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Snowflake Special 2009 Part 50
Snowflake Special 2009 Part 50

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.

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Taken on: March 29, 2009
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with Amtrak Amtrak Everybody's photos tagged with CTA CTA Everybody's photos tagged with Chicago Chicago more » Everybody's photos tagged with Chicago Transit Authority Chicago Transit Authority Everybody's photos tagged with IRM IRM Everybody's photos tagged with Illinois Illinois Everybody's photos tagged with Illinois Railway Museum Illinois Railway Museum Everybody's photos tagged with Snowflake Special Snowflake Special Everybody's photos tagged with Trains Trains « less
Sets appears in:   • Images of the CTA    • IRM Snowflake Special 2009    more » • Photographic Explorations    « less
Groups appears in:   • Steel Rails Across North America.    • North American Railroads    more » • Great Lake Railroads    • Ride The Rails    • Railroading in the City    • Railroading in Illinois    • Windy City Railfanning    • Trains of Chicago & Illinois    • flickrailroad    • Steel Rails of Canada and America    « less
Camera: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, 78mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Lens: 18.0-200.0 mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure Time: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length: 78mm
ISO: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Action (High speed)
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.2 (Windows)
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Snowflake Special 2009 Part 50

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