Category: Chicago

At around 6pm today (June 7, 2021), a Purple Line train derailed just south of Bryn Mawr. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, and there wasn’t any major damage that I’m aware of from what I saw either in person or on the news.

Living in that area put me in a unique position to photograph the aftermath. While I was obviously not there photographing at the exact moment of the derailment, I was able to get some photos not long afterwards. I still can’t afford a drone and use a stepladder instead, which did limit my photographic capabilities, but I made do.

Specifically, the second car of the train derailed. The cars behind it and the front car seemed to remain on the tracks. The tracks on elevated structures have an additional rail in the middle for the purpose of keeping derailed trains from falling off the structure:

Anyway, without further ado, here are some pictures:

I then headed to a parking lot by the site of the derailment, and while I was walking there they removed the four rear cars of the train that did not derail:

You can definitely see that the rear car in the picture is not properly lined up with the front car.

Later that evening, they re-railed the train and brought a “rescue train” to pull the affected cars back to the Howard Yard.

They then restored power to the affected cars:

I attempted to take a video of the coupling of the rescue train to the derailed cars, but another train passed by in the process (a number of trains passed by on the other track during this time, presumably the trains that were taken out of service as a result of the derailment).

Finally, I got a video of the rescue train pulling the derailed cars away from the scene, presumably to the Howard Yard to be inspected.

From there, a number of CTA workers were looking at the site of the derailment with flashlights to see if there was an obvious cause in the track, such as a broken rail.

This was an interesting event to see unfold. Thankfully nobody was hurt and there doesn’t seem to be any major damage (any damage would just be to the one railcar, and even that would probably just be to the trucks, and any damage to the structure would just be the rails in that one spot). This was also one of my first times being able to document something like this in real time, the only other similar things being the last day of operation at 11th Street in Michigan City and the opening of the temporary stations at Argyle and Bryn Mawr. Hopefully I will get more chances to document interesting things in real time, though hopefully they won’t be derailments.

Two weeks after heading to Michigan City for a station about to close for reconstruction, two other stations closed for reconstruction, this time much closer to me. At midnight on Sunday, May 16, 2021, the North Side Main Line started heavy construction for the Lawrence to Bryn Mawr Modernization Project. This is, to put it lightly, a massive project. They will be rebuilding the track structure between Lawrence and Bryn Mawr (and a little bit past each of those stations) to modernize it. The current structure is an embankment, which basically consists of two retaining walls with earth fill and ballasted track:

They will be replacing this with a more modern elevated structure. They have similar structures in a few places, but unfortunately I don’t have any ground-level pictures (now that I’m writing this and realize it, I will quickly remedy that), but from above the tracks look like this (Wilson in this case, just south of the work zone):

This new structure will be open underneath, since it will be supported by concrete pillars rather than a solid earth fill. In the process, they will also be rebuilding the four stations (Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn, and Bryn Mawr). All four of those stations are fairly similar to their original 1920s designs, with narrow platforms, a single entrance (with a second exit-only staircase at the north end of Bryn Mawr), and not being accessible to passengers with disabilities. Lawrence and Bryn Mawr still feature wooden platforms, with the Bryn Mawr one particularly showing its age:

Berwyn and Argyle had their platforms replaced with concrete several years ago, but otherwise are pretty similar to Lawrence and Bryn Mawr.

The renovations to the stations will allow them to be fully accessible to passengers with disabilities, and also generally modernize them by making the platform wider, replacing the wood with concrete, and other things.

In the past when undertaking major reconstruction projects, the CTA has closed the line for several months with shuttle buses, like when they rebuilt the Dan Ryan Branch in 2013. In that case, they rerouted Red Line trains via the South Side Elevated (Green Line southern leg). However, in this case, since so many people take the Red Line (or at least did before the COVID-19 pandemic, and this project was planned long before then) and there aren’t any alternate routes, they still will run trains through the work zone. Since the line has four tracks, they will close two tracks at a time. The Purple Line Express will continue to run but will share tracks with the Red Line (I imagine this will be a dispatching nightmare). Lawrence and Berwyn will temporarily close, while Argyle and Bryn Mawr will remain in service, but using a temporary platform to accommodate trains running on different tracks than usual. Here is a very crude Microsoft Paint drawing explaining the situation:

The Last Hurrah

I set out to see the preparatory work in the afternoon on May 15 and take a photos of the stations about to close (Lawrence and Berwyn) as a sort of last hurrah.

The Transition

That evening, I periodically checked around the four affected stations to see what sort of preparatory work was being done. Nothing much seemed to be different until about 10:30pm, when they removed the wood covering over the Bryn Mawr temporary entrance:

The Argyle entrance was still closed at the time, so I returned home to post that photo and charge my camera. Then, I headed out again to check if there was anything new at Argyle, and unfortunately there was not, so I walked back to Bryn Mawr and then back to Argyle, at which point the wood paneling had been removed, making the fare mezzanine visible:

I then headed to Berwyn, aiming to catch the last train at that station (which by my guess was the last one listed on Ventra to arrive prior to midnight). The train ended up arriving just after midnight, so this probably was the last train ever to stop at Berwyn (no southbound trains were listed on Ventra for a while and I couldn’t see any headlights coming from the north).

From there I took it one stop to Bryn Mawr, where it stopped at the old station (now only used for northbound trains). From there, I hightailed it to the temporary southbound entrance. They were still in the process of removing the wrapping from the Bryn Mawr sign, so I waited for that, then got a photo.

At that point, I just started photographing everything I could. A photographer from the construction contractor noticed me and explicitly invited me to take as many pictures as I can (and also informed me I was the second customer ever to board at that station). That was a nice change of pace, since usually employees get mad at me for taking photos (even though non-commercial photography is allowed without any form of permit). I took a bunch of photos of the mezzanine and passage to the platform:

Unfortunately around this time it started raining, so I was only able to take photos with my good camera under the canopy, and was limited to using my phone outside of it.

From there, I caught a train (the second one ever to stop at this temporary platform) to Argyle:

At Argyle I resumed photography, but the rain had intensified, limiting me again to under the canopy.

However, it eventually stopped raining, enabling me to photograph the rest of the platform.

While I was there, I also got to talk to some of the construction crew and learn a bit more about the project, and a few guys asked me to take a photo of them (I did make sure they were aware I would post it online):

From there, I headed out of Argyle, photographing the exit along the way:

Interestingly, Argyle has the temporary mezzanine and regular mezzanine connected (and they both lead to both platforms), but closed the main mezzanine when opening the temporary one:

From there, I walked up to Bryn Mawr, stopping at Berwyn to see what it looked like after they closed it:

Then I continued up to Bryn Mawr, noticing a sign at the corner of Bryn Mawr and Broadway that was not there earlier in the evening. Since Bryn Mawr now has a separate station and entrance for each direction (about a block apart), it’s important that people know which one to use, so they put up a sign at the corner to help out.

I also photographed more of the station since the rain stopped:

Moving Forward

Now a massive four year construction project has really kicked off. Berwyn and Lawrence are closed for four years and will probably be demolished relatively soon (I will provide photos as I am able once that happens). I really look forward to seeing the end result, even if the intermediate process is going to be a challenge. I don’t currently have a commute to work, but probably will long before this project is over, so I will be boarding at this station. I do also have the 147 Outer Drive Express bus as an alternate if this becomes too difficult.

The day after I visited Lawrence to see the station one last time before it closed.

I also noticed there was a mural across the street from the entrance, and sadly that mural will probably be lost with the construction.

It’s going to be quite the adventure, that’s for sure.

After successfully photographing every station on the North Side Main Line and Skokie Branch, I have now photographed every station on two additional “branches” of the Chicago L: Ravenswood Branch, and Evanston Branch.

We had a pretty big cold snap for most of February this winter, so I was not about to go photographing anything during that time. It also didn’t help that the COVID situation was pretty bad for a while. However, the past two weekends have been quite pleasant (40 degrees or warmer and bright and sunny) and the COVID situation has improved. I took advantage of the weather to get out and photograph some more L stations. I had already photographed Paulina and Irving Park on the Brown Line, but none of the other ones. My first expedition took me out to Albany Park, on the Brown Line. I walked out to Kimball and started there.

My photos of Kimball were less than impressive, admittedly:

There were a few reasons for a rough start to this photo expedition. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done any photography, so I’m a bit out of practice. I like to shoot outdoor pictures in sunny weather whenever possible to get brighter and more vivid colors, but it does mean I need to be a bit more careful in terms of timing and positioning to have the sun where I want it (ideally the sun is high in the sky but behind me). Unfortunately I didn’t really think that through, and the sun was still in front of me when photographing the Kimball entrance, resulting in a lot of glare. Then in the station itself, I was limited in what I could do because there were a ridiculous number of CTA employees there, and also a surprising number of passengers given that it was the middle of the day on a Saturday. I understand all the CTA employees being there, given that it’s the end of the line and adjacent to the yard, but it limited what I could photograph.

Undeterred, I continued on to Francisco:

The outer portion of the Brown Line is a bit different from most of the rest of the L. It runs at ground level (with street crossings) rather than elevated, and the stations accordingly have a very different design. Also note all the snow in the picture. Even though it hadn’t snowed in a while and had been above freezing for about a week, there was still a lot of snow on the ground left to melt, and I heard water going down gutters even though it was completely sunny out.

Francisco also had an interesting mosaic design on the entrance ramp:

And, of course, there were grade crossings adjacent to the station:

I caught a train passing through as well:

From there, I walked over to Kedzie:

The station looked more or less the same as Francisco, and from there I waited for the next train to Western.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to capture that many pictures at Western because a CTA employee spotted me taking photos and (incorrectly) informed me that I needed a permit to take photos. I explained that I am taking non-commercial photos and their own photo policy says “The general public is permitted to use hand-held cameras to take photographs, capture digital images, and videotape within public areas of CTA stations and transit vehicles for personal, non-commercial use.” My photos are for non-commercial purposes and were taken with a hand-held camera in a public area, therefore I was in compliance with the rule. She didn’t seem to care and told me “well in the future, be aware of this.” I will definitely return to take more photos, hopefully on a day that person isn’t stationed there.

Regardless, I headed over to Rockwell, and along the way got a photo of the tracks rising from grade level to the elevated structure:

I also got a photo of the bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River:

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any pedestrian path along the river, so I couldn’t get a closer picture (this picture was taken from another bridge). Maybe one day I will be able to rent a kayak to get a photo from closer. From there, I entered Rockwell:

Rockwell is unusual in that it only has one entrance, while the other ground-level stations (except Kimball) have an entrance at both ends of the platform. Other than that though, it looks like the other ground-level Brown Line stations.

From Rockwell, I caught the next train to Montrose.

Montrose had a cool set of exit-only stairs that met at a right angle (usually they either meet head-on or have separate exits) for a combined exit:

From there, I walked to Damen:

There, I decided to call it a day and headed back home (this time using the train instead of walking). I caught the next inbound train to Belmont and transferred there. While waiting for the Red Line at Belmont, I saw a rather interesting traffic jam. A southbound Brown Line train was holding just south of the station on the Red Line track (southbound Brown Line trains were running on the Red Line track due to construction). However, it was not far enough past the station to clear the signal for the track by the platform, so a southbound Red Line train behind it had to hold north of the station. Where it was holding, it blocked the Clark Interlocking where the Brown Line diverges from the Red Line, so a northbound Brown Line train was stuck at the station since it couldn’t proceed due to the junction being blocked. (Note that the Red-Purple Bypass project will prevent this kind of problem in the future, but that’s still a work-in-progress right now.)

Eventually they announced over the PA system that there was “police activity” at Wellington, which was causing the delay. A few minutes later, the first southbound train resumed moving again, allowing the second southbound train to enter the station and clearing the interlocking for the northbound Brown Line train, clearing the traffic jam and allowing trains to resume as normal. While waiting, I got a photo of the current state of the Red-Purple Bypass:

Then a northbound Red Line train came and I took that back home.

The next weekend, Saturday, March 6, I continued my work. I first walked to Addison on the Brown Line to finish photographing the Brown Line, with only Addison and Southport left. They were doing some welding on the track structure at Addison by the entrance (I don’t have any pictures since I didn’t want to risk damaging my eyes by looking at welding), but otherwise it was a pretty quiet morning there.

I definitely was off to a better start than I was at Kimball the previous weekend. Not a bad photo to start the day. From there, I caught the next inbound train to Southport.

From Southport, I walked over to Belmont. I got a bit confused in terms of what direction I was walking from Southport since I was paying too much attention to my photos and not what direction I was going (I was watching for cars and other people though). At Belmont, I got a treat I hadn’t seen before: a work train.

I don’t know what that train was for, but it was cool to see. With that, I had conquered the Ravenswood Branch! From there, I set about finishing my work on conquering the Evanston Branch. I had already photographed Howard, Main, Dempster, Davis, Central, and Linden on other expeditions, so I just had to get the remaining three: South Boulevard, Foster, and Noyes. I caught the next northbound Red Line train at Belmont to make that happen.

At Howard while waiting to transfer to the Purple Line, I saw that work train again. Since there were so many people out, I didn’t photograph it again, but my guess is it was headed to the Howard Yard.

Eventually, a Purple Line train came, and I took that to Noyes.

Several of the northern Purple Line stops used to be stops on the interurban North Shore Line, which had separate platforms (with separate fare collection). The platforms have mostly been demolished, but the supports remain:

Leaving Noyes, I walked to Foster, only a few blocks south:

It was also interesting that Foster and Noyes had platform-level faregates, while most other elevated stations do fare collection at ground level. It was difficult to photograph this because people tend to congregate by the entrance.

Finally, for what I figured would be my last station to photograph for the day, I took the next train to South Boulevard:

South Boulevard is interesting for having a “team track,” a diverging spur track. According to chicago-l.org, it dates back to when the line still carried freight for local businesses to load/unload content from railcars. Unfortunately, I couldn’t photograph the team track from ground level since there was a fenced-off area between the parking lot and the end of the track, so I was only able to photograph it from the platform:

From there, I started walking back to Howard. Just outside the Howard Yard, I saw another photography opportunity: where the Purple and Yellow Lines cross Chicago Avenue (which changes names to Clark Street just south of there):

Then, as I was walking east on Howard Street, I saw a new angle from which I could photograph the Howard Station that captured a good full-profile image of the station in a way I hadn’t before:

With that, I had photographed every station on the Ravenswood and Evanston Branches! Not bad. I will definitely go back for better pictures at some of those stations as time permits, but still a good start to my project to photograph every Chicago L station. The remainder are going to be a bit trickier, since they require going downtown (or in the case of the outer portion of the Blue Line, catching a bus). Because COVID is still a thing, I’m trying to avoid going downtown if possible, and I hardly think this photography project counts as “essential travel.” The vaccine is coming though, so fingers crossed we can safely resume mostly-normal life soon.

After being totally outclassed by a guy with a drone when photographing the Clark Interlocking construction last week, I was determined not to let that happen again, but this time up at Bryn Mawr rather than at Belmont.

The temporary southbound Bryn Mawr station has been in the works for quite a while. The station is located between Bryn Mawr and Hollywood, right off of Broadway and will open sometime early 2021 once heavy construction starts on the Lawrence to Bryn Mawr modernization project. From what I could see from the street, progress had been going well, but I never bothered to photograph it much, but a few days ago I was walking by there on December 23 (Festivus!) and noticed it was actually starting to look something like a (temporary) train platform and not just a construction site:

I didn’t have my real camera with me, just my cell phone, and it was dark, so the photo was not the best quality. Still, definitely looked like something I wanted to photograph in more detail when I had the chance. The issue remained that there was a covered fence that I couldn’t easily reach over, and I didn’t have anything that would help me (I didn’t even have a selfie stick, not that it would help with my big camera).

I decided that I would make my own overhead photography system. However, I currently can’t afford a drone and am definitely not ready for one anyway (I’m gonna wait until I’ve mastered photography on the ground before I start adding piloting a drone to the mix). So, I improvised, and came up with this:

Yup, it’s a stepladder. The fence is just taller than I can reach over with my camera, so I figured with the help of a stepladder I’d have just the boost I need to see over the fence.

I knew this would be a little more suspicious than a drone, given that I would be standing right next to a fence on top of a stepladder holding a camera. While nothing I was doing was actually trespassing, I knew people would not have taken kindly to seeing this. Thus, I figured Christmas would be the perfect day to try this, given that likely the construction workers would probably all have the day off. As an added bonus, it was also completely sunny and pretty cold (22 degrees at the time I took the photos according to my phone). This both led to good photography conditions and a further disincentive for others to be outside. So, with my stepladder and camera, I got cracking.

First, I just started with what I could get without a stepladder:

Then I actually got into action with the stepladder from Broadway and an alley running along the south end of the site.

Then I made my way to the alley by the railroad embankment. It didn’t look like I would be able to get much of a view with the stepladder from there, since the passageway being built would block my view of anything further.

Then I finally went to the other side of Broadway to get some less up-close pictures of the entrance.

…and that’s what will soon be the southbound station at Bryn Mawr for around two years (after which they’ll need to open a new temporary northbound station on the other side of the tracks). Northbound passengers will still use the existing station for the first portion of the project. The idea is that all lines will be funneled onto two tracks (from a normally four track line), so the island platform right in the middle can serve southbound trains when all trains run on the western two tracks and northbound trains when all trains run on the eastern two tracks, and the direction not served by the island platform will be served by a temporary station.

I will make sure to continue photographing this as I am able. Odds are there won’t be much more interesting to see until the temporary station actually opens, but I will absolutely be there to photograph that.

The Chicago Transit Authority is currently in the process of rebuilding the Clark Interlocking, where the Ravenswood Branch (Brown Line) diverges from the North Side Main Line (Red/Purple Lines). Long story short, the current interlocking is all at one level, and when northbound Brown Line trains diverge, they must cross three other tracks, blocking them. In order to reduce delays and increase train capacity, the junction is being rebuilt so that northbound Brown Line trains will use a flyover to pass over the other three tracks so trains can continue underneath them.

I am doing my best to photograph the progress as it goes on, though I am somewhat limited in what I can do from the ground while the system is elevated, and I am avoiding unnecessary travel on public transportation due to the ongoing pandemic, which means I can’t get pictures from the nearby Belmont station platform either. Still, here’s what things looked like back over the summer:

I haven’t been down there for more photography since then, and this weekend I decided that given the sunny weather, I should go down there again. This time though, I walked and did not enter the station to minimize COVID-19 risk. Here’s how it looks now:

They’re starting to lay the trackbed now, so that’s definite progress. The apartment building that was under construction in my June photo also looks completed, at least from the exterior. The track passes surprisingly close to the building though, and given that the building was still under construction in June, there’s no way they could have built it without knowing about and coordinating with the CTA construction. I guess one lucky tenant will have the train going right outside their window. Interestingly a situation like this exists on the Singapore LRT where it passes very close to buildings at some points, but on that system they actually frost the windows to preserve privacy for the occupants of those buildings. I know there is no way the CTA rolling stock supports that, and I somehow doubt our new railcars will either. Still, I don’t live there, so not my concern.

A side note: when I was there, I got one-upped by a guy taking a photo from above with a drone. That’s way better than what I can do from the ground given the elevated nature and the fact that I can’t (or at least really shouldn’t) walk on the tracks. One of these days I’ll try using a drone, but I want to master my photography skills from the ground before I start adding flying to the equation. I talked a bit with the guy flying the drone, and he indicated that they will be laying track for the actual overpass (i.e. above the existing track) fairly soon.

While I was there, I also photographed the track in the area, and I definitely got a very strong “Chicago” vibe from it:

I then walked back home and got a few photos on the way back. I realized I haven’t really photographed Edgewater, my own neighborhood, much, which is a shame given its distinct (and awesome) character, so I got some photos there too.

Over the span of a year and four months (March 10, 2019 to July 5, 2020), I have taken photos of every station on the North Side Main Line, from Merchandise Mart to Howard. This all started on my spring break trip during my junior year of college, where I visited Chicago. That trip was mostly focused on downtown, but at one point on March 10, 2019 I did find myself at Sheridan station:

I also got some pictures of the Merchandise Mart station on that trip, since that’s a major landmark in Chicago and located near downtown:

All the rest of that trip I got photos of other stations in/around downtown, including areas like the Milwaukee–Dearborn Subway, the State Street Subway, and the Loop. I went all the way out to the end of the northern leg of the Milwaukee–Dearborn Subway up at Division, but never went anywhere north of the river on the State Street Subway.

As it would turn out, that would be my last time photographing Chicago with my Canon camera. The next time I was in Chicago was for my interview with BlueBolt, by which time I had my newer and more powerful Olympus camera, and managed to get a few photos along the way.

Once I had the job and started looking for an apartment, I knew approximately where I wanted to be (Uptown/Edgewater area), so for my spring break trip my senior year I returned to Chicago to scope out apartments in that area. Unlike the previous trip, where most of it was downtown, this was mostly focused on the North Side. I stayed up in Rogers Park, and got around via the Red Line. I got plenty more photos of the North Side Main on that trip, taking photos as I traveled to visit apartments. I needed my camera to photograph the apartments, anyway.

I also got some pictures of various other stations along the way, some of which I was headed to anyway for various reasons, and some of which I specifically went to for the purpose of photographing. Since this was during my spring break, I couldn’t really choose the weather. Some days were good, but some were also cloudy. However, I knew I was going to be living in Chicago in a few months, so that didn’t really bother me.

Once I moved to Chicago in May, I didn’t really get out much due to the stay-at-home order. Even after it was lifted, I limited how much I went out since I didn’t particularly want to catch COVID-19 or spread it to others. Also, my primary focus for photography was on the parts I could access without going downtown (to avoid crowding), which is to say the North Side Main, Ravenswood Branch, Evanston Branch, and Skokie Branch. Progress initially started slow, but over time I got photos of more and more stations. I started with stations like Wilson, Bryn Mawr, and Howard, but also went up to Linden and down to Belmont:

However, this most recent weekend, since I had a long weekend due to July 4th, I figured I could make use of a three day pass, my extra free time, and a period of good weather to get as many photos as possible. As an added bonus, due to the holiday weekend, crowding was pretty low. I made it my goal to finish with pictures of every station on the North Side Main, which I accomplished by Sunday. Here’s a picture of each station that hasn’t been included earlier in this post:

Somehow when I visited Chicago to scope out apartments, I didn’t get any pictures of Morse, which is the station I was staying closest to. I guess in how busy I was with getting places from there, I never thought to get out my camera. I also only realized that as I was putting this post together on July 4 (I had just assumed I took photos of the station I was using frequently for a week), so the next day I headed out with my camera to get photos there and fill in the gap. So, to finish off the set, here’s photos of the remaining stations:

I also have conquered the Skokie Branch (Yellow Line), since in my quest to photograph Morse, I also went to Oakton–Skokie, having already photographed Dempster–Skokie during my apartment expedition. I will at some point go photograph Dempster–Skokie during the day though.

So with that, I’ve hit a major milestone in photographing the Chicago L! I’m warily watching news reports about COVID-19, and if it flares up in Chicago again (so far it hasn’t, but could any day), that’ll put the kibosh on my transit photography for a while. Even if it stays at the level it is, I’m going to avoid going through downtown in order to avoid the highest crowding, limiting my photography to the Ravenswood and Evanston Branches.

So during this COVID-19 shutdown, my photography is going on hiatus since I am going to be a good citizen and follow the stay-at-home orders. I have no idea how long this is going to take, but I figure it’ll be a while. Looking through my Flickr, the last photo I took that got posted was this:

I took that as part of a free afternoon I had while doing apartment visits in Chicago, not realizing it would be my last photo expedition for a number of weeks, if not several months. Not a bad photo to end with, if I must say so myself. I aligned it about as perfectly as I can hope by hand, and the lighting looks pretty good while still being a clear shot (it helped that this station is fairly well lit and has a light colored design), so it definitely shows how my photography has improved. I also took that picture with my newer camera with everything manual except focus (I’m still getting a feel for that), while my previous Chicago trip was with my older, smaller camera and with all the settings on auto.

Once this blows over, hopefully sooner rather than later, I will finish what I started with my Chicago photos. I definitely am going to explore all over the L, since it’s a really interesting system with a very non-uniform design due to the varying owners and vintages of all its components. I also will try to get as many photos as I can on Metra and the South Shore Line, though that’s inherently limited by the train frequency and the (much) higher ticket cost. There are also a ton of buildings and landmarks I want to photograph, and unlike Cleveland, high density extends throughout the city, rather than just downtown, so that’ll be a fun project. This will take multiple years, but is something I very much look forward to.