The CTA’s Blue, Purple and Brown lines are disrupted. Metra is struggling with its schedule. Amtrak has cut back on its national service.
Northwest of Chicago, though, there is a land where luxurious trains run like clockwork, the creation of a woman with a passionate dream to create an alternative world. In our cover story this week, “Playing Santa with the Santa Fe,” staff writer Don Terry takes us on an adventure into this magical parallel universe.
Chicago has long had a romance with trains. The train motif surfaces repeatedly in fictional representations of the city–think “Sister Carrie.” European immigrants and those from the South and Midwest with an eye toward progress, self-improvement and success, boarded trains to Chicago in search of a new promised land. This is a city where the train is embedded into the urban imagination. History may have fairly judged George Pullman for his lavish lifestyle and ruthless strikebreaking, but his initial paternalistic aspirations were inclined to the creation of a utopian village.
Most of us probably are taking to the clogged highways and crowded skies these days as we welcome visitors or spread through the world as guests. Sometime, though, listen for the sound of a train in the night–and imagine a world of possibility.
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etaylor@tribune.com
Home on the Range will be back on the range soon.
For 50 days, the Chicago Tribune is offering tips and ideas to make the season bright. For the Magazine’s great gift suggestions, see page 18. For even more, go to chicagotribune.com/holidaily.
