Door to Door - 109 W Chicago

Gettin' Around!

Elgin Chicago Street Railroad Station - 109 West Chicago Street

This is one of the four main components to getting around and in and out of town without an automobile (the others are the two other railroad stations at National Street and Big Timber Road, and the bus terminal across the street).

Amtrak does not provide service, and the previous passenger rail service ended years ago, but it remains busy with Metra service to Chicago.

The current station opened in 1947. It was rather spartan. The original waiting room had old-style hard upright wooden benches that were commonly used. Those were removed several years ago, and the room was sadly turned into a storage area. A look through the windows shows pile of papers and junk.

The ticket window was moved to the back end of the building, without seating inside. An enclosed seating area sit across the tracks, although it is usually dirty and can be a haven for some undesirable people at times.

Train arriving from Chicago.

There are two main tracks with three platforms. There is a rail yard immediately behind the station since Elgin is currently the end of the Milwaukee District West Line route (the name coming from the old Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and the Milwaukee Road commuter service that was provided before the Regional Transportation Authority and Metra took it over).

The CP Rail System, if I'm not mistaken, still own the tracks. Freight trains also frequently come through. The route goes all the way out to the Mississippi River.

Being smack in the center of town, the train traffic consistently gums up auto traffic, made worse if a train is coming through the upper Union Pacific tracks right up the hill.

Looking north from the station.

There have been talks about extending the passenger service out to Huntley and Rockford, but that is still an idea that hasn't come close to fruition. There was also talk of starting a new Amtrak route through to Iowa and possibly South Dakota. There was been a debate over whether this route or a route further south would be better suited.

If either or both ever happened, it would be a huge asset to Elgin.

From Wikipedia: In 1849, the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad reached Elgin, which later would be served by railroads running along both banks of the Fox River, linking the growing town to Chicago and other urban centers.^[3] Early Elgin achieved fame for the butter and dairy goods it sold to the city of Chicago. Gail Borden established a condensed milk factory here in 1866, and the local library is named in his honor. The dairy industry became less important with the arrival of the Elgin Watch Company. The watch factory employed three generations of Elginites from the late 19th to the mid 20th century, when it was the largest producer of fine watches in the United States (the factory ceased production in the early 1960s and was torn down in 1965). Today, the clocks at Chicago's Union Station still bear the Elgin name.^[4]