SOME PERSPECTIVE. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times gags on the Woodstock retrospectives.

OK, 400,000 people gathered for a rock concert and didn't kill each other -- big flippin' deal. Ten years later, in 1979, 1.2 million people showed up in Grant Park for a mass with Pope John Paul II, and you never hear them claiming it was a rend in the time-space continuum. Even more people are flocking to the lakefront for the Air & Water Show this weekend, and we don't act like it's some giant epochal moment -- just another summer weekend in Chicago.

A summer weekend on which the limitations of one platform at Elburn present themselves. At the station is an extra train that will leave at 10.15. With centralized traffic control, radio requests to pass the work zones, and mostly wholesale freight railroading, the discipline of "display signals and run as first 504" and "second 504 leaves Elburn at 10.15 making scheduled stops to Villa Park" isn't required. But while Second 504 is awaiting time, that's 501, which will turn to become 506, waiting to get to the platform. Most of the traffic is headed to the air show or baseball. There won't be many passengers inconvenienced by the wait. Further back is a stack train waiting its turn at Rochelle.

Passenger loadings were heavy on all lines. I rode several trains to a number of hobby stores. There's a pretty dependable 20 minute connection from the Northwest to the West, but I had about seven minutes to make that connection.

On the matter of Woodstock, Rick Moran offers additional perspective.

Glorifyng the 60’s as a time that should be emulated is myth making. In 500 years, the only thing remembered about the 60’s will be the Apollo moon landings and perhaps the struggle to codify into law the civil rights of Americans who had been previously denied them. Woodstock will be a footnote - if that - and a curiosity for historians of the future who will wonder why everyone was making such a big deal out of it.

The Chicago air show, however, did not include a visit by the next-generation Rutan launch vehicle. Perhaps there will be improvements on it in the next 500 years.