JANUARY 3RD, 2013
On this day, I had to run a very important errand, and that was returning a book checked out from the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Branch, its main branch, a couple months before. I had to do this in order to avoid a fine for an overdue book, which is twenty cents a day. Instead of returning the book to HWL, I chose to return it to the new Richard M. Daley Library, located approximately half a mile north of the Kedzie Station.
Not only was it a good opportunity to take care of this critical task, it was also a good opportunity for me to start using my Zone A-C 10-Ride Ticket that I purchased through Metra's Ticket-By-Mail program the month before. I boarded a northbound 303 Pace bus, and took it to the Melrose Park Station, where I awaited my inbound train, Train #52. While awaiting T52, an outbounder, Train #37, made a stop at the station on its way to Elburn. This train, pictured above, consisted of seven cars and was pulled by F40PH-2 locomotive #159.
It was approximately 3:30 when Train #52 pulled into MPK. At the very same time, a UP intermodal freight train, traveling westbound, approached the station on Main 1. I wish that train would've came behind T37, because I could've filmed it. I was at a loss again because as my train pulled into the Oak Park Station, a second UP intermodal train passed it, heading westbound! The only exclamation running through my head was DAMN!
Funny thing that happened on board this train. As it departed OP, the two conductors on board came into the vestibule where I was (and for the entire trip) and had a couple trivial conversations, after checking tickets of the two people who boarded the train at that station. They were gossiping, and I wasn't going to feed into it because I don't feed into gossip, but when they mentioned the Chicago Bears player Cedric Benson, and then the Green Bay Packers, I jumped into their conversation and said, "I'm a Packers fan!"
My remark prompted one conductor to say to the other, "Every time we discuss the Packers, someone in the vestibule says they're a Packers fan!"
LOL Funny indeed!
After dropping off the book at the Richard M. Daley Library, I decided to go to the Aldi, and the Subway, at Chicago & Kedzie to kill some time while waiting for Train #53, the outbound train I would take back to Melrose. Immediately after taking care of that, I stood at the corner of Chicago & Kedzie and filmed an outbound Metra train on the old Milwaukee Road trackage before walking to the Kedzie station where I would shoot some more trains. The best part occurred just after my arrival to Kedzie, and that was the meetup between T47, and a deadhead that usually comes right before that train in this neck of the woods. As the trains approached one another, they dimmed their headlights, and then the deadhead did something I've never seen it do before in reaction to a train coming from the opposite direction - it stopped!
Two more trains rolled through the station, T49 pulled by 165, and T51 pulled by 163. After T51 passed, a familiar face stepped onto the station platform. This guy would always take T53 from Kedzie to a point unknown. Every time I stood on the Kedzie platform and filmed the Metras in the 5:00 hour when I lived by the station in 2012, I would see this guy. Because of my very shy attitude, I never exchanged names with him, therefore missing my chances of snagging another friend.
Four minutes after T51 passed, T53, pulled by #137, an F40PH-3 locomotive, came to a stop at Kedzie. I boarded the train, along with four others, including the guy mentioned above, getting off at Melrose. When I got there, I had just missed the southbound 303 bus that I planned to catch, so I had to wait for the next one, filming the next three outbounders as I did so. I filmed Train #55 from the south side of the Melrose Park station, Train #57 from the north side of the station (where I decided to wait for the bus), and Train #59 while on board the bus. T59 is the deadheader that always came right before T47 when I lived at Kedzie. Its last stop is Elmhurst, and it makes another trip to Ogilvie Transportation Center as Train #60.
If you'd like to see the entire video, which contains all the Metras mentioned above, click the link below:
NEW TO OLD, OLD TO NEW 17:29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ob5Lietilw
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