Look Inside an Abandoned Illinois Train that Has a Sad History

There's a reason why this Illinois train sat abandoned for many years just outside of O'Hare Airport in Chicago. It has a sad history dating back to a tragedy in Downer's Grove, Illinois 30 years ago.

Tom V shared his investigation of this sad little train which at the time was in Chicago near the airport although he mentions that it's been moved since. Before I share the sad history of this train, here's what Tom found. NOTE: there is some NSFW graphic graffiti seen in this walkthrough of the train.

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What Tom didn't realize when he was first investigating this abandoned train was that it was a part of the tragedy that happened on August 26, 1991 when Mary T. Wojtyla was struck and killed by this speeding train. There is video of that event which I will not share here because it is gruesome. There is a Reddit page with a brief history and picture of that tragedy. Mary's story is the first incident mentioned on the Wikipedia page for pedestrian railroad safety.

Decay and upkeep made this train not serviceable and eventually put out to pasture, so to speak.

While it's interesting to see vehicles and buildings that have not had humans present for decades, it's hard to separate this train from the tragedy that took a woman's life 30 years ago.