Don't let the plane's attitude get you queasy! We're on the ground at East Union Station, there right at the lower right corner of the picture, remember? This vantage has us looking SSE, with the mainline just making an appearance across the lower left corner of the photo.

At the far left of the picture, the roof mostly covered in snow, is Barn 2. You can see two MILW E9s on tracks 21 and 22 (the two tracks nearest the bottom of the photo). The small barn just South of Barn 2 (about center of the photo, off by itself) contains many trolley busses that were used in Chicago.

Ok, now that you're re-oriented with this view, let's walk south from the station and bookstore. First, we can just make out the East leg of the wye (and therefore part of the trolley loop) through the snow. That small, dark blotch to the left of the walkway and South of the tracks is a transit stop, Depot Street. We'll pass that, and head into the first long shed, Barn 3. Inside this barn we find old heavyweight passenger equipment, and other "standard" railroad pieces. Since the sheds are connected to trackage, equipment tends to move around as new pieces are acquired, or specific operating requirements demand the movement of specific pieces.

Continuing our walk south, we spot a series of posts along the North side of the next shed, Barn 4. It's the (under construction) signal display. This display will eventually have operating signals of many types. Looking to our right, we see the tight radius curves that lead into this barn. Parked out front is a GE 45-ton diesel switcher. Inside the barn, we find streetcars and traction equipment. The back half of the barn contains the car shops, with an inspection pit and wood shop.

Next on our journey south, we find Yard 5. This area may eventually have a barn erected over the trackage. Of course, it will become Barn 5. The first unit we see is a UP Gas-Turbine "Big Blow." Quite a rare piece. The tracks are littered with first and second generation diesels, cabooses, and other various pieces of equipment. To the East of the yard is the museum office and administration building.

The remaining three barns, numbers (you guessed it) 6, 7, & 8 contain many fine examples of traction equipment, dating back to horse-drawn street cars (never mind the tarp that's protecting one end of the roof.) Cutting across the upper right corner of the image are the "Roundhouse Leads," so named because the museum had always planned on building a roundhouse with turntable in this spot. The collection has grown so rapidly that, of necessity, the trackage was built to contain examples of steam and diesel equipment for which barn space has not yet been built. At the far end of one of the "roundhouse leads" is the Union Pacific DDA40X diesel locomotive, the largest, most powerful unit at the time of its construction.