Travelogue of Michael Hansen's Trips on Metra
http://www.trainweb.com/travelogues/mhansen/2003e10a.html

Its about 9:50 AM, on Saturday, may 10, 2003,, and I'm standing outside of the Jeneva train station, ware I will be boarding the 10:05 AM metra train to Chicago. We left our house at 9:41, and made good time to the station, ariving 9 minutes later. When we arived at the train tracks just before the station, our train was just ariving. When we went to open the station doors, they were locked. This ment we would be buying our tickets on board the train.

Todays 10:05 metra train is pulled by F40PH engine number 169. We walked on board the closest train car, and then I proceeded ahead, Mom behind me. The seets in this first car are the troditional metra seets, with handles on eather side of it, so they can turn the backrest of the seet around, as these trains don't get turned, they are controled from the engine, which is in back going into Chicago and in the front coming back. Another thing I noticed with these particular cars, is that the ticket holder's upper side, the side that is the other side not the seet, is raised up a little from the other cars.The next car housed basicly the same type of seet, except it was more comfortable, and a different material was covering the padding. The next car had the same seets as the car before it, and after that we got into the other style of seeting on the train. The rest of the cars on this train have the same seets, thin padding.

We found seets, and at 10:05, the train pulled away from the Jeneva station. Almost rite after the train pulled away, the conductor came and collected tickets. When we picked seets, the train was not at all ful, We had taken seets across from each other. Mom payed for a weekend pass, and I said "Me included." "You included?" the conductor said, "Well you are free fair anyway!"

The train continued to West Chicago, Winfield, Weeton, Coledge AVE, Glen Ellen, Lombard, Villa Park, Elmhurst, Bellwood, Burkly, Maywood, River Forest, Oak Park, and Chicago. Durring the ride, just before Chicago, it was raining very hard. We arived into Chicago on time, and walked into OggleVe station. On the way, the conductor said to go to the information booth at track 10 for information about the bus fair. We walked around, Mom trying to find the information booth. We finally figured out that it was outside at track 10, and we there found out that we could also take a free trolly to the Art institute, not exactly ware we were going, but close enough.

We went outside, crossed the street, and waited for the trolly. It was raining lightly, but when the first trolly departed, not oures, we were able to stand under the overhang. Another trolly came, not oures, and departed. Finally, the trolly we wanted came, and we got on board. The drivers name was Bobby, and she intertained the passenger, both by playing music and making funny conments. We finally arived at the Art Institute stop, ware we were supposed to get off. Bobby said to the people waiting out side she couldn't hold any more, at which time we all said "Getting off!" We got off, and went down Michigan AVE. We walked for a wile, and then crossed the street, only to figure out we were on the rong side of the street. We crossed again, and continued down the street, but we couldn't find 180 Michigan AVE. Finally, we went in a building, and Mom inquired about dirrections to get to the Guild for the Blind. Then having no success asked about ware 180 Michigan AVE was, got an answer that we had to continue 2 blocks north, and we left.

We arived at 180 Michigan AVE, and inquired about what floor the Guild for the Blind was on, then went on the ellevator to floor 17. This part of the trip was good, the trains were on time, we didn't have to wait to long for the trolly, and with out much dificulty we found ou're destination. I'm looking forward to the remaining part of our trip, and wonder what I'll come out with when we leeve.

Its about 1:30 PM, on Saturday, May 10, 2003, and I'm standing in the main store area of the Guild for the Blind, ware my Mom is buying the stuff I need. We arived about 45 minutes ago, and have been looking around the store. The guild for the Blind store is made up of products for the blind, talking watches, talking clocks, all that stuff. I got a new cane, with a roler tip, which only came to $26.50 After paying, which took for ever because of a problem with there computer, we left and headed down to the bus stop. The bus stop was closer than I thought, but we had to wait for our bus. We were supposed to board eather CTA 56, or CTA 157, in rout to OggelVe station. After 5-6 CTA busses came and went, number 56 arived. We boarded, and took seets in the first seet. My Mom again sat across from me. The seets were plastic with cloth covering part of them.

When we arived at OggelVe station, we went inside, Mom wanted to go to a store, but when we arived there, we found it was closed. We then went upstairs, in search of the food cort, but we realized that the food cort was down stairs. We returned down stairs, and went to Dunkin Donuts.

At around 2:25 PM, we returned upstairs, to board our train, out of track 2. We boarded the train at the nearest door, and walked to the front. The first car we came to had the troditional metra train seets, with handles on both sides for easy turning. I noticed that some cars had one step up before the door, and others didn't. We walked through the next car, which had the same seets that we had coming downtown. After going through the train, we finally reached a car with different seets. The back rests had a different material then the seet itself, but they were basicly the same kind.

The seet had a handle that ran the width of the seet, again for easy turning. The train departed at 2:40 PM, and the conductor came to collect tickets. We were at the end of the car, and Mom and I were facing each other. I took out my NOAA weather radio, and listened to the hazardous weather statements, and then took out my key chain talking clock that I had also gotten at the Guild for the Blind. This came with a instruction manual on caset, and I set it to the correct time.

We made our first stop at Oak Park, Mell Rose Park, River Forest, Bellwood, Burkley, Elm Hurst, Villa Park, Lombard, Glen Ellen, Coledge AVE, Weeton, Winfield, and West Chicago. Now it was the home stretch to Jeneva. At 3:40 PM, we moved to the front of the car, closest to the car door. We arived in Jeneva at around 3:46 PM, and I asked Mom if we could go down to the engine to get its number. She said "Yes." Today's 2:40 metra train is pulled by F40PH engine number 133, and on the way back Mom counted the cars, and the train consisted of 8 cars. We crossed the train tracks, and a moment later, when we were at our car, the train pulled forward.

We stopped at a friends new shop, Mom went in, and a moment later the train we took to Jeneva moved forward, and then after loading at 4:05 PM pulled out. I had taped the engine both from our close up and from the car. I was also treated to 3 frate trains, 2 of which I got on tape from the car.

The trip was a good one, I got what I wanted from the Guild for the Blind, we were able to get a close up tape of an F40PH engine, and to close out the trip I was treated to 5 trains, that's the 2 metra passes buy and the 3 frate trains. I'm now looking forward to my next trip, to San Antonio Texas and back, on the Texas Eagle, Amtrak train number 21 and 22!