How Chicago Became America's Railroad Capital
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- Опубликовано: 7 мар 2023
- Chicago, Illinois is known as America's railroad capital. Its sizable collection of railroads is just one of many things to revere the Windy City for. 15 Amtrak routes, 11 Metra commuter lines, 8 CTA rapid transit lines, the South Shore Line, six of the seven Class I freight railroads, on top of a handful of smaller freight railroads all serve Chicago. All of this totals up to over 1000 trains a day parading in and out of the area. But the question is, how and why did it get this way? Why isn't New York City, Detroit, or Los Angeles the rail capital. In this video, I'll be explaining the factors that led to Chicago's rapid growth as a city and the railroad hub of the United States.
Music Used:
OMORI - Finding Shapes In The Clouds
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Tarrey Town
Mario Paint - Creative Exercise
Super Smash Bros. Melee - Yoshi's Island
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - N64 Royal Raceway
Undertale - It's Raining Somewhere Else
Sonic Adventure - Welcome to Station Square
OMORI - Hanging With The Boys
Jazz Spastiks - Move (Instrumental)
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My Site: amtrakguy365.weebly.com/ 
Развлечения
As a New Yorker, I’d definitely say Chicago is the best place to railfan. You’ve got great railroads and a great subway system. Hard to be bored of the action there
Just don’t call it the subway around locals!!! it’s the L!
@@northofnorth Oops, I think I already made that mistake! 🤣
The Chicago L is the opposite of a subway! It's elevated rail
@@cenci4913 It actually does have a couple of subways, but in Chicago these refer to 2 tunnels that parts of the L use: the State Street Subway and the Dearborn Street Subway.
I was gonna say we dont have a subway we have the L 😆 (i know its part subway but nobody that lives here calls it as such. Its always the L. Above or below. Doesnt matter lol)
As a SoCal Railfan, I always believed that Chicago is the best place to railfan because there are a lot of railroads and locomotives alike
If your going to railfan stay safe, i heard someone got shot in Chicago.
@@user-km2xs6pd5faverage Tuesday:
@@user-km2xs6pd5fSomone got robbed and killed in Oakland Jack London Square
As a railfan from Chicago, I must admit, I was quite surprised when I got the notification for this!
Same
As a Chicagoan I can confirm through every window YOU WILL FIND A TRAIN TRACK.
Yep. When I would go to school, a block away from my house would be some train tracks. Every time I drive around with my family I come by some tracks. Chicago's full of 'em. lmao
As someone who lives in the suburbs of Chicago - we always take the train! Metra is great, and a fraction of the cost of parking let alone the rest of driving.
As a carman from the BRC (belt railway of Chicago) It’s really cool to see this
same as a carman for NJ Transit (Hoboken division)
I've taken trains in and out of Chicago on many, many occasions--both long haul (Lake Shore Limited and California Zephyr) as well as local and regional service. It's a great place for train travel, that's for sure!
I always forget how Chicago has 15 Amtrak routes that go through Union Station; it's awesome. All of the best Amtrak routes start or stop there. I'd love to see Amtrak one day invest in buying up ROWs in the Midwest
I did a research paper on a possible HSR corridor in the Midwest. Unironically, the best location for one in the US is between Indianapolis and Chicago, short distance connecting two large cities that tend to have a lot of commuters.
If you've never spent a weekday rail fanning BNSF's triple track Racetrack, you've missed out.
I am going to the city of Chicago possibly in the spring of this year, along with the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.
There is a little known place called the Fox River Trolley museum in South Elgin, IL. It is a small place, but has a lot of old L cars, as well as some other engines and rail cars. Its worth checking out if you are into that type of train.
@@austinlawler3739 highly recommend that museum, its awesome!
You can check out the multi street level next to the Tribune tower. The street below use to be rail to bring in paper to print news papers, it’s also why the Wrigley building across the street from it looks like 2 separate buildings because the train ran between it below the street.
A great book about the history of Chicago that I definitely recommend is "Nature's Metropolis" by William Cronon. He goes into great detail about the development of reefer cars and the role that they, alongside numerous other factors, played in the city's development!
This makes me want to visit Chicago even more
I live real close to Chicago, and by the Metra BNSF line, you should, I went to the Naperville station on a week day, and caught 2 Metras in less than 10 minutes
Me too, but would I live long enough to leave again . . . ?
@@EllieMaes-Grandad don't enter the city
@@EllieMaes-Grandaddepends on where you go
@@EllieMaes-GrandadDoes a peepaw like you even know how to get there anymore?
Thx for doing this! As a railfan from Chicago, this just makes me happy.
I live in Kenosha, Wisconsin and I take Metra (the UP North Line, which is the only Metra line that has a stop in a different state) to get to downtown Chicago to visit the museums. Chicago is special because of the trains, but I also think Milwaukee is special for trains also as it is close to Chicago, but far enough away that there is little to no congestion in rail traffic.
I worked in LaSalle Street Station in 1976-77, in the "Chicago Relay" Wire Chief's office on the 7th floor. Ride in on the commuter train, go upstairs to work and vice versa. The GREAT old days! I miss seeing the old station, every time we visit. And the popcorn. Just the right size for the ride home to Oak Forest.
3:03 I like to call Chicago the “Hub of America”
For Trains and cars, their “ways” all seem to lead into Chicago. For planes, you got O’Hare and Midway!! That’s a crap ton of stuff coming in!!!
Don't forget about the Port of Chicago for ships! Lots of containers and passengers every day lol
All roads lead to Rome, but everything meets in Chicago.
Chicago was destined to be a both trading and rail hub because of its geographical position
Chicago is quite the spectacle for railfans. I love the diversity of it all, and I just love watching old railroad movies of famous passenger trains emerging from the station.
"Hello, Chicago, hell-o! Gotta drink to that! Yeah..."
I live on the outskirts of Chicago’s suburbs and the very first line that went to Chicago goes through our town. It’s the Geneva Sub
My hometown--an encampment turned settlement founded by a New Yorker seeking his fortune in the 1830's Western plains of Chicagoland--had the fortune of being along the path of the CB&Q/BNSF artery to Aurora, IL. It was at one time equipped with a locomotive service yard, located near a siding to a still operational lumber supply store, just East of the Belmont Rd. underpass.
Thanks for the excellent video about Chicago and its railroad history. Even though I'm not from the U.S., I'm a big fan of American railroads. Also, thumbs-up for using rare footage of MILW only pair of the ALCo DL-107s at 4:57 (They're my favorite locomotives).
You’re 90 percent right. Speaking from a rail perspective, trains approaching from the east have to pass the southern tip of Lake Michigan and turn north. Downtown is a mess of three river branches to be crossed or avoided. Gary or Whiting Indiana would have made more sense logistically and from an engineering angle.
Chicago was a magic place before railroads and canals. Native Americans knew this and it’s place in destiny was secured by geography. The north and south branches of the Chicago River empty into Lake Michigan and drain to the Atlantic Ocean. Close to the south branch of the Chicago River is the Des Plaines River. It flows the opposite direction and drains to the Gulf of Mexico via the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. In the dry season a portage of only a few miles was the land link of an intercontinental waterway stretching from coast to coast. In wet weather watercraft could make the entire journey. The mouth of this unique river on the Lake Michigan shore would be exclusive to one location only.
Chicago is the third largest city in America.
I love Chicago and the railroading in it. I've been there before and it's amazing that you can see trains from eastern railroads and western railroads passing by each other, even in the pre-Amtrak era, that ritual was common. I do agree that Chicago is the rail hub of the United States. The topography works well since it's up against a great lake, has lots of land, and would have lots of industry spawn there. The variety of train types going in and out of Chicago is also outstanding, you can see all kinds of passenger and freight trains going in and out of there every day.
Thanks for the video. My great grandpa, Jim Rice, was the president and general manager of the Chicago West Pullman & Southern, a switching industrial railroad on the southside of Chicago. He didn't own it himself but managed it as a part of the board of directors for the company. Before that, he worked for the Detroit Terminal Railroad, and before that, military service. Unfortunately, he later passed away on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 from a car wreck.
There still working on restoring a lot of things in the Pullman neighborhood.
Fun fact: In Spider-Man 2 the runaway train sence was filmed in Chicago on the l line.
I thought the MTA train in that movie looked like a CTA train.
@@harrisonofcolorado8886 I was saying that to when I first saw it.
Edit: they just put a mta logo on the train.
@@Tri-StateGuy why did they even film it in Chicago anyway, theres a bunch of places in NYC where elevated sections of track just end abruptly, like they even filmed spider man 1 in NYC before
@@pacificproductionsofficial
They filmed all the street-level scenes from the Dark Knight movies in Chicago as well. Chicago has this noir vibe to it that other cities don't, with its exposed structural infrastructure at the bridges, tight sidewalks, numerous alleyways and overall darker, grittier feel when you're in the thick of things. NYC has more of a brightness to it.
@@VestedUTuber and I thought NYC was the darker one with how unsafe some areas of it are lol, good point
I've only mainly transferred trains in Chicago, but sure looks like a place to do railfanning. I love planes and trains, so I'm sure I would have a blast. I've also been to MDW and ORD.
*excellent* *documentary*
my hometown and favorite place to watch trains go by
This is awesome!, I’ve always wanted to see a video about Chicago and the railroads it brought, thanks for making this video it was really good. :)
Even as someone who lives out in the Chicago suburbs, its always fun to watch these videos and remember why Chicago is such a great rail hub💜
Man, Super Mario World music works so well with rail videos. Great vid!
Besides railroad, Chicago is home to two major airports, Chicago Midway International Airport and Chicago O Hare International Airport. Plus, United Airlines is headquartered in Chicago.
And those would go hand-in-hand better if O'Hare had a direct Metra connection. Doesn't even have to be on-site, just extend the People Mover from Avis Rentals out to the O'Hare station.
8:27 been to that bridge used in the filming of the Blues Brothers with my own Bluesmobile replica!!
A someone who grew up and lives in Chicago, it's sad how many friends my age don't realize how much of a rail hub Chicago was and is because of how car-dependent it became. Sure, I like the independence of driving around, but if Chicago had more lines that crossed the hub-and-spoke styled network it has now I'd definitely use the train more, instead it's only useful to get closer or farther from the city.
7:41 Kansas City Southern merged with Canadian Pacific, so yes, KCS does go to Chicago now (as the CPKC.)
As someone who is 10 minutes from the Dune Park South Shore station, I am glad you mentioned them.
I’m watching this video in the hotel right next to the western Maryland scenic railroad and just heard a whistle how perfect
They say St. Louis is the "Gateway to the West." Those people are proven wrong every time more railfan footage, more Trainz maps, and more layouts focus on Chicagoland.
St. Louis has its title for good reason, tbf. By the 1940s, it was the only city with railroad connections second in number to Chicago. The fact that our actual capital and the two metropolises on the east and west coast never got close to that is insane!
One of these days I would like to do some railfanning in the Chicago area because it looks practically nonstop.
Over 150 years ago Chicago was the Main logistical hub for a manufactured products going west and all agricultural products heading east.
I am totally obsessed with trains. I am especially obsessed when it comes to Metra. I know so much about the railroad it’s not even funny. I know every stop on 10 of the 11 lines, I can identify all the locomotives they use, and I also know how Metra got started. I’m also into Amtrak as well. I know where some of the lines go to as well.
Excellent video of these commuter routes only the South Shore Line has a timezone change because South Bend is in the Eastern Time Zone Central Time Zone eastbound train gain an hour ahead of Chicago while Westbound trips from South Bend lose an hour westbound towards Chicago
Chicago is the place to be for railroad lovers
Theres a metra station just north of where i live. And i often see trains as i drive to and from work. The perks of living and driving along IL route 50. And i just found out theres an amtrak station down the street from where i work. I had no idea it was amtrak! I like their phases 2 and 3 livery.
Thank you for sharing this information with us rail fans!
Millennium: Metra Electric & South Shore Line along with Washington/Wabash for CTA Orange, Brown, Green, Pink, & Purple Express Lines
THANK YOU FOR COVERING THIS!
I went to Los Angeles just recently 8 days (A Week and 1 Day) and im back home
I stan Chicago.
I went to Chicago recently and had the oppurtunity to take the L trains and Metra Electric to go see NYC&HRR No. 999 and the CB&Q Zephyr at MSI.
LaSalle: Metra Rock Island District & potentially Southwest Service & Southeast Service along with LaSalle for CTA Blue Line & LaSalle/Van Buren for CTA Orange, Brown, Pink, & Purple Express Lines
"I can't think of anyone who wants to be stuck in traffic on I-90" 😂 too relatable
8:28
isn't that from the Blues Brothers? i wouldn't be surprised, lol
And I would say Toronto is Canada's rail capital. With 4 Subway lines, a large streetcar network, a DMU powered Airport train, 2 light rail lines under construction, an Automated subway line under construction, 7 fast and busy commuter/regional rail lines (With probably the most pioneering Rail operator in NA, GO Transit) and is the hub of VIA Rail's fast Intercity and cross country trains
*Vancouver has entered the chat.
@@ChristopherTindall Vancouver has nothing, bro. 1 Via Rail line, like 2 or 3 Skytrain lines, no streetcars, no light rail, barely a commuter rail network and an Amtrak line, which Toronto also has. Toronto also has a much bigger rail history with the famous Toronto Rail Lands and old Interurban trains
*2 heavy subway lines. There should be more of them, but the streetcar network is impressive.
@@cwshawk Line 4 is a Heavy Rail Subway Line bro
hell yeah!! Thanks for talkin' about our awesome city!
will do, trip is planned. However, there is the small issue of the atlantic ocean in the way
We have America's Last Electric Interurban. The Chicago Shore And South Bend railroad.I ride many of the trains here This is a brilliant railroad town. The South Shore Interurban train runs from Millennium Park downtown Station in Chicago to South Bend Indiana Airport.
Could you imagine that loud thing running behind your house at midnight, lol.
Union: Metra BNSF Railway, Milwaukee District North Line, Milwaukee District West Line, North Central Service, Southwest Service (might be rerouted to LaSalle), Heritage Corridor & Amtrak Hiawatha, Empire Builder, Pere Marquette, Blue Water, Wolverine, Illinois Zephyr & Carl Sandburg, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Lincoln Service, Texas Eagle, Illini & Saluki, City Of New Orleans, Lake Shore Limited, Capitol Limited, & Cardinal along with Clinton for CTA Blue Line & Quincy for CTA Orange, Brown, Pink, & Purple Express Lines
Awesome video
Ogilvie Transportation Center: Union Pacific North Line, Union Pacific West Line, & Union Pacific Northwest Line along with Clinton for CTA Green & Pink Lines
As a Chicagoan this makes me very happy
You know, you'd be surprised how many suburbanites would rather be stuck on I-90, unfortunately. Chicago has a bit of a conundrum in that it has one of the most extensive public transit systems in the US, and yet barely enough ridership to justify keeping it around and definitely far from enough to be able to expand it properly. And yet, the highways keep getting more and more congested, so there's definitely demand for transportation into and out of the city.
When I asked my mother, who lives in the Chicago area, why this is the case, her default response is "it's too dangerous, crime in Chicago is out of control". And yet when I look it up, the _per-capita_ (note, not gross rate - the gross rate is heavily inflated due to Chicago's high population) crime rate of Chicago is only slightly elevated compared to the national average, so that's really like claiming that you won't swim in one pool but you will in another just because you saw someone nearly drown and have to be rescued in the former once.
I'm also pretty sure it's not just typical American reluctance to use public transit. Other cities have better average ridership in terms of percentage of capacity, albeit on much smaller networks.
It might be the fact that Metra has issues with keeping to timetables, but that doesn't happen out of nowhere. If late trains are causing poor ridership but poor ridership is causing a lack of funds for maintenance that causes delays, then something had to cause one of those things in order to start the feedback loop to begin with.
Metra was great in the standard 8-5 pre-digital era. Now with remote work, erratic work hours, and there just being less trains, commuting has grown obsolete in its 20th century form.
Our mothers are not used to this kind of high-performance, modern white collar work culture, so of course she’d default to crime being the reason. Not that the corporate work world has totally changed, which it has.
@@cwshawk
Except that there's still a large amount of regular commuter traffic in Chicago, it's just not using the rail network.
As resident and railfan that lives and also used work for the City of Chicago, I enjoyed this video!
i´m currently rewatching siries "Snowpiercer" and its stunning how much the City plays a role in it, how they assembled the train there (never shown tho) or how they "play" hide and seek in the shunting yard. i just love the siries
"Chicago, hog butcher for the world". This quote comes from poet Carl Sandburg's poem, 'Chicago'.
In my time in the Chicago metropolitan area, there was a rail road track within three a three block radius.
No wonder, that I have always loved trains!
I'd love to see Chicago reclaim its crown as the railroad capital of the United States of America!
Being geographically almost in the center of the country, it simply makes sense!
If the oceans keep rising, the inland U.S. is going to look very different population-wise in 100 years.
My Metra commuter rail line is the greatest. I have ridden the system 52 years. and that include the South Shore Line.
Lovely, lovely history!
That shot of the freighter was from the blues brothers wasn’t it?
As a New Yorker, whenever I visit Chicago, I make a point to get there and/or back by train (at least one way), as well as to take advantage of Chicago’s nice transit system.
Having said that, I wouldn’t underestimate New York City as the author did. While Chicago is the main hub of North America’s freight rail network, as we as the main transfer point between Amtrak’s eastern and western long-distance train routes, its Union Station is only the fourth busiest in the US (with New York Penn Station being The busiest). Same is true about commuter rail. Metra and South Shore together have more lines, but those lines are not the busiest. Guess which commuter railroad is the busiest? LIRR (with MNR being the second). And, of course, as large and heavily used the CTA rapid transit system is, New York City Subway system is still larger and carries much more riders. So, no, New York is not somewhere on the sideways like Detroit. It’s also up there, along with Chicago, leading the nation on rails.
Chicago baby!!!!!!
5:01
Rock Island AB6
3:36 was wondering when the Monon would be mentioned, I actually volunteer at a Monon museum local to me in Salem Indiana (if your in the area stop by)
8:23 uhm, well dont forget to maintain the tracks or it will be like this or even more dangerous.
just came across your channel and loving such mini documentaries 👍
wish i could take the train more, but the closest service near me (NCS Metra) has such a bad schedule and not even running on weekends, plus some stations aren't that convenient. with one crossing over another line (the yellow one i forgot the name) and not even having a station to connect the two, could help a ton.
NCS and the Electric lines have taken the worst hit since hybrid work became the best way to work.
I would love to take the train if you could leave Chicago after 6pm on a weekday
Damn straight. Metra is great for the construction workers and 1960’s era bankers, but not for the digital-first corporate workers anymore.
My metra line runs trains out from the city as late as 12:40 at night every day, love the up west line
0:23 A dog in a cage suspended at the top of a telegraph pole?
Ok back to the trains
Well uh, I guess all Class 1s run to Chicago now
*CPKC Moment*
Used to ride the south shore line to go to school. I miss it
South Shore Line's still around. They're actually working on upgrading the line through Michigan City (although that does mean we'll lose the insanely long street running section).
@@VestedUTuber yeah I know I just moved away lol
@@EthanHarmRUclips at least it didn't end up like the North Shore line
Lost terminals: CNW Wells, Grand Central, Great Central, Dearborn, & Central
Now that CPKC has been established, all 6 Class 1 railroads have links into Chicago
You're forgetting Ferromex, which obviously doesn't even go into the US
@@MetraFan81 I hadn't realized Ferromex was a Class 1, but it looks like it does meet the requirements!
7:40 I thought KCS was merged into CP by this point, leaving just six Class Is.
The STB has yet to approve the merger between CanPac and KCS. If it does, then the transaction will take three years to complete according to the two companies.
I concur that the merger is confirmed yesterday
Zelda music, what an amazing way to start a video
O’Hare has the CTA Blue Line while Midway has the CTA Orange Line
Great video!
What's the source of the map at 5:08? Could you share its link? Thank you.
I was with you until you included subways! In terms of train traffic when you include subway trains then NY tops Chicago! Besides the subways, you have PATH train's Metro North at Grand Central with its 3 commuter lines and now also the LIRR. At Penn Station you have Amtrak to both the NEC and the Empire Corridor. The LIRR and NJT commuter train to multiple routes. When you throw in the subways with its 28 separate lines NY clearly surpasses Chicago in terms of train traffic.
New York also has the largest commuter railroad in the US (LIRR). So, yeah I don’t think he would have mentioned NYC in there.
But as for transporting freight, Chicago is the rail capital.
I’m going to be taking the Empire builder to Chicago this December
I road the southwest chief to Chicago and back many times
Excellent video, but I could have watched a 1hr video with more information on this subject.
With the new CP/KCS merger, KCS does run trains to Chicago, just under CP train symbols
Easy answer: Large centrally-located city (great for long-distance passenger rail) with a large industrial base (lots of demand for freight rail) and a massively sprawling greater metro area (heavy demand for commuter rail service).
picture the new t1 pulling amtrak amfleets in prr colors.....
So glad you didn’t put 210 in the thumbnail! 😂
I feel like kansas City or St.Louis is the busiest as far as freight rail goes
I LOVE TRAINS 🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂
nice
Zürich main station 3000 trains per day….on 26 tracks…461’000 travelers a day… and this is only ONE station…
Detroit is the second best rail fanning because of all the yards
St. Louis said BOATS!
Chicago said TRAINS!
Look who won.