(train bell ringing) (engine steaming) - [Geoffrey] We start our journey through Chicago's rails on Metra's Union Pacific Northwest Line.

(classical music) (train rushing) (classical music continues) You might think Metra is just a commuter rail service in the Chicago area, but did you know that all the lines used by Metra today were once part of rail systems that extended to the far corners of the country?

They were the great railroads, all of them originating or terminating in Chicago, in the days before air travel or even automobiles, railroads with celebrated names like the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Rock Island line, the Milwaukee Road, and the Illinois Central.

- [Conductor] All aboard!

(lively jazz music) - [Geoffrey] Unlike today's commuter trains, cross country travelers of the past went in style.

The railroads fiercely competed on comfort, luxury, and service.

- People talk about travel being the journey and not the destination.

And that's sort of what railroads were providing, it was the experience of the journey of rail travel.

- Yeah.

- And not just the point of reaching your destination in the end and so- - [Geoffrey] Here's one person who knows all about the glory days of rail, Rachel Cole, the Transportation Librarian at Northwestern University.

- This is an album of promotional photographs from the Union Pacific City of Denver train.

But it looks like a fun girls trip, they're enjoying their time on the train.

This isn't even the glamorous car and it looks very glamorous to me.

- [Geoffrey] Yeah.

Railroads in the first half of the 20th century, really played up the glamour and promised all the amenities of home.

- [Announcer] Spacious comfort is the keynote of this beautifully appointed apartment on rail.

(drink shaking) - [Geoffrey] Lounges and observation cars offer diversions, drinks, and ever-changing decor out the windows.

(lively jazz music) And dining cars were like high-end restaurants in motion.

- [Announcer] Nothing less than the best is more than a mere catchphrase to the chef and crew on this luxury train.

- Are you hungry, Geoffrey?

- Alright let's see.

(both laughing) - This is a menu from the Milwaukee Road, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St.

Paul Railway back in its day from the 19th century.

- Look what's on the menu.

- It's a really expensive, turtle soup.

Had you heard of that before?

- Yeah.

- That was new to me, I'd never heard of it before.

- [Geoffrey] Leg of venison.

- [Rachel] Leg of venison on your train.

- So I don't think kids would want like turtle soup and venison.

I know- - Mine definitely wouldn't.

- No.

- No.

- So was there some accommodation for them?

- There were accommodations for them.

This is just a really charming example from the Pennsylvania Railroad, you can see that in here.

- [Geoffrey] It's a choo-choo.

- It's a choo-choo.

- Wow poached egg, forget it.

Vegetable plate, no but you could get cocoa and ice cream.

- That'll really make up for the vegetable plate, won't it?

- It was like the airlines back then, they were private companies.

- Right.

- [Geoffrey] Right?

- Yes, there were dozens of different railroads.

- [Geoffrey] And their trains had heroic names like the Super Chief, the Rocky Mountain Rocket, the Empire Builder, the Hiawatha, and the Iron and Copper Express.

And when diesel replaced steam, a revolutionary new kind of train appeared, the streamliners.

(upbeat music) The Burlington Railroad promoted their streamliners as the Zephyrs, named for the Greek God of the west wind.

- [Rachel] You open the brochure and here it goes to the century of progress there.

- [Geoffrey] Oh gosh.

- And the transportation building in 1934.

- [Geoffrey] The Zephyr's arrival at that World's Fair on Chicago's lakefront was the grand finale of a stunt staged by the railroad.

A record breaking dawn to dusk run from Denver to Chicago that saw the Zephyr reach a top speed of 112 miles an hour.

The pioneer Zephyr is now permanently parked in the lower level of Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

Traveling this way would've been unimaginable to passengers in the early days of the railroads.

(cheerful music)