Tracks of the Chicago L Book Project in Progress

I’m excited to share that I’ve started working on a new book project: Tracks of the Chicago L

Why this project? Because I love maps, transit, and digging into the details that make each system unique. I’ve already spent years making track maps of the Sacramento light rail system, and after a lot of encouragement from family & friends, I decided to take on Chicago’s famous L.

A huge part of my inspiration comes from Peter Dougherty's excellent Tracks of the New York City Subway — a book that showed me just how fascinating and meaningful a detailed track map can be.

This project is about more than just maps — it’s about creating something railfans, riders, and history buffs can enjoy. My goal is to design a full track map of the Chicago L system, show how the lines connect and operate, and present it in a way that’s both accurate and fun to explore.

I’ll be experimenting with design ideas, typefaces, and how to best show tricky things like shared tracks, flyovers, and duck-unders. Most importantly, I want this to be a book people enjoy flipping through — with clean maps, clear details, and perhaps even some cool extras, such as popular railfan photo spots, transit-related businesses, museums, murals, and more.

This is a long project, but I’ll keep sharing updates as I go. Thanks for following along — and stay tuned for more!