I grew up in neighboring Cicero and have some knowledge of the area.
Those tracks were laid by the Illinois Central RR in 1888 -- at least 45 years before those houses were built. That NIMBY's neighborhood near 27th Street is about where the tracks begin to climb an EB grade to fly over the BNSF Racetrack mains at LaVergne. Trains idling or holding in that area are nothing new. Hawthorne Yard is 2.5 miles east -- built on a fill.
Westbound trains holding have to stop short of the Riverside Drive and (state highway 43) Harlem Avenue crossings, which are at grade level west of the 27th Street neighborhood.
Years ago, the IC line was double mains, and even ran commuter passenger service in steam times, but as fortunes changed in the late 1970s the IC yanked up one main, ostensibly in a cost-cutting move.
Berwyn (and Cicero) was founded by hard-working Eastern European immigrants, mainly Czechs and Poles with a mix of Italians. It stayed solid with that demographic until about 20 years ago, when Hispanics began moving into Cicero to the east and yuppies began buying Berwyn's famous bungalows and three-flats. My guess is the guy complaining is part of the latter migration.
The railroad was there when he bought his house. Perhaps five years ago it wasn't as busy, but if he had an expectation that traffic would remain the same for as long as he lived there, then he is very short-sighted. As the CN rep says, the railroad tracks were there first -- for 119 years, to be exact. I think CN should try to make peace with the neighbors, but it is not bound to placate anyone because, as the rep said, "we're not breaking any laws".
The Berwyn Police chief says he wrote 28 tickets for train idling for 30 hours. What would be the charge? Excessive noise? Public nuisance? Failure to make yuppies happy?
No crossings were blocked. Any judge who would allow those tickets to stand against a railroad conducting normal business would be a fool.
