I am very familiar with the city, and where the commuter rail lines run through. A six mile walk in the middle of the night would have brought you through some very bad neighborhoods when they are at their worst pretty much any direction you would have walked. Their aren't sidewalks running along the tracks so you must have been walking on the stones and ties. That would have been brutal in street shoes. Some rail lines are commuter only, some have freight trains sharing the tracks, that would have added a great deal of danger to your journey. Im just asking you where you started this journey, where you finished it, and what train line you were on. If you can't remember any of those facts, than how about what part of the city this train station was at that was closed, and what part of the city was the station in that you found that was still open? Why didn't you take a cab? How many hours did this walk take?
Been quite a few years ago, don't remember...cabs from Chicago to downers grove would have been stupid expensive as we would have needed 2 cabs. Took us several hours, we all were in pain by the time we got back to the train