Bill Vandervoort
At the Hubbard Woods station, on the Metra/Union Pacific North Line
The one train which sometimes confused me as a child was what I later learned was known as the "James Whitcomb Riley". This was a passenger train, but it had "freight" locomotives (GP7's) from the New York Central Railroad. My mother used to point out a car on that train painted blue yellow and silver. This was a Chesapeake and Ohio Railway sleeping car which, upon the train's arrival in Cincinnati, would be switched to the C&O's "Sportsman" to continue east into West Virginia. One of the few times that I haven't lived in Chicago was when I was 3 years old, when our family briefly lived in West Virginia, then New Jersey. It was this train which carried us for that move to West Virginia.
Another time I lived away from Chicago was at 10 years old, when our family lived in the Netherlands for a year. There I found fascination with the Netherlands Railways, or Nederlandse Spoorwegen. I returned to the Netherlands to visit once, in 1978. By then I was old enough to roam the country on my own by train. Perhaps I am a little biased because of my Dutch ancestry (and name), but the Netherlands has one of the finest passenger transportation systems in the world. Trains operate at least once an hour on "memory" patterns, with service at least twice an hour on most lines. Buses provide local service and are scheduled to connect with the trains. I tend to admire a transportation policy where gasoline is priced higher, and there is an abundance of public transportation. Driving thus becomes more of a luxury, not a necessity.
The United States is too dependent on private automobiles. I feel lucky to live in Chicago, where I can get around without driving. I grew up riding the Illinois Central electric commuter trains, which at the time used the old heavyweight MU cars built in 1926. Those old cars were replaced with the new double deck "Highliner" cars in 1971 and 1972, and IC sold the commuter operation to Metra in 1987. Metra is the finest commuter rail system in the United States.