Why the Amtrak City of New Orleans leaves Chicago Backwards

why is this train leaving Chicago Union Station backwards [Applause] [Music] today's video is about three Amtrak trains first we have the City of New Orleans an overnight service between Chicago and New Orleans within the state of Illinois there are two additional trains that run as far south as Carbondale these are the Illini and the Saluki in this video I will explain something strange about their departure from Chicago and in the second half we're going to ride the City of New Orleans until Champaign Urbana Illinois we've come to the Roosevelt Road Viaduct my favorite Chicago rail Fanning spot to watch Illini 393 depart Chicago Union Station [Music] [Music] thank you well that's really weird this train was backing out did we make a mistake and catch something headed into the yard instead nope this really was the Illini when it comes to passenger trains roughly speaking there are two main categories there are multiple units which are basically Passenger cars that can move on their own power and these almost exclusively tend to be bi-directional and then there are locomotive hauled passenger trains cars on these cannot move on their own power they need to be pushed or pulled by a locomotive there are a few different ways locomotive Hall trains can change directions you can simply move the locomotive from one side to the other or turn the train around using a y but to do this you need special tracks that take up a lot of space that's why sometimes a train will just have a locomotive on both ends or they'll use what's known as a cab car these do not have the power to move themselves but they do feature a driving cab with the controls for the locomotive when the cap car is used the locomotive is pushing Amtrak actually uses all these different methods throughout the country but there is one common thread through all of it at Big terminal stations the locomotive is always on the side opposite of where the passengers are boarding from and this isn't just Amtrak policy most commuter railroads do the same but why well the vast majority of American railroads are not electrified so they use diesel locomotives if you've ever stood next to a big diesel engine running you'll know that it is not a pleasant experience there's the insanely loud rumbling noise the bad air quality that comes from you know burning dead dinosaurs having the locomotives at the opposite end doesn't only prevent passenger discomfort it also prevents those nasty gases from entering the main passenger Halls trains in Chicago follow the same procedure but as we just saw the City of New Orleans Illini and Saluki break this rule when you board these trains in Chicago the locomotive is the first thing you'll see and what that means is that when it's time to go the train leaves with the locomotive pushing there's no second locomotive there's no cab car so a conductor has to stand by the door of the front car or is it the back car and use their walkie-talkie to communicate to the engineer in the locomotive because of that extra layer of communication that's required this can really only be done at slow speeds surely they're not going to drive like this all the way to Louisiana are they don't worry this whole backing up thing is very short by the time the trains pass underneath the McCormick Place in Chicago the locomotive is at the front pulling the train along as it should be [Music] so there must be somewhere where the trains swap directions somewhere between McCormick Place and Union Station there is and there's a good reason for doing this it all has to do with the way the tracks are laid out in Chicago the City of New Orleans was a renowned train run by the Illinois Central Railroad the train was so famous that there was even a song written about it my favorite rendition is the one sung by Arlo Guthrie in the old Illinois Central days the City of New Orleans left from Central Station a station in Chicago that no longer exists today in the 1970s Illinois Central abandoned all their passenger trains and Amtrak took over the long distance trains while Metro took over the electric commuter service in Chicago today the Metro Electric District still runs into Millennium Station however Amtrak wanted all their trains to leave from the same station in Chicago and Union Station was chosen to be that terminal this worked great for most routes but the problem is that there is no direct connection between the old Illinois central line which by the way is now owned by Canadian national and Union Station there are connections to tracks leading away from Chicago so these trains have to first back out onto a different track so they can then switch to the track they need to be on the return Journey something similar happens the train arrives on a track facing away from Union Station before reversing and backing into the station so which tracks do these trains take well when looking at the Chicago Rail map I came up with two possible options one would be to take the BNSF line to Halstead UIC and then taking the Saint Charles Airline over the river and onto the Canadian national tracks the other option is to take the Norfolk Southern Line over the Pennsylvania railroad bridge until crossing the Canadian national Freeport subdivision there's a short connecting track and the trains could then travel past pingtown Memorial Park on their Journey southbound if you turn on the transit layer in Apple Maps it seems to suggest that it takes option one so let's go to Halstead UIC station on the Metro BNSF line and see for ourselves oh I've arrived at Halstead UIC station on the Metro BNSF line those are the BNSF tracks they're also used by Amtrak's Southwest Chief and California Zephyr so like a lot of Metro stations Halsted Street station is a hole in a creepy tunnel very basic two Island platforms [Music] over there is a branch to the Saint Charles Airline [Music] foreign while it was safe to conclude that this is not where these trains turn after investigating it seems it would even be impossible for Amtrak to take this route not only has the bridge over the river been up for a very long time a whole bunch of the tracks have been completely ripped up these cars may be called super liners they are certainly not amphibious so it must be option two that's why on a warm July night oh how I missed those I made my way to pingtown Memorial Park [Music] [Music] sure enough a little after eight I saw a familiar flash of silver backing it up onto the old bridge foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so the mystery of the backwards driving has been solved and we've even established the path it takes now I want to experience this from the train let's ride the City of New Orleans but before we do just a little bit about the future of this connection obviously a backup like this is extremely time consuming Amtrak is planning to construct a ramp from the Saint Charles airline to Union Station meaning they can get rid of the switch and the backup while this is great news for the City of New Orleans Illini and Saluki I think there are some other trains that will benefit from this as well currently all the Amtrak Michigan trains as well as the Lakeshore limited and capital limited take the Norfolk Southern Chicago line into the windy city Norfolk Southern gets a fat f as a host railroad Amtrak trains are constantly delayed because freight trains are given priority so Amtrak is playing around with the idea of rerouting these eastbound trains onto the South Shoreline this commuter line runs parallel to the current route but is almost fully double tracked and completely geared towards passenger rail if this reroute happens it could drastically improve speed and on-time performance of these Amtrak routes they could also stop at Gary or Hammond both being more centrally located than the current Hammond Whiting station once the connection in Chicago is built these trains could take the South Shoreline move on to the old Illinois central line and then glide into Union Station another set of trains that would benefit are the Lincoln service and Texas eagle from Joliet to Chicago they use Canadian national tracks that lead to frequent delays with this new connection they could be rerouted over the metro-owned Rock Island District maybe add a stop in Tinley Park and take the new ramp into Chicago Union Station now that that's all out of the way let's ride the City of New Orleans all right now it's time for the best part of the video we are going to ride the City of New Orleans now the City of New Orleans goes to well New Orleans that's an overnight journey I am not sleeping on this train we are going to get on the train here at Chicago Union Station and right until Champaign Urbana which is about two and a half hours away I'm really excited about this so let's go to the main hall the last couple of times I've been here at Union Station were to ride Metro so to be here knowing that I'm about to board an Amtrak train to a place I've never been to before it's exhilarating now the City of New Orleans leaves at 805. right now it's about 7 15 so I have 50 minutes before the train leaves which is a good amount of time to be here in Chicago because it's an Amtrak train we can't just go to the platforms we have to go to the Amtrak boarding Gates which are right that way so follow me it's so busy here Amtrak trains get really crowded during the summer months I only started riding Amtrak a little bit before the pandemic began so I think this is the first time I'm at a Union Station that's this packed although I have seen it pretty busy before it's kind of fun to share the start of a journey with so many people if you don't like traveling with a lot of people I do recommend you opt for Amtrak travel in the spring or the fall a little before eight o'clock we were called to line up and board I was secretly hoping for something and once I reached the platform I saw that what I was hoping for came true our locomotive was one of the brand new Siemens ALC 42 Chargers this unit number 304 is in the special edition phase six Livery it's my first time riding on a train hauled by one of these now in all my other Amtrak travels they've always just let everyone sit where they want but this time the conductors handed out handwritten seat reservations that we had to comply with because of how crowded it was no problem for me I wasn't going to spend much time in my seat anyway the City of New Orleans as well as the Illini and the Saluki use the famous superliner cars the majority of the seats on these cars are on the top floor speaking of seats averaged mine so let's check it out the padding width and recliner these are phenomenal I've spent many nights in a coach seat and really it's got all you need there's a reading light a foot rest though being six foot I actually prefer resting my feet on the floor rather than the foot rest your seat reclines with this lever and there are two power outlets as well finally these curtains block out the Sun and we're off on super liners Amtrak usually has the seats facing forwards the direction of these seats reminds us that right now we're actually backing out of Union Station here's the conductor monitoring the track and communicating with the engineers now we're crossing the Chicago River over the old Pennsylvania railroad bridge this is the stop as they switch the tracks to get us onto Canadian national tracks the locomotive is up front now and we're traveling in the right direction down to Champaign-Urbana Memphis Jackson and New Orleans thank you thank you [Music] [Music] underneath the McCormick Place are tracks align with the Metro Electric District which we will follow until its final destination of University Park along the way there will be one transfer station to Metro Homewood Illinois [Laughter] foreign the advantage of writing the City of New Orleans over the Illini or the Saluki is that there is a sightseer Lounge granted it's dark the entirety of Illinois but still this is my absolute favorite spot on an Amtrak train to sit [Music] riding on the City of New Orleans Amtrak Thursday evening rail seven cars and several hundred Restless Riders one conductor zero Saxon male all along the southbound Odyssey the train pulls out of Kankakee rolls along past houses farms and Fields getting off at Champaign that's about all the lyrics that we could go through today but what could have been a stressful three-hour Drive was now a relaxing evening train ride and now you know why the Amtrak City of New Orleans Illini and Saluki leave Chicago running backwards now you'll certainly have a few more years to see this for yourself but if you ever find yourself riding on one of these trains make sure to pay attention because it really is a remarkable move thank you so much for watching today if you like this video make sure to subscribe to trains are awesome follow us on Instagram and consider supporting us on patreon we'll see you next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Trains Are Awesome

Views: 109,332

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Id: T2kNghHM6Cg

Length: 21min 6sec (1266 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 25 2023