On the main floor of the Museum of Science and Industry, directly under the Boeing 727 and around the corner from the chick hatchery, Chicago’s skyscrapers soar above the shores of Lake Michigan as multiple trains carry commuters, haul coal and corn, and weave their way across the continent from Chicago to Seattle and back again.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
By the late 1990s, however, the railroad “was in shambles,” he says. “By the time we took it down, only one locomotive was still operating.” In addition to being in disrepair, the exhibit was out-of-date and difficult to view through its thick protective shield. So the museum secured funding from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and other sponsors to design a replacement with lots of action, spectacular scenery, and enough gadgetry to capture the interest of computer-age kids and adults. The only items salvaged from the old setup were the trees.
Designed to tell the story of how people and cargo are shipped around the country, the 3,500-square-foot new exhibit features 32 trains–including 20 that carry freight and 4 transcontinental passenger lines. In the Rockies, old-fashioned steam locomotives chug through the mountains; at a steel mill, freight cars haul pig iron back and forth. In Chicago, el trains rattle around the Loop, the Metra takes commuters to a neighborhood the exhibit crew has informally dubbed Bungalowe Square, freight cars crowd a dingy rail yard, and a tiny family of four is shown at Union Station, boarding a passenger train bound for Seattle.
Scenic View also constructed the 192 buildings that make up the Chicago and Seattle skylines. Most are the standard model railroading HO scale–1/87 the size of the original–but the Sears Tower, which would hit the museum’s ceiling if built to scale, is only 14 and a half feet tall, or 60 percent of HO. Once complete, the 88 pieces of the exhibit’s layout were carefully packed into dozens of semis and shipped to Hyde Park, where they were assembled over several months.
The Museum of Science and Industry is at 57th and Lake Shore Dr. (773-684-1414). It’s open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 to 4 and Sunday from 11 to 4; admission is $9, $7.50 for seniors, and $5 for children, with discounts available for Chicago residents.
