Union Station

Do you know the track assignments of the Union Station by Train?

I just know this by what I see when I go through Union Catching the trains. I may be right or wrong about the track assigments. Track assigments can change without proper or no notice at all.

Southwest service:(South Concourse)
6:26am, 7:15am, 8:35am leaves out of track 28
10:35am through the 11:40pm leaves out of 14
May be one rush train leave out on track 8 or 10, not sure.

Hertiage Corridor:(South Concourse)
All 3 depart from track 16

BNSF:(South Concourse)
Off peak, and most weekend trains depart off of track 8
Rush 2-12


Milwaukee Dist.:(North Concourse)
West off-peak & most weekend trains leave from either tracks 5 or 7
North: off peak & weekend leaves from either 9 or 11
Peak: 1-13

NCS:(North Concourse
Most trains off of track 15

SWS #834 arrives on track 16, turning into train #827.

During the evening rush, outbound BNSF Naperville express trains normally leave from track 2. It should be noted that with the ongoing capacity upgrade at the Lake St. interlocking plant north of CUS, track assignments for MDN/MDW/NCS trains has and will continue to change periodically until the project is complete...

While on the topic of Union Station, trains that depart from the south concourse plug into station power up to the time of departure when the doors are closed. Do trains at the other downtown terminals plug into station power or remain on HEP when idling. I haven't seen trains plugged into station power ouside of the south end of CUS...

I thought they did that on the north end of CUS also? I've seen it at LaSalle St. At Oglivie UP has a rule stating that the locomotive HEP has to be on normal (not even standby) when boarding passengers, but I've seen consists not going anywhere any time soon plugged in. And if someone claims to have seen it done at Randoph with the MU's, I'd have to question what that person just had to drink

we don't plug in at randolph, we hard-wire.

no kiddie games around (t)here...


All kidding aside, you'll see the wackiest stuff at the electric district and CSS. That's why I fan the electric lines more than all the diesel lines combined.

Yes, they connect to ground power on the north side of Union Station. Then about five minutes before departure, they shut down the lights and HVAC in the coaches, disconnect the 440 V ground power, increase the locomotive's engine speed as needed to provide HEP, and turn the lights and HVAC back on in the coaches. At some point in there they also remove the blue flag from the locomotive.

I apologize for reserructing an old thread but does anyone know what track(s) the Hiawatha trains use at Union station and whether they go to the yard or not? Thanks in advance!

Amtrak's Hiawatha trains generally use north concourse tracks 17 or 19 and all inbound trains flip back to outbound departures (unless equipment is swapped due to mechanical problems). Train 342, which gets into CUS shortly after 9pm, heads to the yard after dropping its passengers...

Thanks for the response doepack! Am I same in assuming that the opposite is true for the morning 329 or 331 coming from the yard then picking up passengers?

meh wrote:Yes, they connect to ground power on the north side of Union Station. Then about five minutes before departure, they shut down the lights and HVAC in the coaches, disconnect the 440 V ground power, increase the locomotive's engine speed as needed to provide HEP, and turn the lights and HVAC back on in the coaches. At some point in there they also remove the blue flag from the locomotive.

Not to nit-pick, but they don't actually turn the lights and HVAC on and off. They go off when power is cut and back on when power is restored.

Based on one observation, the overnight Hiawatha set at Chicago sometimes just spends the night in the station. I saw it come in on 17 one night (not a run-through track) and it appeared that it was being locked up to spend the night there.

Just to show how variable track assignments can be, the last two mornings, 2220, the 8:23a MD-W arrival has used Track 19. A bit strange to come in and have an Amtrak train (8:25 Hiawatha) loading opposite you.

You gotta' give 'em credit - "normal" track assignments are well known by the yardmasters and train directors. 2220 normally comes in on track five or nine, if I recall right? (been a while, sorry.) Whatever it is, it must have been out of commission for some reason (switch/signal failure most likely; that time of the morning the track inspector hasn't been out yet.)

So then where did they put the inbound HC train from Joliet? Normally that arrives at the south edge of track 19, alongside the station building, and the head end usually stops roughly around Amtrak's rear end. I guess they could have held that last signal at CP Jackson, so that he would have had to stop a bit shorter than normal, but with his rear end almost certainly fouling the 28/30 switch on the south side (which probably wasn't of very high-priority at that time in the morning.)