Eastern Railroad Discussion > A Quick Saturday stop at Fairview Ave on the Racetrack

We had been out and about Saturday morning trying to get things done before the storms hit in ChicagoLand, so we made a quick "Suburban stop" at Fairview Ave in Downers Grove, IL, just a little bit west of Downtown Chicago on BNSF's "Racetrack." This is one stretch of railroad that rarely disappoints and this visit was no exception.

1. The unique depot at Fairview Ave, a colonial barn style, has been standing since 1917. Almost 100 years old, it still looks pretty good.

2. The tradition still continues as a stainless steel coach, still lettered for the Burlington, waits to receive passengers.

3. An eastbound oil train, bound for the CSX in Chicago, charges past with two Grinstein painted SD70MAC's sandwiching a GE, on the point.

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Number three IOTD material...nice composition.

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Thanks for the kind words!

Fairview is a great place to fan, and it's not just because I live about a mile away from it. There's a fair amount of lawn east of the depot, one of the few areas along the triple track where you can back off further than the platform. Also the crossovers just to the west are a major action point, keep an eye on those points!

I love picture 2. That has to be the classiest car exterior on the entire Metra System. If you could be transported back 50 years, you could have seen almost exactly the same train and overall scene at Fairview Ave.

A "Heritage" psgr car - how 'bout that?!?!

A number of BNSF owned cars sport "Burlington" or "BNSF Railway" letter boards. Metra was less than thrilled when they started doing this a couple years back, but since they don't own the cars they have no say in the matter.

I like Pic 3!!!