Snowflake Special 2009 Part 53
Time for another photo dump! This time, it is of Illinois Railway Museum's 2009 chartered CTA train called the "Snowflake Special." IRM periodically runs these as fundraising events for future and continuing preservation of their CTA collection. For the 2009 event, I believe this was for to acquire a set of soon-to-be retired 2400-series and 2600-series cars. Don't hold me to that, because as of this posting (March 30, 2024), it has been exactly 15 years and a day since I rode this train, and in that time many details have been lost in the dark recesses of my memory. I missed the exact anniversary by a day because for the last several years I was convinced this took place on March 30th. But the date stamps and file names on the photos prove otherwise.
Anyway, I know nothing of the CTA, and aside from a few trips here and there to see the Cubs, I had never truly ridden the CTA before this. And I have only ridden it a few times since. So I will leave it up to those of you who know to fill in the details of these locations.
What I CAN tell you though is that it was supposed to be a nice sunny first full weekend in Spring, but Mother Nature decided to send us a curve ball. The entirety of the Chicagoland area was blanketed by an early spring snowstorm, seeing upwards of 8" of snow falling and accumulating throughout the day. But by sunset, all the snow was gone, as if it had never happened. Our train was to depart on the CTA Blue Line terminus at Forest Park and travel on all parts of the system except the Yellow Line. We were let off for lunch at Marshall Fields (yes, it was Macy's, but it will ALWAYS be Marshall Fields to those of us old enough to remember). And we returned back to Forest Park that evening. Along the way we stopped at Midway Airport, the Brown Line Terminus, and the Red LIne Southern Terminus. And for those who wanted, we could get off in multiple spots so the train could make photographic run-bys. I cannot tell you where we got off because I simply do not know.
Snowflake Special 2009 Part 53
Time for another photo dump! This time, it is of Illinois Railway Museum's 2009 chartered CTA train called the "Snowflake Special." IRM periodically runs these as fundraising events for future and continuing preservation of their CTA collection. For the 2009 event, I believe this was for to acquire a set of soon-to-be retired 2400-series and 2600-series cars. Don't hold me to that, because as of this posting (March 30, 2024), it has been exactly 15 years and a day since I rode this train, and in that time many details have been lost in the dark recesses of my memory. I missed the exact anniversary by a day because for the last several years I was convinced this took place on March 30th. But the date stamps and file names on the photos prove otherwise.
Anyway, I know nothing of the CTA, and aside from a few trips here and there to see the Cubs, I had never truly ridden the CTA before this. And I have only ridden it a few times since. So I will leave it up to those of you who know to fill in the details of these locations.
What I CAN tell you though is that it was supposed to be a nice sunny first full weekend in Spring, but Mother Nature decided to send us a curve ball. The entirety of the Chicagoland area was blanketed by an early spring snowstorm, seeing upwards of 8" of snow falling and accumulating throughout the day. But by sunset, all the snow was gone, as if it had never happened. Our train was to depart on the CTA Blue Line terminus at Forest Park and travel on all parts of the system except the Yellow Line. We were let off for lunch at Marshall Fields (yes, it was Macy's, but it will ALWAYS be Marshall Fields to those of us old enough to remember). And we returned back to Forest Park that evening. Along the way we stopped at Midway Airport, the Brown Line Terminus, and the Red LIne Southern Terminus. And for those who wanted, we could get off in multiple spots so the train could make photographic run-bys. I cannot tell you where we got off because I simply do not know.