Chicago's Lost 'L' Train to Milwaukee Wisconsin

My dad would tell me stories when we rode the Skokie Swift of riding the electroliner at around 100mph.

I remember the Chicago trains from about the mid 70s. As a kid I'd go down to the city sometimes with my grandmother for a day of shopping.

I wouldn't say they looked "Third World". They were just trains from a different era.
The main difference was that Chicago, like all urban centers of the time, just looked a lot grimier than today, on average. The city and especially the places where trains passed through, was still very industrial then and just starting to wind down from a century or more of coal-powered everything. Everything looks cleaner and "more modern" today because all of that is gone. Nearly all of the industry has been replaced with expensive new condos, loft apartments, trendy neighborhoods etc.

I have some good memories of those trips. The city was a lot seedier in many ways, but there were also still a lot of places like Marshall Fields, the train stations etc where it still felt like you were walking through part of the 1940s or even Chicago as it was in Al Capone's day.

Could UP-N services still run on the purple line today, is there still a connection?

I'm assuming that was the worst L story you came up with to keep the video from getting demonetized

I heard so much about the L train from my Granny😁 I'm 51💪

"It was explicit" is quite a way to describe an uncovered sneeze.

The L will always be Chicago's. Red and blue lines KNOCK IT OFF 😂! Can't mention Chicago? And leaveout "the L". It's part of the infrastructure convo (Sears, Handcock Tower, etc). Can't alter my childhood memories. Shoutout Van Galder, badger bus and mega bus. None of which? Still exist. But that was discounted travel from Madison, WI to Chicago. 3 hour drive? 5 hour bus rides stopping in Milwaukee near the old Bradley center, Beloit, Rockford then Chicago. Good memories daawg 😏.

I grew up in Waukegan, Il and the line ran right behind our house. Still remember those funny looking cars. I lived there from 1950 thru 1965. They were running strong when I was young, but don't remember when they quit running.

People like you are in high demand as you save the history of places that most people don't care about!! It is the preservation of historical data, moments, nuances that plays an invaluable role in the future!!

The culture of society will continue to develop, keeping pace with technological progress, and soon, in comfortable subway coaches, no one will sneeze unceremoniously and categorically!!🤗😌

Metra took up for all that

So is this channel now the history of Chicago?

This is a really amazing video! My great grandfather was a driver for several north shore trains including the electro-liner. Really amazing to see videos still being made about topics two of my grandparents dedicated their life too. Thank you!

great video can you please made one about the Cincinnati & lake Erie railway

I was born and raised in Waukegan in the 1970's. Us teens used to use the old right of way for the north shore line as a way to sneak to Zion Illinois. Good times

That line from Chicago to Milwaukee would make serious money these days.

Love your channel I'm from Philadelphia can you do a video about the Fairmount park line thx

Great story, very interesting! What a beauties are these streamliners! Thnx for the upload.
Greetings from Rotterdam, the Netherlands

My dad worked for the GB&W. More commonly known as the Green Bay and Western, or Grab Your Bags and Walk. It ran from Green Bay to Chicago. My dad was a break man and we got to ride the trains often. I really don’t remember much because I was a baby.

I almost got offended at "the gravel pit east of Libertyville" before I realized my hometown is north and west of Libertyville by a few miles lol

They still run a South Shore "L" Electric line.

A buddy and me took the Skokie Swift to Howard st to the Wrigley Field L stop for a Cubs night game in approximately 1992?. The turn around to send the Skokie trains south was actually a high bank loop. Glad I can say I took the Skokie Swift on the old line before they moved the station.

Great job as always, Thank You! . Please edit out the 4 European photos.

damn that sounds like so much fun i hate they got rid of it

Outstanding video!
Being a huge railfan, I'd just love to see you do a video on the rise and fall (beginning with them shutting down their Western Extension) of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St Pau & Pacific Railroad, "Milwaukee Road' and a video of the same on Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, "Rock Island" would be great as well!

More trains to the people! ✊🏻😉

Again, outstanding work! 👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻

South Shore Line & North Shore Line were like brothers that got separated forever

North Shore doomed by labor-Intensive manual doors with lower seating capacity of smaller cars, limited train length, and lack of air-conditioning. Power system also may have been inadequate for longer or more frequent trains.

another great video

working a few days a week in Milwaukee and living 110 miles south, one sees the utility in this bygone train connection. Amtrak still goes between the two cities on the Milwaukee Road tracks but I can drive my car at triple-digit speeds, traffic permitting, cheaper and quicker, and my time is billed out as too valuable to dawdle half a day on a trolley car. Or an Amtrak coach.

So the south and north shore line was the old I-94

If the NSL (North Shore Line) was still alive today, what color would it be on the “L” network?

I'm fairly certain I grew up near a portion of the old Skokie Valley Line. There's a single track that was behind my old elementary school - now abandoned and overgrown. When I was in school there, I only ever saw one train go on those tracks - a southbound five-car freight train around 8 p.m. I've been doing my best to learn more about that track and its history. Thank you for the video!

I grew up in Chicago, and my mom used to take me and ride the North Shore from the Loop or Wilson Avenue up to Edison Court in Wakegan to visit her mother ans sister's family. Fond memories of riding the old green or newer silver and red cars, lots of sailors headed for Great Lakes. I got to ride on the Electro Liner once Very art deco swanky. I think they did have a dining car on that one.

Pls do more videos on forgotten Wisconsin history

Excellent!

I would love to watch a video of the Rock Island line to Colorado 🤔👍🏼🏆

The Illinois Railroad Museum in Union Illinois. Has a lot of artifacts, equipment, and cars / motive power front the L and North Shore lines.

My grandfather was an engineer aboard the North Shore LIne. Near his home in south Milwaukee, he would toot the horn which was a signal to my grandmother to get supper going. Thank you for the video. Brings back many good memories.

A thought for innovation, is engineering at fault for not properly preparing the future growth and upgrading innovations of major structures as the L-train, a cause to give up service areas, or completed build new structures to replace old ones.

Business managers build strategies for future activities up to 20 years on present conditions, why not engineering?

Science today, a step of level from engineering, are in the process of searching out the preserving patterns of anything!

Note these are transportation networks between to local residences and their sharing, and in any other direction are the farmlands.

My Grandfather Paul Kerpan was a foreman for the railroad putting it down

Its sad coming across these former tram/light rail and railway lines/routes that used to serve cities and parts of countries in modern day as many of them don't even leave a mark in modern day like when tracks are left to rot, or get lifted, or when the lines in roads are removed and paved over so many times that you can't even tell (even in some cases where the lines where just paved over) that there was a tram or rail line there.

For example, there used to be an electric railway in my city that provided freight and passenger transport, as well as rail lines that served the factories around town even going up to the north end. Now almost all of that is so far gone that without any knowledge of that stuff, you'd never know it even existed in Oshawa, Ontario.

They can bring it back, seen on Google map. The old N Shore line is a bike trails

NOTHING THIRD WORLD ABOUT CHICAGOS TRAINS OR UNITED STATES 3RD WORLD!!! GET IT STRAIGHT!!!!

roses are red, violets are blue
there's trains and trams in my playlist two
there ya go, that somehow rhymed :))

Revive this line yesterday! NIMBY's are awefully quiet when its a highway expansion which cuts through urban communities, so I say we do whats best for both urban and rural and build more train lines.

It’s EJ&E

I thought the L rail was still around friend lived at the very end like right across the street to it..😮

Note that the station on central Ave in highland park was Briergate.