The rails for Chicago’s first railroad were laid in 1884, providing track to a lead mine, and were soon followed by numerous railroads to agricultural regions. In his ode to Chicago in 1914, Carl Sandburg referred to the city as the ‘Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation’. What was true over a century ago is still true today – Chicago is the heart of America’s railroads. A dizzying array of rail lines radiate out of Chicago serving as vital gateways for goods from the Midwest to the rest of the nation and the world. An amazing variety of railroads also interchange huge amounts of tonnage at many yards surrounding the city. Amtrak uses Chicago as its national hub, and Metra commuter trains convey over a quarter of a million people from home to work and back on weekdays. On average, over 500 freight trains and 700 passenger trains travel through Chicago every day.
In Railroads around Chicago the author, Mike Danneman, has produced a colourful tour of railways around Chicago between 1982 and 2019. Illustrated with his own original photographs, Mike provides a taste of the wide range of trains running on the tracks of this exciting Midwestern city.
168 colour photographs. 96 pages.