Metra Electric 316, 315 at 71st & South Shore Dr.

It's 9:30 on a beautiful, bright, cloudless Saturday morning at 71st and South Shore Dr., and the Metra Electric South Shore trains are single-tracking today; the southbound train is several minutes late.

Chicago's South Shore neighborhood and its main drag, 71st Street, went through some rough times in the 70's, 80's and 90's, but it's coming back -- sloooowly. You still need to watch your back, and your front.

Things got so bad that Jackson Park Highlands, 16 square blocks of palatial mansions bounded by Stony Island, 67th Street (the southern boundary of Jackson Park), 71st Street and Jeffrey, walled itself off from the rest of South Shore with a fortress of cul-de-sacced streets and traffic-calming islands at some intersections. There's one way in to this man-made enclave, and one way out. Something like Hancock Park in Los Angeles.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. lives in Jackson Park Highlands. Remember that the next time he starts talking about "inclusion".

That elegant twin-towered structure is the entrance to South Shore Country Club Park, where the Chicago Police Department's Equestrian Unit is housed. Amazingly, nobody hassled me. I guess they know an Urkel clone when they see one;-)

Notice how the South Shore station, which the trains arrive and leave from, mimics the architecture of the Country Club, right down to the reddish-brown stucco and the peaked roof.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Chicago
• Metra
• Electric
• Illinois
• Central
• commuter
• railroad
• train
• double
• decker
• South
• Shore
• 71st
• Street
• pantograph
• wire
• Country
• Club
• Park
• District

[ccsd0601]

you should do a youtube clip on the Marynook area.

[artistmac]

I'm going to wait till the spring. With the winding streets and all those flowers blooming and trees leafing out, it'll be a knockout!

[trainiac3]

look a the idiot at 18 seconds

[artistmac]

If that train had been going any faster, he'd have been ground beef on a bicycle.

[Andrewsaxamophone]

It returned on the same main?

[artistmac]

Yes. I found out later on Metra was doing Saturday maintenance work.

[unionpacifictrain]

that was awesome

[JLJ061]

@trainhater14 I guess you can relate. lol

[sega31098]

@pauldionne

Oh, that's great!

[pauldionne]

@sega31098 - There is an electric suburban running in Montreal. From Central Station to Deux-Montagnes (roughly 25 miles - 40 km). It's been in operation for some 90 years and still going strong.

[MrZkr123]

does anyone know if amtrak will start using these lines?

[trainhater14]

w0w gay

[sega31098]

Lucky Chicago. In the United States, there are many electric regional rails, commuter rails and even an electric Amtrak line, and Canada doesn't even have an electric commuter rail on any sort. Every intercity/commuter train in Canada uses diesel and they dismantled all of the electric rails (except light rails and subways).