Train Book Alert: "Train" by Elisha Cooper

When I head to the library, my Senior Engineer almost always asks for train books to be brought home. We were both delighted to discover the new picture book Train by Elisha Cooper. With lilting illustrations and flowing narration, Train depicts the journey of several kinds of trains across the country. It was a special treat to find the Passenger Train "thundering into ... the outskirts of a midwestern city filled with smokestacks and factories and belching steam." Even the youngest Chicagoan, or suburban visitor, will see a skyline filled with very familiar skyscrapers. That real-life inspiration for the scenes on these pages extends to the rolling stock on every page. Images of Amtrak and Union Pacific engines, as well as cargo cars branded with recognizable names (CSX, Norfolk Southern, ADM, Hanjin), fills this picture book with enough detail to appeal to the maturing young reader, as well as their younger siblings. Those older readers, or parents of any question-asking train fan, will appreciate the glossary and notes with more than a dozen railroad terms explained. 

Find Train at libraries and bookstores. 

Naperville & Chicago: Pullman lecture and bus tour

For the history-loving adult railroad fan, Naperville is the place to be. Tonight North Central College professor Ann Durkin Keating will present "The Town of Pullman Lecture." The event, beginning at 7 p.m. at Naper Settlement's Century Memorial Chapel, will give attendees a look at George Pullman's model industrial town. On Saturday, Oct. 12, a bus tour leaves at 9:30 a.m. for the  40th Annual Historic Pullman House Tour.  The tour will include visits to historic homes, from modest worker dwellings to the grand mansions of company executives. 

The Historic Pullman House Tour happens only once each year, but visitors can attend on their own either Saturday, Oct. 12 or Sunday Oct. 13 from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Contact the Pullman Visitor Center at 773.785.8901  for more details. 

To attend the Naper Settlement lecture or tour, call 630.420.6010. 

Chicago: Museum of Science & Industry

The Seattle skyline as seen in The Great Train Story

The best train destination in Chicago for railfans of all ages is, without a doubt, the Museum of Science and industry. Since 2002, The Great Train Story has entertained guests with an HO-gauge model railroad layout featuring more than 20 trains and more than 1,400 feet of track. Trains have been a cherished museum exhibit since 1941, when an original, smaller Q-scale layout showcased the place of the railroad in American agriculture and industry. The exhibit of today does the same thing by bringing visitors along on a cross country journey from downtown Chicago across the country to the Seattle harbor. Along the way, kids (or kids-at-heart) can help blast through a mountain tunnel with the push of a button or raise a river draw bridge when the train comes back to town. There they can wait along with the tiny passengers of the miniature Chicago el stops, and take in the skyscraper skyline. Visitors enjoy the meticulous details of city streets and country towns, rural fields and towering bridges. Trains of every stripe, CTA, Metra, Amtrak, BNSF and more, traverse the diminutive landscape. Because of the scope of the layout, allow ample time for a slow stroll around the exhibit taking in as many of the magnificent details as possible.

Fastest Steam Engine in the World,
 for awhile!

The Rocket

Surrounding the Lilliputian world of The Great Train Story is the life-size history of early railroading. Numerous engines from the steam era now live in the exhibit hall. One favorite is the Empire State Express 999, which welcomes guests into the Granger Court Transportation Gallery and invites them to step up to the cab for an engineer's look at the controls, fire box and tender. This engine was the first land vehicle to top 100 miles per hour, earning it a place in railroad history books. Kids who love the "Please, touch!" aspect of the MSI will also enjoy setting in motion the The Rocket, the engine of 1829 that so influenced later steam engine design, and imaging city streets of the past as they climb on a cable car that replicates those that once traveled along State Street in the late 1800s.

The Pioneer Zephyr

One other exhibit of the MSI is an absolute must for the rail enthusiast and it is impossible to miss. Housed in the museum's grand entry hall, All Aboard the Silver Streak: Pioneer Zephyr takes visitors back into the streamlined era of Art Deco style and speed. The stainlesss-steel cars are flanked by hands-on displays demonstrating the advantages of the streamlined style over steam engines. Additional displays show the cultural influence of Zephyr line's look.

Swiss Jollyball

For more whimsical train fun, visit the Swiss Jollyball, a larger-than-life pinball machine made from junkyard finds. A handful of train cars are just some of the wild rides the jolly ball finds itself upon. Despite the wonders of every kind at the museum, this one exhibit (located near the food court for great dinner-theater eating) gets repeatedly mentioned right after "The Great Train Story" as my children's favorite thing to see.

Our favorite souvenir 

As for souvenirs, the MSI gift shop across the entry hall from the ticket counter offers plenty of railroad items, but if you also need something more unique, you can' t go wrong by stopping at the Mold-A-Rama machine in the Transportation Gallery. An injection molded train will be created while you watch for $2 and gathering these little plastic statues from other exhibits makes for the start of a fun collection . There's also a souvenir penny machine in the gallery that will send you home with similar railroad memories.

Last of all, for that icing-on-the cake moment, remember that those of us coming in from the suburbs can bring a lot of joy to the kids in the car by simply choosing to drive home under el tracks or next to a CTA line. They don't realize how hard it is to get in or out of the city without passing trains, so you end the day as tour-guide hero. It's a railroad win!

Chicago: O'Hare's ATS tram

The kids are looking forward to the afternoon errand today. We will be pretending ye olde family van is a big ol' taxi and zipping over to O'Hare to do pick-up duty. First question out of the mouth of the train lover: "Can we ride the train?" The train to him is the people-mover that scoots travelers from the long-term economy lots into the airport's terminals 1,2,3, and 5. Particularly fun for him is getting into the first car and watching the "Airport Transit System" move along the tracks from an engineer's-eye view. It's a brief ride of just 10 minutes if you stay on the route from end to end and free, aside from parking fees. Trains, planes, and automobiles, kids! 

For O'Hare's map of the ATS's route, click here. 

Chicago: Randolph Pulman Porter Museum

To this mom, one of the best reasons to encourage children's interest in trains is how they provide a gateway to great discussions about history and social issues. I was reminded of this fact today when my email inbox contained a Groupon offer for the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum. Visiting Chicago's Pullman neighborhood has long been on my own to-see list, so I took a peek at their website. Under "Union History," we are given an overview of the history that brought African-American men to the Pullman Palace Car Company as porters. By the 1920s, the site reports, railroad workers provided the "the largest category of black labor in the United States and Canada."  A. Philip Randolph was the union president whose efforts led to improved pay and working conditions for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. More of this history is showcased through links to videos and reviews of the museum, including a profile of a former Pullman Porter reflecting on his career. Just browsing the site provides great insights into a notable chapter in Chicago history. Having this museum in Chicago means that when kids' history classes (or observant questions) turn to topics of civil rights and union organization, we have a nearby resource to inform the conversation.

Chicago: IIT"s McCormick Tribune Campus Center.

I love architecture as much as my oldest loves trains, so it was a treat for all of us to attend an event last month at the downtown campus of Illinois Institute of Technology. The McCormick Tribune Campus Center houses both the student union and a CTA Green Line stop in modernist elegance. Just the act of parking under the el and pondering the trains zipping into the silver tube that is that station was a thrill for the kids. For pictures, you'll have to peruse other corners of the web because we are in the phase of toddlerhood for my youngest in which stopping to take a picture means a photo of a blur about to get into mischief and/or danger. So, we stop, we look and we promise to return another time when we can enjoy the environment at a more relaxed pace.