Shore Line Route (Wilmette to Waukegan)
Skokie Valley Route (Chicago to North Chicago)
Milwaukee Division (North Chicago to Milwaukee)
Mundelein Branch (Lake Bluff to Mundelein)
Zoomable Google satellite views, showing which segments have been preserved as trails, and locations of preserved structures.
Detailed street maps or Google Maps are recommended to aid in locating these trails. These trails can be explored either on foot or by bicycle. With a bicycle, many of the trail segments are suitable for one day round trips. Bicycles are permitted on Metra trains and CTA rapid transit trains during off peak hours, except during certain festival periods. And all Pace and CTA buses are now equipped with bicycle racks.
For walkers, public transportation can be used to reach most of these trail segments. Most trail segments can be walked by riding a Metra train or a bus to one point on a trail, walking one way, and boarding a train or a bus at another location. One can thus avoid backtracking on a walk.
Not so well known among many, are the various bus operations which were operated by the North Shore Line or various subsidiaries, at various times during the railroad's history.