This was long before the Sun-Times building was torn down to make way for the Trump International Hotel and Tower (401 North Wabash Street).

Mayor Daley would like to use the tracks to run a trolley or light rail service from Union Station to Michigan Avenue.  But these days a lot of Hizzonor's dreams are going unfulfilled for reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog.

Interestingly, the reason the old Sun-Times Building was located along the Chicago River is the same reason the Chicago Tribune's current print house at the Freedom Center (777 West Chicago Avenue) is also located on the river -- so that newsprint could be brought in by barge.  I've never seen any old pictures of newsprint being unloaded at the Sun-Times site, and I've read that the Tribune has never used its barge unloading capability at the Freedom Center.