At the Museum of Science and Industry

It was a little on the rainy side in Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry is a ways away from the train station, so I decided to take the cab.  It's been a while since I've been to this museum.  A friend and I went a while ago when he went to go pick up a car (and for the life of me, I don't remember when that was).  When we went, we didn't get to go on the U-boat since the tickets for that day were sold out.

This is from one of the exhibits that was dealing with circuses and what not.  It is probably one of the odder exhibits there.

A stage coach.  It's amazing how small these are when you consider how far people would travel in them.

This is at the entrance to the U-505 exhibit.  They are supposed to be sailors from a torpedoed merchant ship.

A carrier pilot's uniform.  One of the ships that participated in the capture of the U-505 was the USS Guadalcanal which was an escort carrier.

A replica of the Guadalcanal's bridge.  Unfortunately, the light in this area wasn't the greatest, so the picture is a little on the blurry side.

One of the depth charges used by the Allies.

The conning tower of the U-505.  This was the first enemy ship captured by the US Navy on the open seas in over 100 years.  It was captured on June 4, 1944 by a task force that was lead by Captain Gallery.  They almost weren't going to be able to bring it back because the Germans tried to sink her but an alert sailor noticed the top of the shuttlecock and stopped the flooding.

Looking from the rear of the U-boat.  The ship was then taken to Bermuda to be analyzed by the British.  The intelligence from the sub was incredible.  They were able to get another Enigma machine and various other bits of German equipment.  The crew was captured.

Another shot from the back.  It was then brought back to the United States where the US Navy looked at it.  After the war, it was set up to be a target ship but Captain Gallery (who was from Chicago) arranged for it to be brought to the Museum, where it's stayed since the 1950's.

Looking towards the bow.  A few years ago, it was determined that the sub was starting to severely rust from sitting outside for all those years.  It was then that they decided to bring it inside.  They also repainted it to look more authentic.  The new exhibit is pretty cool.

Another shot of the conning tower.  The tour of the inside of the boat was pretty cool but they didn't allow pictures which I can understand since everything was pretty tightly timed.

A shot of the screw.

Trying to get a shot of the length of the boat.  I tried to get one from the top but like I said, the lighting wasn't the greatest.

A model of one of the destroyers that participated in the attack.

A model of the Guadalcanal.  Both of these models were pretty impressive as they of a scale where you could make decent looking people on the decks.

A space suit that was actually in space.

A close up of one of the Apollo spacesuits.

A Spitfire almost attacking a Stuka.  I think they changed some other parts of the museum around as there were things that I didn't remember.  I don't think I saw the whole museum either.

A replica of the Wright Flyer.  I think this is a requisite for any display of aviation.

The cockpit of a 727.  This is another cool story.  They flew this plane over to Meigs Field and brought it in the museum.  One of the wings was cut off, so they could display it.  Every so often, they show what it looks like during a flight.

Looking out of the cockpit towards some Christmas tree.

Looking at the nose of the plane.  I kind of liked this one because of the odd angle.  When I was looking at the picture, I noticed the reflection of the panda and it kind of looks like he is flying the plane.

A shot of the 727 from the outside.

One of the old locomotives.

One of the other cool things they have at the museum is an HO train set.  This represents a lake freighter.  The smoke stack has the logo of the company that had the Edmund Fitzgerald but this doesn't quite look like her.

At the other side of the train set is a model of Seattle.  So the set kind of simulates the Empire Builder.

An HO scale space needle.

An HO Chicago.

Another shot of the freighter.

A lengthwise shot of the freighter.

One of the old Burlington trains as I was leaving the museum.  I think you can walk around inside of it.