Chicago’s Railroad Racetrack

Hey, I actually ended up doing a second edition of this!

Welcome Back!

Hello and welcome to the second edition of Trackside with Justin Franz. I wrote when I started this that I would try and get at least one of these out every month and it looks like I’m getting the second one in right under the wire. I guess that’s the newspaper reporter in me, just waiting until the last possible second to file. Anyway, let’s get with the program. 

---

Chicago’s Railroad Racetrack

In April, I traveled to Chicago for the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s annual conference at Lake Forest College (for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Center, it was founded in 1997 by late photographer and author John Gruber with the mission of preserving and interpreting railroad imagery. It’s a great group and if you even have a passing interest in railroading, I recommend you join). Joining me on this trip was my dad, Tim Franz, also a lifelong railfan and photographer, and a longtime resident of Maine. Now let me preference this with the fact that I love my native state and have always been fascinated with the railroading within it. Long freight trains twisting through the mountains of western Maine? I’m all in. A short local freight on bad track? That’s my first love. But if there’s one thing Maine railroading lacks its quantity. There really aren’t many places where one can just sit and let the trains come to you. But you can do that in Chicago and in an effort to give my dad a taste of that excitement again (the last time he had railfanned Chicagoland was back in the 1970s!) I decided we’d spend at least one afternoon on “The Racetrack,” also known as Metra’s BNSF Line. Owned by BNSF Railway and operated by Chicago’s commuter agency, the 37-mile route connects downtown Chicago with Aurora and features more than 100 trains a day (both freight and passenger). At some spots, such as Hinsdale, it’s possible to stand on an overpass and look down the miles of tangent track to see three or four trains all at once. Slowpoke branch line railroading this is not. 

Highlands: This little station near Hinsdale was built by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in 1880. Fewer trains stop at it than some of the bigger stations, but what it lacks in stops it gains in character. An outbound train flies by on the “Zephyr Track,” a nickname given to the middle track that usually hosts express runs.

After meeting up with my dad at the airport, we got our rental car and headed to Highlands, a small station just east of Hinsdale to take in the action. It was raining, but there were plenty of trains to shoot and I quickly became infatuated with this piece of railroad. Besides the many trains to keep us busy, there were also beautiful old depots to explore and lots of people to add a human element to the photos. After spending the evening shooting the commuter rush and heading off to get dinner (Chicago-style dogs from Portillo's, of course), I vowed to come back and explore the railroad some more. 

The Q Lives: One of the highlights of our visit was having the chance to photograph Metra’s Chicago, Burlington & Quincy “heritage unit” No. 211. It’s seen here at Western Springs.

Well, it turns out, I didn’t have to wait long. After a fantastic three-day conference in Lake Forest, dad and I headed back to Hinsdale on a Sunday afternoon to see what we could find. This time, my Railfan & Railroad colleague Otto Vondrak joined us as well for a few hours trackside. We just couldn’t get enough of the “Racetrack.” 

I love railroads that you can wrap your head around quickly and this one certainly meets that: at its core, it’s a fast-paced people mover through the suburbs, lined with beautiful old stations. One thing is for sure, I can’t wait to go back. 

Commuters hustle across the tracks at West Hinsdale.

Inside the historic Chicago, Burlington & Quincy depot at Riverside. This station was built around 1901.

A commuter walks down the platform to board the approaching outbound train while an eastbound BNSF Railway stack train from the west coast rolls through Riverside.

A Metra conductor waves to the head-end of an inbound train at Western Springs.

Perhaps one of the most well-known shots on the Racetrack is from the overpass at Highlands, where it’s possible to see multiple trains at once. The Chicago skyline can be seen in the distance.

---

What else I’m working on…

One of my favorite sites on the web is Atlas Obscura, a travel site that calls itself “the definitive guide to the world’s hidden wonders.” I’ve had the pleasure of writing for Atlas Obscura for about five years now and my latest story for them is about the wonderful world of narrow gauge railroading. For that piece, I spoke with two people who are deeply involved with some of the most exciting preservation efforts in railroading, Pennsylvania’s East Broad Top and Maine’s Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington. 

While a lot of my stories for Atlas Obscura have been about railroading, I’ve also written about the history of avalanche forecasting, the fascinating world of planespotting and, perhaps my favorite story, a piece about the west’s surviving fire lookouts. I encourage you to check them out. 

Thanks again for reading and I’ll see you next month, 

Justin