As if the almost non-stop exhilaration of non-stop trains in Indiana on NS' Chicago Line isn't enough, there's the little things that make the icing on the cake of a special weekend. When you add a friend who's also a train junkie in need of the same train fix, especially NS train fix, it makes a memorable, blast of a weekend! The two of you will have continuous fun, and you'll hate to leave until you "see that one last train," and "that last train", and "this last train." Well, this weekend was just a dream for me and my friend Chris, a simple railfan, like me.
Chris' trainfaning (railfanning) consists of writing down the trains he sees in a notebook and shooting a video with his phone while in his car. That's his thing, and we all have our things when is comes to trains. In a about a day and a half in Porter-Chesterton, he recorded 52 trains!
My long-time, desire is to railfan the places on NS' Chicago Line and find the fun places to go. The fun places must have an affordable place to lay your head and get yourself rested for the next day's fun. There should be places to get a bite to eat, and that includes healthy choices. There should be places you can go around the area to easily, safely and legally access the tracks and shoot your videos. Most of all, the fun places must have lots of train action without having to wait hours to see a single train.
One of those places is the Porter-Chesterton area. The Chicago Line is said to have about 60 trains a day and, at times, that seems accurate. You will also see BNSF and CPKC hauling on these lines. You'll see a lot of NS intermodal trains, but you'll see the flat cars with rolled steel that comes out of the steel mills in Gary. You will see gondola cars with coal, and on the last trip two weeks ago, there was a west bound train with NS' new gondola cars. You might even see an NS Heritage locomotive, like the Lehigh Valley.
The thought about doing my first railfan trip was to go someplace that was not too active and maybe get a few video shots. This someplace has to be a place with nearby good eats. It was Saturday (11-11-23), so I expected it to be slow, and I headed to the Metra benches next to NS tracks that run next to Columbus Avenue. From there you can look down the tracks and see perhaps a beautiful train coming out and backing up. I sat near El Chilaquil Mexican Restaurant and ordered some carry out. What wonderful homemade tortillas they use for their tacos, not-so dry-refried beans and fresh salsa. They'll let you park in their lot, while the Metra parking costs about $1.50 for 4 hours. Ok, because what happened around viewing NS locomotives on a Saturday centered around the tracks down Columbus Avenue.
Landers is not much to see, unless you follow the tracks to the East. It's probably more active on weekdays. The majority of railyards in Chicago of all the railroads have limited views, are surrounded by walls and barbed rail fences. Most of the tracks go over elevated land and bridges and there are few actual crossings.
It was, for me, a more interesting scouting trip than I expected. I saw this neat Illinois locomotive "working together for a cleaner state!" Sounds good and what a beauty! I'm a simple railfan who loves the looks, power and engine sounds, and doesn't know or want to fret about "what's the model of that damned locomotive(?)." I don't get to spend a lot of time with close looks at Norfolk Southern locomotives, so "Frothing in the Bushes" in the parking lot of an apartment complex was safe fun. Watching an NS locomotive back up and pull up was something to savoy and, yes, frothing and exciting for me, yea! Hand me a bottle of water, please!
When setting up a camera in the median strip, a car came around the gates, around the front of the locomotive, and would have hit me if I was not alerted by the train crew. Yes, they probably saved my life. This shows that Norfolk Southern crews are professional, quality railroaders that put the safety of everyone around their train first place.
