An old-school steam train in Chicago
Last Sunday, I was at the Cermak-Chinatown 'L' station, waiting for a Red Line train back to Edgewater, when i saw something unexpected pull up the nearby Rock Island District Metra line tracks.
A steam locomotive.
I couldn't pull out my camera quick enough to catch it, but I was able to get a few shots of the rest of the train.
The Metra locomotive in the back was, presumably, some kind of a regulatory/safety thing.
Like I said - that was the last thing I expected to see coming down the tracks on Sunday afternoon. So I decided to try to figure out what was going on. And, amazingly, one of the first things that came up when I searched "steam train rock island line" was this Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune article.
To make a long story a little shorter, Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (of Fort Wayne, Indiana) put together a special two-day event, using a steam locomotive and some of the passenger cars to create a "Joliet Rocket" train, and made arrangements with Metra to do several trips between Chicago and Joliet (The name was a nod to the old Rock Island Railroad, which used to name its trains "[Destination] Rocket"). The idea was to give passengers an opportunity to ride a steam-powered train and some old-school train cars - none of which, ironically, come from the Rock island Railroad.
A better view of the Joliet Rocket locomotive (photo 2017 (c) Benjamin "BravoDelta1999" Dziechciowski)
The tickets were sold for $99 - $249. You could pay $75 just to check out the train when it was laid over Chicago's LaSalle Street Station terminal, which was at least somewhat more affordable.
And because of this price... Honestly, while I think it's pretty cool, I'm not all that sorry that I didn't get a change to ride it.
A steam locomotive.
I couldn't pull out my camera quick enough to catch it, but I was able to get a few shots of the rest of the train.
The Metra locomotive in the back was, presumably, some kind of a regulatory/safety thing.
Like I said - that was the last thing I expected to see coming down the tracks on Sunday afternoon. So I decided to try to figure out what was going on. And, amazingly, one of the first things that came up when I searched "steam train rock island line" was this Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune article.
To make a long story a little shorter, Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (of Fort Wayne, Indiana) put together a special two-day event, using a steam locomotive and some of the passenger cars to create a "Joliet Rocket" train, and made arrangements with Metra to do several trips between Chicago and Joliet (The name was a nod to the old Rock Island Railroad, which used to name its trains "[Destination] Rocket"). The idea was to give passengers an opportunity to ride a steam-powered train and some old-school train cars - none of which, ironically, come from the Rock island Railroad.
A better view of the Joliet Rocket locomotive (photo 2017 (c) Benjamin "BravoDelta1999" Dziechciowski)
The tickets were sold for $99 - $249. You could pay $75 just to check out the train when it was laid over Chicago's LaSalle Street Station terminal, which was at least somewhat more affordable.
And because of this price... Honestly, while I think it's pretty cool, I'm not all that sorry that I didn't get a change to ride it.