CA&E Mystery Photos Answers – Part 2

July 25, 2015July 26, 2015David Sadowski 5 Comments

#49 – JN: Westbound near Hannah Ave. east of the B&OCT crossing.
EM: CAE 20 (Niles, 1902) which is the oldest CAE car still in existence (preserved at the FRTM), leads a consist on the west side of Laramie Av. The following car is CAE 304 (Niles, 1906).
(Here we have a real difference of opinion. However, it’s difficult to determine who is correct, since both areas were obliterated by expressway construction. Laramie seems more likely due to the presence of large apartment buildings.)

Today we have the answers to Part 2 of our recent Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban Mystery Photos Contest.

We are grateful for all your excellent submissions. I always find it remarkable just how much detail our eagle-eyed readers can find in some of these vintage images. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in an entry or post a comment.

While there were only two complete entries, by John Nicholson and Edward Maurath, they were both excellent and comprehensive. And while there are a few photos where they have a real difference of opinion, what’s surprising to me is how much they were able to agree upon, given the obvious difficulty of identifying some of these locations 60 years on.

Based on the criteria of best overall submission, John Nicholson is the winner of Part 2. Congratulations!

He will receive a copy of our Railroad Record Club #35 and 36 compact disc, which includes vintage audio from both the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin and the CTA Garfield Park “L”. You will find this and much more in our Online Store.

Mr. Maurath was the winner of Part 1, and you can find those answers here.

Both of their submissions are in the captions, with a few minor edits. To simplify matters a bit, we will refer to them by their initials (JN and EM). We have also added a few additional comments.

Thanks.

-The Editor

PS- Since there are several photos here showing the Batavia branch, it’s worth pointing out that this was once considered as a location for the Illinois Electric Railway Museum, as it was then called. You can read about that on the excellent Hicks Car Works blog.

Don Ross, who runs the Don’s Rail Photos website, was very much involved in IERM’s search for a new home.

Here is an article about the museum’s early days from the December 27, 1957 Chicago Tribune:

Railway Fans Ride Hobby in Old Electric Trains

Just as model electric trains occupy the time of many families at Christmas time, old electric trains take up many hours of the members of the Illinois Electric Railway museum.

The museum’s latest endeavor is one dear to the hearts of many Chicago commuters– it is to save for posterity one of Chicago’s open platform elevated cars.

Want $750 for Them

The last of the open platform cars was decommissioned recently by the Chicago transit authority. The CTA is asking $750 each for them. The museum has raised more than $460 toward buying one.

The museum was founded in 1953. It is temporarily located in the south yard of the Chicago Hardware Foundry company in North Chicago. About a dozen pieces of equipment have been collected so far.

Every Saturday museum members are on the job rehabilitating the equipment in which they have approximately $10,000 invested. Next year, the museum hopes to obtain a railway line on which to operate its cars. Among the equipment is a 60 ton air conditioned interurban car of 1913 vintage which used to run between St. Louis, Mo., and Peoria. There is a small, four wheel street car built in 1921 and a pump type hand car with both a flat and a hopper trailer.

Other Things Collected

Other pieces include a 35 ton center door interurban car built about 1917 which ran between St. Louis and Alton, an aluminum interurban car built in 1931, and two cars from the old Milwaukee Electric line.

The museum also has an old Chicago red street car it keeps in the CTA car barn at 79th st. and Vincennes av. Rail fans use it occasionally for excursions.

Approximately 50 regular members take part in museum activities, said R. Don Ross of West Allis, Wis., its publicity director. Some are railroad men, some craftsmen, and some are interested in the history of rail equipment.

#50 – JN: Westbound between Racine Ave. and Aberdeen St. Pilings for future ramp to ground level operations appear in background.
EM: CAE 205 (Niles, 1904) is westbound between Racine and Halsted on tracks that will soon be torn down for construction of the Congress Expressway. I believe the wooden posts show the beginning of construction of the ramp at the east end of the infamous “stop light express” where the Garfield PK trains (and no others) will run in a fenced off portion of Van Buren street for the next five years or so, causing what was a dream of a ride to become a nightmare. This is the same location as #41 in part one, only slightly earlier.

#51 – JN: Wells St. terminal.
EM: CAE 456 (St. Louis, 1945).

#52 – JN: Bridge over the PRR/C&NW on Garfield “L”.
EM: CAE 452 (St. Louis, 1945).
(This is the same location as photo #3 in Part 1 of this series, from a different angle.)

#53 – JN: Throat of Wells St. terminal—portion over Franklin St.
EM: CAE 423 (Cincinnati, 1927) is crossing Franklin St on its way to Wells St. station. Looking north.

#54 – JN: Sacramento curve on the Garfield “L”
EM: CAE 460 (St. Louis, 1945) leads an outbound train followed by 423, 422, and 418, all 1927 Cincinnati cars. Looking NE. At left can be seen construction of the east end ramp for the infamous “stop light express” to get CTA Garfield Pk traffic out of the way of the construction of the Congress Expressway (now know as the Eisenhower Expressway). Soon the CAE will terminate at Des Plaines Av, Forest Pk, confining it to ground level traffic only.

#55 – JN: CA&E trains passing at Western Ave. on Garfield “L”
EM: CAE 408 (Pullman, 1923) approaches Western Av station. Looking East.

#56 – JN: Westbound train at Kilbourn Ave. curve.
EM: CAE 457 (St. Louis, 1945) leads a three-car consist somewhere between Laramie and Marshfield.

#57 – JN: Batavia terminal
EM: CAE 431 (Cincinnati, 1927) sits at the Batavia Terminal.

#58 – JN: Westbound train leaving Batavia Jct.
EM: At Batavia Jct, formerly know as Eola Jct, a red and grey car heads for Aurora while the blue car at the station is ready to depart for Batavia. Looking SE.

#59 – JN: Crossing under CB&Q on Batavia branch.
EM: CAE 460 (St. Louis, 1945) on the Batavia branch somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

#60 – JN: Eastbound under short stretch of trolley wire on Batavia branch.
EM: A single car travels along the Fox River in the snow.

#61 – JN: Glenwood Park on Batavia branch (by old powerhouse).
EM: CAE 406, probably on a fan trip, stops at Glenwood Park. Notice the nice new red paint job, meaning this picture is later than the picture in part 1 of 406 still painted blue.

#62 – JN: Batavia bound car having departed from Batavia Jct. (in distance).
EM: CAE 141, a car obtained second hand from the North Shore Line travels through the middle of nowhere, I would guess on the Batavia branch.
Bob Campbell says, “141 is on the Aurora branch; not Batavia branch. West of Batavia Jct. was tangent on the Aurora branch. Batavia line just west of BJ was on a curve (see photo #66).”
Bill Shapotkin writes, “While not disputing that this photo is taken on the Batavia Branch, the remark: “car having departed from Batavia Jct. (in distance)” I believe is incorrect. The reason I say that is that upon departing Batavia Jct (enroute to Batavia), the line IMMEDIATELY goes through a long sweeping curve to the N/W (as can be see in Photo 58). While I do not know exactly where this photo was taken, be assured that the distant station in photo is NOT Batavia Jct.
By the way, this is NOT “pull-in” trip of the Batavia car (enroute to Wheaton after the PM rush). If it were, the platform of Batavia Jct would be to the right (not to the left).
I believe the photo is at either one of two locations:
1. A point JUST north of Bilter Rd (as the State Rd station would be on west side of R-O-W),
or
2. A point JUST N/W of the sweeping curve out of Batavia Jct — approx where East-West Tollway intersects the line today (thus station in distance is Bilter Rd (which, like State Rd was located on west side of R-O-W).
In either case, believe this is a morning photo (of an E/B car) and that we are facing geographically N/W.”

#63 – JN: Batavia terminal
EM: This is a companion picture to picture 57. Same CAE 431 (Cincinnati 1927, now preserved at the IRM) and same automobile. The bridge over the Fox River is clearly visible.

#64 – JN: Glenwood Park stop on Batavia branch
EM: CAE 406 (Pullman, 1923), again painted red and grey, at Glenwood Park flag stop on its way to Batavia.

#65 – JN: Crossing under CB&Q on Batavia branch
EM: CAE 428 (Cincinnati, 1927) on the Batavia branch. Notice how the grass is grown up in the track bed. This must be near the end when Batavia service was minimal and sometimes served by bus.

#66 – JN: Westbound car is just departing Batavia Jct.
EM: CAE 141, an ex-North Shore Line car most likely in Kane county on the Batavia branch.

#67 – JN: 427 eastbound at Gary Siding on Aurora branch
EM: CAE 427 (Cincinnati, 1927) pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Probably on the Batavia branch.
(Here we have a difference of opinion.)
Bob Campbell writes, “Photographer on the north side of Butterfield Road overpass. Not all of 427 was scrapped – I have one of the end numbers (on the right, retriever side) in my “Oklahoma Basement” (out building).”

#68 – JN: 2001-2002 working CB&Q interchange at Aurora
EM: CAE 2001 and CAE 2002 (General Electric, 1920 and 1922) in the north yard at Wheaton.
(Again, here we have a difference of opinion.)
Bob Campbell writes, “Definitely the CB&Q interchange at Aurora; Aurora Avenue/Route 25 in foreground.”
Chuck Amstein adds, “I think JN is correct here. This is looking WNW from the side of Route 25, just south of the CB&Q-CA&E (double-tracked, trolley wires visible in background) crossing. The positions of the electrical tower (still there), smokestack, and water tower, plus several visible buildings in the background, match those on current or historical aerial images. Probably photographed along with #70.”

#69 – JN: Car under very short stretch of wire at State Rd. This was to help a car over the gap after it stopped at station westbound.
EM: CAE 406 (Pullman, 1923) painted red and grey, at the State Road flag stop.

#70 – JN: Eastbound crossing Aurora Ave. near CB&Q interchange at Aurora
EM: CAE 2001 and 2002 (General Electric, 1920 and 1922) pulling freight.

#71 – JN: Eastbound Aurora branch car at Batavia Jct. Note one of the clearance boards on platform has been flipped over.
EM: CAE 453 (St. Louis, 1945) at Batavia Jct, formerly known as Eola Jct. That was tough!

#72 – JN: Westbound at bridge over Winfield Creek on Elgin branch (near Lincoln Ave.)
EM: CAE 454 (St. Louis, 1945) in the middle of nowhere.

#73 – JN: Eastbound train at Warrenville. Station later served as Warrenville city hall.
EM: CAE 458 (St. Louis, 1945) at Warrenville.

#74 – JN: Aurora terminal
EM: CAE 414 (Pullman, 1923) and two Cincinnati cars along the Fox River at the Aurora station. Observe the raised trolley poles.

#75 – JN: On Cook County branch along Mannheim Rd.
EM: CAE 310 (Hicks, 1907) on the west side of Mannheim Road by a stone quarry. Most likely the same fan trip as several pictures in part one of this contest. Passenger cars did not normally use this track after 1926. Notice the raised trolley pole. the Cook county branch, a.k.a. the Mount Carmel branch had no third rails.

#76 – JN: Westbound at State Rd on Batavia branch under short section of wire to clear the gap in third rail while crossing the road.
EM: CAE 406 (Pullman, 1923) again painted red at the State Road flag stop.

#77 – JN: Westbound train crossing B&OCT east of Desplaines Ave. station.
EM: CAE 428 (Cincinnati, 1927) crosses the B&OCTRR just east of Des Plaines Av. The branch going west along side the CAE tracks in the distance were for the Chicago and Great Western. Notice the old style crossing gate at left in the foreground. View is looking mostly west and slightly NW.

#78 – JN: Westbound car has just departed from Desplaines Ave. terminal. This section of track was moved north and rebuilt due to expressway construction. CA&E trains never operated on rebuilt track.
EM: CAE 419 (Pullman, 1923) heads west towards 1st Av. Maywood having come from Des Plaines station. Looking NW.

#79 – JN: Eastbound train has left Desplaines Ave. station and crossing B&OCT
EM: CAE 428 (Pullman, 1923) at the same B&OCTRR crossing as in picture #77, but this time it is headed east. View is looking west.

#80 – JN: Westbound nearing 1st Ave, in Maywood. Note Montana Charlie’s gas station in background.
EM: CAE 454 (St. Louis, 1945) has just crossed 1st Av, Maywood heading east. View is looking NW.
Dan Hagstrom adds, “#80 is on the main line approaching First Avenue from the east, from behind Commonwealth Edison. Again, the Refiner’s Pride gas station is visible. I was 10 1/2 years old when the Aurora stopped passenger services, so I have some pretty good memories of where the Aurora passed through Maywood. I lived about 4 blocks south on 4th Avenue.”

#81 – JN: Westbound Wheaton local at Pulaski Rd. on Garfield “L”
EM: CAE 428 (Cincinnati, 1927) is at the Pulaski Road station on its way to Chicago. View is looking NE.

#82 – JN: Westbound near Racine Ave. (same location as photo #50). Note ramp to surface trackage now in place.
EM: CAE 52 (Stephenson, 1903) is leading a three-car consist westward at the same location between Racine and Halsted as in picture #50. The track in the foreground is about to be torn down because of Congress Expressway construction. Notice the other trains in the picture. Soon only the Garfield Pk trains will be using the tracks in the distance.

#83 – JN: Westbound train at Austin Ave. near B&OCT interchange.
EM: CAE train of two St. Louis cars with CAE 451 (still in existence at IRM) at the rear approaching Hannah station. View is looking NW. Hannah station was somewhat unusual for the CAE in that both platforms were on the same side of the cross street.
(Editor’s note: I believe this is Austin and not Hannah. Hannah was a “B” station near the end, while this station, and Austin, were “A.” And while the cityscape has changed a lot due to expressway construction, there would be single family homes near Hannah and not the large apartment buildings we see here. The Austin station did have both platforms on the same side of the street.)

#84 – JN: Aurora terminal
EM: CAE 460 (St. Louis, 1945) is at the end of a four-car consist sitting at the Elgin Terminal by the Fox River. View is looking SW.
V. Hallas writes, “Picture # 84 is definitely Aurora. I Googled American Well Works, they started there in 1869. I also say this as the train is facing north on the east side of the river. if this was Elgin, it would be facing south.”
Bob Campbell adds, “Definitely Aurora terminal.”

#85 – JN: Wells St. terminal facing east
EM: In the caverns between the tall buildings of downtown Chicago looking east at the Wells Street Terminal. At the time this picture was taken, and for quite a few years earlier, this terminal was used only by the CAE. CTA trains turned south after crossing the river to Van Buren street to enter the loop at this time.

#86 – JN: View west of 11th Ave. in Maywood
EM: Station at 11th Av. in Maywood. The red railings show that this is a late picture, since they were painted green when the CTA trains of the Westchester branch stopped here for the last time December 8, 1951. Notice the newer automobiles crossing 11th Av.
Dan Cluley adds, “the cream colored convertible is a 1957 Olds. So given the bare trees this must have been taken in the Winter or early Spring of ’57.”

#87 – JN: Freight at Wheaton yard by new dispatcher’s tower
EM: East end of the Wheaton yard. Notice the “new” dispatch tower.

#88 – JN: Westbound train on Aurora branch at Childs St., Wheaton
EM: Now this is truly a “mystery” photo! The street crossing looks like something out of the 1920’s, but the Pullman car is painted in the last livery! Someone else will have to explain this one!
Bob Campbell writes, “Agree Childs Street, Wheaton looking east.”

#89 – JN: Eastbound train at Bellwood.
EM: CAE 433 (Cincinnati, 1927) is headed for Chicago having passed under the Indiana Harbor Belt RR. View is looking NW.
Bill Shapotkin adds, “While the captions “Eastbound train at Bellwood” and that: ” CAE 433 (Cincinnati, 1927) is headed for Chicago having passed under the Indiana Harbor Belt RR. View is looking NW.” are both correct — the location should be specified as being at 25th Ave (which IS in Bellwood), which is the first grade xing east of the IHB/B&OCT overcrossing.”

#90 – JN: Eastbound train departing Glenwood Park and heading towards CB&Q underpass.
EM: CAE 460 (St. Louis, 1945) travels along the Fox River near Batavia, headed for Chicago. Notice that it is running with third rail power.

#91 – JN: Eastbound train departing Batavia terminal at Wilson St.
EM: CAE 460 (St. Louis, 1945) still is running under wire along the Fox River. It has just left the Batavia station, headed for Chicago. View is looking NW.

#92 – JN: Eastbound car crossing under CB&Q on Batavia branch. Old powerhouse can be seen on right through trees.
EM: CAE 460 (St Louis, 1945) is on track curving away from the Fox River on the Batavia branch.

#93 – JN: Westbound on Batavia branch under short section of overhead wire.
EM: CAE 457 (St. Louis, 1945) is traveling under wire along the Fox River.

#94 – JN: Train on outbound platform at Desplaines Ave. Note “baldy” heading to Chicago in background.
EM: CAE 401 (Pullman, 1923) leads a two car consist at the new (1953–1957) station on the west side of Des Plaines Av. At this time the CAE trains turned around without crossing Des Plaines Av. The CTA trains discharged all passengers at this station. Those who want to go further west boarded a CAE train here and paid another fare. The green and cream train in the background has just come from their station (color-coded green) on the other side of the loop where the CAE trains discharged all their passengers. Those wishing to continue east had to pay another fare to the CTA. the loops did not cross at grade, there was a wooden structure to carry the CTA trains above the tracks of the CAE. All the tracks east of Des Plaines Av, formerly owned by the CAE as far as Laramie Av, were sold to the CTA.

CA&E Mystery Photos Answers – Part 1

July 24, 2015November 23, 2015David Sadowski 14 Comments

#1 – WS: Met ‘L’. View looks east from Halsted Station. FH: note the pre-rebuild Cincinnati. EM: South end of Halsted curves. CAE train is outbound, Looking NE, late morning.

Here are the long-awaited answers to Part 1 of our recent Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban Mystery Photos Contest.

There were several great entires, and in particular, I would like to single out Andre Kristopans, Frank Hicks, and William Shapotkin, who all made significant contributions. Sorting out these answers was quite a job– I had to make a spreadsheet to keep it all straightened out.

Based on the criteria of best overall submission, Edward Maurath is the winner of Part 1. Congratulations on a difficult job well done!

We have combined some of the best answers about the “Roarin’ Elgin” in each photo caption. To simplify matters a bit, we will refer to the four main entrants by their initials (AK, FH, WS, and EM).

I feel confidant that the great majority of answers are correct, but inevitably some of them are going to be educated guesses and if additional information comes up that can clarify matters, we will update the captions accordingly. As Ronald Reagan once said, “Trust, but verify.” As we all know, the majority opinion is not always the right one.

Answers for Part 2 are here.

Thanks.

-The Editor

PS- We apologize for inadvertently posting the same image twice (#40 and 47).

#2 – Same location as #1. In fact, this picture was probably taken seconds later.

#3 – WS: W/B train x/o the C&NW/PRR at Rockwell St. Photo taken just before ‘L’ was closed (notice the surrounding buildings are gone). View looks N/E. EM: CAE 458, 458 and 454 (St. Louis, 1945)

#4 – WS: W/B train (PM rush?) at Glen Oak station. View looks east off Hill Ave bridge. What is even more interesting is that in distance (at right) is the Shapotkin house (where I grew up.)
FH: a great shot of a six-car train of “shorties” westbound at Glen Oak. The lead car is either the 36 or the 46 (the number is badly worn but I think it’s the 46) as those were the only two motor cars with the smaller “flap” style ventilators. The train includes five motors and a trailer and the trailer, right behind the lead car, also has that style ventilators while the rest of the cars – like the rest of the wood fleet – have normal boxy Utility ventilators. The train is an interesting mix; the last car is in red, the rest in blue, and the second-to-last car hasn’t had its roof tarred yet while the rest have.
Gary Kleinedler adds, “Photos 4 and 18 are at the east side of Glen Ellyn, taken from the Hill Avenue bridge looking east toward Lombard. Both trains are westbound at Glen Oak Country Club stop (the golf course is to the right and behind the shelter). The CA&E bridge over the East Branch of the DuPage River and the concrete bridge over two-lane Illinois Route 53 (Columbine Avenue) are in the distance. The trailing switch just behind the communication(?) box to the left rear of the train leads to a short Public Service of Northern Illinois stub siding. I lived less than a mile from this location (my grandparents lived even closer). Although the CA&E station was on the south end of Lombard (we lived on the north side), I still occasionally used the interurban to travel home from Glenbard High School in Glen Ellyn (1951-1955) when I missed the last school bus.”

#5 – EM: CAE 459 (St. Louis, 1945) at Racine Station. CRT cars, including 2880, also visible.
BS: E/B train of St Louis cars passing the Met shop at Racine Ave. View looks west.
AK: Throop shop – note that while shop had quite a bit of inside capacity, there was almost no outside storage.

#6 – EM: CAE 460 (St. Louis, 1945) at north Sacrimento curve with three Cincinnati cars including 422 and 428, outbound. Looking NE.
AK: coming into Sacramento WB. Stationhouse burned out a few weeks before Van Buren surface diversion started and was closed early.
FH: Sacramento curve, note that the second car is a rebuilt Cincinnati and the third is an un-rebuilt one.

#7 – FH: (and #29, #42) – Neat series of shots, taken at Lockwood Yard. The lead car, Stephenson 48, is one of a small number of “shorties” that kept its arched trim until the end. Note that it also has the blocked-off clerestory, a Wheaton modification that was made to a number of cars during the 1920s. For whatever reason this particular modification fell out of favor (like the arched trim). Behind it is Kuhlman 314 in fresh red paint, Niles 303 (today preserved in Connecticut), and two more Kuhlmans. Bringing up the rear is another Niles, either 201, 300 or 307 judging from the blocked-off clerestory. These photos also make an interesting study in storm windows. The “shorties” and the 300-series Niles cars were built withe removable storm windows, and the 48, 303 and rear car all have theirs fitted. The Kuhlmans (and Hicks cars) were built with permanent storm windows fitted inboard of the regular sash, and the 314 has its lowered. The fourth car in the strong appears to have its storm windows raised for some reason (you can see a light grey band under the drip rail) while the Kuhlman painted red has had its permanent storm sash removed in favor of removable sash (several of the Jewetts, which were built with permanent storm sash fitted outboard of the regular sash, and Kuhlmans had this modification made in the early 1950s).
EM: Notice old wooden CTA cars at far right.

#8 – WS: At left is the Commonwealth Ave yard east of first Ave, Maywood. Train at left is E/B, train at right is W/B. View looks west.
EM: CAE 428 (Cincinnati, 1927) and 452 (St. Louis, 1945) with another St. Louis car behind it in winter.
AK: Between river and First Av – Northern Illinois Public Service property on left, now site of Maybrook Court.

#9 – EM: CAE 410 (Pullman, 1923) leading another Pullman at westbound platform of 5th Av, Maywood, looking east in early afternoon. I lived less than 2 block south of this station from 1947–1954, and saw severe deterioration of service during that time. I would guess this photo to be somewhat older that the others based on the fact that the railings are painted green (just barely) rather than red, and the old crossing gates that were replaced in the late 40’s.
Dan Hagstrom writes, “#9 is looking east at the 5th Avenue Station in Maywood, my home town. The picture was taken after 1952 because I can see the newer crossing gates at 4th Avenue in the distance.”

#10 – WS: Storage Yard at Wheaton Shops (shop building is at left). Photographer is looking W-S/W off Elgin Branch (which is visible at right).

#11 – WS: Four of the ex-CNS&M woodies — sitting forlornly in the “Orchard,” storage track at west end of Wheaton Yard. View looks west.
FH: Interesting shot, I would assume from the winter of 1953-1954. If memory serves the ex-North Shore cars were retired following the cut back to Forest Park, and judging by the ties across the tracks this photo was taken post-retirement (despite the cars being mostly complete right down to flags in the flag brackets!). What I’m wondering is, what in the world is that thing in the coupler?
Charles Sontag adds, “Photo 11 of the North Shore wood repainted in CA&E colors is very useful for me. I have a 0-scale Labelle Interurban kit that I will be building to represent one and it’s nice to know how they are painted.”

#12 – FH: Nice shot at Wheaton, I’m guessing taken during the 310 fantrip. The 315 must have been one of the last 300-series wood cars in blue. Note the rebuilt Pullman in the shop at right.

#13 – WS: Wow! Rare shot of four of the freight locos (the 2000s and 3000s), all in the same paint job. Believe this is on the freight lead (located south of freight yard and west of the two main tracks of Aurora Branch) in front of Wheaton Shop. View looking S/E.
EM: North yard of the Wheaton Shops, with 3004, 3003, 2001, and 2002 lined up.
AK: Two closest are the ex Oklahoma Ry motors.
EM: The two closest locomotives were built by Baldwin-Westinghouse. The two more distant ones were built by GE. The ex-Oklahoma Ry locomotives were numbered 4005 and 4006 and are not in the picture.
Bob Campbell: “Regarding photo #13, in CERA Bulletin #105, page IV-9, the Wheaton map indicates that the four freight motors are sitting on the “passing siding” (not the yard lead in the background, at a lower grade level) which is oriented in a NE – SW direction, so the photographer is facing S-S-W, not S-E. In photo #16, the same equipment in the same location as photo #13, the photographer has changed positions and is now facing East, instead of N-E.”

#14 – EM: Two wooden cars that had been parlor cars 600 and 601, rebuilt as coaches with metal added and reconfigured to mate with steel rather that wooden cars, in the north yard of the Wheaton shops at a time when they were seeing little use.
WS: These are the two one-time parlor cars — which were built as woods and converted to operate with the steels. Photo taken at Wheaton Yard. Believe view looks N/W.
FH: Nice views of the 435-436 prior to scrapping. In the lower photo, I wonder what was cut up ahead of them; I can see a traction motor armature in the pile of metal to the left.

#15 – WS: Same two cars as above. View looks N/E at/near west end of yard trackage at Wheaton.

#16 -WS: Same as photo #13 — but looking N/E. Great pic!!

#17 – EM: East yard of Wheaton Shops again, with the tracks to Aurora visible at the extreme left.

#18 – WS: Fantrip (Maury Kleibolt trip) photo at Glen Oak. View looks E-S/E off Hill Ave.
EM: CAE 310 (Hicks, 1907) stopped at Glen Oak. This must be a fan trip, as there would not normally be that many patrons waiting there!

#19 – EM: East end of the old Des Plaines station which was replaced by a fancy interchange on the other (west) side of Desplaines in September of 1953. The shadows, including that of the photographer, indicate this picture was taken in late afternoon, with a four-car steel train with CAE 430 (Cincinnati, 1927) on the end about to cross the tracks of another railroad (B&OCTRR) on its way to downtown Chicago. After the crossing, the two different railroads run parallel almost to Laramie Av.
AK: Looking east at Desplaines Av station, B&OCT grade crossing in background, source of many, many delays.
(Truman Hefner Photo)

#20 – EM: CAE 458 (St. Louis, 1945) approaching Laramie Av station from the incline leading up to Cicero station, and just visible in the distance, Kilbourn. The view, looking east, includes a vast fleet of wooden CTA cars, with a wooden CTA train about to ascend the incline. The tracks east from here were owned by the CTA. The tracks west of here were owned by the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin. The tracks west of here to Desplaines Av. were later sold by the CAE to the CTA once CAE trains stopped going east of Desplaines in September of 1953. Notice the monitor style roofs which were distinctive to the Metropolitan line CTA cars.
WS: View looks east off footbridge.

#21 – WS: Lockwood Ave yard. Believe view looks N/W across the mainline.
FH: Interesting view of the storage tracks west of Lockwood with a couple of trains of “shorties” in what I presume is midday storage. Judging from the number of “shorties” in red I’m guessing this is pretty close to the end of service over the “L.”

#22 – EM: Gunderson Av. station with westbound CAE train approaching the station looking NW. CAE 428 (Cincinnati, 1927) is at the rear of the two-car train.
AK: Gunderson Av passing track, this is towards the end as the middle track is rusted black.

#23 – AK: EB train crossing Desplaines Av, note L staging track to left of main where L trains waited for leaving time.
EM: CAE 459 (St. Louis, 1945) leads this three-car train heading for Chicago. View is looking Northwest.

#24 – WS: Locos #3003-3004 lead an E/B frt out of Wheaton. In backgound is the “new” Dispatcher’s Office. View looks west. (Another great pic — never seen this one before.)

#25 – EM: CAE 459 (St. Louis, 1945), followed by CAE 452 and other(s), somewhere between Laramie Av and Hannah, looking NW.
AK: EB somewhere between Harlem and Austin, B&OCT in foreground.

#26 – FH: What a classic shot! I’m guessing this is the “cannonball set” (so nicknamed by the fans, not the railroad) that was often trained together in later years. This consisted of the three up-rated Jewetts, 319-321, with trailers 105 and 205 interspersed. In this view it appears to be 319-105-320-205-321 (the 321 had lost its oval window by this time so the middle Jewett is most likely the 320). Only the 105 and 320 are in red. The 319 was painted in this version of the “Early American” livery in May 1950. Taken at Racine.
AK: WB train at Racine. This station had 4 platforms, two on each side of Throop shop leads

#27 – WS: An E/B train of steel cars pass the old Met powerhouse. Surrounding buildings have all been demolished in advance of expressway construction. View looks N/W.
AK: Throop shop in its last days. Note how bricks are “leaching”.

#28 – EM: One of the ex-North Shore Line wooden cars leads a westbound train over Union Station headed for Canal Street station. The train came from the Wells Street station through the tall buildings. The tracks curving off to the right lead to the CTA station at Franklin and Van Buren. All these tracks saw heavy traffic until September of 1953.

#29 – EM: CAE 314 (Kuhlman, 1909) almost certainly at the north Wheaton yard, but there is nothing in the picture to confirm that.

#30 – EM: CAE 310 (Hicks, 1907) would appear to be on a fan trip about to go through the underpass between the Mannheim Road section and the Roosevelt Road section of the Mt. Carmel branch (aka the Cook County branch) which was used for freight operations only after 1926. Notice the trolley pole is up. This branch was unique in that it had no third rails anywhere from Mt. Carmel cemetery to where it joined the main line. view is looking NE.
AK: Cook County Branch south of IC underpass north of Roosevelt with a charter.
WS: Fantrip on Mt Carmel Branch. IC Iowa Division is overhead.
Bill Shapotkin writes, “The date of the photos (and there were several) of car #310 on a fantrip on the Mt Carmel Branch was (per caption on Pg 75 of SUNSET LINES (Vol1)) August 8, 1954.”

#31 – EM: CAE 418 (Pullman, 1923) is ready to lead CAE 406 out of the Elgin Terminal along the Fox River. Notice 406 has recently been painted in the final CAE livery. That means this picture is newer than other pictures in this series that show 406 still painted blue like the 418 here.
WS: Aurora terminal (the one opened 1939 along Fox River). View looks E-N/E.

#32 – WS: Nice going-away shot of a freight (locos #2001-2002). Location unknown.
Jerry P. Hund says, “I belelieve #32 was taken in Bellwood, just east of Bellwood Ave. We can also see some freight cars on the IHB track that came down the trestle from the mainline. All tracks would run parallel to the CGW mainline. This view is looking northeast.”

#33 – Here we have a real difference of opinion:
WS: Locos #3003-3004 switching in Aurora (just east of CB&Q xing). View looks N/E.
AK: Freight train on Cook County Branch around Harrison St.
Bill Shapotkin writes, “This picture appears on Page 157 of SUNSET LINES (Vol 1), by Larry Plachno. The caption reads (in part): “Here, locomotives 4006-4005 are switching the CB&Q interchange on the north side of Aurora,” which, per the map on Pg 92 of said book, puts the location as being at Aurora Ave.”

#34 – EM: CAE 310 (Hicks, 1907) southbound at the stone quary on the west side of Mannheim Road, probably the same fan trip as in picture #30. View is looking NW.
AK: On Cook County Branch around Jackson or so, next to Mannheim Rd.

#35 – EM: Same as #34 but from a slightly different angle.

#36 – EM: CAE 310 (Hicks, 1907) southwest bound having just passed through the underpass in picture #30 This picture would appear to have taken earlier the same day. The underpass is still there today, but it has been filled in some over the years.
AK: Cook County Branch south of IC underpass north of Roosevelt with a charter.

#37 – FH: The 318 and two other Jewetts, likely the 316 and 317, westbound at Kedzie with a Pullman rounding Sacramento curve in the background.
AK: Kedzie station, CAE stop because of Sears headquarters at Arthington and Kedzie. CTA ran extra buses for Sears until Sears moved downtown.

#38 – FH: Great photo of the 302 leading what appears to be a solid rake of 200/300-series Niles cars (there may be a Hicks in there somewhere, tough to tell from the sides) into the sun. The motorman has his shade pulled down pretty far!
EM: CAE 302 (Niles, 1906) leads a four-car train through the wilderness destined to become the Congress Expressway. Van Buren Street, future site of the infamous “stop light express,” can be seen.
AK: approaching CNW/PRR at Rockwell WB. Photo from PRR tracks note brick structure bases, then last few are steel. Structure was raised when PRR/CNW was elevated.
Richard Neva adds, “Number 38 appears to show Our Lady of Sorrows Church with 2 spires in the background which I was very familiar with during my early growing years.”

#39 – WS: W/B train (is that the CANNONBALL) at Kedzie station (same location as #37). View looks east.
EM: CAE 414 (Pullman, 1923) leads a westbound train at Kedzie station. It would appear to be evening rush hour. Looking east.

#40 – FH: Nice shot of a five-car rush-hour train of “shorties” at Kedzie, express to Wheaton if the sign is to be believed. The 34 is still in tattered blue and retains its light grey roof, or what’s left of the paint anyway; a lot of cars had their roofs tarred in the late 1940s/early 1950s. It looks like the motorman has drawn the curtain over the “railfan window” in the bulkhead so that the commuters don’t all have the sun in their faces. And it’s tough to tell but it looks like an ex-North Shore wood car in the background on the curve.

#41 – WS: W/B train of woodies approaching Racine Ave. Note the ramp (at left) leading down to Van Buren St trackage — places the time frame as 1953 (no earlier than June or July?). View looks east.
FH: A slightly unusual consist, as the “shorties” were often segregated and run together. But here we have two “shorties” followed by what I believe is a Jewett westbound at Racine on a local.
EM: CAE 52 (Stephenson, 1902) leads a three-car westbound train between Racine and Halsted. I suspect that the track at far left is under construction for the east end of the infamous “stop light express,” to allow the destruction of the tracks in the foreground for the construction of the Congress Express, which can be seen at the right. Looking east. These tracks will soon be far less used because of the loss of the CAE, and all CTA trains except the Garfield Pk.
AK: Looking east from Racine, track in center is Throop shop lead.

#42 – EM: CAE 48 (Stephenson, 1902) with CAE 18 (Niles, 1902) in the background, and other cars sit in the yard at Wheaton. By this time, the blue wooden cars were downright ugly.

#43 – EM: CAE 454 (St. Louis, 1945), eastbound, crosses 1st Av, Maywood. Will it turn back at Des Plaines AV? It depends on when the picture was taken relative to September, 1953. Notice the newer style crossing gates in contrast to the old gates is picture #9.
WS: An E/B St Louis car (460?) in Maywood — believe it is s/o First Ave (note CGW xing in background). View looks north.
Dan Hagstrom adds, ” #43 is a picture I never thought I’d ever get to see. This is looking north at the First Avenue grade crossing. The Chicago Great Western crossing gates are visible just beyond, and on the left is the Refiner’s Pride gas station that was situated between the Aurora tracks and the Great Western tracks on the west side of First Avenue.”

#44 – EM: CAE 422 and 434 (both Cincinnati, 1927) at Wheaton station. Notice all the fresh red paint. Also notice the jumper cables hanging from the not recently painted fence.
WS: Two trains meet at Wheaton station (note C&NW station at left). View looks east.

#45 – EM: CAE 404 (Pullman 1923) eastbound at Marshfield Jct where the Douglas Pk branch can be seen at the right. Looking west.

The same approximate view as #45, but a year or two later. This picture was most likely taken during the transition period around April 4, 1954, when Douglas Park trains were rerouted over the Lake Street “L” via what we today call the Paulina Connector, part of today’s Pink Line.
According to http://www.chicago-l.org:
“But by spring 1954, the main line elevated had to be taken out of service. The Garfield Line was running on a nonstop temporary grade-level alignment as far east as Aberdeen Street, but this arrangement would have been less than satisfactory for the Douglas operation. So, on April 4, 1954, the CTA reactivated a section of the Logan Square branch between Marshfield and Lake that had been closed for revenue operations when Logan Square trains were rerouted to downtown via the new Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway (but had been kept for nonrevenue equipment moves). Marshfield Junction was removed in favor of a straight connection from the Douglas to the Paulina Connector (as this nonrevenue leg was often called) and a new connection, Paulina Junction, was built from the Connector to the Lake Street elevated adjacent to the flyer-over and abandoned Lake Street Transfer station where the two crossed. Douglas trains would now access the Loop via this connection over the Paulina Connector and Lake Street Route.”

#46 – EM: CAE 456 (St. Louis, 1945) at the end of an evening rush-hour train bound for downtown Chicago on the Halsted curves, a popular place for photographers. Looking NE.

#47 – WS: Is this a trick or what? Appears to be same pix as #40 (car #34 leading the same train W/B at Kedzie).
(Duplicate photo, sorry! -Ed.)

#48 – EM: CAE 451 (St. Louis, 1945) leads a three-car westbound consist just west of the Des Plaines Av. interchange with the CTA. It is about to pass through the two cemeteries before crossing the Des Plaines river and turning NW towards 1st Av. Maywood.
(Editor’s note: off to the left, but not visible in this picture, would have been a large gas tank that was a Forest Park landmark for many years. This is the location of the Eisenhower expressway today.)

CA&E Mystery Photos – Part 2

July 16, 2015David Sadowski 11 Comments

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To celebrate the memory of the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban, we are sharing many great color photos with you. This is the second of two parts. You can find our previous post here.

We’ve already received some great responses for the first batch, and we thank you for them. We’ll publish those once the contest has ended.

Tell us where these pictures were taken, if you can. In some cases it may not be possible to determine an exact location.

But besides that, give us some other interesting information about what you see. As usual, by clicking on each photo with your mouse, you can bring up a larger version in your browser.

Please refer to each image using the number provided in the caption. The contest deadline is midnight Chicago time on July 22nd.

You can send us your submissions as comments to this post, or by e-mail to:

thetrolleydodger@gmail.com

The contest winner will be the one who gives us the best overall submission. The prize will be a copy of our Railroad Record Club #35 and 36 compact disc, which includes vintage audio from both the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin and the CTA Garfield Park “L”. You will find this and much more in our Online Store.

Thanks.

-Ye Olde Editor

PS- I’ve known railfan historian and author Bill Shapotkin for many years and consider him a good friend. Today is his first day of retirement from his regular job. We wish him well in this new phase of life, and are sure he will keep very busy indeed. I hope you will join us in congratulating him.

Bill tells us that by some coincidence, one of the photos in our last post shows the house he grew up in. That’s what my Dad used to call “Kismet.”

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CA&E Mystery Photos – Part 1

July 14, 2015July 24, 2015David Sadowski 16 Comments

(Editor’s note: You can find the answers here.)

This month marks 58 years since the fabled Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban suspended passenger service in the middle of the day, stranding thousands of commuters who had taken it downtown that morning. Although there were efforts to save the railroad, or parts of it, after that fateful July 3rd in 1957, it all came to naught.

This important railroad, which ran downtown over the Chicago Transit Authority‘s Garfield Park “L” until September 1953, was abandoned in 1961 and has been turned into the Illinois Prairie Path. Several of its railcars were saved, and by far the best collection of them can be found at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, where they are operated frequently.

To celebrate the memory of the CA&E, we are sharing many great color photos with you. This is the first of two parts, and another batch will be posted on the 15th.

Although I can figure out several of the locations myself, I thought it would be best to get our readers involved, for I know there are many of you who enjoy figuring these things out. Therefore, we will have another mystery photo contest.

Tell us where these pictures were taken, if you can. In some cases it may not be possible to determine an exact location.

But besides that, give us some other interesting information about what you see. As usual, by clicking on each photo with your mouse, you can bring up a larger version in your browser.

Please refer to each image using the number provided in the caption. The contest deadline is midnight Chicago time on July 20th. The rest of the photos will be posted tomorrow (15th).

You can send us your submissions as comments to this post, or by e-mail to:

thetrolleydodger@gmail.com

Thanks.

-Ye Olde Editor

PS- The contest winner will be the one who gives us the best overall submission. The prize will be a copy of our Railroad Record Club #35 and 36 compact disc, which includes vintage audio from both the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin and the CTA Garfield Park “L”. You will find this and much more in our Online Store.

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The CTA, the CA&E, and “Political Influence”

February 18, 2015February 18, 2015David Sadowski 13 Comments

CA&E 453 in a winter scene on the old Met “L” main line. Here, we are looking east from Halsted. (Truman Hefner Photo)

Always on the lookout for new sources of information about electric railway history, I recently stumbled on one in an unlikely place- a book about politics.

Political Influence by Edward C. Banfield, originally published in 1961 by the Free Press of Glencoe, “examines the structures and dynamics of influence in determining who actually makes the decisions on vital issues in a large metropolitan area.” The book takes an in-depth look at how political influence was applied in the Chicagoland area during the 1950s.

In his introduction to the 2003 edition, James Q. Wilson writes:

Banfield wanted to know how concrete issues were really decided, and so he studied six major controversies in Chicago and drew his conclusions about influence from his detailed account of who did what for (or to) whom.

Civic disputes in Chicago, he concluded, did not result from struggles for votes, competing ideologies, or the work of a shadowy power elite; they rose instead from the maintenance and enhancement needs of large organizations. One organization (say, a hospital) wanted something, another organization (say, a rival hospital) opposed it. The resulting conflict had to be managed by an outside authority if it were to be settled at all, and in Chicago, politicians did most of the managing. But that management was hardly dictatorial. Though Chicago politics was organized around a powerful political machine, the machine did not simply impose its will. Instead, the mayor let every interest get its say, postponed decisions until some common ground could be found, and then nudged the contestants in the right direction.

Banfield devotes chapter 4 (pages 91-125) to the Chicago Transit Authority and attempts to convince the state legislature to subsidize it circa 1956-57. According the the author, these efforts were intertwined with trying to save the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban.

The CA&E lost both riders and money due to construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway, starting in 1953. The project was expected to take five years, and CTA service in the expressway median opened on June 22, 1958. But by 1956, the railroad’s management wanted out, and the choices were either to sell or abandon service and liquidate.

At the time, the only public agency that could have operated “The Great Third Rail” was the Chicago Transit Authority, itself only about a decade old. Formed by combining the Chicago Rapid Transit Company and the Chicago Surface Lines, the CTA had started out with high hopes that an aggressive program of modernization would yield cost savings that would eventually make it possible to lower fares for their so-called “OWNERiders.”

Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way. The new CTA bus routes in outlying areas lost money, and over its first decade, ridership declined by nearly 50%. There were various reasons for the decline, including the rise in automobile ownership, fewer people working on Saturdays, the effects of several fare increases, and service reductions.

Unlike the New York transit system, which received a government subsidy of $100m per year during the 1950s, Chicago got none, and had to sink or swim out of the farebox.

CTA fares had increased gradually, but this also brought ridership losses. The main way CTA saved money was through reductions in personnel, mainly by replacing two-man streetcars with buses. But the last of the old red cars ran on May 30, 1954, and the governing Chicago Transit Board did not expect to see any additional savings from the elimination of PCC streetcars.

Banfield noted:

The heads of CTA’s operating divisions reported to a general manager, who in turn reported to Gunlock. Gunlock and the general manager (Walter J. McCarter) together prepared the agenda for board meetings. Although the board played an active role in the determination of general policy, it was Gunlock and the manager who ran the organization.

CTA Chairman Virgil E. Gunlock realized that government subsidies were needed, or CTA would risk going into an irreversible decline. His opinions are summarized in Chicago’s Mass Transportation Dilemma, a presentation he gave to the Illinois Road Builders Association at the Palmer House in December 1957.

The CTA rapid transit system had contracted about 25% by the mid-1950s, and wanted to extend service through the medians of the planned Northwest (Kennedy) and South (Dan Ryan) expressways. Shortly after Mayor Richard J. Daley took office in 1955, he asked Gunlock to prepare a “wish list” of potential new projects, so they could be prioritized, in the hope that new ways could be found to pay for them.

Chicago’s four major daily newspapers were in favor of subsidies, and so were most civic leaders. But the CTA was not universally liked by the public, especially by those who used it, which tended to undermine prospects for government aid, since opinions were divided.

It was into this mix that CA&E threw in the towel and offered to put the entire railroad up for sale.

Daley and Gunlock hoped to use this to their advantage. If the CTA could take over CA&E service, it was thought, this could win over crucial suburban support, resulting in government funding that could help transit in both the city and suburbs.

As we now know, things did not work out this way.

Mayor Daley had a good working relationship with Republican Governor William Stratton. They tried to help each other out politically by supporting each others projects in their respective “spheres of influence.”

However, while Stratton supported state funding to purchase the CA&E (reported price: $6m), and was willing to exempt the CTA from paying certain taxes and fees, he backed off on additional tax revenues for CTA once it became clear that DuPage and Kane County officials did not support it.

So while Daley, Gunlock, Stratton and even County Board President Dan Ryan Jr. were all on friendly terms in their discussions on this issue, and generally agreed on what to do, in the political climate of 1957, nothing could be done.

Banfield cites four main reasons for this failure to act in time to save the “Roarin’ Elgin,” which I will list in brief:

1. The “country towns”– that part of Cook County which lay outside of Chicago proper– opposed being taxed to support a transportation system which did not serve them directly.

2. Organized highway users were another important class of opponents. They had been trying for years to establish the principle that gasoline tax receipts should never be used for other than highway purposes.

3. The commuters of Kane and DuPage counites, although favoring measures to keep CA&E running, were very much opposed to paying a tax for that purpose. Politicians from those counties met with Governor Stratton one evening in the Executive Mansion to tell him that their constituents “just won’t sit still for a tax increase of any kind.” The state, they said, would be responsible for any suspension of passenger service and, therefore, it should provide any subsidy that might be needed.

The Governor expressed surprise. He had supposed that continuing CA&E service was a matter of great importance to Kane and DuPage counties. If it were so important, he said, surely the local people would be willing to contribute one cent a gallon toward it.

CTA supporters had hoped that Kane and DuPage counties’ interest in CA&E would lead them to support a plan for the general improvement of CTA. It was clear now that this was not the case and that, in fact, if it cost them a few dollars, the western suburbs would not support even that part of the plan which would serve only them.

Some observers believed that the Governor had interested himself in CTA only because he wanted to help the CA&E commuters. If this was so, his interest would probably now cease since it was apparent that the commuters were not really vitally concerned.

4. Many weekly newspapers in the more than eighty communities into which Chicago was divided opposed any kind of subsidy for CTA.

As a result, these legislative efforts failed. As a result, the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin was allowed to “temporarily” suspend passenger service at midday on July 3, 1957, stranding thousands of riders downtown, without a way to get home.

This served the short-term purposes of the railroad, the state, and the county, since it allowed quick removal of the CA&E tracks in the vicinity of the DesPlaines river, which was necessary for construction of a vital link in the Congress expressway connecting the city and suburban sections.

Within a short period of weeks, Cook County gave CA&E a check for $1.2m just for this short section of right-of-way between DesPlaines and First Avenues. Most probably, this amount was inflated to account for the $700k in losses from 1953 to 1957 that CA&E wanted to be reimbursed for.

Legislative efforts resumed in 1959, and again it seemed that CA&E was close to being saved. The railroad had been kept largely intact, and freight service continued. CTA anticipated a takeover, and even went so far as to put in a new track connection at the DesPlaines avenue terminal, where CA&E trains would exchange passengers with Congress “A” trains. You can see pictures of that unused connection here.

The 1961 CTA Annual Report includes an aerial view of the DesPlaines yard, and the completed track connection to what could have been a restored CA&E service is clearly visible– but never used. With the final abandonment of the railroad in 1961, all this was scrapped and removed, except for a short stretch of right-of-way that now serves CTA as a “tail track” for storing “L” cars.

All reminders of “what might have been.”

Mr. Banfield sums things up on page 271:

In the Transit Authority case, the Mayor, the Governor and the President of the County Board acted as agents of the affected interests in arranging the compromise; they did not try to impose a solution of their own upon these interests, and when the Governor found out that the compromise was not popular with his suburban supporters, he immediately dropped it.

In other words, even these notables could not muster enough “political influence” to save the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin. Much of the CA&E right-of-way west of Maywood has been preserved as the Illinois Prairie Path.

Fortunately, the lessons learned from its demise helped pave the way for saving the transit system we have today, which would not be possible without your tax dollars and mine.

-David Sadowski

PS- You will also find a very thorough and informative discussion of how McCormick Place came to be in this book. I recommend it.

Brand-new “flat door” cars 6003-6004 are shown to good advantage at the North Water Terminal in 1950. (Clark Equipment Co. Photo)

In this view, from the 1961 CTA annual Report, we see the western end of the DesPlaines terminal, and the relocated, never used CA&E tracks behind it.

Looking west from Halsted, CA&E 458 heads up a four car train of postwar units.

CA&E 318 at Glen Oak on a fantrip. According to Don’s Rail Photos, “318 was built by Jewett Car Co in 1914. It had steel sheating and was modernized in 1944. It was sold to Wisconsin Electric Raiway Historical Society in 1962. It was wrecked in transit and the parts were sold to IRM to restore 321.”

141 at Batavia Junction. CA&E purchased this car from the North Shore Line in 1946. According to Don’s Rail Photos, “141 was built by American Car Co in March 1910, #844, as Chicago &Milwaukee Electric 141. It was rebuilt in 1914 and retired in 1954.”

CA&E 418 in Batavia on March 15, 1952.

CA&E 318 near Whaton on a Central Electric Railfans’ Association fantrip, October 24, 1940.

CA&E 425 at Glen Oak on a September 2, 1940 CERA fantrip.

A pass from an early CERA fantrip.

CA&E 460 in Elgin on May 14, 1953. This car is preserved in operating condition at the Illinois Railway Museum.

West Towns Streetcars in Color

February 10, 2015June 4, 2023David Sadowski 30 Comments

One of our readers writes, “The 141 crossing the IHB tracks at Oak Street in LaGrange Park. The car is headed westbound, the train is southbound, possibly entering the sidings that are just south of Oak. The trolley turned south and paralleled the IHB down to the CB&Q tracks where it turned west along Hillgrove. The home under construction in the background is the second or third house north of Oak on the west side of Beach.” (Or, perhaps the steam train is backing up and the trolley waited for it to clear the crossing, based on the lingering smoke near the streetcar.)

The Chicago & West Towns, while not an extremely large streetcar operator, played an important role in the development of many of Chicago’s western suburbs in the first half of the 20th century. You can see a map of the West Towns car lines here, and a list of important dates in its operations here.

Central Electric Railfans’ Association put out the best and most comprehensive history of the West Towns in 2006, and you can read more about it here.

We have written about the Chicago & West Towns Railways before on the CERA Members Blog (see these posts here and here) but nearly all those photos were in black-and-white. Since streetcar service was abandoned in April 1948, color pictures are scarce.

Color film was expensive in 1948, and most fans did not have a 35mm camera to shoot it with. So we can be thankful for those railfans who did have the wherewithal to shoot Kodachrome slides, which give us an idea of what life was like in an earlier and simpler time.

Today we offer you rarely seen color pictures of West Towns streetcars. Even better, several of them show car 141, the sole survivor of the fleet. You can read about how this car was preserved and lovingly restored here. The Electric Railway Historical Society bought the car body in 1959, after it had been used as a storage shed, and donated it to the Illinois Railway Museum in 1973. You can ride that car at the museum.

While we are not sure of all the exact locations in these images, most of them seem to be on the line that ran between LaGrange and Cicero. Perhaps our keen-eyed readers can help identify some of these areas.

In a few cases, we have presented “then and now” photos, so you can see that while a lot has changed in the nearly 70 years that trolleys have been gone, but there are still a few things that remain from the old days.

When the Chicago Transit Authority was just getting started, they looked into the possibility of purchasing the West Towns, and I believe they entered into negotiations, but it never happened. The West Towns completed its conversion to buses in 1948 and remained a private operator until 1981. These services are operated today as part of the Pace suburban bus system.

-David Sadowski

The corner of Lincoln and Beach as it looks today in LaGrange Park. Lincoln ends in a cul-de-sac near the railroad tracks at rear. We are not far from where image 471 was taken.

Chicago & West Towns Railways car 112 heads south at Harlem and Cermak on August 17, 1947.

If the building at right is a car barn, this may be Harlem and Cermak. If so, car 112 would be turning east onto Cermak.

This may show the 111 heading west, preparing to cross First Avenue to reach the Brookfield Zoo.

The 159 may be on on the LaGrange line, heading east towards Cermak and Kenton.

The 111 at the Brookfield Zoo parking lot.

The 141 somewhere along the route between LaGrange and Cermak Road.

The corner of Lincoln and Blanchan in Brookfield as it looks today. This is the approximate location of image 466.

The apartment building at 9436 Lincoln in Brookfield. It can be seen in image 466 to the right of the West Towns streetcar.

This house is visible in image 466. Our approximate location is 3528 Cleveland in Brookfield.

The 141 at Cermak and Kenton, the border between Cicero and Chicago. Here riders could change to the Chicago Surface Lines route 21 streetcar for points east. In the background, we see the Western Electric plant.

Car 128 near Cermak and Kenton.

Cermak and Kenton as it looks today.

The 141 may be heading east, crossing the Illinois Central near 26th and Harlem. The streetcar briefly diverted from the roadway to make this crossing.

This shows where the West Towns crossed the Illinois Central near 26th and Harlem.

Car 128 in zoo service, heading south on Woodside at 31st in Riverside. Further north, this street becomes DesPlaines Avenue.

DesPlaines and 31st as it looks today, looking north. The West Towns streetcar ran where the grassy median is today, and continued a few blocks further south, before turning west to cross the DesPlaines River and First Avenue before reaching the Brookfield Zoo.

This may be Harlem and Cermak, looking north, with the car barn to the left.

I believe this view looks to the northeast along Woodside in Riverside, between 26th and 31st.

The 141 heading west, crossing Salt Creek.

An aerial view showing where the West Towns crossed the DesPlaines River (just north of Park Place).

Car 126 at an unidentified location.

The Westchester Branch – What Remains

February 1, 2015April 9, 2016David Sadowski 2 Comments

The IC underpass, looking south.

Following up on our previous post CTA’s Westchester Branch – What Might Have Been, we decided to scout out the old right-of-way, more than 63 years since the last trains ran, to see what we could find. Fortunately, there are many traces of the old line that are still visible.

For your consideration, we present some modern-day shots of the same locations where “L” trains once ran, both along the CA&E main line and the Westchester branch. If you ever decide to go exploring, to see these areas for yourself, we hope our efforts will give you a bit of a “leg up” on the work.

Interestingly, one entire half-block where the Harrison station once was, remained vacant land as late as 2011. This has now been developed, and we have some “before and after” pictures for comparison.

Since there are so few streets that cross the former Westchester right-of-way south of I290, it would appear that some housing was built adjacent to the line even before abandonment in December 1951. The line still being in use would provide a logical reason for keeping new grade crossings to a minimum.

If the CTA Blue Line is ever extended west to Mannheim Road, it would cross the old Westchester right-of-way very close to this spot. If a station is built there, that would be even more ironic. Someday you may be able to take a CTA rapid transit train to much the same location that you could in 1951, but not since.

-David Sadowski

You might think that the CA&E followed a straight path to the DesPlaines terminal, but such was not the case. Heading east from First Avenue, where the Illinois Prairie Path ends now, it actually headed southeast before turning east and crossing the DesPlaines River where I290 does today, then connecting with the terminal from the south.

Approximately the same view as image 194 in our last post (showing a Westchester car heading west, crossing First Avenue). The old Refiner’s Pride gas station has long since been replaced by an oil change shop.

Looking southeast from First Avenue. The CA&E tracks headed through this area, before turning east to cross the DesPlaines River. There were also some storage tracks in this area, now occupied by Commonwealth Edison.

Looking east from First Avenue. The CA&E right-of-way veered off here to the right, while the Chicago Great Western freight line went straight ahead. Some years ago, a new bridge was built where the CGW crossed the DesPlaines River, for pedestrian and bike traffic.

The Illinois Prairie Path begins at First Avenue in Maywood. We are looking west.

We are looking east from 6th Avenue in Maywood, about the same view as seen in image 181 in our previous post (showing the CA&E 5th Avenue station).

The old CA&E right-of-way looking west from 6th Avenue in Maywood.

The old CA&E main line, looking west from Madison and 19th.

Looking east from 25h near Madison, where a former CA&E station was located.

Looking west from Madison and 25th. Some of the same high tension lines are visible in image 196 in our previous post.

The Illinois Prairie Path, at right, follows the right-of-way of the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban.

Where the CA&E main line once crossed under the Indiana Harbor Belt RR. Since the railroad was scrapped in 1962, some concrete walls have been erected.

The Westchester line branched off from the CA&E main line near the top of the picture, then curved to the south to fololow a path between Marshall and Bellwood Avenues. This was approximately the location of Mark Drive, which is designated as a street for a short stretch, but is mostly an alley. From Jackson it headed south, and there was a station at Harrison just west of Bellwood Avenue.

An exception to the rule that you can follow the right-of-way via the telephone poles. These connect with the ones that follow the Westchester line, but the tracks were actually a bit west of this location on Madison Street (as can be seen in some of our other photos that show the actual location).

This house can also seen in image 199 in our previous post, in a photo showing a Westchester car crossing Madison Street.

The Westchester line crossed Madison at approximately this spot, where the house in the middle of the picture is now located. From here, the track curved off to run to the west of Bellwood Avenue.

Looking southeast at the old Westchester right-of-way, at Monroe between Bellwood and Marshall Avenues.

Along Mark Drive in Bellwood.

Looking north from Van Buren.

Part of the old Westchester right of way has been turned into “Park Place,” which appears to be a new street.

Looking north from Van Buren.

Bellwood Estates.

Bellwood Estates, as seen from the corner of Bellwood Avenue and Harrison, just north of I290. This development was not here in 2011.

Bellwood Estates.

Looking south from Van Buren. The new Bellwood Estates development is at left.

Looking north from Van Buren, the approximate right-of-way of the Westchester branch is now called Park Place.

Looking south at the old Westchester right-of-way from Van Buren in 2011. The tracks followed the alignment of the telephone poles. This area has been built up since then.

This 2011 view of the then-empty half block at Harrison and Bellwood, looking much as it had 60 years earlier.

Undeveloped land near the old Harrison station, as it appeared in 2011 prior to the construction of Bellwood Estates.

Bellwood and Harrison in 2011, before the construction of Bellwood Estates.

After crossing where I290 is today, the Westchester branch headed south and ran alongside the eastern edge of what is now Gladstone Park. The line went under the Illinois Central tracks and there was a station at Roosevelt Road, along with a couple of storage tracks.

The right-of-way looking north from Kitchner Street in Westchester, just south of I290.

Grace Central Church on Kitchner Street in Westchester, some of the construction that has built up in the area since 1951.

Looking south from Kitchner Street.

In places, it is only possible to follow the path of the old right-of-way via telephone poles.

Looking south from Kitchner Street in Westchester.

Looking north from the IC underpass.

A dirt road passes under the partly filled-in Illinois Central underpass. We are looking south.

The Illinois Central underpass, as viewed from the south.

The partially filled-in underpass that once took Westchester trains under the Illinois Central.

Here, the line continued to run south between Balmoral Avenue and Westchester Boulevard.

Finally, heading south past the station at Canterbury, the line curved to the southwest, following the general alignment of Balmoral Avenue until ending just short of Mannheim and 22nd. Insull planned for eventual extension west from this point to what we now call Oakbrook.

The #317 Pace bus stops at the exact location of the former Westchester rapid transit station at Canterbury.

Looking north from Canterbury.

The right-of-way looking south from Canterbury.

Near Mannheim and 22nd Street.

The Westchester right-of-way near Mannheim and 22nd Street, looking north.

A bank now occupies the end of the Westchester line at Mannheim and 22nd Street.

Bill Shapotkin writes:

It is interesting to see that the idea of looking at the r-o-w (such as the Westchester ‘L’) is not just my own personnel domain anymore. We can still learn a lot about the past by reviewing the remains of the present. (I especially like the before/after photos of the same house on Madison St in Bellwood (shown below).)

Kudos to you, Dave.

A few thoughts concerning the Westchester ‘L’ as it relates to the present-day: Some time ago, a fellow wrote (in a thread to this group) how the Westchester ‘L’ is missed (by the present-day residents) today. Not so — but just how are the residents of the area served today?

PACE #317 (successor to CTA #17) http://www.pacebus.com/pdf/schedules/317sched.pdf operates hourly (thirty minute rush) betw Des Plaines Ave and Balmoral/Canterbury. Service does NOT begin until later in the morning and does NOT run late into the evening. That said, on Weekdays/Saturday, PACE #303/310 http://www.pacebus.com/pdf/schedules/303sched.pdf and http://www.pacebus.com/pdf/schedules/310sched.pdf provide twenty-minute service as far west of 19th Ave — AND there are those two late-night trips (what would otherwise be pull-in trips) that cover the route west along Madison St.

It appears that whatever REAL traffic potential along the route of the ‘L’ is along Madison St — NOT in Bellwood or Westchester.

That said, PACE #301 http://www.pacebus.com/pdf/schedules/301sched.pdf now provides frequent (thirty minute or better) along Roosevelt Rd on Weekdays/Saturday and forty-five minute service on Sunday. Of course, this also provides service along a route one mile south of Madison St and provides better west-end destinations (Hillside Mall (at least what is left of it), Oakbrook and (on weekdays), points along Roosevelt as far west as Wheaton. Wow! I can recall when this was a weekday-only route (on a sixty-minute headway) betw Des Plaines Ave and Hillside — and did not operate after 7:00 PM.

Further south, PACE #322 http://www.pacebus.com/pdf/schedules/322sched.pdf operates on a thirty-minute headway (Weekdays and Saturday) and hourly on Sunday (Sunday being the only real hours-restrictive portion of the operation. Like the #301, there are good west-end destinations (Oakbrook and Yorktown).

Sadly, the north-south service of PACE #330 http://www.pacebus.com/pdf/schedules/330sched.pdf has not lived up to (what I believe is) its full potential. If the route served the Midway ‘L’ (instead of Archer/Neva) on its south end and actually served Metra’s MILWW line on a full-time basis (i.e.: served the Franklin Park (instead of the Mannheim) station), it would have a lot more of a following — and the corresponding service levels that the other routes now serving the area now have.

I believe many of us (and I include myself to a certain degree) have rose-colored glasses on when we look at some of the long-gone rail transit services. It appears to me that the present-day routes actually serve the are better — providing service to where people actually live and/or where they want to travel, which sadly the ‘L’ would not be able to do.

Slowly but surely (heavy on the slowly, light on the surely), I am documenting the Westchester ‘L’ and its present-day bus replacement services. Good Lord willing, this documentation will be completed later this year. When completed, the program will be offered to any interested group (such as CERA or OSA) for public viewing.

CTA’s Westchester Branch – What Might Have Been

January 26, 2015April 9, 2016David Sadowski 18 Comments

The “Westchester-Maywood” route, from a 1948 CTA map.

This 1943 map shows where the Westchester branch ran.

Today’s photo essay features pictures of the former Chicago Rapid Transit/Chicago Transit Authority Westchester branch, which ran from 1926 to 1951. You can find an excellent track map here. (You can also read our follow-up post, showing what traces of the old line are still visible here.)

It’s always interesting to speculate on what “might have been,” especially in the case of the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, whose trains ran from 1902 to 1957 in Chicago’s western suburbs. What could have been saved? What should have been saved? And, what can we learn today?

As you may know, ultimately nothing was saved, except the portion between DesPlaines Avenue and Laramie, which was taken over by the CTA in the early 1950s. That operates today as the outer portion of the Chicago Transit Authority‘s Forest Park branch of the Blue Line.

Speculation usually centers on whether the entire railroad could have been saved, bought by the State of Illinois, or at least, the portion to Wheaton. But in general, this section, the most viable part of the interurban, ran parallel to the Chicago & North Western‘s West Line, which continues to operate today under the aegis of Metra.

The State of Illinois made an offer to buy CA&E in 1956, and then backed out of the deal for various reasons. The only public entity that could have operated any portion of the railroad would have been the CTA, and yet their operating area was limited to most of Cook County.

Still, the CTA did some engineering studies.* In the short run, the idea was to put third rail shoes on some of the remaining PCC streetcars, and run a shuttle service between Forest Park and Wheaton. Just as with the CA&E operations between 1953-57, this would not have been a “one-seat ride” to the Loop. (Some say these studies were made to demonstrate the impracticality of CTA actually doing it.)

In the long run, CTA would have ordered more new rapid transit cars, high speed versions of the single car units 1-50 that were built in 1960. These type of cars would also have been used if the CTA had been able to take over larger portions of the North Shore Line than the five miles that became the Skokie Swift (today’s Yellow Line) in 1964.

In retrospect, the opening of the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway would have depressed ridership, so there is no way of knowing if such a CTA shuttle service would have been successful. But there was no way to pay for it, in the political context of the time, and therefore these plans were unrealized. But, if it had happened, most likely such a service would today be a treasured part of Chicagoland’s transit infrastructure.

But if we go back a little further in time, incredibly, there was rapid transit service operated by the CTA that ran to Mannheim and 22nd Street as late as 1951. This was the 5.6 mile long Westchester branch, a victim of budget cuts and expressway construction.

The Westchester branch was part of an ambitious mid-1920s Insull plan to create a high-speed CA&E bypass, similar to the North Shore Line’s Skokie Valley Route. However, there was less of a need for it, and by the time the Depression hit and Samuel Insull‘s empire collapsed, only 2.2 miles of it had been built off the CA&E main line, and local service was being provided by the Chicago Rapid Transit Company.

The Depression also put a stop to the pace of housing development in Bellwood and Westchester, as it had in Niles Center, where the CRT ran local service in a similar fashion. The “build it, and they will come” strategy was not unusual at the time, and had been successfully followed some years earlier when rapid transit service was extended to the Ravenswood neighborhood.

With the CRT in receivership, things remained “status quo” until the creation of the Chicago Transit Authority, which took over operations on October 1, 1947. In these heady early days, it was thought that modernization would reaped quick benefits, and there were efforts by the CTA to improve service to outlying areas, with the creation of extension bus lines and express buses.

Within a few years, however, there was nothing but red ink, and without taxing authority, the cash-strapped CTA had no choice but to cut unprofitable services wherever possible. The lightly-used Westchester branch was an obvious target for elimination, since CTA was a tenant, paying rent to the CA&E, who owned the tracks.

From CTA’s point of view, they saved money by eliminating rapid transit service west of DesPlaines Avenue, and tried to retain whatever ridership was there with replacement bus service, creating the #17 route, which continued to run for decades (and has now been completely replaced by parallel Pace suburban bus service, the #317).

Expressway construction was also a factor. The CA&E and CTA shared each other’s tracks, and compensated each other in turn. By the early 1950’s, these payments totaled about $250,000 per year and largely cancelled each other out. But a 2.5 mile section of the CTA’s Garfield Park/Met “L” would need to be relocated for five years, since it ran smack dab in the middle of where the Congress expressway would be built.

After nearly 50 years of joint operation on Chicago’s west side, coordinating the plethora of daily CTA and CA&E trains was difficult at best, and required near split-second timing. Schedules were complicated and there were various passing sidings, where expresses would be routed ahead of locals.

The CTA (and the City of Chicago’s) original idea for relocating Garfield service was for a wooden “L” structure along Van Buren Street. Presumably this grade separated service would have been fine with the CA&E, but the local alderman objected, and rather than face a lawsuit, which would have delayed the project, the City Council turned to Plan B– grade level rapid transit service, bisected by several cross streets.

This was originally promoted as a “street railway” service, which may be how they justified not using crossing gates. At first, it was thought that overhead wire could be used, but the Met cars did not have trolley poles, and this would have involved shifting around a lot of equipment. So, ultimately, the Van Buren Street temporary trackage used third rail without any more crossing protection than stop lights.

In 1951, CA&E management decided that this plan was unworkable for them, and would cause too many problems for efficient and safe operation. In a letter to their shareholders, CA&E proposed elimination of rail service on the interurban (presumably, freight service would continue), to be replaced by buses that would take riders from the western suburbs to the CTA Lake Street and Douglas Park “L”s.

CTA, for their part, anticipating that CA&E would soon become a bus operator only, began planning for a bus-to-rail transfer point between CA&E and CTA. At first, it was thought this would take place at Central Avenue, a point just west of where CTA’s own rails ended. But by 1953, this transfer point was moved west to DesPlaines Avenue in Forest Park.

Meanwhile, existing bus operators in the western suburbs had successfully blocked CA&E’s plans to substitute bus service for rail. Therefore, they had no real alternative to cutting back rail service to DesPlaines Avenue. This is how service was operated from September 1953 to July 1957. By then, CA&E ridership had been decimated, adn the railroad successfully petitioned to “temporarily” abandon rail service.

The abandonment actually helped facilitate expressway construction near the DesPlaines River, since no temporary service would need to be built. The railroad, in a sense, was still “made whole,” since by 1959 new rails were put in place for a connection to the CTA DesPlaines terminal. These are plainly visible in an aerial view in the 1961 CTA Annual Report, but they were never used, and the CA&E did not resume regular passenger service, and was liquidated in 1961. Attempts to save the interurban were too little, too late, and the suburbs that would have benefited from continuing service refused to contribute with tax revenue.

Between 1948 and 1957, the CTA eliminated about 25% of the rapid transit system it had inherited from CRT. This was mainly by slashing lightly-used branch lines (Stockyards, Kenwood, Humboldt Park, Normal Park, Niles Center, and Westchester). At one point, the CTA even proposed turning over the Evanston branch to the North Shore Line, but this did not happen.

By 1964, it seems the CTA had changed its mind about branch lines, for in April of that year, the phenomenally successful Skokie Swift service began running between Dempster and Howard, over five miles of former CNS&M right-of-way. By this time, some federal funding was available through a pilot program. CTA had to buy half of the Swift trackage anyway, just to access Skokie Shops.

Here, the CTA used fast, frequent service and a large park-and-ride lot to attract riders. And although it scarcely seems possible that the Westchester branch could have been saved in 1951, it would really fill a need today.

Imagine a west side corollary to the Skokie Swift.

By the early 50s, Bellwood and Westchester were prime areas for the postwar housing boom. This is especially true since these areas would soon have access to an important new highway. Growth in Westchester was being held back, however, since the same developer that had owned much of the property since the 1920s wanted to build all the housing themselves, thereby limiting construction somewhat.

After the CTA abandoned the Westchester branch, the CA&E liquidated the property, and the proceeds were distributed to the shareholders, instead of being reinvested in the money-losing railroad. This was the first of CA&E’s large-scale liquidations, where various portions of the railroad were sold to benefit the stockholders.

Getting back to what “might have been,” imagine how well the CTA would be doing today, if it had built a large park-and-ride lot at Mannheim and 22nd Street in the 1950s and kept the Westchester branch. As the area boomed in the mid-1950s, this service would have had tremendous potential.

And while this did not come to pass, the need persists, and something like a replacement for the Westchester branch may still be in CTA’s future. The Illinois Department of Transportation is working on plans for expanding and improving I-290 in the western suburbs, as the Chicago Tribune reported on February 27, 2013:

State transportation officials presented a narrowed list of four proposals that they say will improve travel on the Eisenhower Expressway, all of which include adding a lane to the highway and also extending the CTA Blue Line.

The four proposals, all of which include widening the highway between Austin Boulevard and Mannheim Road, extending the Blue Line to Mannheim and express bus service extending westward from Mannheim, were presented to a community task force. They will be further evaluated by state transportation officials as they study ways to make Interstate Highway 290 more efficient, said a manager of the project, Peter Harmet, bureau chief of programming for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

So, what “might have been,” may still be yet. We shall see.

-David Sadowski

PS- Christopher J. Lemm writes:

After reading your January 2015 story on the CTA Westchester Branch, the picture of the train crossing Madison street in Bellwood brought back some great memories. I grew up in that house, my grandfather was Clarence Lemm, track foreman for the Aurora and Elgin Railroad, he died in 1936. My father followed in grandpa’s footsteps, he worked at CTA 43 years, he started as a clerk and retired as the head of insurance and pensions. When my brother and I were very young my dad would take us for rides on the Aurora and Elgin, he used grandpa’s Sunset Lines employee pin and we all road free of charge. Thank you for some great memories!

According to transit historian Art Peterson:

CTA prepared studies for operation of both the CA&E (from Wheaton to Desplaines Av.) and for the North Shore from the Loop to Waukegan. The CA&E study was based on use of the pre-War PCCs; for the North Shore it would have been higher-performance rapid transit PCC cars and an A/B service pattern up the Skokie Valley. Both went no place, for lack of suitable funding sources. CTA was prepared to accommodate CA&E in the Congress-Dearborn-Milwaukee subway (the west side connection to that opened on June 22, 1958, by which time CA&E was freight only.)

Some knowledgeable sources reported that CTA retained a section of the Humboldt Park Branch after the “L” shuttle service quit running in the E50s, to use as a CA&E turnback/layup facility. Humboldt Park was the “L” line that ran parallel and to the north of North Avenue, joining the Milwaukee Avenue “L” line at the North/Damen station.

I believe we are looking east near Central Avenue, where the line curved around the south end of Columbus Park. This is approximately where the CTA Blue Line goes through the Lotus Tunnel. A small portion of Columbus Park soon gave way to the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway.

An eastbound single car near Central Avenue, at the south end of Columbus Park, now the site of the Eisenhower expressway.

The passing tracks in this photo are a clue that we are near the Gunderson Avenue station in Oak Park. The Forest Park gas tank is at rear, so we are looking west.

Looking west where the rapid transit crossed the B&OCT. Behind the car, the freight line branched off in two directions, to the CGW and Soo Line.

A pair of Met cars crosses the B&OCT heading east. This has since been grade separated. The gas tank in the background was a Forest Park landmark for many years.

Here the the same crossing, but now we are looking east. This is now where I-290 runs through.

CTA 6051-6052 at the DesPlaines Avenue terminal in the 1950s. The Acme Feeds (7715 W. Van Buren) towers at are at the background. Among other things, they sold a product called Acme Worm Bouncer. After being abandoned for many years, the towers caught fire in 1980 and were demolished.

This is one of my favorite shots. An eastbound single car passes cemeteries in Forest Park, having just crossed over the DesPlaines River. This is the approximate location of the Eisenhower expressway today. The train is curving towards the DesPlaines Avenue station. The iconic gas tank was removed many years ago.

An eastbound Westchester car passes by Concordia Cemetery at right, having just crossed the DesPlaines River. This is where the Eisenhower expressway runs today.

This picture presents somewhat of a mystery. Car 2311, signed for Westchester, is identified as being in Maywood on July 21, 1934, with a 4000-series car behind it. There were some storage tracks east of First Avenue, but I am not sure whether CRT used these. Or perhaps these cars are near DesPlaines Avenue.

Here, we are just east of First Avenue, with an eastbound train approaching. You can just make out the sign on the Refiner’s Pride gas station behind the car. We are looking northwest. Commonwealth Edison occupies this site today.

A westbound Westchester car crosses First Avenue in Maywood. East of here (right), the line ran at an angle before crossing the DesPlaines River. This is where the Illinois Prairie Path starts today. The “Refiner’s Pride” gas station at left was part of a chain run by “Montana Charlie” Reid, who also owned a restaurant in Villa Park. An oil change business now occupies the site of the former gas station. Reid also owned Montana Charlie’s Flea Market in Bolingbrook, along historic Route 66, which is still in operation.

On December 7, 1958, CA&E wood cars 319 and 320 operated the last passenger train on that venerable railroad as a charter. Here, we are at Fifth Avenue station looking east. After the CTA abandoned the Westchester branch, this station was repainted in CA&E colors, and the interurban took over all service here from 1951-57.

While I’m not sure of the exact location, we are looking to the northwest along that portion of the CA&E main line, where it ran parallel to the CGW through Bellwood and Maywood.

We are looking west, with the IHB crossing in the background. 25th Avenue would be behind us, and Madison Street is to our left. Here, the CA&E ran parallel to the CGW. The Illinois Prairie Path runs here now.

A westbound Westchester car passing under the Indiana Harbor Belt. The two lines were grade separated in 1930-31. This is now the site of the Illinois Prairie Path.

A southbound Westchester train crosses Madison Street in Bellwood, where Marshall Avenue begins today. The house at right is still standing. The Bellwood station was just north of here, near where the line merged back into the CA&E main line. We are just west of Bellwood Avenue.

A northbound train at Harrison Street, with new postwar housing in the background. In the foreground, sidewalks that were already about 20 years old go past an empty lot.

Westchester car 2814 heading south at Harrison. A small child in blue jeans waits for the train to pass.

A southbound single car passes storage tracks just north of Roosevelt Road, which was the original terminal before the line was extended in 1930.

A single Westchester car passes under the Illinois Central near the Roosevelt Road station.

A two car train passes under the Illinois Central near the Roosevelt Road station.

Here we see the south end of the Roosevelt Road station.

A single car at the Roosevelt Road station.

Here, we are just south of Roosevelt Road, at the beginning of double track.

We are just south of the Roosevelt Road station looking north. From here to Mannheim and 22nd, it was single track.

The Chicago & West Towns Railways also had some private right-of-way in the western suburbs. Car 160 is shown near LaGrange in December 1945.

PS- You can read more about Acme Worm Bouncer here. You can also see some additional pictures of the Westchester branch here.

The Trolley Dodger

Musings on transit, past, present, and future

DesPlaines River

CA&E Mystery Photos Answers – Part 2

CA&E Mystery Photos Answers – Part 1

CA&E Mystery Photos – Part 2

CA&E Mystery Photos – Part 1

The CTA, the CA&E, and “Political Influence”

West Towns Streetcars in Color

The Westchester Branch – What Remains

CTA’s Westchester Branch – What Might Have Been