- When: Last Saturday in January
- 2017: January 28
- Where: Western Suburbs, starts/ends in La Grange
- Metra Line: BNSF Railway
- Cost: $8 Metra Weekend Pass
- Hashtags: #YardSocial #SnowballCrawlBNSF
After last year’s successful winter Milwaukee District West Line train crawl that ultimately led to OktoberWest, a new pilot train crawl is being organized for January 2017 along the BNSF Railway. Similar to North by Northwest, the first stop will be a historic bowling alley, followed by pleasant little dive bars up and down Metra’s busiest line.
If you’d care to join us for breakfast, we’ll be at Blueberry Hill Café in downtown La Grange at 10am.
Itinerary:
- 10:00am: Breakfast at Blueberry Hill Café, La Grange
- 11:30am: Tivoli Lanes, Downers Grove
- 1:30pm: Orazio Pub, Naperville
- 3:00pm: Uptown, Westmont
- 4:45pm: Nels Old Time Inn, Lisle
- 7:15pm: Palmer Place, La Grange
Transit Connections
The BNSF Railway is well-served by a variety of other transit options if you’re heading down to the corridor from elsewhere in the region. Since the Metra $8 Weekend Pass is good on all Metra lines all weekend long, the simplest transfer opportunity is downtown at Chicago Union Station from other Metra lines. However, based on your location throughout the region there may be other more convenient connections, including the following bus routes:
CTA Route #49 – Western Avenue – Runs 24 hours a day, every 8-15 minutes at most times
The Western Avenue bus is convenient for many city residents to access the BNSF Railway corridor, especially for trips back home since buses operate 24 hours a day. The #49 links the Western Avenue BNSF station to Metra’s Western Avenue MD-N/MD-W station as well as all five Western CTA ‘L’ stations on the Brown, Blue, Pink, and Orange Lines.
Pace Route #302 – Ogden-Stanley – Operates every 45 minutes from 6:40am to 6:30pm
Pace Route 302 is a convenient link directly between the LaGrange Road BNSF station and the CTA Pink Line at 54/Cermak. Heading to the Snowball Crawl, a westbound bus leaves Cermak/Cicero at 10:25am and arrives in LaGrange at 11:00am, just in time for our 11:06am departure out to Downers Grove.
Pace Route #307 – Harlem Avenue – Operates every 20-30 minutes from 5:45am-9:15pm, then hourly until midnight
Pace Route 307, which operates until midnight on Saturdays, is another convenient option to get to and from the Snowball Crawl. Pace Route 307 connects Metra’s Elmwood Park MD-W and Oak Park UP-W stations to the Harlem Avenue BNSF station, as well as the CTA’s Harlem ‘L’ stations on the Blue (Forest Park branch) and Green Lines.
Pace Route #330 – Mannheim/LaGrange – Operates hourly from 5:30am to 8:45pm
Pace Route 330 is one of Pace’s westernmost north-south arterial routes that operates on Saturdays and runs right through the heart of LaGrange on LaGrange Road. The northern terminus of the route is at the O’Hare Airport Transit System (ATS) station in Lot E, which provides for convenient connections to the CTA’s O’Hare Blue Line station. The final northbound bus of the evening leaves LaGrange at 8:08pm.
Pace Route #331 – Cumberland/5th – Operates hourly from 7:30am to 6:30pm
Starting at the CTA’s Cumberland Blue Line station and terminating at the Brookfield BNSF station, Pace Route 331 can be a convenient option for crawlers heading to the BNSF from the Far Northwest Side or near western suburbs. The line also links up with Metra’s River Grove MD-W and Maywood UP-W stations. A southbound bus departs the Cumberland Blue Line station at 10:05am and arrives in Brookfield at 11:00am, just in time for the 11:03am westbound departure to our first stop in Downers Grove.
Map:
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