Tracks of the Chicago L Book Project in Progress

Updated: November 13, 2025

Progress Update - Tracks of the Chicago L

The project just hit a major milestone: 50% complete.

As of today, 45 pages of detailed, diagram-style track maps are finished, covering:

• Entire Purple Line

• Entire Skokie Swift (Yellow Line)

• Entire Brown Line

• Blue Line - O’Hare Branch (O’Hare → Clinton)

• Green Line - Harlem/Lake → just north of Roosevelt

• Former Humboldt Park + Logan Square branches (completed to Madison St.)

I’m currently mapping the Blue Line - Forest Park Branch, which includes unique split pages showing both the pre-1958 Congress Elevated (top half) and the current expressway-median Blue Line (bottom half).

The map will also extend past Forest Park to cover the abandoned Westchester Branch, all the way to 22nd & Mannheim in the Village of Westchester.

Once the Forest Park section is done, the next phases will be:

• Orange Line to Midway

• Green Line to Ashland/63rd and Cottage Grove

• Red Line to 95th/Dan Ryan

• Every demolished or abandoned branch, including:

• Normal Park

• Kenwood

• Jackson Park

• Stock Yards

More updates coming soon as the mapbook keeps growing!

Cheers!

Michael Calcagno

Author, Tracks of the Chicago L

Updated: October 25, 2025

Progress is moving along! The “progress bar” now shows about 25% complete. So far, I’ve finished 16 pages of detailed Chicago L track maps, covering:

• Linden to Clark Junction (just north of Belmont)

• Entire Skokie Swift (Yellow Line)

• Ravenswood Branch (Brown Line)

I’m still digging into the former switches and interlockings so I can accurately mark the gray dashed switches. My goal is to complete all the track map pages by the end of January, then move on to other sections, which will include:

• Introduction & Thank Yous

• Track & Signals

• Rail Control Center & Towers

• Traction Power

• Abandoned Stations and Lines

• Rolling Stock & Car/Yard Assignments

• Work Equipment & Yard Maps

• Historical Track Maps

• CTA Holiday Train

Excited to keep building this project...thanks for following along!

Cheers!

Michael Calcagno

Author, Tracks of the Chicago L

September 21, 2025

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!

Cheers!

Michael Calcagno

Author,  Tracks of the Chicago L

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