I have now conquered the South Shore Line!

I have now finished what I started. Last year I started photographing the South Shore Line and got photos of every station from Gary and further out, and now I have finished the project by photographing every station on the line. Today, taking advantage of the clear skies (and more daylight available than earlier in the winter) I photographed Hegewisch, Hammond, and East Chicago.

I took a pretty unusual route this time in order to 1. avoid paying more in fares than I have to (the South Shore Line is expensive and doesn’t offer any day passes, and the free westbound trips promotion I took advantage of earlier is no longer a thing) and 2. not have to constantly wait for trains. With this in mind, I checked Google Earth for where walking was feasible, as the stops are a lot closer together than further out on the line. I found that walking from East Chicago to Hammond was definitely doable, but Hammond to Hegewisch was probably not a good idea since there weren’t any direct routes with sidewalks. Hegewisch is on the CTA bus route 30, so that provided me alternate means home that was cheaper and ran more frequently than the South Shore Line. With that in mind, my route was this: 1. take the the train out to East Chicago, photograph there, 2. walk to Hammond, photograph there, 3. take the train one stop to Hegewisch, photograph there, then 4. take the 30 bus to 69th and transfer to the Red Line home.

With that plan in place, it was time to put it into action. This expedition started the day out as normal, by catching the Red Line at Bryn Mawr. The train got me downtown on time as usual, and I walked over to Millennium Station. Millennium Station had a few Metra trains operating on the South Shore Line platforms for some reason (probably maintenance on the Metra tracks/platforms).

I got on the train, and noticed that half the seats were roped off to facilitate social distancing:

South Shore Line seat pair roped off for social distancing
Seat roped off to faciliate social distancing

This was not the case last time I was on the South Shore Line in October 2020. It was good to see that they are helping with COVID preventative measures, especially when this is a system that had a “mask-optional car” last year. The train left right on time, sailing across the South Side. The first good sign of the day was when I was somewhere around Hegewisch, I was able to see the downtown skyline across the lake. That meant the visibility was over 10 miles, which is as good as it gets.

I got off at East Chicago, and immediately started snapping photos:

Looking inbound at East Chicago
East Chicago platform
East Chicago headhouse
East Chicago headhouse

East Chicago seems to be the most substantial station on the line (other than those shared with Metra). It’s constructed on an alignment adjacent to the Indiana Toll Road, and has a center high-level platform with guantlet track to allow freight trains to pass the station without interference from the platform. There is a massive parking lot (and some overflow parking available nearby) and a station house. Due to the fact that there were two janitors cleaning the station lobby, I wasn’t able to photograph it, but it has a ticket counter, vending machines, ticket machines, water fountains, and restrooms. There also is an additional entrance further to the east to allow easier access from the far end of the parking lot.

From there, I started walking towards Hammond, and after the better part of an hour, I got there.

Hammond main entrance
Main entrance to Hammond Station

Hammond has a large station house adjacent to the station with a coffee shop (closed while I was there) and restrooms, a large parking lot, and two high-level platforms (one for each track, rather than an island platform). While East Chicago is elevated, Hammond is at ground level.

Hammond station house
Hammond station house
Hammond station house interior
Interior of the station, with a view of the closed coffee shop
Outbound platform at Hammond, looking east
Outbound platform at Hammond

An interesting detail was that the outbound platform only had a canopy for a small part of the length, while the inbound platform had a canopy for the full length. I guess this is because there are probably a lot more people boarding inbound at Hammond than outbound.

Hammond platforms and parking lot from the west
Hammond western platform entrances
Entrance to the platforms at the west end, by the station house

While waiting for the next inbound train, I ate my lunch, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Eventually, an inbound train arrived and I boarded it, only to get off one stop later at Hegewisch:

Inbound platform at Hegewisch from the west end
Inbound platform at Hegewisch

Hegewisch was laid out pretty similarly to Hammond, with a station house and two side platforms at ground level. Hegewisch also only had a full-length canopy on the inbound platform.

Hegewisch station house
Station house at Hegewisch

While I was photographing Hegewisch, an outbound train stopped there:

Outbound train arriving at Hegewisch
Outbound train arriving at Hegewisch

Hegewisch’s station house also had a coffee shop (also closed at the time), restrooms, and waiting area:

Waiting room at Hegewisch
Waiting room at Hegewisch

From there, I caught the 30 bus to 69th.

Bus stop at Hegewisch
Bus shelter at Hegewisch

Along the way, there was a detour due to bridge construction, so we went over the 95th Street Bridge. To my disappointment, we did not jump the bridge while it was up, like Elwood Blues did with the Bluesmobile in the Blues Brothers.

Then at 69th, I caught the Red Line home. I wasn’t able to get too many photos there since there were a lot more people than I expected on a Saturday, but I did get a few pictures of the platform.

Platform at 69th, looking north
Platform at 69th

This was my first time on the L anywhere south of Cermak Road, and my first time boarding on a freeway-median station (I have taken the Blue Line through the O’Hare Branch, but never actually boarded or disembarked there). I will definitely return to continue my photography, but that’s a project for another day.

Four branches down…

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:

Kimball station entrance from across the street
The entrance to Kimball
Empty track at Kimball
Platform with an empty track

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:

Platform at Francisco
Francisco platform

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:

Main entrance ramp and mosaic at Francisco
Mosaic on the Francisco main entrance ramp

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

Brown Line crossing Sacramento Avenue
Grade crossing by Francisco

I caught a train passing through as well:

Brown Line train crossing Sacramento Avenue
Train crossing the street

From there, I walked over to Kedzie:

Looking east on the platform at Kedzie (Brown)
Platform at Kedzie

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

Outbound platform at Western (Brown)
Outbound platform at 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:

Brown Line tracks rising from street level to elevated between Rockwell and Western
Tracks rising from ground level to the elevated structure between Rockwell and Western

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

Brown Line bridge over the North Branch
Brown Line 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:

Platform at Rockwell, looking east
Platform at 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.

Inbound platform and canopy at Montrose (Brown)
Platform at 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:

Exit-only gates at Montrose (Brown)
Exit-only faregates at Montrose

From there, I walked to Damen:

Brown Line structure north of Montrose
Brown Line structure and alley north of Montrose, just south of the curve
Inbound platform at Damen (Brown)
Platform at Damen
Brown Line train entering Damen
Outbound train entering 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:

Red-Purple Bypass from the Belmont platform, February 2021
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.

Inbound platform at Addison (Brown), looking north
Inbound platform at Addison

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.

Platforms at Southport from the inbound platform
Southport Station
Main entrance to Southport
Entrance 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.

Northbound work train on the northbound Belmont Red Line track
Work train heading north on the Red Line track, strangely with a “Midway” destination sign
Flatcar on a CTA work train on the northbound Red Line track at Belmont
Flatcar carrying a rail truck on it

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.

Platform at Noyes, looking north
Platform at 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:

Southbound track at Noyes
Remnants of the North Shore Line platform at Noyes

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

Platform at Foster
Platform at Foster

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.

Platform-level faregates at Foster
Platform-level faregates at Foster

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

Looking north on the platform at South Boulevard
Platform at 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:

Northbound track at South Boulevard
“Team track” diverging from the northbound track at South Boulevard

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):

Purple Line bridge over Chicago Avenue
Purple Line bridge
Yellow Line trench just past Howard
Yellow Line trench

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:

Howard Station from the northwest
Howard Station from the northwest on Howard Street

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.

My fancy overhead photography system

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:

Temporary Bryn Mawr entrance, December 2020
Temporary entrance, viewed from the north on Broadway

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:

My wonderful overhead photography system

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:

Bryn Mawr temporary southbound station entrance, December 2020
The entrance and fence from the south on Broadway (you can also actually see the CTA logo now since it’s not washed out due to the darkness and cell phone camera)
Bryn Mawr temporary passage to the southbound platform under construction, 2020
The passage from the north – this goes directly adjacent to the Public Storage parking lot

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

Bryn Mawr temporary southbound station stairs to platform, December 2020
The stairs to the platform (I don’t know if there will be an elevator, but I’m guessing not since the existing Bryn Mawr station doesn’t have one)
Bryn Mawr temporary southbound station site construction, December 2020
The entrance structure from the southeast

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.

Bryn Mawr temporary southbound station stairs to platform, December 2020
The alley between the construction site and the tracks, passing under the stairs
Alley below temporary Bryn Mawr southbound station, December 2020
The alley from Hollywood
North Side Main Line bridge over Hollywood Avenue, December 2020
Tracks crossing over Hollywood (not actually part of the construction site, but this will be replaced as part of the larger project so I figured I should photograph it for archival purposes)

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

Bryn Mawr temporary southbound station entrance, December 2020
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.

Progress going right over our heads

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:

Red-Purple Bypass supports under construction, June 6, 2020
Progress in June, 2020

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:

Clark Interlocking progress as of December 2020
Progress in December, 2020

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:

Below the Brown Line tracks just past Belmont
Alley underneath the Brown Line tracks
Brown Line train just past Belmont
Inbound train approaching the station

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.

Addison Station from Sheffield Road
Addison station from street level
Wrigley Rooftops
Wrigley Rooftops
Edgewater Beach Hotel from the south
Edgewater Beach Hotel
Apartment building at Sheridan and Catalpa
Apartment building at Sheridan and Catalpa, I don’t know the name of it
Looking up The Bryn
The Bryn, apartment building at Sheridan and Bryn Mawr

I have conquered the North Side Main!

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:

Platform sign at Sheridan
My first published photo on the North Side Main Line, at Sheridan

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:

Platforms at Merchandise Mart
My first published photo of the Merchandise Mart station

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.

Blue Line platform at Division
Division Station on the Blue Line

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.

O'Hare station from the main entrance
O’Hare Station

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.

Northbound track at Jarvis
Jarvis Station
Northbound track at Granville
Granville Station
Northbound tracks at Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr Station
Looking north on the southbound tracks at Thorndale
Thorndale Station
Looking northbound at Belmont
Belmont Station

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:

Southbound Red Line track at Wilson
Wilson Station
Northbound Red Line platform at Belmont
Belmont Station
Looking south at Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr Station
Southbound platform at Howard
Howard Station

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:

Southbound Brown/Purple Line platform at Chicago
Chicago Station
Northbound platform at Sedgwick
Sedgwick Station
Back of a northbound Red Line train bypassing Armitage
Armitage Station
Red Line tracks and end of the canopy at Fullerton
Fullerton Station
Northbound platform at Diversey
Diversey Station
Southbound Red Line train bypassing Wellington
Wellington Station
Top of the escalator at Addison
Addison Station
Northbound tracks at Lawrence
Lawrence Station
Argyle station from the street
Argyle Station
South end of Berwyn platform
Berwyn Station

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:

Southbound tracks at Morse
Morse Station
Center tracks at Howard
Howard Station

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.

Looking south on the platform at Oakton-Skokie
Oakton–Skokie Station
Dempster-Skokie from the parking lot
Dempster–Skokie Station

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.

Socially distant exercise

Since moving to Chicago, I have been able to keep up a pretty good exercise routine on my bike. This is really important during the COVID-19 pandemic since with gyms closed and all that, this helps me stay healthy. Also, since I am otherwise mostly at home (my job is from home and I’m limiting how much I leave in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19), biking is a good (and reasonably safe) way to get outside.

I used to run cross-country and track in college, but unfortunately cannot run significant distances anymore due to an injury, requiring me to find alternate forms of exercise. I started with swimming in the fall of 2019, but it was often difficult to motivate myself to do it and just didn’t feel right for whatever reason. I avoided the exercise bike since I had done that before and the time there seems interminable and I have to go really hard for a decent workout. In January 2020, I settled on the elliptical since we had a bunch of them available at CWRU and it was reasonably similar to running, but didn’t cause me any problems. With that, I started getting back into shape. Once I got sent home due to the pandemic, I continued on the elliptical since we had one in the garage. Upon moving to Chicago, I needed to find another option since my building doesn’t have any exercise equipment. Biking seemed like a decent option, since it avoided some of the pitfalls of the exercise bike (in particular the fact that your legs are the only thing moving) but still gave me a good cardio workout. As an added bonus, I could bike outdoors and explore the city some.

I first started out biking along the North Shore Channel Trail. I wanted to go on the lakefront trail, but it was closed in order to prevent congregating. It’s a pretty decent trail that goes from Chicago up to Skokie then Evanston. It doesn’t cross a lot of streets, making biking more pleasant. However, it’s a massive pain to get to, requiring a lot of biking down city streets, in particular some that are less than bike friendly. The trail also isn’t all that scenic, offering a pretty standard suburban view the whole way.

At one point I did a bike ride downtown for some photos. I didn’t want to travel on the CTA at the time so that essential workers could have more space, but did want to go downtown to get some pictures. I managed to do so while not getting near anyone, and here are some of the pictures I got:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacob-x/49892305722/in/dateposted-public/
North/Clybourn Station entrance
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacob-x/49891978991/in/dateposted-public/
Outbound Metra train
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacob-x/49891452468/in/dateposted-public/
Northern portal to the Union Station tunnel

I also considered alternate routes. I then settled on a route that went further east, staying close to the lakeshore. That one takes me right through Northwestern’s campus, and then onwards through Wilmette, and eventually up to Kenilworth and Winnetka. I liked that route a lot more since it was much more scenic and also allowed me to go further. The northern part of the route also paralleled a Metra line, and I briefly got some pictures there with my phone.

Indian Hill station
Winnetka Station
Glencoe Station

One day I planned to bring my real camera to photograph all the Metra stations along the route, but alas that trip was not meant to be. I got a flat tire up by Howard, so I had to walk my bike over to the L and return home. I then had to spend a good chunk of the rest of the day finding a new inner tube for my bike (since the tube is very old at this point, I figured it was worth getting an entirely new tube rather than just patching it). Since it was a Sunday, I couldn’t find any open bike shops near me. I then looked to Target, and found that they had the tube in the size I needed, but nowhere near where I live. I ended up getting there on the L. However, even after that, I still didn’t have a tire lever (the location where I got the tire didn’t have one), so I still couldn’t replace the tube. I then found that another Target location had that, but still not my usual location, so I got to take a nice long walk to get that. Then, with new tire (I bought an extra one just to be safe) and tire levers, I replaced the tire and was back in business. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the right weather (a completely blue sky) on a weekend since then, so I unfortunately haven’t been able to take that trip. It will happen someday.

Then, last week, the lakefront trail reopened. That was so much easier since I only live a few blocks away. The trail also separates bikes and pedestrians for much of its length, allowing me to get some good speed going. As an added bonus, a lot of the parking lots along the trail are still closed, so I can cross them more easily and quickly. Unfortunately the trail is closed between North Avenue and Ohio Street for construction due to significant pavement deterioration between those locations, so I either have to turn around at North Avenue or bypass that area on city streets near downtown. So far the farthest south I’ve been is Museum Campus, but I will definitely continue on further south in the future.

Buildings adjacent to Museum Campus
Skyline from North Avenue

Graduated, moved, starting work soon, and a whole lot more

Wow, the past few weeks have been crazy. Quite a lot has happened. This was definitely not the scenario I imagined even a few months ago, but despite quite a whirlwind of things happening, I managed to make it work.

Graduating

Immediately after visiting Chicago to scope out apartments. I had to go back home for the remainder of the semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I was lucky enough to be in among the least-affected classes. For the most part, we just continued doing what we were before (mostly a combination of lectures and projects) online.

One interesting twist was the component where I was teaching. I was a teaching assistant for Software Craftsmanship, and the primary component of my job was leading code reviews every week for students’ programming assignments.

Then, the graduation ceremony was pretty much a complete non-event. Some videos were posted, and we each got a slide. I’ll get my diploma in the mail in a few weeks. I managed to graduate Summa Cum Laude (for CWRU that means top 10% of my class), so that was good to see. They unfortunately removed my submission for my slide. I’m not sure why, since it wasn’t anything inappropriate or rude or anything. It was just a picture of me sitting with a cat in my lap and the line “It’s been a crazy four years”. Oh well.

Moving

I have now moved to Chicago! When on my apartment scouting trip earlier, I found one apartment that I knew was my best option. The apartment had basically everything: a good location close to the L, lots of room, on-site laundry, the property management gave me a good impression of how they handled things, and an additional small room that would be good for an office. As an added bonus, the tenants living there at the time I toured the unit had a cat, so I immediately knew this would be a good apartment to have my own cat (coming soon, I hope!) After I finished with apartment tours, I went to the property management office to apply in person, and a few days later got a call telling me I was approved.

Fast forward to May, with some (a lot of) help from my parents, we loaded my stuff into a van and drove up to Chicago. Before actually moving in, I snapped a few quick photos of the empty apartment to document what it looked like without my stuff:

The bedroom
The bathroom
Living room
Office
Kitchen

With that, we got to work unpacking everything. Most of the furniture was fairly easy. The bookshelf just had the shelves taken out, so we had to put those back. We also had to take the drawers out of the dresser to move it up the stairs. My desk required no modification at all. The one somewhat difficult thing was the bed, which we basically completely disassembled to fit into the van. However, being an Ikea bed, we were able to put it back together following the original instructions with minimal tools. Then we also unloaded my stuff, and went to Target to buy supplies and food. We finished the day with some Giordano’s pizza (deep dish, of course), a fitting welcome to Chicago. The leftover pizza then lasted me three more days.

With that, I had a place to live! Over the next few days, I got to work making this place look more like home, putting up decorations, cleaning out boxes, etc.

My living room
My bedroom with a bed in it (and a Chicago flag on the window)
My office (it was hard to get the lighting right on my phone due to the window)
Kitchen
Network supplies and Raspberry Pi in the living room

This definitely felt more like a home. However, I was still missing some real furniture. My living room table was a card table accompanied by a folding chair, and I had no couch. My grandparents came to the rescue for that problem and got me a table, two chairs, and a couch off Wayfair. After some assembly, I had a real living room:

Living room with a real table, chair, and couch

So with that, I have a home! No doubt this place will evolve as time goes on, but I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out. I’m also really glad I ended up going for a slightly larger apartment, given that now I’m spending a lot more time here than I expected due to the stay-at-home order in Illinois.

Stuff I’ve been doing in the meantime

I had a fairly long gap between when I moved and when work will start, so I have done a bunch of different things in the meantime with all the free time I had. It felt weird being completely done with school, but nice to have all the free time. I have done the common things like watching TV and playing video games (in particular Wii Sports), but also some other things.

For exercise, I still am avoiding running on pavement due to my Achilles, and there aren’t really any good non-paved places around here to run that I’m aware of. Also, all the gyms are closed as part of the COVID-19 prevention measures. Thus, I settled on biking outside. After spending five months on the elliptical, being outside and moving again was a great feeling. The lakefront trail is closed since the amount of people that used it posed a hazard for COVID-19, so I had to find alternate routes. My primary route so far has been the North Shore Channel Trail up to Skokie and Evanston, but I also recently found that going further east into Evanston and Wilmette (via Northwestern) is a good route. I biked downtown once too (via Broadway, which has bike lanes for much of its length) for some photos, to date the only time I’ve been downtown since I moved here.

I have not yet been on the L, which is a bummer given how much of a transit enthusiast I am. Still, I know that the public health of Chicago is more important than my hobbies, so I’m avoiding the L to give more room for the people who really need it. All my supply needs are within walking distance (Jewel-Osco for groceries and Target for most other things), and I haven’t quite started work yet, so there really isn’t much reason for me to be taking public transportation for now. Once things calm down some, I’ll continue my exploration of the city. I have no plans to leave Chicago, so I have plenty of time to do this.

One of my projects in the meantime was the Arrow programming language, available on GitHub, and I will make another post about Arrow and the story behind it soon.

In all, despite the craziness going on everywhere, I think I’m doing well as I can right now. I can’t wait to start work, and in time as things settle down I’ll get to experience more of the city.

My last photo for a while

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:

Platform at Belmont Blue Line station from far end
Platform at the Belmont Blue Line station from the far end

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.

Apartment hunting: Day 3

So today I continued my apartment hunting adventure. As was the case with the past two days, my day started with an apartment visit. This time, it was in Edgewater. Not all that much to say on that front, so I’ll continue to the fun stuff. I had some hot bar food from Mariano’s for lunch, which was pretty good. I will likely be shopping either there or Jewel-Osco for groceries, so I figured I might as well start getting familiar with their stores. Once that was done, I got back on the L and headed towards another barrage of apartment visits. This was the first set I saw not on the Red Line, but instead on the Brown Line, making this my first time taking that line (I also have not yet ridden the Green or Pink lines). I got off at Paulina:

Outbound platform at Paulina
Outbound platform at Paulina

From there, I headed to my first apartment of this set of visits. I then traveled across that part of the city (the realtor driving me between apartments), and visited a number of units in Lakeview and Uptown, but further west than I was before. After that was done, I caught the Brown Line at Irving Park. Due to fairly large the number of people there (it was about 3:30pm at this point, so rush hour was approaching), I didn’t get any photos, and it was cloudy anyway. I headed back downtown and hung out there for a while, then headed back north to get dinner. Since I wanted something light, I took the train back to Bryn Mawr to go back to Mariano’s and get a chicken caesar salad:

Southbound tracks at Bryn Mawr
Southbound tracks at Bryn Mawr

After some dinner, I figured I would explore a more remote part of the L system, and figured I’d head to Howard and from there either go to Linden or Skokie, depending on which train arrived first. It just so happened that both were there, so I opted for Skokie for no particular reason. Thus, I boarded the Yellow Line and went out to Dempster-Skokie.

Train waiting at Dempster-Skokie
Train waiting at Dempster-Skokie
Termination platform at Dempster-Skokie
Dempster-Skokie termination platform
Dempster-Skokie entrance
Dempster-Skokie main entrance

From there, I headed back to Howard, then transferred to the Red Line and called it a night. It’s feeling a lot more real that I’m moving here now that I’m apartment hunting. With any luck, I’ll have a place to live soon. From there, I’ll have a whole new city to explore.

The apartment search continues, with some twists along the way

So first, I should mention the concept of cohesion in software engineering. It basically says that everything in one place should be dedicated to one idea. This post definitely is not cohesive. With that out of the way, the past few days have been interesting. They have been mostly dedicated to apartment searching. I have found a few that look great, as well as some that I am going to skip on. Once this search is over I’ll submit some applications and hope for the best. My search is primarily in Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park, all near the Red Line. I ended up leaning towards Uptown and Edgewater since they’re denser and closer to the city, but still quieter than neighborhoods closer to downtown like Lakeview.

Along the way I’ve also been lots of interesting places. On Monday, I started the day with an apartment visit in Uptown, followed by another in Rogers Park. After that I headed downtown to Union Station to meet some friends from CWRU for lunch, where we ended up going to My Thai. It was a really good lunch and also nice to see them in a non-college setting. Along the way, I got off at Clinton on the Blue Line and that was my only set of transit photos for the day since it was raining pretty much all day.

O'Hare-bound track at Clinton
O’Hare-bound track at Clinton
Platform at Clinton
Platform and escalator at Clinton

After lunch I headed back north to Edgewater for another apartment visit. As part of the tour the property manager described the neighborhood, including the restaurants. One of the restaurants was Francesca’s, and it was apparently National Meatball Day, so that became my dinner. A very good dinner, though also a lot of food.

Tuesday saw some improved weather. It was colder, but also mostly sunny. I started the day with another apartment visit in Uptown. I then went to the Chicago History Museum and spent a while there. The museum was really interesting, containing an exhibit about a narrative of the history of Chicago, including a 1892-built L car. It also had an exhibit about Lincoln, Muslims in Chicago, modern design, and a few other things. Then from there, I headed downtown to kill some time before getting lunch. I bought my very own Chicago flag along the way, which I’ll hang up in my dorm or something for the rest of the semester. Also, I got some pictures from the LaSalle Street Bridge over the river:

Chicago River from LaSalle Street looking west
Looking west on the Chicago River from LaSalle Street
Chicago River from LaSalle Street looking east
Looking east on the Chicago River from LaSalle Street

While at lunch, I got an email from CWRU informing me that classes are cancelled next Monday and Tuesday, and will be conducted online for at least three weeks after that. As a TA, I immediately emailed my boss about what to do, and we’re going to be hosting lectures and discussion sections online via Zoom, so that should be fine. I wonder how my other classes are going to happen, and it’ll be interesting seeing campus become a quasi-ghost town since the email also encouraged students to go home if at all possible.

After lunch, I headed back north to Howard on a Purple Line Express for another apartment tour back in Rogers Park. I got there early, so I first tried to get some pictures at Howard, but too many people were there for me to get one without being disruptive. Instead, I got on the Red Line and went one stop back to Jarvis, and got a few pictures there. I also got a shot of the empty interior of a train before we left Howard. Since it was later in the day, I was limited in what I could do due to the sun.

Interior of a Red Line train at Howard
Interior of my train at Howard
Northbound track at Jarvis
Northbound track at Jarvis

I still had some more time before the tour was scheduled, so I headed over to the lakefront.

Lake Michigan from Chase Avenue
Lake Michigan from the end of Chase Avenue

Then, I went on the tour and went back to the place I’m staying. Later on, I got dinner at Asian Station, an Asian fusion place right by the Morse station. That was also a very good meal.

Tomorrow is the last major apartment hunting day, then Thursday is a bit more relaxed, and I’m going back to Cleveland Friday. It’s getting a lot more real that I’m moving to Chicago now that I’m touring apartments.