Ah, Great Lakes..

I went through Navy boot camp there from February through May 1971. Back then, recruits from the Philadelphia area were still being transported to Chicago by train. The day I reported for swearing-in, about 30 of us rode to Chicago on the (Penn Central) Broadway Limited. This was my first overnight train trip and my first sleeper trip (they put us all in a couple 10-6 sleepers and I had a roomette all the way). I recall watching the train wind around Horseshoe Curve in the dark after leaving Altoona, and how it looked all lit up.

Arriving in Chicago, we walked from Union Station up to North Western Station, where we boarded a C&NW train up to North Chicago, where I spent the next 13 weeks going through basic training. Every day brought glimpses of commuter and intercity trains on the adjacent C&NW main, and seeing the overgrown remnants of the abandoned Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee interurban, which had quit just eight years before.

The one day of liberty we received was on April 24, 1971, just six days before the end of most railroad-operated passenger trains and the beginning of Amtrak. We went down to Chicago and back on the C&NW, and there were also some sailors heading up to Milwaukee on the train for their liberty.

I left Great Lakes on May 13, 1971 to head back to Philadelphia for several weeks leave before returning there for follow-on training. This time I flew back to Philly from O'Hare (my first airliner trip) and, while on the bus to the airport, saw my first Amtrak train (the westbound Empire Builder), heading up the Milwaukee Road main adjacent to Interstate 94.

Returning to Great Lakes in June, I used most of my free time to railfan in the area. Since the C&NW had dropped its intercity passenger trains, I couldn't easily ride north from the base, but did use it to head down to Chicago. I was able to photograph trains from Roosevelt Road, visit all of the remaining passenger depots, and take the Illinois Central down to the Museum of Science and Industry to view the Pioneer Zephyr and the other railroad-related displays there.