West Chicago

Is West Chicago a cool place to watch trains? Uncle Pete runs there right?
Is it a busy spot? I was thinking of taking a ride up there next week.

Yes, Uncle Pete runs through West Chicago, and Washington St. is where the UP's triple track ROW intersects at grade with the single track EJ&E. Traffic is controlled by a tower at the northeast corner of the crossing, called JB tower, and is staffed by EJ&E employees. The "J" runs north-south through the crossing, and there's a fair amount of traffic, about 10-15 trains a day. Overall, it's pretty busy, with much of the activity provided of course by the east-west parade of Metra scoots and UP freights, but the J does provide some much needed variety to the otherwise dull sameness of UP & Metra. The West Chicago depot is about a 1/2 mile east of Washington St., and is pedestrian friendly. Early to mid-afternoon are usually the best times to see the most action on both lines, just before the evening rush...

West Chicago is to get even busier when CN takes over the EJ&E, but JB Tower which currently controls the junction probably won't last very long after CN gets it. It is a very neat tower. Some EJ&E trains still pick up orders at the tower. CN plans to upgrade the line which would probably mean eliminating JB. UP trains never usually do, however. If you want to see this tower in operation, as well as EJ&E's fleet of orange SD38-2s, it would probably be a good idea to get there soon. I'd say over 100 trains go through West Chicago per day. Traffic on the UP is of course their own freights at Metra, but on the EJ&E, UP coal trains along with the occasional CN train can be seen.

I know.. I want to head back out there when it snows a bit. I couldn't find the tower (or the J tracks), didn't really look though. How close are they to the station?

Here are a few pics I took when I went -

<a><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1020/145 ... 80714b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="West Chicago, IL - 9/27/07"></a>

<a><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1227/145 ... 763bb1.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="West Chicago, IL - 9/27/07"></a>

<a><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1378/145 ... 9123e1.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="West Chicago, IL - 9/27/07"></a>