Our Latest Book – The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railway

June 23, 2025June 24, 2025David Sadowski 5 Comments

Two Chicago Aurora and Elgin cars (both from the 450-series) cross the Chicago River on the Metropolitan West Side Elevated in 1949.

We are back with an all-new Trolley Dodger blog post, our 315th. We are heralding the impending arrival of our fifth book, The Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railway. Ordering information is below.

Arcadia Publishing shipped my initial book order on June 21st. I expect to receive them by Wednesday, the 25th, and will begin sending out all the books in our pre-order immediately.

I believe this is my best book, out of the five I have written. It’s an important and still a somewhat controversial subject. It was the most difficult to write, and required the most work, but I am very pleased with the results. I hope it will find favor with you as well.

Author William S. Burroughs once remarked, “Excuse me, there is no accurate description of the creation of a book, or an event.” That being the case, I will try anyway.

I have been fascinated with the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin interurban since I was a kid. We lived on the west side of Chicago, and among my earliest memories, I recall seeing a few CA&E trains crossing First Avenue in Maywood prior to the July 3, 1957 abandonment of passenger service.

After reading in the newspaper that the line was not coming back in 1961, I persuaded my family to take a Sunday drive to Wheaton Yards to look at the old cars. I noticed they did not have broken windows, unlike many of the wooden “L” cars that had been stored by the Chicago Transit Authority at Lockwood Yard on the Garfield Park line.

Once my last book (The North Shore Line) was published in 2023, the CA&E was a natural follow-up subject. As with my other books, I started out having some of the photos I needed, and had to hunt up and find the rest. The entire process took well over two years.

Researching these books is quite expensive, and the costs far exceed any potential future revenue from book sales. But there are other reasons for doing this. Books are our gift to the future. It’s as if we are leaving bread crumbs for future generations to follow, in tracing back our past.

Once my research was far enough along, I made a pitch for the book to Arcadia Publishing. They approved it, and that set the deadlines in motion that have now resulted in a finished book.

Determining how to organize the material is one of the most difficult aspects of book writing. There are three different considerations for a book like this– chronological, geographic, and thematic. Ultimately, the method that works for me is a combination of all three. It can take some time even to figure out the chapter titles for a book.

A lot of hard work was put into this book, in terms of research. But it was also hard work paying for all of it. I am very appreciative for the donations made by our readers, and for your purchases of the items we sell that help make all this possible. None of this would be possible without your help and support, for which I am grateful.

When starting a book project, it is impossible to determine everything that is needed to complete it. It’s like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle, without first knowing what the pieces look like.

Each book finds its own path towards completion. Fortunately, for this book, I was gradually able to find many excellent, rare images. And by taking a “deep dive” into the history of my subject, I also reached conclusions that help make this book different than the ones that have come before it.

This is a book from the perspective of 2025, which makes it different from one written say, in 1965. The world has changed a lot in these many decades, perhaps not always for the better, but we have access to many photos and more information than it was possible to have then.

Now that my book is finished, you, the reader, will have the final say on its merits and ultimate value.

But wait, there’s more in this, our 315th post. We have continued to collect rare and interesting traction photos all this time, some of which are featured here. In addition, we have some South Shore Line news to share. Exciting things are happening there now.

Finally, on May 15th, WTTW, Chicago’s Public Television station, interviewed me in Kenosha, Wisconsin for a documentary they are working on, covering the history of railroads in Chicago. More information follows towards the end of this post.

Enjoy, and keep those cards and letters coming in, folks.

-David Sadowski

PS- You might also like our Trolley Dodger Facebook auxiliary, a private group that now has 2,200 members.

Our friend Kenneth Gear has a Facebook group for the Railroad Record Club. If you enjoy listening to audio recordings of classic railroad trains, whether steam, electric, or diesel, you might consider joining.

FYI, the Hoosier Traction Facebook Group celebrates electric transit in Indiana and the Midwest. It also supports the activities of the annual Hoosier Traction Meet (although not affiliated with the North American Transit Historical Society, which organizes that event).

Our Latest Book, Now Available for Pre-Order:

The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railway

FYI, my latest book will be released by Arcadia Publishing on July 8, 2025 and is now available for pre-order. I expect to have books prior to that date, and they will be shipped out as soon as I get them.

The Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railway (CA&E) ran electric passenger and freight service from 1902 until 1959. Although classed as an interurban, it was a hybrid of rapid transit and commuter rail. CA&E trains ran to downtown Chicago via the Metropolitan West Side “L,” ending at the Well Street Terminal. This was a high-tech endeavor funded by industrialists from Cleveland, Ohio, who wanted to open Chicago’s western suburbs for development. The result was a high-speed operation, built to steam road standards, with an electrified third rail powering the trains. It thrived until World War I, was modernized in the Roaring Twenties, weathered the Great Depression, and did its duty during World War II. A privately owned railroad, without subsidies, the CA&E began losing money in the 1950s due to highway construction that stopped it from running into Chicago. Efforts to save the railroad failed, and passenger service ended in 1957, with freight following two years later.

David Sadowski is the author of Chicago Trolleys, Building Chicago’s Subways, Chicago’s Lost “L”s, and The North Shore Line and runs the online Trolley Dodger blog. Photographs shown are from the author’s extensive collections and archival sources such as the Chicago History Museum, Forest Park Historical Society, and Lake States Railway Historical Association.

Each copy purchased here will be signed by the author, and you will also receive a bonus Chicago Aurora and Elgin track map. Books will ship by USPS Media Mail.

Chapters:
01. The Fox River Line
02. The Third Rail Line
03. On the “L”
04. Main Line to Wheaton
05. Aurora and Batavia
06. Elgin and Geneva
07. Electric Freight
08. Forest Park
09. Into the Sunset
10. The Legacy

Title The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railway
Images of Rail
Author David Sadowski
Edition illustrated
Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2025
ISBN-10: 146716254X
ISBN-13: ‎978-1467162548
Length 128 pages
The price of $24.99 includes shipping within the United States via USPS Media Mail.

For Shipping to US Addresses:

Recent Finds

CA&E 432, seen here in Wheaton, was built by the Cincinnati Car Company in 1927, part of an order for 15 cars. 431 and 434 were the only cars saved by museums. (William C. Janssen Photo)

CA&E car 404 seems a bit lonely in this picture taken on June 13, 1957 at St. Andrews, on the line between Wheaton and Elgin. You can see how much of this branch did not have (and in many places, still do not have) large population centers. This was only about three weeks before the end of passenger service.

This picture, looking west at the CTA’s Forest Park Terminal, was taken on July 5, 1957, just two days after the interurban abruptly stopped running passenger service in mid-day, stranding thousands of commuters. Note the neon CA&E sign still hanging at right, which had once been downtown in front of the Wells Street Terminal. An inbound Garfield Park “L” train, made up of 4000-series cars, is at left. This terminal was reconfigured in 1959, while the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway was under construction just south of here.

The Chicago Great Western Railway ran parallel to the Chicago Aurora and Elgin for several miles west of First Avenue in Maywood. Here, we see an eastbound freight train in Maywood (possibly near 11th or 9th Avenue) on March 14, 1957, when the CA&E still ran passenger service. Locomotive 111C was an F3 diesel, built by the Electro-Motive Division in March 1948. The Chicago and North Wesern, a CGW competitor, purchased the railroad in 1968. C&NW retained any long-haul lines CGW had, and abandoned all the short-haul ones such as this, as they were not profitable. Parts of the CGW right-of-way have become the Great Western Trail, much as the CA&E is now the Illinois Prairie Path.

CA&E steel cars 415 and 407 make up part of a five-car train at Wheaton.

After the CA&E officially went defunct as a railroad in 1961, its fleet of cars were put up for sale. The ten 450-series cars almost went to Cleveland for use on a planned rapid transit extension to an airport. But the project was delayed for several years, and the line finally opened in 1969 with the new Airporter cars seen here. Ultimately, only four of the ten cars were saved.

From 1908 until 1922, the Forest Park Amusement Park operated between the Aurora Elgin and Chicago (predecessor of the CA&E) tracks and the Waldheim cemetery. This real photo postcard view looks to the southwest. This was a major operation, with what was said to be the largest roller coaster in the US at that time, plus other rides including a Chute-the-Chutes. It was a major traffic generator for the interurban and the Garfield Park “L”, which also ran here. After Prohibition went into effect in 1920, the park could not make money and soon closed. The Eisenhower expressway runs through here now.

This advertisement, which appeared in the August 17, 1910 edition of the Chicago Evening American, shows how the AE&C used promotions to try and drum up business on the interurban. People worked a six day week then, and there was a need for more ridership on Sundays.

By 1906, the Aurora, Elgin and Chicago (predecessor of the CA&E) operated local service in Aurora and Elgin as well as an interurban along the Fox River connecting the two cities. Here, we see some local streetcars at Fountain Square in Elgin, circa 1907.

The AE&C station in Elgin was adjacent to a theater. Cars were boarded behind the building, as the interurban to Chicago did not have any street running in Elgin.

The CA&E’s end of the line in Elgin ran along the Fox River, rather than the street running it had in Aurora until 1939. The tracks here were directly behind the buildings seen in the previous picture.

AE&C car 202, built in 1906 by the Niles Car Company, is running in Elgin, on the interurban that connected Carpentersville on the north and Yorkville on the south. Following the AE&C bankruptcy in 1919, the Fox River line was reorganized into the Aurora Elgin and Fox River Electric. Passenger service ended in 1935.

The AE&C station in Aurora was located in this building, from 1915 to 1935. The Traction Terminal building, now the Hotel Arthur, still stands. Until the end of 1939, riders boarded in the street in Aurora.

A street scene in Aurora in the early 1900s.

Fox River Park, originally called Riverview, was located south of Aurora and was a major generator of traffic for the Aurora Elgin and Fox River Electric until it closed in 1925. It had to change its name after Riverview Park in Chicago became popular.

The AE&FRE interurban ran right to the entrance of Fox River Park.

After the AE&FRE ended passenger service in 1935, freight continued on a small portion of trackage in South Elgin, serving the State Hospital there.

The AE&FRE ran electric freight until 1946, when it purchased this small General Electric diesel engine #5. Here, it is seen running freight at the State Hospital in South Elgin in November 1972, shortly before that location stopped using coal, which ended the need for freight. The freight operation had shared trackage for a few years, starting in the mid-1960s with a trolley museum, originally called RELIC. That is now the Fox River Trolley Museum. Diesel engine #5 remains in their collection. The AE&FRE may still exist as a corporate entity. (Mike Schafer Photo)

Railroads typically gave passes to certain employees of other railroads, as seen here.

After the Chicago Aurora and Elgin quit operating freight service in June 1959, there were a few places where other railroads wanted to continue it. Elgin was one such place. This map shows how the Milwaukee Road purchased a short stretch of former CA&E trackage, already connected to it via an interchange, for access to the McGraw Edison plant there. As you can see in this map dated September 28, 1962, they purchased just enough track to service the plant.

In August 1957, an inbound Lake Street “B” train departs from the Marion Street station at South Boulevard. The outer portion of Lake (between Laramie Avenue and Forest Park) ran on the ground until October 28, 1962. Crossing gates were manually operated, and you can see the gateman’s shanty in the foreground (and who is that holding a stop sign?). The area has become much more built up in recent years, as there is nowhere to go but up.

This C. R. Childs real photo postcard, postmarked in 1907, shows the Lake Street “L” running left-handed at ground level. The view looks west along Lake at Central Avenue. The postcard says this is South Boulevard, but that name is used west of Austin (6000 W.) in Oak Park. This picture was taken prior to the construction of the Chicago and North Western’s embankment, located just to the right (north) of the “L”. The Lake and Northwestern elevated lines ran left-handed until the Loop was reconfigured to operated unidirectional (counter-clockwise) in 1913, when the north and south lines were through-routed to increase capacity. This section of Lake Street was renamed to Corcoran Place in the mid-1960s after the local alderman, a close friend of Mayor Richard J. Daley, died suddenly from a heart attack. We ran a colorized version of this photo in a previous blog post.

We are used to seeing pictures of Route 22 – Clark-Wentworth streetcars here at 81st and Halsted taken in the 1950s, when the line was operated with PCC cars. But prior to the arrival of the postwar cars, Clark used 1929-era Peter Witt cars (some call them “Sedans”) such as the 6286 you see here. This picture was taken in either 1940 or 1941, as that’s Chicago Surface Lines car 2802 right behind it. That would date the picture to either June 12, 1940 or July 13, 1941, as the same car was used on both CERA trips. Single-ended streetcars like the Witts and the PCCs had to make a backup move into traffic to proceed north from here, as there never was a turning loop at this location.

John Hallman generously donated this real photo postcard to us, which shows extension of the Grand Avenue streetcar line through the Mont Clare neighborhood in 1911. One of the men in the picture may be Thomas A. Rutherford, who donated land in 1915 that now makes up part of Rutherford Sayre Park. Extension of streetcar service to Grand and Harlem spurred the rapid development of the area. Streetcars were replaced by buses in 1951.

An early view of 43rd Street in Chicago, looking west from Langley Avenue (700 E.). Streetcar 5317 was built by Brill in 1907 for the Chicago City Railway.

This view, probably circa 1907, looks west along 43rd Street at Forrestville Avenue (528 E.). Streetcar 5370 was built by Brill-Kuhlman in 1907 for the Chicago City Railway.

This C. R. Childs real photo postcard view of the back of the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric (later the North Shore Line) station in Lake Forest indicates that this was taken prior to its 1910 completion.

An early view of the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric (later the North Shore Line) station in Zion, Illinois, apparently taken from the back of a moving train.

Chicago and Milwaukee Electric car #25 has stopped at the Chicago and North Western station in Highland Park in this early view. While the interurban (later known as the North Shore Line) attempted to eliminate as much street running as possible on what was eventually known as the Shore Line Route, a few sections remained– including this one.

Chicago Lake Shore and South Bend Railway car #74 was built by the Niles Car Company in 1908. Cars like these were replaced by new all-metal ones when successor company the South Shore Line began operating directly into Chicago in 1926 over the Illinois Central’s tracks. Prior to that, these coaches were hauled partway by steam. Sister car #73 is now owned by Bob Harris, who has already spent $1m of his own money to restore it back as close as possible to original condition.

Perhaps the timetable information from the back of this postcard can help date the photo.

Chicago Railways car #4352 presents a bit of a puzzle, as streetcar rosters only list numbers like this as having been used decades later by PCC cars. But it may be that car #4352 was originally bought by the Chicago Union Traction Company, which Chicago Railways took over in 1908. Some CUT cars were renumbered by CR in 1909, which probably helps date this photo. Chicago Railways became one of the underlying constituent companies of the Chicago Surface Lines in 1914. This car is shown operating on the Blue Island line.

South Chicago City Railway car #321 is parked by the South Side “L” at 63rd Street in the early 1900s. Don’s Rail Photos: “2841 was built by Jewett in 1903, (order) #148, as South Chicago City Ry 321. It became Calumet & South Chicago Ry 826 in 1908 and renumbered 2841 in 1913. It became CSL 2841 in 1914 and rebuilt as one man service in 1926. It was later converted as a salt car. It was renumbered AA93 in 1948 and retired on May 17, 1958.” So, this picture was taken between 1903 and 1908. If that’s the Englewood branch of the “L”, at Halsted, that station opened on December 24, 1906. That would suggest this picture dates to around 1907. See additional comments by Frank Hicks below.

After I obtained this image, I wrote to Frank Hicks:

FYI, this is a scan of a real photo postcard I recently purchased. As you have written about these cars on your Hicks Car Works blog, I thought it might interest you. I already did some restoration work on this one, but am not finished by any means.

This picture must have been taken somewhere along 63rd Street (Englewood “L” at Halsted?). Interesting that it survived until 1958.

His reply:

Thanks for sending this! That’s a great photo showing these cars as they appeared when new. This is the “front” of the car, as they were considered single-ended even though they had poles and controls at both ends. The coal-fired water heater was located on the front platform and that’s its smoke jack over the motorman’s head. Other neat details that were changed or removed later in the car’s career include the bracket for a hang-on headlight; unusual rope guard on the roof; the fender; peanut whistle; spikes on the roof to hold a removable sign board; and truss rods.

One thing I’ve never noticed before is the trucks: unfortunately it’s hard to see much detail, but they definitely aren’t the Taylor HSB2 trucks these cars had for nearly their entire service lives. I’ve even seen a different photo of car 321 in this paint scheme and it has HSB2 trucks, so what’s under it in this photo must not have lasted very long. Looking through my truck book, this design closely resembles a Peckham 18CX truck, though there are a few differences. Peckham was notorious for a wide variety of oddball designs, many rather similar to each other, so my guess is that the trucks under the car in this photo are Peckham 18’s of some description. Very cool!

Best regards,

Frank Hicks

There aren’t a lot of pictures from Evanston Railways, as streetcar service ended in 1935. Hence, this real photo postcard view of the car barn must also be considered rare.

This early real photo postcard view shows Chicago streetcar #1293, running on the Ashland Avenue route. This would be a sister car to “Matchbox” car #1374, which has been restored to operating condition at the Illinois Railway Museum. Don’s Rail Photos says that the cars in series 1101-1423 were “built by St. Louis Car in 1903 and 1906 for Chicago Union Traction Co. They are similar to the Robertson design without the small windows. Cars of this series were converted to one man operation in later years and have a wide horizontal stripe on the front to denote this. Two were used for an experimental articulated train. A number of these cars were converted to sand and salt service and as flangers.”

Chicago Union Traction car #4911 is on Clark Street in this early real photo postcard. The address here, 4362 North Clark, threw me off for a bit until I recalled that Chicago’s street numbers were changed at some point. The Chicago History Museum notes, “In 1909, street numbers changed, with a general rule of thumb that odd numbers became even and vice-versa. Madison was used as the baseline for numbering north and south while State was used as the baseline for numbering east and west.” So, 4362 N. Clark became 6335 N. Clark in 1909, some time after this picture was taken. That makes more sense, as the Devon Car House was located just north of 6400 N. Clark. Another version of this image appeared in one of our earlier posts in 2021, courtesy of Jeff Marinoff, but now we have an original in our collection. This car was later renumbered to 1382, making it a sister car to the Matchbox at IRM (if my math is correct).

This picture was labelled Baltimore, since there is a sign for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. But it’s actually Chicago, and that’s the Travel and Transportation building at the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair (A Century of Progress).

This view of a CTA Stock Yards shuttle looks east from the Exchange Avenue station, and was taken between 1955 and 1957. This type of wooden “L” car was originally used on the Metropolitan West Side Elevated. A similar, although not identical, picture appears in my book Chicago’s Lost “L”s.

Chicago street railway RPO (railway post office) car #8 is shown in 1908. There is a similar car, now numbered 6, at the Fox River Trolley Museum, but that car may have been renumbered when it was rebuilt in 1942, so there is some possibility this may actually be the same car. Below the caption, you can read what the Fox River Trolley Museum has to say about car #6.

General
At least eight or more US cities had street railway post office cars in service on their streetcar systems with Chicago being one of them. Mail was moved between the central post office and branch stations and mail was actually sorted on the cars which had mail slots in the sides where a person could actually deposit a stamped letter. There were at least five different routes in Chicago, each with its own distinct post mark. On board sorting stopped in 1911 and use of the SRPO’s to transport bagged mail finally ended on November 22nd, 1915, as motor trucks and pneumatic tube systems took over the task.

History
The mail car has a murky history, but the best guess is that it was built as a double truck streetcar for the Cicero & Proviso Street Railway and that about 1900 through the consolidation of Chicago streetcar companies, it was converted to a Street Railway Post Office car at that time and was placed on a four-wheel Brill truck. When its use as street railway post office ended in 1915 the car was converted to work service and painted dark green like all service cars to distinguish it from the red and cream passenger cars. In 1942 our car was selected to be restored back to its Street Railway Post Office configuration. Its two traction motors were removed for use as spares for the system’s snow sweepers, so the car had to be towed by another streetcar. Its first known outing was in a street parade on October 16th, 1943, celebrating the opening of the Rapid Transit’s State Street Subway which had been constructed by the City of Chicago. Its next known event was on August 22nd , 1946 for the American Philatelic Society’s 60th annual convention where it was towed around the loop and once again special postcards and mail were cancelled on the car. Subsequentially it was brought out for special events and even after the conversion of the last streetcar line in 1958 it was occasionally trucked to special events. It was stored at the old Lawndale car house with other historic transit equipment for many years. When CTA decided to disburse this equipment, it was held for the Smithsonian’s then being planned Post Office Museum in Washington DC. When the Smithsonian declined to use it, the car was deeded over to the Fox River Trolley Museum where in the 1980’s and 90’s it would annually be used by the South Elgin Post Office to cancel mail during what was known as “Trolleyfest”. As USPS budgets tightened this finally ended and the car has been in storage ever since.

Photo Restoration

This Ektachrome slide was taken by William C. Hoffman on March 30, 1958, looking north along Wabash Avenue just south of Adams Street in Chicago. The North Shore Line had a station inside a building, with a direct connection to the Adams and Wabash “L” station. Unfortunately, the first version of Ektachrome had unstable dyes, and the dye layers other than red have faded badly. This problem was corrected in 1963 when the film was replaced by a new version. Using modern computer technology, it is sometimes possible to restore the color to a scan of such an image, sometimes not. The next photo shows how I was able to somewhat improve the picture. The only other option is to make a black-and-white version, which follows.

As you can see, parts of the image are too red, and other parts are too cyan. Since those are opposite colors, this is as far as the restoration train will go.

1955 Red Car Fantrip

There was a Farewell to the Red Cars fantrip in May 1954, sponsored by the Central Electric Railfans’ Association, held two weeks before buses replaced the older streetcars on several lines. After this, the CTA kept ten such cars for emergency use, and the rest were scrapped. Even so, it was found that ten were too many, and ultimately only 144, 225, and 460 were retained for a time, the latter becoming part of the CTA historical fleet of old equipment. That left but two cars for other uses, and this December 18, 1955 fantrip appears to have been the first in a series of excursions that continued up until the end of PCC service in June 1958. On this particular trip in 1955, I believe that was the one where it was promised it would use 144, and car 225 was used instead, with a piece of cloth that had the number 144 over the actual number. The pictures below are snapshots from that trip that I recently purchased. They are not very good pictures, but they do give a bit of the flavor of the event. A PCC car was typically sent along with in case of a breakdown, and such trips were usually held on a Sunday, when buses were substituted for streetcars on some of the remaining lines.

The South Shore Line Today

A westbound train at the 11th Street station in Michigan City.

I spent the weekend of May 18-19 in Michigan, and on the way back to Chicago, stopped off in Michigan City and Beverly Shores to take a few pictures of the South Shore Line. The street running in Michigan City has been replaced by a double-tracked private right-of-way. The facade from the old station has been incorporated into a parking garage. The new station is very nice.

There are now two sets of tracks at Beverly Shores as well. The historic Insull Spanish station, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, now hosts a gift shop and an art gallery. There are machines to purchase fares on the interurban. It is still a flag stop– one of only three left on the line, the others being Hudson Lake and Gary/Chicago International Airport.

Lots of good things are happening on the South Shore Line. The new branch line, which runs just on the Indiana side of the border with Illinois, is expected to begin service later this year. Since my visit, the 11th Street station has been dedicated.

The facade of the old station (designed by Insull staff architect Arthur U. Gerber) has been incorporated into the new one.

Looking west from the 11th Street station in Michigan City.

The view looking west along the right-of-way.

The Beverly Shores station was designed by Insull staff architect Arthur U. Gerber, and was built in 1929. There was originally one other such station on the South Shore Line (Lake Shore, built in 1927). It was demolished in the 1980s.

Originally, a ticket window would have been here. The rest of the building had living quarters for the station agent.

The current art exhibit.

The waiting room.

Carol Ruzic, the woman pictured here, spearheaded the effort to save the station in the 1980s, when it was threatened with demolition. She died earlier this year at the age of 96.

The nearby Beverly Shores Administration building has a tiled roof, just like the station.

This is how the Lake Shore station looked in November 1966. Unfortunately, it was not saved.

North Shore Line electric loco #455 is about to pass the Northbrook station on March 11, 1960. This was one of nine such “Insull Spanish” station on the Skokie Valley Route, all built in 1926. Briergate is the sole survivor.

Rails in Chicago Documentary

Geoffrey Baer with retired Kenosha master mechanic Brad Preston.

Here are some pictures from my WTTW taping session from May 15th. Our PBS station has begun filming a documentary about Chicago railroads. This was the first of twelve weeks of filming. Host Geoffrey Baer says we probably won’t see the finished product for another year.

After the crew finished their lunch break at the nearby historic Franks Diner, Kenosha’s Chicago tribute streetcar #4606 (originally from Toronto, although it has wheels and motors from an actual Chicago streetcar) became our set.

Once the lighting and cameras were set up, and our microphones were attached, the WTTW crew filmed Geoffrey Baer and yours truly while we talked, as the trolley went around the two-mile long loop a few times.

He has lots of experience doing this sort of thing. His method is to not talk much about the questions he has prepared before the cameras are recording, because your first answers are usually best. But sometimes he would ask me the same question again, in hopes of getting a bit more in the answer.

He’s an excellent interviewer, and his excitement about finding things out rubs off on the audience when you are viewing at home.

When we weren’t talking, they were still recording so they could have background audio they can use if needed. And before I even got there, they were out on the line filming exterior shots that they call “B roll footage.”

Even if fifteen minutes of fame gets distilled down to a fifteen seconds, it was a very interesting experience, and I hope they got what they were looking for. And it was nice to meet Geoffrey Baer, after seeing him host so many wonderful shows on WTTW.

The Franks Diner started out as a prefabricated structure in 1926, brought here by horsepower. It was later expanded and enclosed in brick.

Here, you can see the original exterior of the diner. This predated the more modern looking streamlined diners that are often seen in the East.

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

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Back On Track

August 14, 2024August 17, 2024David Sadowski 4 Comments

The Chicago Surface Lines ran a fantrip on October 23, 1938 using PCC #4002, then just two years old. It toured the city carrying many railfans, and was credited as giving the fledgling Central Electric Railfans’ Association a big membership boost. The excursion was also covered extensively in Surface Service, the CSL’s employee publication. This scan was taken from an original 3 1/4 x 5 1/2″ negative. The photographer is not known, although one of the two men was apparently named Ranke. The location is also not known, although we appear to be on an angle street, which could mean Clark, Broadway, or Milwaukee.

Our regular readers may note this is our first post since April. We have been hard at work on our next book, The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railway, for Arcadia Publishing. this will be our fifth book for them.

Books are our gift to future generations, and we have but one chance to get this right. It is an awesome responsibility, and one we take very seriously.

A tremendous amount of work has already been done. We have deadlines approaching, and everything has to be ready. We think you will be very pleased with the results. The book should come out sometime next year.

It is a complicated and at times controversial subject, and it deserves to be done right.

In the meantime, we have some excellent photos to share with you today, from places both far and near.

You can read more about the 1938 CSL fantrip here.

Enjoy!

-David Sadowski

PS- You might also like our Trolley Dodger Facebook auxiliary, a private group that now has 1,762 members.

Our Next Book Project

This picture, credited to Louis Paus, ran on the vintagetribune Instagram page a few years ago. It would appear to have been taken on September 20, 1953 at DesPlaines Avenue. This was the first day when Chicago Aurora and Elgin trains were cut back to Forest Park instead of continuing downtown via the Garfield Park “L”. The canopy has not yet been installed on the hastily built transfer platform, and the riders appear to be confused as to what they are supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, the Chicago Tribune media people were not able to find a high resolution version of this image, and therefore it won’t be in my upcoming book. It’s not clear what the date of publication might have been, if indeed it was actually published in the newspaper.

FYI, we are hard at work researching our next book about the Chicago Aurora and Elgin interurban. Although we already have thousands of images, we start out on these book projects with some of what we need, and then have to find the rest. Some have generously shared their images with us, and some we have to pay real money for. In case you would like to help contribute to this effort, either by sharing images or making a donation, we would like to hear from you. All contributors will be mentioned in the book, which will be dedicated to the memory of the late Robert D. Heinlein. The most difficult images to find are always the earliest ones. You can contact me via Facebook messenger, at thetrolleydodger@gmail.com or via my blog. I thank you for your time and consideration.

Dennis McClendon – An Appreciation

I was shocked and saddened to hear that my longtime friend Dennis McClendon recently died from pancreatic cancer, aged 67. I had been told only a couple weeks before that he was ill by a mutual friend. I reached out to him at that time, but didn’t hear back. And now he is gone.

I first met Dennis in 1981, when he was involved with the Friends of Downtown Chicago, an advocacy group. He had grown up in Texas, and had also lived in Oklahoma and California before making his home in Chicago. Although not a native, he quickly became enamored with the city and its history.

Dennis had a law degree, but wasn’t interested in practicing law. When I met him, he called himself a “Planner,” as in city planner, and he was for some years the editor of Planning, the magazine of the American Planning Association.

For the rest of his life, Dennis had a strong interest in the City of Chicago, its history, and future. He participated in innumerable meetings, hearings, and presentations about his beloved South Loop neighborhood and many others.

After he left the APA, he became a mapmaker and started his own firm, Chicago Cartographics. Over time, he produced maps for the Chicago Transit Authority, the Regional Transportation Authority, and many other clients.

When I co-authored a book about Chicago’s PCC streetcars about ten years ago, we hired Dennis to make one of the maps, and his work was outstanding.

More recently, he did the design and layout for Transit in the Triangle Part 2, Bulletin 152 from the Central Electric Railfans’ Association. It is a very attractive looking book.

Over time, Dennis became a “go to guy” for local media, when they had questions that needed answering, like why Chicago has alleys, and cities like New York do not. He was a frequent contributor to WTTW’s Chicago Tonight. If you have ever watched that show regularly, you probably saw him answer some question posed to him by Geoffrey Baer. Or you saw the answers he provided, which were always factual, interesting, and informative.

There was no one like him in his areas of expertise, but he wasn’t just serious. He had a finely developed sense of humor.

I think it would be fitting if the City of Chicago would rename one of the South Loop streets Honorary Dennis McClendon Way in his honor.

There is now an obit in the Chicago Tribune.

His Twitter/X account name was mrdowntownchi, and that is how I will remember him, as Mister Downtown Chicago, because that’s what he was.

I purchased this old press photo recently because I thought it might amuse my friend Dennis. Although I sent it to him, now I do not know if he even saw it.

Recent Finds

Chicago Aurora and Elgin car #430 looks to be freshly painted in this photo at Wheaton, circa July 1949.

CA&E freight locos 4005-4006 are working in Elgin, circa 1958.

By August 1960, the Chicago Aurora and Elgin’s trackage in downtown Elgin had been cut back to this point. The Milwaukee Road continued servicing some of CA&E’s former freight customers.

A CA&E freight train crosses over the Chicago and North Western’s tracks in Wheaton in 1958, heading outbound on the Elgin branch. Front Street is at left.

Here’s how the bridge looked on August 3, 2024. Since 1983, it has become a part of the Illinois Prairie Path.

CA&E 2001-2002 head up an eastbound freight train in 1959, coming off the Elgin branch. The cross street is Liberty, which took a jog here to circumvent the Wheaton Yard.

Here is the same view today. The two large Wheaton Center buildings dominate Liberty Drive, which was extended west after the CA&E site was cleared in the early 1960s.

William C. Hoffman took this picture of a CTA test train on new temporary trackage in Van Buren Street on September 19, 1953, the day before Garfield Park “L” service was rerouted there due to construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway. The “L” cars are #2794, 2116, and 2807– a gate car between two Met cars. The photographer was at the Marshfield Junction “L” station, looking to the northeast.

The presence of car 314 at the head of a six-car Chicago Aurora and Elgin train would suggest this is the “Cannonball” that ran (prior to the 1953 cutback) express from Downtown to Wheaton in about 40 minutes.

This is the Wagner Road stop on the Chicago Aurora and Elgin’s Batavia branch. Like many other lightly used stations, this was a flag stop, meaning you had to signal to get on or off here. As you can see, the railroad hadn’t painted the small shelter in some time. I believe this photo may have been taken in June 1958, nearly a year after the end of passenger service. The Illinois Prairie Path runs through here now, but the area around it has been built up.

Displaced commuters packed a suburban train station on November 11, 1944, as employees of two Chicago interurbans (the North Shore Line and the Chicago Aurora and Elgin) embarked on a 17-day strike for higher wages. The strike was settled after the workers accepted a five cents per hour increase recommended by a board appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They had been holding out for nine cents per hour. The march of Patton’s third Army through Europe dominated the headlines that day during World War II. The exact location is not known. (Acme Photo)

A six-car Chicago Aurora and Elgin train, traveling 70 miles per hour (according to what’s written on this slide), is eastbound in Bellwood on December 24, 1951.

Chicago Aurora and Elgin car #30 heads up an eastbound three-car train in Bellwood on December 24, 1951. The platform curving off to the left belongs to the Westchester branch of the “L”, which had only recently (December 9th) been abandoned by the CTA and replaced by the #17 bus. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

The view looking west towards the Chicago Aurora and Elgin station at Liberty Avenue and Main Street in Wheaton on September 11, 1952. Two cars are in the station; the one at right is #409 and the left one may be #420, although it’s hard to tell. You can also see part of the Chicago and North Western commuter train station just to the north. (Edward S. Miller Photo)

When CA&E trains ran to Elgin, it was possible to get a spectacular reflection off the Fox River in pictures such as this. There are many such examples, some widely duplicated, but this one was taken by Lawson K. Hill on September 8, 1953.

A westbound CA&E train of wood cars, headed by #38, is stopped at DesPlaines Avenue in Forest Park on September 9, 1953. This was but ten days before theses trains stopped running downtown due to highway construction. (Lawson K. Hill Photo) We previously ran a photo of the following train in an earlier post. For the sake of completeness, we will include it below.

Chicago Aurora and Elgin wood car 317 is at the head of a westbound train at DesPlaines Avenue in Forest Park on September 9, 1953. This was about ten days before the CA&E stopped running downtown via the CTA and cut back service to here. The old station you see here was replaced with a hastily built one just a bit to the north, with a loop for interurban trains to turn back, and cross platform connections with CTA Garfield Park “L” trains. The old station was on the east side of DesPlaines Avenue, with the new station to the west.
The terminal was once again reconfigured in 1959, during construction of the adjacent expressway, but by then the CA&E had stopped running (although new tracks were put in place in case it had been able to continue). I am sure I will include this picture in my upcoming book. (Lawson K. Hill Photo) Lawson Kingsbury Hill (1910-1998) lived in Massachusetts, where he worked as a rate clerk.

David H. Cope took this picture of CA&E express motor #7 in Wheaton on October 24, 1948. Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “7 was built by Jewett Car in 1906. In 1941 it was rebuilt as a tool car.”

CA&E #403, built by Pullman in 1923, is shown by the old Batavia Power Station sometime in the 1950s.

The sign on the CA&E Dispatcher’s office after the abrupt “temporary” end of passenger service in 1957.

CA&E snow plow #3 at Wheaton in August 1960, after the abandonment, next to car #453.

CA&E car #20, built by Niles in 1902, is operating at the Fox River Trolley Museum in July 1980 here.

An early view of the main Chicago Aurora and Elgin station in Wheaton, which opened in 1912. As this gives the name of the railroad as the AE&C, chances are this photo predates the 1922 corporate reorganization. The station closed in 1957 and was demolished in 1966. From a real photo postcard.

A tale of two postcards. The Libertyville one shows the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric (later the North Shore Line) in 1907. This would have been a good candidate for my last book.
The Oak Park one, postmarked in 1905, shows the Chicago and North Western line looking west, most likely at Wisconsin Avenue (or, as it is known at that point today, Marion Street). This was a few years before the tracks were elevated onto an embankment.
The Lake Street “L” is just barely visible at left. Those tracks were put on the embankment in 1962.
If I ever do a book on the Lake Street “L”, I will try to get this one in there, although it probably won’t reproduce well. The caption shows how this was the start of suburbia and a bedroom community.

I wish the quality on this postcard image were better, but at least it does show the Lake Street “L” (at left) and the Chicago and North Western (at right) when both ran at ground level through Oak Park prior to about 1909.

North Shore Line car #162 heads up a northbound train approaching the CTA Wilson Avenue “L” station on July 4, 1954. This car is now at the East Troy Railroad Museum, where it will be restored.

The late Jeffrey L. Wien took these pictures of CTA trailer (i.e., no motor) car 4055 in June 1959 at Skokie Shops. This car was built in 1914 by the Cincinnati Car Company, and was known as a “Baldie” 4000, as opposed to the second series of such cars built in the early 1920s, aka the “Plushies.” This car was retired on November 15, 1963, according to information provided by Andre Kristopans. Apparently, the only trailer in the series 4001-4066 that still exists is 4043, which is in poor shape and is at the Northern Ohio Railway Museum.

The Madison-Fifth streetcar line in Chicago was a branch off Route 20 – Madison, and ran southwest to Pulaski Road. After the CTA replaced streetcars on Madison with buses in 1953, Fifth operated as a shuttle for several months, before being discontinued about a month after this picture was taken on January 1, 1954. One-man car 1757 is one of a few that got repainted into CTA green and creme circa 1952. The car is heading east on Fifth Avenue at Millard Avenue (about 3700 West). When the Congress expressway was planned, it was decided to truncate Fifth Avenue instead of bridging it at an angle. Since then, there have been several such cutbacks to Fifth, to the point where it functions today as a side street. There is even a cul-de-sac where it meets Madison Street.

CTA PCC 4384 is parked on a short-turn track at 80th and Vincennes in May 1958. Since the car is signed for Western, I assume this was a fantrip. This was nearly two years after buses replaced streetcars on Western Avenue, and it was common practice to put up signs for routes that weren’t running any longer. The last chicago streetcar ran the following month.

Chicago Transit Authority PCC #4383 is at the 77th Street car barn on June 20, 1958, the last full day of streetcar service. This slide was shot on an early version of Ektachrome that had unstable dyes. We were able to color correct it using modern technology. (Robert D. Heinlein Photo)

This is a real photo postcard of the Lake Forest station on the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric (which became the North Shore Line in 1916). Eventually, this portion of the railroad was known as the Shore Line Route, once the Skokie Valley Route opened in 1926. This must be an early picture, since it is postmarked February 11, 1908. The station was built in 1907, but was not actually opened until 1910, due to a mechanic’s lien. The Shore Line Route quit in 1955 and the building was demolished around 1970.

In May 1959, a Waukegan-North Chicago Transit bus is stopped at the North Shore Line station at Edison Court in Waukegan. The interurban owned the bus company, which was sold off after the 1963 abandonment of rail service. Bus service in this area is now handled by PACE.

A Chicago and Milwaukee Electric interurban is on Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette circa 1910. According to J. J. Sedelmaier, we are looking east. The C&ME became the North Shore Line in 1916.

The Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee’s Shore Line Route was abandoned in 1955. This is how the right-of-way looked at Indian Hill on March 31, 1962, facing south. This section was part of the Winnetka Grade Separation Project (1938-43), which eliminated numerous dangerous grade crossings for the North Shore Line and the adjacent Chicago and North Western at right. Interestingly, a few of the support poles for the trolley wire were still up, nearly seven years after service ended. There is a hiking and biking path here now. Jack Coladarci adds, “All the cement bases are still there, and all the station platform supports at Harbor St, Hubbard Woods, Eldorado, Winnetka Elm street, Willow Road, and Indian Hill. This view is looking south towards Indian Hill from the Cherry Street bridge. You can see the Willow Road staircase to the platforms visible in the distance, as the two white structures on either side of the trail. A local citizens group formed in 1964 to turn the old rail bed into the actual Green Bay Trail, currently used for running biking walking and all sorts of other community activities. Also visible on the right hand side over the Chicago Northwestern tracks is a “telltale” holding wires that hung down over the train cars which were used to worn railroad workers on the tops of trains of approaching low bridges or tunnels or other low structures. This one was warning of the approaching Cherry Street, Oak Street, Elm Street, Pine Street, Eldorado, and Tower Road Bridges plus a pedestrian overpass coming after Tower road, and at the Elm Street Station.”

I recently purchased an original 4x5 negative of Chicago Surface Lines Little Pullman #1000, probably from the 1930s. The car was built in 1910. CSL had 1000 Pullmans in all, numbered from 100 to 1100 as follows: Big Pullmans 100-700, Pressed Steel Cars 701-750, and Little Pullmans 751-1100. I think the latter were slightly shorter than the Big Pullmans. All were built between 1908 and 1910. This car is signed for Western Avenue, and we are at either the north or south end of its route. This picture is sharp enough that you can almost read the badge number (2957?) on the man's hat, and you can see smoke coming off his pipe. Three Big Pullmans have been preserved-- cars 144 and 460 at the Illinois Railway Museum, and 225 at Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine. Our resident south side expert M.E. adds, "Western Ave. streetcars, at one time, ran all the way from 111th St. to Howard. That's a 22.5-mile-long route. The destination sign says Western-Howard, yet the streetcar is empty of passengers. So it could be at either 111th St. or at the end of its run at Howard, as you conjecture. Lind's book says the newly formed CTA chopped up the Western route in 1948 into three parts. Corroborating this is https://www.chicagorailfan.com/rte04049.html , which says: "Split into the present three separate routes 8/1/48, when buses replaced streetcars on south segment (route 49A) and on north segment (route 49B)." The autos in the picture might be models from right after World War II. If so, then the photo could have been taken prior to 1 August 1948. Let's say the Western Av. trackage ended just north of 111th St. Then I would expect to see the 111th St. car line in the photo, and maybe a few buildings such as a corner drugstore, rather than a huge building in the southwest background. Ergo, I'm leaning toward this photo being taken south of Howard St.

I recently purchased an original 4×5 negative of Chicago Surface Lines Little Pullman #1000, probably from the 1930s. The car was built in 1910. CSL had 1000 Pullmans in all, numbered from 100 to 1100 as follows: Big Pullmans 100-700, Pressed Steel Cars 701-750, and Little Pullmans 751-1100. I think the latter were slightly shorter than the Big Pullmans. All were built between 1908 and 1910.
This car is signed for Western Avenue, and we are at either the north or south end of its route. This picture is sharp enough that you can almost read the badge number (2957?) on the man’s hat, and you can see smoke coming off his pipe.
Three Big Pullmans have been preserved– cars 144 and 460 at the Illinois Railway Museum, and 225 at Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine.
Our resident south side expert M.E. adds, “Western Ave. streetcars, at one time, ran all the way from 111th St. to Howard. That’s a 22.5-mile-long route. The destination sign says Western-Howard, yet the streetcar is empty of passengers. So it could be at either 111th St. or at the end of its run at Howard, as you conjecture.
Lind’s book says the newly formed CTA chopped up the Western route in 1948 into three parts. Corroborating this is
https://www.chicagorailfan.com/rte04049.html , which says: “Split into the present three separate routes 8/1/48, when buses replaced streetcars on south segment (route 49A) and on north segment (route 49B).”
The autos in the picture might be models from right after World War II. If so, then the photo could have been taken prior to 1 August 1948. Let’s say the Western Av. trackage ended just north of 111th St. Then I would expect to see the 111th St. car line in the photo, and maybe a few buildings such as a corner drugstore, rather than a huge building in the southwest background. Ergo, I’m leaning toward this photo being taken south of Howard St.

An early view of a streetcar on Fifth Avenue in Maywood, from a real photo postcard.

While Chicago’s wooden “L” cars were taken out of regular service in 1957, similar cars continued to run in New York on Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue El until October 10, 1969. This picture, showing a section of elevated about to be torn down, was taken by James P. Marcus on October 4, 1969.

Philadelphia Transportation Company #7258 (Nearside)
@Lehigh near Douglas (and Mt. Vernon Cemetery)
54 – Lehigh Avenue Line
November 27, 1954
(Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)
Here’s what the Wikipedia says about Nearsides:
The Nearside (or Near-side) Car was a streetcar (trolley car or tram) designed by in-house engineers of the Thomas E. Mitten management team, which ran the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT). Nearside refers to the fact the car would pick up and discharge passengers on the “nearside” of an intersection rather than the “farside” as the previous generation of “conventional” cars did (this method of operation caused frequent gridlock, as the stopped cars blocked cross traffic). The 1,500 cars that the PRT ordered from the J. G. Brill Company in South Philadelphia was the largest single order of streetcars in North American history. The cars were initially designed as “muzzle loaders” with only double front doors for passenger entry and exit. Later, most of the fleet would have center exit doors cut into them making them Peter Witt cars. The cars were in service in Philadelphia from 1911 to 1955, when they were scrapped in favor of the more modern PCC streetcar. Nearside cars were also purchased by the International Railway Company of Buffalo, NY and in Chicago by the Chicago Surface Lines, both properties were also managed by Mitten.

Two views of Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (aka Red Arrow Lines) trolleys 13 and 15 on the Ardmore line in latter days. Buses were substituted for trolleys at the end of 1966. These double-ended cars, resembling PCCs, were built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1949 and were retired in 1982. (Robert Heinlein Photos)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “(Milwaukee Electric) 882 was built by St. Louis Car Co. in 1920, (order) #1239. It was one manned in 1926 and rebuilt in 1954 with a plow on one end and a pilot on the other for use at the Lakeside Power Plant of WEPCo. It also had interurban headlights added. It ran until May 8, 1961.” This was more than three years after the last streetcar ran in Milwaukee. Here, we see #882 at K-K Avenue in Milwaukee on July 13, 1958, where it is changing ends. A new modern streetcar line (The Hop) opened in Milwaukee on November 2, 2018. (Robert Selle Photo)

Subject: BTC Baltimore PCC Streetcar Trolley #7115
Location: Baltimore, Maryland (Route 8 – York Road Carhouse)
Date: November 2, 1963 (the last full day of streetcar service)
Photographer: Jeffrey L. Wien

Subject: BTC Baltimore PCC Streetcar Trolley #7388 (and the Hippodrome Theatre at left, plus Baltimore and Annapolis “old look” bus #701)
Location: Baltimore, Maryland (Eutaw and Baltimore)
Date: November 2, 1963 (the last full day of service)
Photographer: Jeffrey L. Wien

Baltimore Transit Company PCC #7128 is at Eutaw and Fayette on July 5, 1959, having just passed the Town Theatre, where Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty was being shown. The Town first opened in 1911 and closed in 1937. It was rebuilt in 1946 and became a Cinerama theatre in 1953. It closed again in 1990, and appeared headed for the wrecking ball. But it was saved by the Everyman Theatre troupe and reopened in 2012. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Baltimore PCC #7382 is on Eutaw at Baltimore on November 2, 1963, the last full day of streetcar service. The Trans-Lux Hippodrome was featuring Cleopatra, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, probably the most expensive film ever made up until that time and widely regarded as a “bomb.” The Hippodrome opened in 1914 and closed in 1990. It is now part of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, and is the last surviving movie palace in Baltimore. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

BTC Baltimore Streetcar Trolley #3738
Location: Baltimore, Maryland (Route 8 – Gilmore Street)
Date: May 19, 1961
Photographer: Jeffrey L. Wien
Here, we see a classic night shot of an ancient Baltimore streetcar, most likely built around 1900. It does not appear to have survived to the present day.

Baltimore Transit Company PCC #7124 is running on Route 15 on August 19, 1958. Buses replaced streetcars in Baltimore in 1963. Mike Franklin adds, “Looking west on Fayette St across Howard St, Baltimore MD.”

Seaboard Air Line diesel #2028, built in 1936 by the St. Louis Car Company, was an obvious influence on the pair of Electroliners built in 1940 for the North Shore Line. This picture was taken in April 1964 in Florida.
From the Wikipedia:
The St. Louis Car Company “Doodlebug” was a model of lightweight, streamlined diesel-electric railcars built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1936 for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. Electromotive Corporation supplied the 600 hp (450 kW), eight-cylinder Winton 8-201A prime mover and electric transmission components, though unit 2028 would be rebuilt in 1948 with a more modern EMD 567 prime mover. The units had a B-2 wheel arrangement, mounted atop a pair of road trucks. The aft section was divided into two separate compartments: one was used to transport baggage and the other served as a small railway post office, or RPO (the forward door, located just behind the radiator louvers, was equipped with a mail hook).
Two units were manufactured for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and were numbered 2027 and 2028. Unit 2027 was destroyed in a collision with a gas tanker truck at Arcadia, Florida in 1956. Unit 2028 remained in service, and was primarily used on the Silver Meteor between Tampa, Florida and Venice, Florida through the 1950s and 60s. Unit 2028 was renumbered to 4900 after the Seaboard Coast Line merger in 1967 between the SAL and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL). Unit 2028, now numbered 4900, was reassigned to operate the Champion between Lakeland, Florida and Naples, Florida. Unit 2028 was removed from service and scrapped after Amtrak took over national passenger service in 1971.

Boston MTA PCC #3027 makes a stop at Broadway and Tremont streets in May 1961, and is about to head into the subway via a portal that no longer exists. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Boston MTA PCC #3051 makes a stop at Broadway and Tremont streets in May 1961. The Pleasant Street Portal connected to Boston’s subway system here, starting in 1897. From the Wikipedia: “On March 2, 1953, the City Point line was replaced by the 9 bus route. The tracks to Tremont Street, formerly connected to the west tracks of the portal, were realigned to the east tracks, allowing a bus transfer station to be built where the west tracks had been. The Tremont Street line was bustituted as the 43 route on November 20, 1961, and a streetcar shuttle started between the portal and Boylston, with transfers to the subway. This shuttle was short-lived, ending with closure of the portal on April 6, 1962. The Pleasant Street portal is now covered by Elliot Norton Park at the intersection of Tremont Street, Shawmut Avenue, and Oak Street West.” (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Subject: DCT DC Transit PCC Streetcar Trolley #1477
Location: Washington, DC (Route 54 – Pennsylvania and 14th)
Date: September 1961
Photographer: Jeffrey L. Wien

Subject: DCT DC Transit PCC Streetcar Trolley #1506
Location: Washington, DC (Route 40 – Columbia Road – U Street)
Date: September 1961
Photographer: Jeffrey L. Wien

Subject: DCT DC Transit PCC Streetcar Trolley #1506
Location: Washington, DC (Route 42 – Columbia Road – Ontario)
Date: September 1961
Photographer: Jeffrey L. Wien

Subject: DCT DC Transit PCC Streetcar Trolley #1499
Location: Washington, DC (Route 92 – Calvert Bridge)
Date: September 1961
Photographer: Jeffrey L. Wien

Recent Correspondence

Dave Neff writes:

I live in Wildwood, NJ. Although I ‘like’ trolleys, I’m nowhere near the aficionado that my father was. When I was a young child back in the 1940s, my father and a good friend of his designed, manufactured and sold trolley kits nationwide. My dad died back in 2005 at age 90, but it was only a few months ago that my sister, with whom he and our mom had lived, presented me with materials he had saved having to do with his trolley manufacturing days. Although I had known about that venture, I didn’t really appreciate the amount of work involved in the enterprise.

Impressed with what I learned, I scanned a few of the documents and passed them along to a fellow in Wildwood who has owned and operated ‘The Holly Beach Train Depot’ here for many years. He responded that he had seen an ad in an old model train magazine advertising trolley kits for sale which gave a North Wildwood NJ address and had always wondered who the guys were that made and sold the kits. Inasmuch as he is active in our local Historical Society, he proposed preparing some sort of display for the Society’s museum. I volunteered to write a short piece for the display and have copied it below.

My father had come to Wildwood as a boy and the Five Mile Beach Electric Railway trolley line ran right down the middle of the street where he lived. The trolley kits that he designed were models of the trolleys that ran on that line. When researching Wildwood trolleys on the internet I came across your blog from 3/14/2021 which pictured trolley car 22 on the Five Mile Beach Electric Railway line. Thus, I thought that you might be interested in my story, and also wondered if you or any of your readers may have come across a Beach Island Manufacturing Co. (BIMCO) advertisement in a Model Craftsman or Model Railroader magazine, or a BIMCO trolley kit. If so, I’d very much like to hear about it.

Perhaps some of our readers might know something about these model trolleys. In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures I have found of Wildwood streetcars:

Five Mile Beach Electric Railway car #25 is on Schellenger Avenue in Wildwood, New Jersey on July 2, 1943. Trolleys ran at this seaside resort until 1945. World War II blackouts disrupted business, and Nazi U-Boats were not far off shore. German sailors would occasionally sneak into town looking for food.

Five Mile Beach Electric Railway car #23 is at the beginning of double track in Wildwood, New Jersey on July 1, 1943. Four trolleys (#20, 34, 36, and 651) have been preserved from this operation, but none are in operating condition.

Christopher Lemm just sent me this picture of a very unusual Chicago Aurora and Elgin pin. The railroad branded itself as the “Sunset Lines” in the 1920s and 30s. His grandfather worked as a track foreman for the CA&E until his death in 1936. Lemm grew up in a house in Bellwood on Madison Street, next to the Westchester branch of the “L” that ran until December 1951.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks.

-David Sadowski

Our Latest Book, Now Available:

The North Shore Line

FYI, my new Arcadia Publishing book The North Shore Line is now available for immediate shipment. My publisher decided to expand it to 160 pages, instead of the usual 128. That’s a 25% increase, without any change to the $23.99 price. I am quite pleased with how this turned out.

From the back cover:

As late as 1963, it was possible to board high-speed electric trains on Chicago’s famous Loop “L” that ran 90 miles north to Milwaukee. This was the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad, commonly known as the North Shore Line. It rose from humble origins in the 1890s as a local streetcar line in Waukegan to eventually become America’s fastest interurban under the visionary management of Midwest utilities tycoon Samuel Insull. The North Shore Line, under Insull, became a worthy competitor to the established steam railroads. Hobbled by the Great Depression, the road fought back in 1941 with two streamlined, air-conditioned, articulated trains called Electroliners, which included dining service. It regained its popularity during World War II, when gasoline and tires were rationed, but eventually, it fell victim to highways and the automobile. The North Shore Line had intercity rail, commuter rail, electric freight, city streetcars, and even buses. It has been gone for nearly 60 years, but it will always remain the Road of Service.

Each copy purchased here will be signed by the author, and you will also receive a bonus North Shore Line map. Books will ship by USPS Media Mail.

Chapters:
01. Beginnings
02. The Milwaukee Division
03. The Shore Line Route
04. The Skokie Valley Route
05. The Mundelein Branch
06. On the “L”
07. City Streetcars
08. Trolley Freight
09. The Long Goodbye
10. The Legacy

Title The North Shore Line
Images of America
Author David Sadowski
Edition illustrated
Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2023
ISBN 1467108960, 978-1467108966
Length 160 pages

The price of $23.99 includes shipping within the United States.

For Shipping to US Addresses:

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Price: $19.99

Three very rare, out of print North Jersey Recordings LPs, now digitally remastered on two CDs at a special price.

The Sound of Steam offers a comprehensive overview of the twilight days of steam railroading in North America, with sounds recorded between 1957 and 1964. Railroads featured include the Denver & Rio Grande Western, Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific, Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway, Gainesville Midland Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad, Reading Railroad, Canadian National, Twin Seams Mining Company, Nickel Plate, Colorado & Southern, Norfolk & Western, Buffalo Creek & Gauley, Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern, Rockton & Rion Railway, and the National Railways of Mexico.

Reading 2124 features recordings made in 1959 and 1960 on a series of “Iron Horse Rambles,” excursion trips through eastern Pennsylvania. The Reading Company had retained this class T-1 4-8-4 for emergency use after steam was retired on the railroad. Seven years after the last Reading steam loco had hauled a passenger train, a series of 51 special excursion trips were held, ending in 1964. These have since been revived, and the Rambles continue.

Total time – 69:54 (Disc 1) and 61:20 (Disc 2)

RWW-V103
Rods, Wheels, and Whistles
Voice of the 103
Price: $19.99

Two very rare, out of print North Jersey Recordings LPs, now digitally remastered on two CDs at a special price.

Rods, Wheels, and Whistles features the sounds of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Norfolk and Western Railway, recorded in the twilight years of steam. This LP was originally issued in 1958, but our version is taken from the revised and expanded edition, which includes additional recordings from 1959.

Voice of the 103 documents the former Sumter and Choctaw Railroad #103, a 2-6-2 locomotive built in 1925 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, after it was refurbished in 1962 to operate on the Middletown and New Jersey. This was an excursion service of the Empire State Railway Museum, which has since moved to a new location and no longer operates trains. The 103 is now on static display.

Our collection is rounded out with three bonus tracks from the Strasbourg Railroad, when old number 31 ran excursion trains on the oldest short line railroad in the United States (chartered in June 1832), joining the Pennsylvania Dutch towns of Strasbourg and Paradise in the early 1960s.

Total time – 46:15 (RWW) and 49:26 (V103)

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North Shore Line Rarities, Part One

August 23, 2023August 23, 2023David Sadowski 5 Comments

North Shore Line 721 sports an interesting destination sign. The interurban ran several such “named” trains in the 1920s, in an attempt to compete with the steam railroads. The Interstate Eastern ran to Chicago’s south side, where travelers could change for eastbound trains. From 1922 to 1938, a small number of NSL trains ran south of Roosevelt Road, the usual terminus, but did not ultimately attract much ridership. I don’t think the named trains lasted beyond 1932. Where is that sign today? (Robert Heinlein Photo) Correction: J. J. Sedelmaier notes that these were two different trains, the Interstate and the Eastern. Zachary Ehlers: “The Eastern Limiteds left Chicago and Milwaukee at 10am, carrying a Parlor car. The Interstate Limited left Milwaukee at 7:15am and Chicago at 5:05pm, carrying a dining car. (Source: the 1929 PTT).”

Today we are featuring a bevy of rare black-and-white North Shore Line photos taken in the mid-1950s by the late Robert D. Heinlein. Many of these might be considered “roster shots,” attempts to document the entire fleet of cars on a railroad.

There are numerous pictures of the “Farewell to the Shore Line Route” fantrip held by the Central Electric Railfans’ Association on July 24, 1955, the day before the abandonment of service on that branch of the interurban. To some extent, all three cars operated on that trip (154, 190, and 155) were ill-fated. 155 and 190 were damaged in a fire at Highwood on August 11, 1955, along with several other cars, and were scrapped. 154 survived the 1963 abandonment of the railroad, but ultimately succumbed to years of neglect. The body of that car was dumped in a field, after being stripped for parts, and its owners touted its potential as a chicken coop for prospective buyers.

These images were shot on medium format paper-backed roll film, either 120 or 620 size. There were apparently some handling issues, as some of the negatives were light-struck. However, we have included many of these, due to their historic significance.

We could not include all of Mr. Heinlein’s black-and-white images in this post, so there are more to come in future posts. We thank Kevin Heinlein for sharing these excellent images with our readers. We are presenting them in much the same order his father had them sorted in, mainly in car number order rather than by location.

They are especially noteworthy, as they are mainly pictures taken on the Shore Line Route, which was not as well documented as the Skokie Valley Route, as it was abandoned nearly eight years earlier.

Enjoy!

-David Sadowski

PS- You might also like our Trolley Dodger Facebook auxiliary, a private group that now has 1,414 members.

Effective immediately, due to the increased cost of international shipping, we will need to quote shipping prices before sending Trolley Dodger orders outside the United States. Until now, we had a fixed price surcharge on most international orders, but we actually lost money shipping out recent orders. It is not our intention to make a profit on international shipping, and we will quote based on actual cost. Thanks.

Robert Heinlein’s North Shore Line Rarities

North Shore Line (originally Chicago & Milwaukee Electric) sweeper 3 was built in 1904 using parts from an earlier sweeper from 1899. It was retired in 1951, and the body was sold to the Illinois Electric Railway Museum in North Chicago. Presumably the sign that says “Garfield” is from the “L”. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “21 was built by McGuire-Cummings in 1908. The brooms could be removed for work service. It was retired in 1950 and sold to Chicago Hardware Foundry Co. as 238 in 1953.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

North Shore Line cars 154, 190, and 155 are at the Linden Avenue station in Wilmette on July 24, 1955. This was a Central Electric Railfans’ Association fantrip just prior to the abandonment of the Shore Line Route. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

This and the next picture: The fantrip train makes a photo stop in Lake Bluff, where the branch line to Libertyville and Mundelein started. (Robert Heinlein Photos)

North Shore Line cars 154, 190, and 155 are stopped by the Lake Forest station on July 24, 1955. This was a Central Electric Railfans’ Association fantrip just prior to the abandonment of the Shore Line Route. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

The fantrip train at Linden Avenue in Wilmette.
(Robert Heinlein Photo)

The fantrip train at the Wilmette station near the Chicago and North Western. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

The fantrip train at the Glencoe gauntlet.
(Robert Heinlein Photo)

154 in Kenilworth, by the historic fountain designed by George Maher. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 154. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Lake Bluff. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

This and the next picture: At the Glencoe gauntlet. (Robert Heinlein Photos)

155, at the tail end of the famtrip train, turns onto Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

In the Winnetka grade separation area. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

I’m wondering if this is the 10th Street station, which in 1955 was the end of the line on the Shore Line Route. It was located on the border between North Chicago and Waukegan. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Turning onto Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette.
(Robert Heinlein Photo)

The fantrip train makes a photo stop in the short area of street running in Highland Park. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “155 was built by Brill in 1915, #19605. It was damaged by fire at Highwood on August 11, 1955, and scrapped. One end from it was used to repair 735.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

At the east end of the Libertyville/Mundelein branch in Lake Bluff. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

In the general area of Winnetka. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

I’m not sure where this might be… Highland Park or Kenilworth. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Lake Bluff, going under the Chicago and North Western tracks, where the Mundelein branch began. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

157 was built by Brill in 1915. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

156 was built by Brill in 1915. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 162 at the Wilmette Village Hall. Car 162 is now at East Troy, and is the oldest survivor of the fleet, having been delivered prior to IRM’s 160. It is undergoing restoration. I originally had the wrong location for this one. Thanks to Nick Jenkins for the correction. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 163 in Winnetka. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 157 on Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette.
(Robert Heinlein Photo)

This and the next photo show 165 in Winnetka. It was built by Jewett in 1917. (Robert Heinlein Photos)

This and the next photo show 169 in Wilmette.
(Robert Heinlein Photos)

169 at Highwood. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

169 in Wilmette. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 175. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 170 was built by the Cincinnati Car Company in 1920. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 176 on Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette.
(Robert Heinlein Photo)

175 in Winnetka. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 178 is stored on the middle track at Roosevelt Road on the “L”. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

178 on Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

North Shore Line coach 178 at the Highwood Shops in the mid-1950s. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 186, presumably at Highwood. Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “186 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was scrapped at Rondout on January 29, 1964.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 180 at the Milwaukee Terminal. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “188 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was damaged by fire at Highwood on August 11, 1955, and scrapped.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “189 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was damaged by fire at Highwood on August 11, 1955, and scrapped.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “190 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was damaged by fire at Highwood on August 11, 1955, and scrapped.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

The “Greenliner” style logo was painted on, while the Silverliners had logos made of aluminum and bolted on. This is car 190.
(Robert Heinlein Photo)

Car 190, presumably on the 1955 farewell to the Shore Line Route fantrip on July 24, 1955.
(Robert Heinlein Photo)

190 at Highwood. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

190 at the Glencoe gauntlet. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “192 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was retired on December 31, 1955. It was scrapped at Rondout on January 29, 1964.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

193 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was scrapped at Rondout on January 29, 1964. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “195 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was retired on December 31, 1955. It was scrapped at Rondout on January 29, 1964.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “196 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1920, #2450. It was damaged by fire at Highwood on August 11, 1955, and scrapped.” (Robert Heinlein Photo)

This and the next picture: Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “202 was built by Jewett in 1909 as a combine. In January 1917 it was converted to a merchandise dispatch cars by removing the seating and adding doors at the former passenger end of the cars. In 1936 it was converted to use as a supply car. In August 1946 it was sold to Chicago Hardware Foundry where the body was used as a storage shed for several years.” (Robert Heinlein Photos)

North Shore Line 458 started life as Oregon Electric loco 50. Here it is in Portland on February 2, 1946. (Gordon Spafford Photo)

North Shore Line loco 459 was originally Oregon Electric 51. Here it is in Portland on December 1, 1946. (George Butte Photo)

In the 1960s, you could buy sets of duplicate slides, often taken by the late A. C. Kalmbach, of Kalmbach Publications fame. These have tended to fade badly over the years, probably due to the cheap film stock that was used for duplicating. I purchased this one recently, and took a crack at restoring it. We see a view of the North Shore Line Milwaukee Terminal, probably around 1960, looking east along Michigan Street at Sixth Street.

Our Latest Book, Now Available:

The North Shore Line

From the back cover:

As late as 1963, it was possible to board high-speed electric trains on Chicago’s famous Loop “L” that ran 90 miles north to Milwaukee. This was the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad, commonly known as the North Shore Line. It rose from humble origins in the 1890s as a local streetcar line in Waukegan to eventually become America’s fastest interurban under the visionary management of Midwest utilities tycoon Samuel Insull. The North Shore Line, under Insull, became a worthy competitor to the established steam railroads. Hobbled by the Great Depression, the road fought back in 1941 with two streamlined, air-conditioned, articulated trains called Electroliners, which included dining service. It regained its popularity during World War II, when gasoline and tires were rationed, but eventually, it fell victim to highways and the automobile. The North Shore Line had intercity rail, commuter rail, electric freight, city streetcars, and even buses. It has been gone for nearly 60 years, but it will always remain the Road of Service.

Each copy purchased here will be signed by the author, and you will also receive a bonus North Shore Line map. Books will ship by USPS Media Mail.

Title The North Shore Line
Images of America
Author David Sadowski
Edition illustrated
Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2023
ISBN 1467108960, 978-1467108966
Length 160 pages

The price of $23.99 includes shipping within the United States.

For Shipping to US Addresses:

New Compact Disc, Now Available:

CTA-1
The Last Chicago Streetcars 1958
# of Discs – 1
Price: $15.99

Until now, it seemed as though audio recordings of Chicago streetcars were practically non-existent. For whatever reason, the late William A. Steventon does not appear to have made any for his Railroad Record Club, even though he did make other recordings in the Chicago area in 1956.

Now, audio recordings of the last runs of Chicago streetcars have been found, in the collections of the late Jeffrey L. Wien (who was one of the riders on that last car). We do not know who made these recordings, but this must have been done using a portable reel-to-reel machine.

These important recordings will finally fill a gap in transit history. The last Chicago Transit Authority streetcar finished its run in the early hours of June 21, 1958. Now you can experience these events just as Chicagoans did.

As a bonus, we have included Keeping Pace, a 1939 Chicago Surface Lines employee training program. This was digitally transferred from an original 16” transcription disc. These recordings were unheard for 80 years.

Total time – 74:38

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

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Catching Up

July 19, 2022September 10, 2022David Sadowski 7 Comments

The photographer (possibly Emery Gulash) had but one chance to press the shutter button at precisely the right moment, and he nailed it with this classic view of westbound Electroliner train 803 at Lake Bluff in January 1963. This is what noted photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson had in mind when he wrote about the “decisive moment.” Douglas Noble: “Northbound crossing Rockland Road / IL 176 in Lake Bluff.”

This is our first post in nearly two months. We have been hard at work on our next book, The North Shore Line. In addition, I worked 16 straight days as an election judge during the recent primary here.

Each of these posts involves a tremendous amount of hard work that may not be apparent to the causal observer. First, we have to scan the negatives, prints, and slides that you see here. Then, they have to be worked over in Photoshop to get the color and density right, and remove any scratches, crud, and other blemishes that have accumulated over the decades since these pictures were taken. This can take hours for just a single photograph, but we think the results are well worth it.

Our goal is to present definitive versions of these classic photos in an online archive for all to enjoy. We see our stuff showing up all over Facebook and other parts of the Internet all the time, and, recently, even in books and magazines put out by others.

It would be nice if, in all cases, we received some credit for our contributions. When people ask permission to use our work, it is freely granted, but all we ask is that we are properly credited, that the original photographer is credited, and that the small watermark we place on these images is not cropped out.

We don’t think this is too much to ask. Meanwhile, we hope you will enjoy this latest batch of classic photographs.

-David Sadowski

PS- You might also like our Trolley Dodger Facebook auxiliary, a private group that now has 862 members.

Our friend Kenneth Gear now has a Facebook group for the Railroad Record Club. If you enjoy listening to audio recordings of classic railroad trains, whether steam, electric, or diesel, you might consider joining.

Work on our North Shore Line book is ongoing. Donations are needed in order to bring this to a successful conclusion. You will find donation links at the top and bottom of each post. We thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Recent Finds

The Chicago Surface Lines had a collection of historic streetcars, starting in the 1920s.
These were used for parades and the opening of new lines. Some of the restoration work, such as this car, was more fanciful than authentic, as this car was never part of the West Chicago Street Railway, nor was it #4. Don’s Rail Photos: “4 was built by Pullman in 1895, #840, as North Chicago Street RR 922. It became Chicago Union Traction Co 4022 in 1899 and became Chicago Surface Lines 4022 in 1914. It was rebuilt as WCStRy 4 in 1933. It went to Illinois Railway Museum in 1985.” The CTA inherited this collection, and various cars were trotted out during shops tours in the 1950s. Once streetcar service ended in 1958, these cars were put into storage, and were finally donated to museums in the mid-1980s.

Brooklyn-Queens Transit PCC 1066 is signed for Coney Island in the early 1950s.

A train of CTA curved-door 6000s is at Howard Street in June 1977.

A southbound North Shore Line train, with 711 in the lead, is at Morse on the “L” in June 1959.

North Shore Line cars 157 and 252 are on a June 16, 1962 fantrip. Here, we see the train at the Root River bridge near Racine, Wisconsin. (Richard H. Young Photo)

This is a South Shore Line portable substation at Michigan City, Indiana on July 10, 1977.

Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (aka Red Arrow) cars 16 and 20 in May 1965, signed for the Media line. Kenneth Achtert: “Appears to be outbound at Springfield Rd. I would assume this is on a fantrip from the number of random individuals around the right-of-way (most likely a run-by since they are scattered about); also, the Media destination would not be standard operating procedure for two-car trains. The trains were typically scheduled to Springfield (Woodland Ave.) with only single cars going all the way to Media.” Jeff Didlake says, “I agree with Ken Achtert’s thoughts that this is a fan trip, but I believe the location is the Scenic Rd. station on the Media Line. The track is on a slight curve and a hint of the red brick high rise Drexelline Apts. is in the background. I know this station well as I managed to ruin a good tire and wheel while pulling into the parking lot there on a poorly maintained Springfield Twp. sewer inlet grate.”

On June 11, 1962, a two-car North Shore Line train, headed by 731, is bound for Mundelein near Lake Bluff. (Richard H. Young Photo)

North Shore Line combine 251 is near Racine, Wisconsin on February 6, 1962.

The interior of Queensborough Bridge Railway car 601 in the mid-1950s. This was an Electromobile, built around 1929 by Osgood-Bradley.

North Shore Line car 733 awaiting scrapping at South Upton Junction on October 26, 1963, several months after abandonment.

North Shore Line Silverliner 758 is at Edison Court in Waukegan during the summer of 1958. This was an important station, where cars were routinely added and cut from trains.

Philadelphia PCC 2142 is signed for Route 6 on September 15, 1957. Mark A. Jones writes, “That picture is of the northbound terminus of route 6 across from Willow Grove Park. 2142 is headed south to Broad and Olney.” Kenneth Achtert adds, “2142 is at Willow Grove Park, the end of the Route 6. The amusement park is hidden behind the trees.”

North Shore Line loco 455 is working the Niles Gas Spur in the Weber Industrial District, Skokie, Illinois, probably in the late 1950s. (Bob Geis Photo)

Chicago Surface Lines one-man car 6241 is at the east end of Route 43 in the 1940s. You can see a pedestrian bridge leading to the nearby Illinois Central Electric commuter station behind the streetcar.

A North Shore Line train at Winnetka Road on the Skokie Valley Route. The business at left is John H. Davies and Son, general contractors.

A three-car North Shore Line train heads south over the 6th Street Bridge, probably in the 1940s.

North Shore Line cars 716 and 409 at Highwood, possibly in the early 1940s. 409 started out as a dining car motor before it was converted to coach in 1942.

North Shore Line loco 455 heads up a freight train that is crossing over to the northbound track near Oakton on the Skokie Valley Route.

A three-car train of North Shore Line Silverliners prepares to cross the North Shore Channel, probably in the 1950s.

To get a shot like this in the 1940s, a photographer had to be extremely lucky, patient, or both. While a two-car CRT Lake Street “L” train heads east, going up the ramp towards Laramie, it passes a westbound CSL Route 16 streetcar. Two conductors on the “L” are lowering the trolley poles, as this was the switchover point to third rail. Streetcar service on Lake Street ended in 1954, and the outer portion of the Lake Street “L” was shifted over to the nearby C&NW embankment in 1962.

CTA PCC 7148 is at 71st and Ashland in June 1953. (Vic Wagner Photo) Our resident south side expert M. E. notes, “I don’t doubt this photo is at 71st and Ashland. (The street sign says Ashland.) So this photo is near the 69th and Ashland carbarn. I think this streetcar had been heading south on Ashland to 71st, and here it is turning west on 71st St. for what would be a short distance. Then it will turn north and into the carbarn.”

CTA one-man streetcar 3228 is on 79th Street at the crossing with the Illinois Central in April 1951. (Vic Wagner Photo)

The view looking north along State Street at 63rd in April 1953. The PCCs are running on Route 36, while the red Pullman is eastbound on Route 63. This was near the end of streetcar service on 63rd Street, and older red cars had replaced newer PCCs, which were shifted to run on Route 4 – Cottage Grove. At right, you can see where some buildings were destroyed by fire on May 25, 1950, after a PCC collided with a gasoline truck. 34 people were killed. The photographer was standing on a railroad viaduct and probably wanted to document the intersection of two streetcar lines before one of them changed to buses. (Vic Wagner Photo)

About the image above, M. E. adds:

Your caption reads: “This was near the end of streetcar service on 63rd Street, and older red cars had replaced newer PCCs, which were shifted to run on Route 4 – Cottage Grove.” My hangup is with the term “newer PCCs”. Yes, they were newer than the red cars, but they were not newer than the PCCs on State St. in the photo. The PCCs that ran on 63rd St. were those that Chicago Surface Lines acquired in 1936 to run on Madison St. Those PCCs were also called “pre-war PCCs”. So perhaps your caption might better say “older red cars had replaced the pre-war PCCs, which were shifted …”

I give you credit for pointing out where a State St. PCC car collided with a gasoline truck. I remember that like it happened yesterday. I also credit the photographer for a terrific action photo.

Also, about this photo:

(1) In the distance is the State St. station on the Englewood L, situated south of 59th St. I spy two more State St. PCC cars at or near the L station. This illustrates how busy the north/south PCC car lines were. The Chicago Surface Lines, then the CTA, ordered a total of 600 post-war PCCs, and they were all needed on just five north/south lines — 36 Broadway/State, 22 Clark/Wentworth, 8 Halsted, 42 Halsted/Archer/Clark, and 49 Western. (The pre-war PCCs were still on 20 Madison.)

(2) You mentioned that the photographer was standing on a railroad viaduct. That viaduct spanned State St. just south of 63rd St. The photographer was at the eastern edge of a big freight yard paralleling the New York Central right of way. It is this same freight yard that was used, three blocks east, to deliver new PCC cars, then (later) L cars, to the CTA. The L cars were transferred to the CTA via the L track that ran from the southbound Jackson Park line south past 63rd St. and then down into a ground-level freight yard.

(3) That freight yard also spanned 63rd St., so the westbound red car shown in the photo is about to go underneath the freight yard until it emerges past the New York Central (and Nickel Plate) passenger train tracks, adjacent to the entrance to Englewood Union Station. Past the station, 63rd St. ran under more tracks, first the Rock Island, then the Pennsylvania, both of which also served Englewood Union Station. All told, the trip between State St. and almost to Wentworth Av. was mostly dark 24 hours a day.

(4) The billboard at the left in the photo advertises the ’53 Ford. Assuming this photo was taken in late spring or early summer of 1953 (judging by the clothing on pedestrians and the green foliage), I don’t see any ’53 Fords in the photo.

Buses replaced streetcars on 63rd Street on May 24, 1953, so the picture can’t be from after that, thanks.

The CTA off-street loop on Halsted Street, just south of 79th, in August 1953. Pullman PCC 4368 is operating on Route 8, while the red Pullman is signed for Halsted-Downtown (Route 42). By this stage, the Pullman PCCs, although no more than seven years old, were being retired and sent to St. Louis Car Company for scrapping and parts re-use in new PCC “L” cars. Service was being supplemented by older red cars. Streetcar service on Halsted ended in May 1954. (Vic Wagner Photo) Our resident south side expert M. E. adds, “Notice how busy this terminal was. I count at least four streetcars, and perhaps a fifth if I detect another trolley pole behind the last PCC car. This terminal also served South Halsted and Halsted / Vincennes / 111th St. buses, which used the paved lane in the terminal.”

CTA one-man streetcar 3261 is at the east end of Route 79, at 79th and Brandon near Chicago’s lakefront, in September 1951. (Vic Wagner Photo)

Milwaukee Electric (Speedrail) car 1121 operated on a North Shore Line fantrip on December 4, 1949. Here it is with one of the Electroliners near Racine, Wisconsin.

The pass for Central Electric Railfans’ Association fantrip #36, which used freight equipment on the Chicago Aurora and Elgin on August 10, 1941.

The Chicago and North Western station at Lake Forest in the early 1900s, from a real photo postcard. The Chicago and Milwaukee electric (which became the North Shore Line in 1916) ran just beyond those large trees, and had a handsome station of its own just out of view to the right.

This picture was taken during Fall 1962, in the waning days of the ground-level operation of the Lake Street “L”. The new elevated station on the nearby C&NW embankment has been built and the changeover took place on October 28th of that year. This view looks west along South Boulevard at Marion Street in Oak Park. Crossing gates were manually operated.

On February 19, 1956, a northbound Electroliner has stopped at Kenosha and is presumably on a fantrip. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

Speedrail curved-side car 61 is on Michigan at 6th Street in Milwaukee on September 2, 1950, passing by the north side of the North Shore Line’s Milwaukee Terminal. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

Milwaukee and Suburban Transport streetcar 954 is westbound on Route 10 at 68th and Fairview in August 1957.

The same location in 2015. The streetcar tracks were just to the right of this alley.

On June 12, 1955, Milwaukee and Suburban Transport streetcar 999 is on a bridge over the Chicago & North Western Railway at Howell Avenue. This was a Central Electric Railfans’ Association fantrip. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

North Shore Line Silverliner 766 is about to cross the Glencoe gauntlet, a short single-track section on the otherwise double-tracked Shore Line Route. The occasion was an August 9, 1953 fantrip. This short bridge over a ravine was not deemed strong enough to support the weight of two trains passing each other, so it was made single-tracked. This also permitted a tight curve to be straightened out a bit. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

North Shore Line car 155 is on the tail end of a fantrip train, turning onto Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette, heading east on a July 24, 1955 Central Electric Railfans’ Association fantrip. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

North Shore Line freight loco 456 and caboose 1002 are at the scale house in Rondout during January 1963. (Photo attributed to Emery Gulash)

North Shore Line cars 157 and 252 are on a June 16, 1962 fantrip. We have posted pictures from this trip before. There is another in this post, taken by Richard H. Young, but this one may be by Emery Gulash.

Don’s Rail Photos: “1796 was built by American Car & Foundry in 1907 as NEWRy 287, #5098, as trailer. It was renumbered 1287 in 1913 and rebuilt as motor 1796. It became CRT 1796 in 1923 and was sold to Gaylord Container in Louisiana…” One side of this “L” car was removed, and it was used to transport large rolls of paper. Although Don’s says this car was scrapped in 1966, that is incorrect and the date was actually 1973. Parts were salvaged from this car to help restore sister car 1797 at the Illinois Railway Museum. 1796 could not be saved since the body was no longer structurally sound. I have July 1958 as the date when the CTA sold this car, and this picture was taken by William C. Hoffman in October 1963.

Mystery Photo

This was scanned from an original North Shore Line 8x10" nitrate negative, taken circa 1930, and in the collections of Robert Heinlein. Determining the location presented many challenges, yet this has now been determined with the aid of other fans. The car is 714, and it is signed as a Chicago Local on the Shore Line Route. Since the North Shore tracks are not adjacent to the Chicago and North Western, we must be north of North Chicago Junction. We cannot be south of Highland Park, as there is freight present here. A sign on the high-level platform indicates that freight trains have to come to a stop, most likely to make sure part of the platform gets flipped up for the sake of clearances. A similar arrangement existed at high-level stations of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin. As all the Shore Line tracks in Waukegan ran on the street, that pretty much narrows it down to North Chicago. The Thomas J. Killian Plumbing Supply company building at left clinches it, and the location is between 16th and 17th Streets, looking north. The Chicago and North Western's tracks were a short distance east of here, to the right out of view of this photo. (Courtesy of Kevin Heinlein)

This was scanned from an original North Shore Line 8×10″ nitrate negative, taken circa 1930, and in the collections of Robert Heinlein. Determining the location presented many challenges, yet this has now been determined with the aid of other fans. The car is 714, and it is signed as a Chicago Local on the Shore Line Route. Since the North Shore tracks are not adjacent to the Chicago and North Western, we must be north of North Chicago Junction. We cannot be south of Highland Park, as there is freight present here. A sign on the high-level platform indicates that freight trains have to come to a stop, most likely to make sure part of the platform gets flipped up for the sake of clearances. A similar arrangement existed at high-level stations of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin. As all the Shore Line tracks in Waukegan ran on the street, that pretty much narrows it down to North Chicago. The Thomas J. Killian Plumbing Supply company building at left clinches it, and the location is between 16th and 17th Streets, looking north. The Chicago and North Western’s tracks were a short distance east of here, to the right out of view of this photo. (Courtesy of Kevin Heinlein)

A close-up view of car 714, which seems to be painted orange.

The freight siding for the Thomas J. Killian Plumbing Supply Company.

This was also scanned from an original North Shore Line 8x10" nitrate negative in the collections of Robert Heinlein, and was taken at the same time as the previous photo and shows a slightly different view of the same scene. (Courtesy of Kevin Heinlein)

This was also scanned from an original North Shore Line 8×10″ nitrate negative in the collections of Robert Heinlein, and was taken at the same time as the previous photo and shows a slightly different view of the same scene. (Courtesy of Kevin Heinlein)

Ray DeGroote Turns 92

Ray DeGroote celebrated his 92nd birthday on July 15th. Here he is about two weeks earlier, at our celebratory lunch.

I dedicated my last book Chicago’s Lost “L”s to my friend Raymond DeGroote, Jr., as the “Dean of Chicago Railfans.” He turned 92 recently. Ray has traveled the world, and has taken thousands of great photos, many of which have been used in books, magazines, and in his excellent slideshows over the years.

And he’s still at it– Ray recently returned from a trip to San Diego for the Electric Railroaders’ Association annual convention. Since returning, other friends have treated him to lunch, and he reports he is “well fed.”

Here are a few of Ray’s classic photos of the North Shore Line:

We are at Indian Hill on the Shore Line Route on July 24, 1955, just prior to abandonment. Cars 175 and 413 are in regular service, while 155 is on a Central Electric Railfans’ Association fantrip, and has temporarily been shunted to a siding. The tracks in this area were grade-separated circa 1938-43 by a project partially funded by the Federal government. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

A fantrip train made up of Silverliners is on Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette on February 20, 1955. This trip was sponsored by the Illini Railroad Club. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

North Shore Line loco 459 and caboose 1006 are at Lake Bluff on January 19, 1963. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

The “KX” here most likely refers to Kodachrome X, first released by Kodak in 1962, with a film speed of 64. The original Kodachrome had a film speed of ASA/ISO 10, which was bumped up to 25 in 1961 with the release of Kodachrome II.

The unrestored interior of North Shore Line car 151 on September 4, 1961. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

The interior of North Shore Line car 160 on January 12, 1963. Interestingly, it had been refurbished in November 1962, even though abandonment was at hand. This car was purchased by the Illinois Railway Museum, where it remains today. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

North Shore Line car 714’s interior on June 17, 1962. This car is now at the Illinois Railway Museum. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

The interior of North Shore Line Silverliner 755 on September 4, 1961. After abandonment, this car went to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

Recent Correspondence

Max Hensley sent us this scan of a 1890 specimen $1,000 bond for the West Chicago Street Railroad Tunnel Company. This cable car tunnel was built in 1893 and crossed the Chicago River near Van Buren Street. Like the other river tunnels, it was eventually enlarged and dug deeper around 1911 for streetcar use. But of the three such tunnels (the others being on Washington and LaSalle Streets), Van Buren was used the least, and does not seem to have seen much action after 1924, except for training use. These tunnels still exist but the approaches have been filled in.

The river tunnels are also discussed at length in my book Building Chicago’s Subways.

Milwaukee Streetcar

We were in Milwaukee on July 13th to help a friend move some things. We did stop by Burns Commons for a few minutes to catch a few pictures (and one video) of Milwaukee’s modern streetcar at its northern terminus:

Did Not Win

Try as we might, our resources are limited. Here are some interesting items that we were not able to purchase, but are still worth a second look:

This desktop ink blotter dates to circa 1919-20, as the North Shore Line is already running via the “L”, but had not yet opened their new Milwaukee Terminal. The line to Mundelein is shown, as it had been extended there as of 1905. But prior to 1925, it was called Rockefeller, and later, the area was known rather generically as “Area.” When using a fountain pen, you would wipe off excess ink on the backside of blotters such as this, which measured about 6″ wide.

This real photo postcard view of the Elgin and Belvedere Electric Company was most likely taken on its inaugural run in early 1907. Mike Franklin has identified the location as Belvedere, as that is the First M. E. Church at rear. Car 201 was built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1906. (Thanks to J. J. Sedelmaier for tweaking this image.)

Here is what the late Don Ross wrote about the Elgin and Belvedere:

This line was built in 1906 and opened in 1907 between Elgin and Belvidere, 36 miles, to connect the Rockford lines with the Chicago lines. It was under the management of Bion J. Arnold, who was the most distinguished expert in city transit between 1900 and 1925. In 1927 the Rockford to Belvidere segment of the Rockford & Interurban was merged to form the Elgin Belvidere & Rockford. Rockford lightweight interurbans were used, but this was not financially satisfactory. The cars were returned to Rockford Public Service, and the old E&B cars were remodeled for one man service. But it was too late. Competition from the parallel Chicago & North Western and from the automobile caused the line to quit service on March 9, 1930. Arnold purchased two Manhattan Elevated steam locomotives and scrapped the line by himself. It was not completed until the mid to late 1930s.

In 1956, I was checking on ownership of an abandoned C&NW right-of-way for the Illinois Railway Museum, and I stopped in the county clerk’s office in Woodstock. The clerk became curious and then suggested that we might be interested in a piece of property which was on the delinquent tax rolls. It was 50 feet wide and 7 miles long. After paying the taxes for two years, a quit claim was filed and this has become the home of the IRM at Union, IL.

We ran some Elgin and Belvedere photos in a previous post, taken in the mid-1930s by the late Edward Frank, Jr., showing the interurban’s rolling stock in dead storage, waiting for buyers that never materialized.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks!

-David Sadowski

Now Available:

SGA-1
Stan Griffith Audio Recordings of the North Shore Line
# of Discs – 1
Price: $15.99

The late Stanwood C. Griffith (1926-2013) was an interesting character who is probably best known for building the two-foot gauge Rock River Valley Traction, a miniature electric railway that is large enough to ride on. He began building it on private property in a mysterious wooded area somewhere near Rockford, IL around 1950. Work continues on it to this day, and there are several videos of it on YouTube.

We only recently found out that he recorded some North Shore Line audio. Even better, what he did record is different than the other known recordings by William A. Steventon and Brad Miller.

Mr. Griffith made the only known recordings of the Shore Line Route, which quit in 1955. Steventon didn’t record NSL until the following year, and the Miller recordings are circa 1960.

This recording has some occasional narration. At one point, Griffith notes that the trolley bus wires in Kenosha are gone. Trolley buses ran there until 1952, so this dates the recordings to circa 1952-55.

He also recorded North Shore Line street running in Milwaukee, which is also unique as far as I am aware. There are also recordings of Milwaukee streetcars on this CD.

Total time – 52:36

Chicago’s Lost “L”s Online Presentation

We recently gave an online presentation about our book Chicago’s Lost “L”s for the Chicago Public Library, as part of their One Book, One Chicago series. You can watch it online by following this link.

The Trolley Dodger On the Air

We appeared on the Dave Plier Show on WGN radio on July 16, 2021, to discuss Chicago’s Lost “L”s. You can hear that discussion here.

Our Latest Book, Now Available:

Chicago’s Lost “L”s

From the back cover:

Chicago’s system of elevated railways, known locally as the “L,” has run continuously since 1892 and, like the city, has never stood still. It helped neighborhoods grow, brought their increasingly diverse populations together, and gave the famous Loop its name. But today’s system has changed radically over the years. Chicago’s Lost “L”s tells the story of former lines such as Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Kenwood, Stockyards, Normal Park, Westchester, and Niles Center. It was once possible to take high-speed trains on the L directly to Aurora, Elgin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The L started out as four different companies, two starting out using steam engines instead of electricity. Eventually, all four came together via the Union Loop. The L is more than a way of getting around. Its trains are a place where people meet and interact. Some say the best way to experience the city is via the L, with its second-story view. Chicago’s Lost “L”s is virtually a “secret history” of Chicago, and this is your ticket. David Sadowski grew up riding the L all over the city. He is the author of Chicago Trolleys and Building Chicago’s Subways and runs the online Trolley Dodger blog.

The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

Title Chicago’s Lost “L”s
Images of America
Author David Sadowski
Edition illustrated
Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2021
ISBN 1467100007, 9781467100007
Length 128 pages

Chapters:
01. The South Side “L”
02. The Lake Street “L”
03. The Metropolitan “L”
04. The Northwestern “L”
05. The Union Loop
06. Lost Equipment
07. Lost Interurbans
08. Lost Terminals
09. Lost… and Found

Each copy purchased here will be signed by the author, and you will also receive a bonus facsimile of a 1926 Chicago Rapid Transit Company map, with interesting facts about the “L” on the reverse side.

The price of $23.99 includes shipping within the United States.

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Borrowed Time

May 26, 2022January 2, 2025David Sadowski 5 Comments

This January 1960 view, looking northeast, shows the temporary Central Avenue side platform station during construction of the Congress expressway. The CTA Congress median line had opened as far west as Cicero Avenue in June 1958, but farther west, used a series of temporary ground level alignments while highway work continue. The temporary station here was in use from October 1959 until October 1960, when the permanent center platform station opened. You can see a stairway for the new platform, built into the concrete wall of the Central Avenue underpass. The side platforms allowed for simultaneous construction of the new station. The expressway originally ended at Laramie Avenue (5200 W.), but was extended to Central (5600 W. ) in early 1960, and finally opened to Oak Park, Forest Park, and Maywood in October 1960. Newly delivered single car unit 22 heads up this westbound Congress-Milwaukee “A” train. East of here, the tracks curve off to go into the Lotus Tunnel, taking the line into the expressway median. Ultimately, this station did not develop much ridership, and closed in 1973, although it is still extant. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

I was thinking about the expression “living on borrowed time” recently. I guess all of us are doing that, in a sense, but it occurred to me that when we look at old photographs, they can transport us back into the past. It’s almost as if by looking at them, we can borrow back some of the past.

Here are lots of photos that do just that. We also have some pictures from our recent trip to the East Troy Railroad Museum in Wisconsin. This was our first chance to see North Shore Line car 761 since it was restored by the museum.

I can’t say enough good things about the museum and its volunteers. We were treated to a tour of the barn where 761 and several other cars are stored. Even better, we ran into the Heinlein family who just happened to be there that day.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks. And thanks for lending us some of your time.

-David Sadowski

PS- You might also like our Trolley Dodger Facebook auxiliary, a private group that now has 835 members.

Recent Finds

New York Central loco 5287, a 4-6-4, heads south at Roosevelt Road on August 24, 1954. (David R. Sweetland Photo)

I recently purchased this “real photo postcard,” and the seller said this was the Harvard station on the Englewood branch of the “L”. However, closer inspection of the photo shows that this is actually the Princeton station, which opened in 1905, and closed in 1949 as part of the CTA’s restructuring of north-south service.

Electroliner 803-804 at Red Arrow’s 69th Street Shops on November 10, 1963, shortly after arriving from Chicago. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Liberty Liner “Valley Forge,” formerly North Shore Line Electroliner 801-802, being put into service on Red Arrow’s Norristown line on January 26, 1964. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

SEPTA Liberty Liner “Valley Forge” crosses the Schuylkill River in September 1976, near the end of service on the Red Arrow line to Norristown. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Liberty Liner “Valley Forge,” formerly North Shore Line Electroliner 801-802, just after delivery to the Illinois Railway Museum on May 9, 1982. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Liberty Liner “Valley Forge,” aka Electroliner 801-802, at the Illinois Railway Museum on October 2, 1982. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

North Shore Line wood car 134 is on a siding, and may be possibly be in New Trier school tripper service on the Shore Line Route, before the late 1930s Winnetka Grade Separation project. Don’s Rail Photos: “134 was built by Jewett Car Co in 1907 as C&ME 134. It was rebuilt in 1914 retired in 1948. In 1936, the CA&E leased 11 surplus cars from the CNS&M. These cars were modified for service by raising the coupler height, installing electric heat instead of the coal-fired hot water heaters, modifying the control, and adding jumper receptacles and other minor fittings to allow them to train with the other CA&E cars. Since these were 50 mile per hour cars, and the CA&E cars were 60 MPH cars, they were soon operated only in trains of their own kind rather than mixed in with other cars. In 1945 they were returned to the North Shore where they operated briefly. They were purchased in 1946 and last ran in regular service in September, 1953.”

CTA gate car 390. Don’s Rail Photos: “390 was built by American Car & Foundry Co in 1905 as SSRT 390. It became CERy 390 in 1913 and became CRT 390 in 1923. It was retired on June 20, 1957.” Andre Kristopans: “390 I think is at North/Halsted. At first thought Sedgwick, but background does not match.”

On March 29, 1943, the first official Chicago Rapid Transit Company train heads into the north portal of the new State Street Subway, then still under construction. Only one track was in service, and the south portal was still being built. Test rides were being given to servicemen and war bond buyers. The official opening was on October 17th.

Shaker Heights Rapid Transit car 302, formerly of the Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric, is inbound at Woodhill Road on September 6, 1951. Don’s Rail Photos: “302 was built by St Louis Car in 1924, #1308. In 1936 it was sold to CI/SHRT as 302 and in 1954 it was sold to Gerald Brookins for the Columbia Park & Southwestern aka Trolleyville.” Sounds like it was scrapped there for parts.

North Shore Line city streetcar 354 at the Illinois Railway Museum in September 1972.

The conventional view of the North Shore Line station in Lake Forest.

A different view of the large North Shore Line station in Lake Forest that served the Shore Line Route. This can’t be later than 1916, as the railroad is identified by its previous name, the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric. The station survived the 1955 Shore Line abandonment, but was torn down around 1970.

I believe we are looking north at the Chicago and North Western commuter train station in Highland Park. If so, the North Shore Line’s tracks for the Shore Line Route would be at right in the adjacent street. Apparently the station footprint here did not allow for sufficient space to locate the NSL tracks on private right-of-way.

Another view of the C&NW Highland Park station, again looking north with the NSL Shore Line tracks in the street at right.

The entrance to Ravinia Park around 1915. It was built by the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric to help generate more ridership.

This shows the wooden “L” ramp under construction for the CTA’s Garfield Park temporary trackage that ran east of here in Van Buren Street during construction of the Congress expressway. You can see where the temporary structure was going to turn and head south, to rejoin the existing Garfield Park “L” near Sacramento Boulevard. The new alignment was used starting in September 1953, so this is some time before then. (Henryk Shafer Photo)

Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (aka Red Arrow) cars 77 and 8 in Media, PA on April 25, 1954. Brilliner 8 is still in its original 1941 paint scheme. (Russell E. Jackson Photo)

Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (aka Red Arrow) car 83 on the West Chester line in 1954. Buses replaced trolleys on this long route the same year, as part of a highway widening project. Don’s Rail Photos: “83 was built by Brill Car Co in March 1932, #22980. It became SEPTA 83 in 1970 and sold to Middletown & Hummelstown in 1982.” The M&H actually purchased car 86 in 1982, which was found to have some damage. So car 83 was renumbered as 86 by SEPTA and sold to them that way. The original car 86 also went along and was scrapped for parts. M&H is a diesel-powered tourist operation and the Red Arrow car is in storage there.

Laurel Line (Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad) cars 38, 114, and 35. I assume this is in Scranton, PA. Interurban passenger service quit on December 31, 1952.

Laurel Line car 32.

Laurel Line car 19 looks like it has seen better days.

Laurel Line car 35.

Laurel Line car 32.

Another view of Laurel Line car 19.

CTA single car units 41 and 42, equipped with trolley poles for use on the Evanston branch, are posed at Sedgwick on the Ravenswood line. The date may be June 26, 1960. Sunday fantrips were popular, when Ravenswood trains only went as far as Armitage, and the fans could have lengthy photo stops without interfering with regular service. North Shore Line trains were routed via the outer tracks at this time. (Richard J. Anderson Photo)

A CTA single car unit heads south just north of South Boulevard in Evanston on May 26, 1963.

A train of 4000s at Armitage.

4000s at Wellington.

6000s at Wellington.

CTA 2041 at Hamlin on the Lake Street “L”, signed as a “B” train, sometime between 1964 and 1969.

6000s at Wellington.

CTA single car unit #2 at the Skokie Swift terminal at Dempster, some time in the 1960s.

4000s at Wellington.

Brooklyn and Queens Transit PCC 1070 is at Park Circle on November 11, 1955, running on the 68-C 1 Ave line.

Brooklyn and Queens Transit PCC 1001 is at the Bristol Street loop on line 35 – Church on May 30, 1956. The auto at right is in the “bathtub” style that was briefly popular around 1950.

Brooklyn and Queens Transit PCC 1031 in May 30, 1956. This is a Church Avenue car entering the underpass at Ocean Parkway.

Chicago Surface Lines work car S-53 on October 21, 1940. Don’s Rail Photos: “S53, supply car, was built by Chicago Railways in 1909 as 10. It was renumbered S53 in 1913 and became CSL S53 in 1914. It was retired on November 25, 1949.”

Chicago Transit Authority snow plow S-319 (ex-3146) at Skokie Shops in April 1955. Don’s Rail Photos: “3146 was built by St. Louis Car in 1901 as Lake Street Elevated RR 146. It was renumbered 3146 in 1913 and became CRT 3146 in 1923.” Not sure when it was converted into a work car.

North Shore Line city streetcar 357 is in Waukegan in 1946, signed for the Naval Station. Streetcar service ended the following year. Don’s Rail Photos: “357 was built by St Louis Car Co in January 1928, #1453. It was retired in 1948 and scrapped in 1950. The last city cars purchased new by the North Shore were cars 351 thru 360. They came from St. Louis Car in 1927 and 1928 and were designed to operate as one or two man cars. 351 thru 358 went to Milwaukee, and 359 and 360 went to Waukegan. In 1942, 353 thru 358 were sent to Waukegan for wartime service. It is said that 351 and 352 were also sent to Waukegan, but if so, their stay was short. In 1947, with the abandonment of the Waukegan lines, the entire group was sent to Milwaukee to replace the Birneys. They ran until abandonment on August 12, 1951.”

NSL loco 458 at the Pettibone Yard in North Chicago on July 16, 1960. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

A North Shore Line freight train, headed by loco 456, at North Chicago Junction on March 2, 1946. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

The North Shore Line headquarters in Highwood, IL. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

NSL Silverliner756 at Highwood on April 15, 1950. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

A three-car North Shore Line train on the “L”. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

NSL 411 at Highwood on June 12, 1949. Don’s Rail Photos: “411 was built as a trailer observation car by Cincinnati Car in June 1923 #2640. It was out of service in 1932. It was rebuilt on February 25, 1943 as a two motor coach by closing in the open platform and changing the seating, and was sold to Trolley Museum of New York in 1963. It was sold to Wisconsin Electric Railway & Historical Society in 1973 and sold to the Escanaba & Lake Superior in 1989.” (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

A four-car NSL train on Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette on February 11, 1939. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo)

We have several pictures from this fantrip, which covered the Shore Line Route and then continued north to Milwaukee. I bought this, as I thought it might shed some light on the photo stops. But this “timetable” only gives the starting time of the trip. It does list points of interest, route mileage, safety rules, and has a complete roster of the equipment as of late 1954… including which 15 cars had already been converted to Silverliners by that time. (I think the total had reached 30 by 1963.)

Original 1920s artwork for four North Shore Line posters… in the collection of David A. Myers, who bought them when the railroad was going out of business in 1963.

The North Shore Line Mundelein Terminal in December 1962.

The same location today, looking east. The old terminal was located just to the right of that telephone pole. You can see where the old right-of-way was in that clearing at rear.

A North Shore Line train heads north at North Chicago Junction in June 1961. The tracks at left led to the old Shore Line Route. After the 1955 abandonment, one track was kept in service to connect with the headquarters at Highwood (and also for freight use). (William Shapotkin Collection)

The late William C. Hoffman took this picture of an Electroliner menu on November 12, 1962.

The East Troy Railroad Museum

Milwaukee streetcar 846 at East Troy. Don’s Rail Photos: “846 was built by St Louis Car Co in 1920, #1239. It was one-manned in 1925 and was donated to the Kentucky Railway Museum in 1958. After two floods it went to the Appleton Trolley Museum in 1983. It was found to be severely damaged and was finally restored in 1998. In October 2002, the ATM merged with the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum and 846 was the first car moved.”

South Shore Line car 24. Don’s Rail Photos: “24 was built by Pullman in 1927. It was lengthened and air conditioned, and got picture windows in 1947.” East Troy has turned it into a dining car.

South Shore Line car 33. Don’s Rail Photos: “33 was built by Standard Car in 1929, #P-3340. It was air-conditioned and sold to National Park Service in 1983.”

These stickers were applied to South Shore Line cars in the mid-1970s and became a rallying cry against abandonment.

South Shore Line car 9. Don’s Rail Photos: “9 was built by Pullman in 1926.”

South Shore Line car 13. Don’s Rail Photos: “13 was built by Pullman in 1926 and was rebuilt in 1946.”

CTA 4453. Don’s Rail Photos: “4453 was built by Cincinnati Car in 1924, #2860. It was acquired by Indiana Transportation Museum in 1974 and sold to East Troy Electric Ry in 1995.” George Trapp adds: “Enjoyed your latest post, but have a correction on the build dates for CRT/CTA 4420 and 4453 at East Troy. This order #2860 for cars 4356-4455 was placed in December of 1924 but the cars were actually built in 1925, being delivered in late summer, August and September. Car #4422 was photographed on September 4, 1925 by Cincinnati Car. The only cars built in 1924 were 4351-4355, order #2715 ordered in 1923 by Chicago Elevated prior to merger of January, 1924 of Northwestern, Metropolitan and South Side into CRT. Bankrupt Chicago & Oak Park purchased at foreclosure later in January, 1924.”

Sheboygan Light, Power and Railway Company car 26. Don’s Rail Photos: “Sheboygan 26 was built by Cincinnati Car in 1908, #835. It was converted to one man operation. It later was used as a lake cabin for many years and was given full restoration to its original condition.” This car was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company locomotive L-9. Don’s Rail Photos: “L9 was built at Cold Spring in 1944. It became WEPCo L9 in 1963 and was acquired by WERHS in 1979. It became East Troy Electric Ry L9 in 1989.”

South Shore Line car 30. Don’s Rail Photos: “30 was built by Standard Car in 1929, #P-3340. It was air conditioned and sold to Wisconsin Electric Railway Museum in 1984. It was sold to East Troy Electric Ry in 1984. It was later rebuilt without the humps and renumbered 1130.”

South Shore Line car 25. Don’s Rail Photos: “25 was built by Pullman in 1927. It was lengthened and air conditioned, and got picture windows in 1947.” East Troy has turned it into a dining car.

North Shore Line car 761 has recently been restored by East Troy and looks beautiful. Don’s Rail Photos: “761 was built by Standard Steel Car Co in 1930. It was modernized in 1949 and rebuilt as a Silverliner in October 11, 1957.” It has had a number of owners since 1963 but came to East Troy from the Michigan Transit Museum in 2001.

Watch your step. The car could board on either high-level or low-level platforms.

761’s cab area.

This would have been the smoking compartment back in the day.

The museum is justifiably proud of their restoration work.

The ticket booth at East Troy.

Bob Heinlein and his brother at East Troy.

Aboard 4420.

CTA 4420 at the Elegant Farmer store in Mukwonago. Don’s Rail Photos: “4420 was built by Cincinnati Car in 1924, #2860. It was acquired by Wisconsin Electric Historical Society on February 11, 1975, and sold to East Troy Electric Ry in 1988.” George Trapp adds: “Enjoyed your latest post, but have a correction on the build dates for CRT/CTA 4420 and 4453 at East Troy. This order #2860 for cars 4356-4455 was placed in December of 1924 but the cars were actually built in 1925, being delivered in late summer, August and September. Car #4422 was photographed on September 4, 1925 by Cincinnati Car. The only cars built in 1924 were 4351-4355, order #2715 ordered in 1923 by Chicago Elevated prior to merger of January, 1924 of Northwestern, Metropolitan and South Side into CRT. Bankrupt Chicago & Oak Park purchased at foreclosure later in January, 1924.”

Recent Correspondence

We recently received these two photos from our good friend David Harrison:

CTA 3311 on June 19, 2006 charter, paying tribute to the 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox. (Bruce C. Nelson Photo, courtesy of David Harrison)

David Harrison in his CTA uniform, near Loomis, in a photo taken by his mother. I couldn’t quite make the processing date out on the slide– it was either December ’65 or ’66, although this picture was obviously taken at a different time of the year.

North Shore Line Mystery Photo

If anyone knows who took this picture, taken at the North Shore Line’s Milwaukee Terminal, please let me know. I checked with the Center for Railroad Photography and Art, and it apparently was not taken by the late John E. Gruber, although it does look similar to his work.

Now Available:

SGA-1
Stan Griffith Audio Recordings of the North Shore Line
# of Discs – 1
Price: $15.99

We only recently found out that he recorded some North Shore Line audio. Even better, what he did record is different than the other known recordings by William A. Steventon and Brad Miller.

Mr. Griffith made the only known recordings of the Shore Line Route, which quit in 1955. Steventon didn’t record NSL until the following year, and the Miller recordings are circa 1960.

He also recorded North Shore Line street running in Milwaukee, which is also unique as far as I am aware. There are also recordings of Milwaukee streetcars on this CD.

Total time – 52:36

Chicago’s Lost “L”s Online Presentation

The Trolley Dodger On the Air

We appeared on the Dave Plier Show on WGN radio on July 16, 2021, to discuss Chicago’s Lost “L”s. You can hear that discussion here.

Our Latest Book, Now Available:

Chicago’s Lost “L”s

From the back cover:

Chicago’s system of elevated railways, known locally as the “L,” has run continuously since 1892 and, like the city, has never stood still. It helped neighborhoods grow, brought their increasingly diverse populations together, and gave the famous Loop its name. But today’s system has changed radically over the years. Chicago’s Lost “L”s tells the story of former lines such as Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Kenwood, Stockyards, Normal Park, Westchester, and Niles Center. It was once possible to take high-speed trains on the L directly to Aurora, Elgin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The L started out as four different companies, two starting out using steam engines instead of electricity. Eventually, all four came together via the Union Loop. The L is more than a way of getting around. Its trains are a place where people meet and interact. Some say the best way to experience the city is via the L, with its second-story view. Chicago’s Lost “L”s is virtually a “secret history” of Chicago, and this is your ticket. David Sadowski grew up riding the L all over the city. He is the author of Chicago Trolleys and Building Chicago’s Subways and runs the online Trolley Dodger blog.

The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

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Reflections in a Golden Wye

June 24, 2021July 8, 2021David Sadowski 14 Comments

This photo, showing a mirror at the North Shore Line’s Milwaukee terminal, was taken on January 21, 1963 (after abandonment) by Allan Y. Scott for the Milwaukee Journal. You can see the photographer in the picture, apparently using a Leica M2 or M3. This picture came from the collection of the late John Horachek. Rather than being a double exposure, it seems like the ghostly image of an Electroliner was applied to the mirror using a stencil and a product known as Glass Wax.

For today’s post, we are going back in time, often even further back in time than we usually do, to feature some important historical images. Each one is like a small ray of light, that form a beacon when taken together, illuminating the past, like the reflections in a mirror.

It’s the earliest, and oldest pictures that are the hardest to find. So, we’ve had to redouble our efforts to seek them out.

In addition, we have important news about our new book Chicago’s Lost “L”s. We recently received a small number of “author’s copies” from the publisher, and the book is now a reality. We hope you will like the results.

Our initial order is on the way to us, and we are confident that we will soon begin shipping out books to our contributors and everyone who has ordered one in our pre-sale. All such books should be in the post prior to the July 12 release date.

More information about Chicago’s Lost “L”s, including how to order, can be found at the end of this post, or you can click on the link at the top of this page to go to our Online Store.

We would like to thank Kevin Horachek, Andre Kristopans, and William Shapotkin for their contributions to this post.

Enjoy!

-David Sadowski

Recent Finds

As a practical matter, color photography didn’t exist in 1910, which is the postmark date of this postcard showing the Lake Street “L” at ground level in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s west side. The view looks west from Central Avenue along South Boulevard (or, more appropriately, Lake Street, since the name did not change until the line reached suburban Oak Park). The “L” was extended there in 1901. This colorized photo may date to a bit before 1910, though, as by then, the Chicago & North Western trains, which ran parallel to the “L”, had already been raised onto the embankment where the “L” joined them in 1962. This is a westbound train, as Lake Street ran left handed in those days (as did the C&NW).

The same location today. This portion of Lake Street was renamed to Corcoran Place in the mid-1960s, to honor the late Chicago Alderman in this area, who was a close friend of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Lake Street used to run north and south of the two railroads here for a few blocks between Pine Avenue and Austin Boulevard. There were no duplicate street numbers.

I recently purchased this turn-of-the-century photo showing a Chicago Union Traction streetcar on the Lincoln Avenue line. CUT existed from 1899 to 1908, when it was absorbed into Chicago Railways. Sharpshooter’s Park is where Riverview Amusement Park opened in 1904, which narrows down the time of this photo to circa 1899-1903. But the car itself looks like the “Matchbox” type, which was built by St. Louis Car Company in 1903. Car 1374 in this series has been restored and is at the Illinois Railway Museum. In 2015, the body of car 1137 was found in Wisconsin, where it had been used as an addition to someone’s house. It is now in Grass Lake, MI.

CSL “Sedan” (aka Peter Witt) 6283 appears to be southbound on Clark, just south of downtown, in this circa 1940 photo. Don’s Rail Photos: “6283 was built by CSL in 1929.” This might seem unusual, that the Surface Lines had the capability or even the desire to build their own streetcars. But CSL was very much involved with the project that eventually created the PCC car just a few years after this, and it was CSL and not the ERPCC that had the two experimental pre-PCCs (4001 and 7001) built in 1934. Eventually, the CTA became the largest stockholder in the Transit Research Corporation, the successor to the ERPCC.

Chicago Surface Line experimental pre-PCC 4001 in 1935, running on Route 22 – Clark-Wentworth. 40001 was built in 1934 by Pullman-Standard and was retired in 1944. The body has survived and is now at the Illinois Railway Museum. Here, it still has the striped trolley pole.

Chicago Surface Lines experimental pre-PCC 7001 on Route 22 – Clark-Wentworth in 1935. It was built by Brill in 1934 and retired in 1944, scrapped in 1959. Here, it already appears to have a dent on the front end.

Don’s Rail Photos: “51 was built by the SP&S in August 1941. It was purchased by the North Shore in December 1947 and was completed as 459 on November 22, 1948.” Here it is at the Portland yard on September 9, 1946.

A two-car train of North Shore Line Silverliners in Milwaukee in 1962. Larry Sakar writes: “The train is northbound at the north end of the 6th Street viaduct (which no longer exists). Below it on the right of the train is what was then Fowler Street. Today, that is St. Paul Ave which in NSL days used to end at 6th St. All of that changed when The Milwaukee Road built their new station at 5th St. Impending construction of the Marquette interchange and the end of the Milwaukee Road’s 4th & everett St. station gave the city the opportunity to continue St. Paul Ave. beneath 6th St. to connect with then Fowler St. which then became the continuation of W. St. Paul Ave. The warehouse next to the train is also long gone. If you were standing here today you would be looking at the Milwaukee Intermodal station on the right and the main Post Office immediately next door east. If you look two blocks down on the left that is where the present day HOP Streetcar terminates. The train is northbound at the north end of the 6th Street viaduct (which no longer exists). Below it on the right of the train is what was then Fowler Street. Today, that is St. Paul Ave which in NSL days used to end at 6th St. All of that changed when The Milwaukee Road built their new station at 5th St. Impending construction of the Marquette interchange and the end of the Milwaukee Road’s 4th & everett St. station gave the city the opportunity to continue St. Paul Ave. beneath 6th St. to connect with then Fowler St. which then became the continuation of W. St. Paul Ave. The warehouse next to the train is also long gone. If you were standing here today you would be looking at the Milwaukee Intermodal station on the right and the main Post Office immediately next door east. If you look two blocks down on the left that is where the present day HOP Streetcar terminates.”

A Chicago & North Western train of bi-levels at the Milwaukee station on the Lakefront in 1962.

This is how the Chicago & North Western’s right-of-way looked in Winnetka in July 1964. We are looking south from Elm Street. This area was grade-separated around 1940, with some financial help from the federal government through the PWA agency, in a similar fashion to how Chicago’s Initial System of Subways was built. The North Shore Line’s Shore Line Route ran at left until July 1955. (William Shapotkin Collection)

An eastbound Lake Street “L” train is in Oak Park in July 1960, running alongside South Boulevard. (William Shapotkin Collection)

A westbound C&NW commuter train stops in Oak Park in July 1960. (William Shapotkin Collection)

A westbound Chicago & North Western commuter train departs from Oak Park in July 1960. Note the ground-level Lake Street “L” station at Marion Street at left. Just over two years later, the “L” was moved to this embankment. (William Shapotkin Collection)

An eastbound C&NW “scoot” (commuter train) has just departed the Elmhurst station and is seen crossing York Road. The view looks west. (William Shapotkin Collection)

What was billed as Manhattan’s last elevated train heads north on the Third Avenue El on May 12, 1955.

CSL 5769 on Route 5 – Cottage Grove-South Chicago circa 1940. According to Don’s Rail Photos, Nearside 5769 “was built by Brill Car Co in 1912, (order) #18322, It was retired on November 8, 1948.”

CSL Pullman 621, signed for Clark and Devon, is apparently running on Route 22 and headed north on Clark, having just passed Lake Street in this circa 1940 scene. The Shreve Building, built in 1875, was located at the northwest corner of Clark and Lake. Its construction was supervised by William Warren Boyington (1818-1898), who designed the landmark Chicago Water Tower. Not sure when it was demolished.

CSL pre-war PCC 7024 is eastbound on Madison Street at Mayfield Avenue (5900 W.) circa 1940.

CSL Pullman 329 is on Route 21 – Cermak Road, possibly at the west end of the line, circa 1940.

CSL 1801 is signed for Adams-Downtown in this circa 1940 photo. Part of Route 7 – Harrison Street went downtown via Adams Street. A nearby truck is delivering Ogden’s Milk.

The U.S. Patent Office in Washington, DC in the 1920s, with a streetcar out front, apparently powered by conduit via a electric plow running in a trough between the two rails.

Chicago Aurora & Elgin car 403 at Laramie Avenue on July 19, 1933. It was described as “red with gold trim.” 403 was a Pullman product, built in 1923. Sister car 409 is at the Illinois Railway Museum. The view looks to the northeast.

CTA trolley bus 9421 on February 12, 1973. Andre Kristopans adds, “Trolley bus 9421 SB on Pulaski at Sunnyside (4500 N). Old police station, now community center, on right.”
William Shapotkin Collection)

CTA trolley bus 9458 on February 10, 1973. (Michael N. Charnota Photo, William Shapotkin Collection) Bill Jas: “The pic of the Pulaski trolley bus is just North of Grand. You can see the old streetcar power house on the right. The same building that later collapsed onto Jimmy’s Hot Dog Stand.”

The Chicago & Milwaukee Electric

The North Shore Line started out as the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric, before it was reorganized by Samuel Insull in 1916. Here are some early photos that reflect that history.

The Chicago & Milwaukee Electric station in Lake Forest. It was torn down around 1970, 15 years after the last North Shore Line trains ran here on the Shore Line Route.

A close-up of the previous image, showing Chicago & Milwaukee Electric car 10. It was built by Pullman in 1899.

After the North Shore Line abandoned service on the Shore Line Route in 1955, their former Lake Forest station was used as a campaign headquarters in the 1956 presidential election. (Chicago Tribune Photo)

A Chicago & Milwaukee electric buffet observation car, from an undated postcard. Don’s Rail Photos: “401 was built by Jewett Car in 1909 as parlor-buffet car. In 1917 it was converted to straight coach and retired in 1935. It was leased to Chicago Aurora & Elgin and renumbered 142 in 1936. It came back for a short time with the CA&E number in 1945 and sold to CA&E in 1946. It was retired in 1953.”

The Chicago & Milwaukee Electric’s Zion station, from a postcard postmarked 1911. The religious fanatics who started this town made the interurban build a large station, in anticipation of rapid growth that did not occur.

The Chicago & Milwaukee electric station in Libertyville, from a real photo postcard postmarked 1906.

Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Birney car 334 at 6th and Clybourn in Milwaukee. Don’s Rail Photos: “334 was built by Cincinnati Car Co in December 1922, #2625. It was retired in 1947 and scrapped in April 1948.” The C&ME name was used on these North Shore Line city streetcars, since that was the franchise holder in Milwaukee.

North Shore Line wood car 305 (former Chicago & Milwaukee Electric) in Kenilworth circa 1930, running as a Chicago local on the Shore Line Route. Don’s Rail Photos: ” 303 thru 305 were built by American Car in 1910 and were almost identical. In 1939 they became sleet cutters and were retired and scrapped in 1940.” (Kenilworth Historical Society)

Did Not Win

They say you can’t win ’em all, and we certainly don’t. But while we did not win the auctions for these images, they definitely still worth looking at:

1899 New York City Shopping @ 22nd St & 6th Avenue L Train Glass Photo Negative recently sold for $247.50. Looks like the 6th Avenue line was still using steam power then.

I did not win this auction, but I still think this is a pretty neat picture, of a four-car train of CTA 4000s southbound at Bryn Mawr in 1970. This is a southbound Evanston Express. By then, only freight locos were using the overhead wire here.

The following three glass plate negatives were identified as “1915 New York 7th Ave Subway Explosion Collapse 7 Dead.”

The next three glass plate images show women working as streetcar conductors on the New York Railways during World War I:

North Shore Line box motor 230 at the Milwaukee Terminal in 1941. By the late 1950s, the apartment building at rear had been torn down.

Book Review:

From Garfield ‘L’ to Blue Line Rapid Transit
by David A. Wilson
Dispatch Number 11 of the Shore Line Interurban Historical Society

Congratulations to David Wilson on his excellent new book From Garfield ‘L’ to Blue Line Rapid Transit. I would naturally like this book, since these are subjects I have written about extensively, in my own books and blogs.

Like many other people my age, I became fascinated with the extensive changes going on in the west side during the late 1950s, as construction of the Congress Expressway proceeded west and approached suburban Oak Park. I recall seeing the Garfield Park “L” and Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban trains, but I never rode on them. We mostly took the Lake Street “L” downtown, and until 1962, that still ran on the ground west of Laramie.

I recall seeing “L” cars parked in Lockwood Yard, and I vividly remember our first drives on the new Congress Expressway, which partially opened in 1955, although it only went as far as Laramie Avenue (5200 W.). It was extended in stages in 1960, first to Central Avenue (5600 W.), and then all the way through Oak Park and Forest Park, to connect with existing highways west of there. I have naturally been a frequent rider on the Congress line (today’s Forest Park branch of the Blue Line) my whole life.

So, I have been interested in learning the details of how all this came to be for a long time, and I have been researching this subject ever since I was a small child. This interest culminated in my 2018 Arcadia book Building Chicago’s Subways, which is available from our Online Store and elsewhere.

The approach I took with that book was a comprehensive overview of the entire subject of Chicago Subways, starting with the river tunnels, first opened in 1869, the extensive downtown freight tunnel system, the various subway plans that were hashed out over 40 years, the Initial System of Subways (first started in 1938), and its culmination in the West Side Subway in 1958, as the Congress rapid transit line was originally known.

This is a large topic, and therefore it should hardly be possible for anyone to have the “last word” on these matters. Chances are, after we are all long gone, others will still find new things to say.

Dave Wilson has lived in Oak Park for a long time, and is also fascinated with this history. His new book concentrates on just the transition from the Garfield “L” to the current Blue Line setup, and therefore it goes into greater detail than it was possible to do in my book. It will answer just about any questions that anyone might have had about how this all happened, excepting fanatics like me, who are constantly trying to learn more. (In fact, I bring up a few additional related topics later on in this post.)

Now that I have a few volumes under my belt, I tend to pay close attention to editorial decisions that others make, in their own works. This book packs a lot of information into its pages, and it should be no surprise that a few compromises had to be made. There are only so many pages to fill in any book, something I know from personal experience.

Unfortunately there is no biographical information about the author, and I wish there were. I have known Dave Wilson for a long time, and he has been an avid railfan photographer since his teenage years. He has scanned thousands of his images, and has posted them to Flickr, for all to enjoy. You would do well to check them out.

For a time he worked for the Wisconsin Central railroad, and later, in bus planning for the Chicago Transit Authority.

The maps in this new book are excellent, and were made by Dennis McClendon, who always does fine work. In fact, he also did the book layout, which is attractive and skillfully done.

The photo selection is excellent. While there are a few images that also appear in Building Chicago’s Subways, they are great images in both books.

Another editorial decision was to include some lo-res images in the book. One in particular is rather pixilated, but in general when the image quality suffers, those images are made smaller in turn, so this is less noticeable. I am probably the only person who would notice this, though. Any author has to collect the best images that are available, and they are not all going to be of the same resolution.

There is yet another book I can recommend, if you are still interested in learning why it was not possible to save the Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban, despite the best efforts of three powerful Illinois politicians (Mayor Richard J. Daley, Governor William Stratton, and Cook County Board President Dan Ryan): Political Influence by Edward C. Banfield, originally published in 1961 by the Free Press of Glencoe. I covered that book extensively in a 2015 blog post that you can read here.

In the meantime, I can wholeheartedly recommend David Wilson’s book, which is available anywhere that Shore Line products are sold. They are called Dispatches, even though the North Shore Line used the unusual spelling “despatch” back in the day.

Garfield Park, Where Are You?

A portion of a CTA track map dated October 1955. The tracks curved south west of Lockwood, unlike the way it appears here.

As you can see here, the Garfield “L” ran straight east and west through Laramie Yard between Laramie (5200 W.) and Lavergne (5000 W.). (From a CTA track map dated October 1955.)

For many years, I have been interested in just where the old Garfield Park “L” once ran. By 1960, it was completely replaced by the current Forest Park branch of the Blue Line (formerly the Congress line), most of which runs in the median of I-290.

The Chicago Tribune reported on June 4, 1928 that the Chicago Rapid Transit Company wanted to expand the Garfield Park “L” from two tracks to four between Marshfield and Cicero Avenues. The article states that CRT had already purchased 60% of the necessary land for expansion via private sale.

This expansion never took place (perhaps due to the Great Depression), but naturally the idea behind it may have been a factor in planning for the Congress median line, which has space for four tracks in approximately the same locations as the 1928 CRT plan, in addition to the section east of Marshfield, which leads to four subway portals near Halsted, only two of which have ever been used.

As noted in my book Building Chicago’s Subways (Arcadia Publishing, 2018), when the highway plans were being formulated, the idea was to relocate the Lake Street “L” into the median of the expressway, via a connection either at 4600 West, or near Kedzie (3200 W.). Lake trains would have then run next to, but separate from, regular Congress rapid transit trains.

At the subway portal, Lake trains would have continued into a new Clinton Street Subway, which would have formed a subway “Loop,” connecting with the sections on Lake, Dearborn, and Congress. Presumably, Lake trains were intended to circle this subway Loop before heading back out towards the west side.

The City of Chicago’s goal in all this was to tear down the Loop “L”, inspired by New York City’s gradual elimination of all the elevated lines in Manhattan. This remained the City’s plan until Mayor Jane Byrne decided the Loop “L” was worth saving after all. Chicago eventually built a new “L” line, the Orange Line, which opened in 1993 and connects to the Loop.

I traced the old right-of-way of the Garfield Park “L” on Google Street View recently, and came to a few interesting conclusions. Although the “L” ran pretty much in a straight line between Kedzie Avenue (3200 W.) and Lockwood Avenue (5300 W.), heading west, at times, the “L’ is south of the adjacent alleyway, and at other times, it is north of it.

In general, the Garfield line was built mid-block, but at times, the location is about 620 South, and at other times, it is more like 650 South. Maps seem to show a slight jog just west of Tripp Avenue (4232 W.), but this doesn’t seem like a definitive explanation for the change in alignment relative to the alleys.

The “L” crossed a railroad at around 4600 West, and it’s likely that the areas west of there were not yet developed when the “L” was built. Early photos seem to show a rather barren area. Perhaps the alleys preceded the “L” east of here, while they were built after the “L” in the western section.

Interestingly, there weren’t alleys for the entire stretch between Kedzie and Lockwood, because Fifth Avenue, an angle street that was once an important thoroughfare, crossed through near Pulaski Road (4000 W.). The block narrows near that location, and alleys come to an end.

In general, it seems as though the “L” ran mostly south of the alley east of Cicero Avenue (4800 W.), which was the original end-of-the-line starting in 1895. It was extended to Laramie (5200 W.) in 1902, and west of Cicero, the “L” seems to run north of the alley. But of course, there were no alleys in the Laramie Yard area until after the “L” was demolished and the yard removed. There is an alley where parts of Lockwood Yard once were, but it’s possible there were still tracks in place there for perhaps a year or so after the Congress line opened in June 1958.

Here are some pictures from Google Street View:

649 S. Homan (3400 W.), looking east. Here, the “L” was definitely south of the alley.

649 S. Homan (3400 W.), looking west, showing the area south of the alley, once occupied by the Garfield Park “L”.

648 S. St. Louis (3500 W.), looking west. The “L” was south of the alley here.

617 S. Pulaski, looking east. The cross street is Fifth Avenue, which is at an angle running northeast/southwest. The Garfield Park “L” ran east-west here, and crossed Pulaski and Fifth at the same time. The “L” ran right over the area occupied by the building near the mailbox. Not sure if it was the same building then, but parts of it do look similar. There is no alley here, due to the narrowing of this block, as Fifth Avenue approaches from the north.

614 S. Karlov (4100 W.), looking west. The “L” ran south of the alley here.

This is around 650 S. Kilbourn (4500 W.), looking southwest. There was a Garfield Park “L” station at Kilbourn, and it appears to have been south of the alley.

At approximately 650 S. Kolmar (4532 W.), the Chicago Transit Authority has a building. Not sure what it is used for, or if the Garfield Park “L” ran over head. It’s possible that the “L” ran in the area just north of the alley here. This view looks west.

At around 620 S. Kilpatrick (4700 W.), the Garfield Park “L” ran south of the alley. This view looks east.

At 650 S. Lavergne (5000 W.), the Garfield Park “L” ran just north of the alley. Laramie Yard was just west of here, and the “L” at this point was descending to ground level from the Cicero Avenue “L” station, two blocks east. This view looks east.

The Garfield Park “L” tracks crossed Lockwood at about 650 South. A short distance west of here, they made a sweeping curve and went a bit to the south, and ran parallel to the B&OCT railroad tracks through Oak Park and Forest Park.

The view looking south at 646 S. Lockwood Avenue (5300 W.), showing the hump where the Garfield Park “L” crossed here. There was no alley to the right until after the “L” was removed, as that was where Lockwood Yard had been.

And here are some additional clues from the CTA Transit News, reporting on the demolition of the Garfield Park (and Metropolitan main line) “L” after the Congress line opened in June 1958. They show that the “L” ran south of the alley at Kilpatrick Avenue (4700 W.) but at Lavergne Avenue (5000 W.), it was north of the alley.

The Garfield Park “L” crossed over railroad tracks at about 4600 West. Interestingly, note that between the two sides of the railroad embankment, the alley between Harrison and Flournoy is not quite in the same location.

Recent Correspondence

We recently wrote to fellow historian Andres Kristopans:

It has been my understanding for many years that the CTA right-of-way between the Lotus Tunnel (5400 W.) and Forest Park was planned for three tracks.

This is a self-evident fact; the tunnel has portals on both sides, there is room for a third track north of the existing two west of there, and the bridge over DesPlaines Avenue was obviously designed for three tracks.

The question of what this third track was intended for recently came up in a discussion on the Facebook Chicago Elevated group. My source on that point, that the third track was intended for use by the Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban, was my discussions and correspondence with George Krambles some 40 years ago).

But that did get me interested in looking into the matter further.

By 1940, planning for the new Congress expressway envisioned replacing the Garfield Park “L” with a line in the expressway median to Laramie Avenue (5200 W.), at least according to the film Streamlining Chicago.

This raises the question, when was the Lotus Tunnel planned, and why are there three tunnels?

The Congress median right-of-way was, to some extent, based on the existing Garfield setup. Garfield had four tracks as far as Paulina (1700 W.), although there had been plans to add two more tracks west of there in the late 1920s.

The three branches of the Met came together at Marshfield Junction, and this was undoubtedly seen as an undesirable situation, one that should be avoided in the future. By routing abandoning the Humboldt Park branch, and re-routing Logan Square into the new Milwaukee-Dearborn subway, this problem was solved.

But another goal of city planners was the gradual elimination of all the “L”s and their replacement by subways. The Lake Street “L” was targeted for this process, first with a plan to connect it to the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway just west of the Loop, and later by diverting it to the Congress median via a mile-long subway or elevated connection, either at Kedzie (3200 W.) or later, at 4600 W.

The Lake Street tracks were to be kept separate from other Congress line trains, therefore requiring a four-track right-of-way all the way to the subway portals just east of Halsted Street. The two unused portals were intended for a Clinton Street subway, a north-south branch that would have created a downtown subway loop in conjunction with the portions on Lake, Dearborn, and Congress.

Lake Street trains could have circled this loop, since otherwise, there was no obvious way to through-route them with another line at that time. It was thought that this change would have made it possible to tear down half of the Loop “L”, namely the Lake Street and Wabash Avenue legs, the exact opposite of what the City hoped to do in the 1970s.

So, the Congress median line, in the planning stages, had space enough for four tracks from Halsted to wherever the Lake line could have been brought in, which could have been as far as 4600 W.

This still does not explain why planners thought there should be three tracks starting at the Lotus Tunnel (5400 W.) and heading west.

As far back as 1945, it was expected that the CA&E tracks running through Forest Park, and the B&OCT, would run in an open cut in the expressway through suburban Oak Park. There are Cook County plans with such illustrations.

CRT leased CA&E’s tracks west of Laramie, and CA&E leased CRT’s tracks east of there, an arrangement that largely resulted in a wash financially for both companies (and, later, CRT’s successor, the CTA).

In the stretch between Forest Park and Laramie, the CA&E operated what amounted to an express service, and CRT, locals. There was a passing track at Gunderson, where express trains could pass slower locals.

That was the “old” way of operating a railroad, one increasingly at odds with the more modern way of doing things. It was labor-intensive and required a high level of competence; split-second timing, in fact.

IMHO, the solution to this in the new plan was simply to keep the locals and expresses separated. There would be two tracks for the CRT locals and one for the CA&E expresses.

As the highway plans neared fruition, the CA&E reported in 1950 that they lacked the funds to build new tracks in a highway right-of-way west of Austin Boulevard. CA&E owned the current trackage west of Laramie Avenue. The City of Chicago only had responsibility to build the Congress expressway as far as the city limits (Austin, 6000 W.).

The Lotus Tunnel was needed all along, because there needed to be some way to connect the CA&E tracks with CRT’s, and it made sense to have the new track alignment run on the south side of the highway footprint, parallel to the B&OCT. It must have been planned early on, perhaps as far back as 1945.

The CTA proposed taking over the right-of-way to Forest Park in 1952, as a way to solve the problems with CA&E. By then, the interurban had already decided not to run downtown on CTA’s tracks. The CTA had abandoned the Westchester branch in December 1951, as a means of saving money. So, CA&E no longer had income to offset the cost of using CTA’s tracks. Continuing operations into the City would be a drain of CA&E’s coffers, whatever the merits pro and con would have been for running on the Van Buren Street temporary trackage.

The highway planners, in the early 1950s, understood that if CA&E had been unable to connect with the CTA somewhere, this would have immediately put them out of business. Hence the county was very much interested in a solution to this problem. CA&E said they could not afford to build new tracks and facilities in the two miles or so of the relocated right-of-way between Austin Boulevard and DesPlaines Avenue.

All the more reason not to change the plans, likely made circa 1945, for three tracks in the new section. Cook County government did not want to be the cause of CA&E’s demise.

It was fortunate that the CTA stepped in and offered a creative solution to this problem, which also allowed them, as a result, to continue operating service to Forest Park.

So, in 1953 CA&E sold their right-of-way to the county as far west as DesPlaines Avenue (but not the river crossing, not until 1957), and the CTA purchased their fixed assets, the tracks, signals, stations, etc., which would all need to be replaced anyway.

This gave the CTA “skin in the game” to continue operating service to Forest Park. The plan to hand off CA&E riders to the CTA at DesPlaines Avenue did not come about until 1953. This is evidenced both in contemporary newspaper reports, and in how the Forest Park Terminal was hurriedly altered at practically the last minute to adopt the new arrangements.

Until then, it was expected that this handoff would take place at Laramie Avenue, where CA&E’s tracks ended and CTA’s began. There was also an intermediate plan to make Central Avenue the changeover point instead, as the CTA briefly considered building a bus-rail facility there instead of Forest Park. CTA made an artist’s rendering of this, which I have seen.

So, in sum, the plan for three tracks west of Laramie probably dated as far back as 1945, when engineering was being done for the expressway extension into the western suburbs. This plan was not changed when the facilities were built. The Lotus Tunnel has three tunnels, the right-of-way has space for three tracks (north of the existing two), and the steel bridge over the DesPlaines Avenue underpass was designed for three tracks.

By the time the final design work was done for the stations in this section, in the late 1950s, the CA&E was no longer an issue. The CTA had built what they needed built, and did the minimum that was necessary just in case it might have been possible for the CA&E to resume operations downtown.

And this is something that CA&E went back and forth on. Both CTA and CA&E seemed perfectly happy to separate their tracks from each other in 1953. It is my belief that, early on, the CA&E decided on a policy of a gradual or piecemeal abandonment, selling off parts of their line, and distributing the proceeds to their shareholders, instead of using it to buy new equipment.

This is based on the notion that the new highway itself had doomed the interurban, which in an era where there were no government subsidies, was likely the only logical conclusion.

The CTA still had to figure out where their yard would be for the new Congress service. In the late 1950s, they were still considering using Laramie Yard, which would need to be connected to the median line by an elevated connection, estimated to cost $1m.

Building a new yard at DesPlaines Avenue was a cost-saving alternative. But there was still the question of who owned the terminal there, as CA&E hadn’t sold it as part of the 1953 deal. It wasn’t part of the highway project, and in fact, in 1957, CA&E had filed suit to evict the CTA from the Forest Park terminal, as a way of putting pressure on the powers-that-be to get more money for the river crossing (which they did) and get the courts to agree to a “temporary” abandonment of passenger service (which they did).

That those two events happened almost simultaneously makes one wonder if perhaps there was a “quid pro quo” involved, although at this stage, there is probably no way to prove it.

Andre replies:

I will go along with your analysis. The whole problem was a lack of money. CTA in 1945 was set up on the premise of taking over all local transportation in the metro area, but there was a fatal flaw in that CTA had no outside income except by selling bonds. When the suburban bus and rail lines were found to be more highly valued than expected, CTA could not come up with enough money to buy them out. There were ideas to take over CA&E to Wheaton and North Shore to Waukegan, but nothing came of them because the various towns along the lines could not agree on financial assistance. Those directly on line demanded those further, especially along CA&E, kick in as they would also benefit, but places like Addison and Bloomingdale refused, so nothing could be agreed to and the idea died. It took until RTA in 1982 to finally do this, with federal money.

In many ways, CTA was an idea way ahead of its time. Remember CTA was the very first “transit authority”. Before you had municipal operations like Cleveland where city took over failing private operations, but this was the first “independent governmental body” with jurisdiction not based on municipal boundaries. Too bad nobody thought to give it taxing authority at the time, as everyone thought once relieved of regulation and duplication, transit would be profitable again, and in fact the idea was that CTA would only be a “temporary” owner, who after restructuring Chicago area transit into profitability would then sell the system to a private operator and use the proceeds to retire the bonds sold to buy and modernize the system. But because nothing could be done with the suburban operators, CTA became the permanent owner of the city system, for 74 years now.

There was the negative example of municipal ownership in New York City, where building the IND subway practically bankrupted the city. So it is no wonder that Chicago had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into it.

The City of Chicago resisted the idea of public ownership for years, until all the various schemes for unifying CSL and CRT had failed, and there was no other viable option (by 1943). The situation might have festered, but the city had pledged to push through transit unification as a condition of accepting federal funds to pay for 45% of the Initial System of Subways (which ended up being more like 33% by the time the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway opened).

When WWII ended, the City resumed work on the unfinished Dearborn-Milwaukee subway, and soon work began in earnest on building the Congress superhighway. But there was no more federal money in the offing, and it was a struggle just to get the subway open by 1951.

The City had to float a $25m bond issue, which in essence reimbursed the transit improvement fund for monies that were taken from it during the Great Depression.

The scope of projects had to be scaled back. It seems as though the idea of re-routing Lake onto Congress was still alive as of 1948, but got put off into an indefinite future, due to the cost of building a mile long connection between the two lines, plus the Clinton subway.

Once CTA was in charge, they quickly identified the Lake Street “L”s problem area as the grade-level outer end, and not the elevated portion. And service was speeded up by using A/B skip-stop service, which became a model for the rest of the system.

The ultimate solution to Lake’s problems was not realized until 1962, when the line was elevated onto the Chicago & North Western embankment, followed by a proper yard west of Harlem.

The Van Buren temporary trackage gummed things up on Garfield for a few years, but inadvertently helped turn the eventual Congress line into something more like an express service. The CTA responded to the slow running times on Van Buren by closing some of the more minor stations on the line west of there, to the point where Garfield travel times in 1958 were largely the same as they had been prior to the September 1953 change.

This, in turn, influenced the locations of stations on the new Congress line. Whereas at first, plans called for merely replacing the old Garfield stations with new ones on Congress, over time, fewer new stations were planned.

The one glaring exception, of course, was Kostner, which was mandated by the City Council for political reasons, as there were three Aldermen lobbying for it (their wards were nearby). This one example of the “old” way of doing things turned out to be a dismal failure, and the station barely lasted a decade.

Andre:

Actually since 1913 CSL was a strange situation of private ownership but municipal operation. Chicago Surface Lines Joint Board of Management and Operation (the full name) was a city agency that directed day to day operations while CRys, CCRy, C&SCRys, all stock companies, were the actual owners. Probably only such arrangement anywhere. So in fact in 1945 city ceded control to an independent agency, though ownership transfer of assets took two more years to arrange.

CSL was not in trouble per se. Bankruptcy was more to keep franchise from expiring than any real financial collapse, whereas CRT was basically barely able to make payroll, with nothing left over for maintenance, etc. If CRT could not be foisted off on CSL, it would have been abandoned soon.

The Dean of Chicago Railfans

Raymond DeGroote, Jr. waits for DC Transit pre-PCC streetcar 1053 to descend a viaduct in Washington, DC on October 15, 1961, so he can get his picture. Streetcars in portions of the District of Columbia were forbidden to use overhead wire, and were powered by an underground conduit instead. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

My friend Raymond DeGroote, Jr. will turn 91 years old on July 15th. He has been very active in Chicago’s railfan community since the 1940s. He was most likely a first-day rider when Chicago’s first subway opened on October 17, 1943, over 77 years ago.

He has taken thousands of photos over the years, starting in about 1948 with black-and-white, and color slides since 1954. Ray is a world traveler, has written numerous articles, and has given numerous presentations on a wide range of railfan subjects. His work has appeared in many books, and he has been a mentor to me in this field since we first met in the late 1970s. He has worked tirelessly for many of the leading railfan organizations over the years.

Thanks to Ray, I became part of what he likes to call the “intelligence network” of railfans, in an era before the Internet made it possible to have a world of information at your fingertips.

Therefore, when I started work on my new book Chicago’s Lost “L”s, I could not think of anyone more deserving to dedicate the book to than Ray, who I consider the Dean of Chicago railfans. Once I received a small number of “author’s copies,” I sent one to him.

Here is his reply:

Thank you very much for my copy of Chicago’s Lost “L”s. The book is much appreciated and will provide many hours of pleasure reading and looking at the pictures.

I already found several very interesting ones. For example, I had never seen a picture of Willow or Calvary, the latter going even before my time, and the former just as I was becoming interested in the hobby. Also the view of Lower Level Wilson looking southeast (interesting angle) before the structure was above it, and Merchandise Mart under construction. Both must be relatively rare pictures.

On page 17 you had a view of a Robertson streetcar at 63rd. I remember those cars on South Side lines such as Riverdale, but we also had them up north on Riverview-Larrabee– slow cars, but with a commanding presence.

I am glad you included the Lost Interurbans section and also the Lost Terminals section. I vaguely remember Market Street, but know I rode out of Congress Street a few times, and many times out of North Water. That was even used as a display area to introduce and show off the new North Shore Silverliner paint scheme.

This is another good book to your credit. Keep up the good work.

Apparently, he did not initially notice that the book is dedicated to him, so I had to bring that to his attention.

He then wrote:

I am terribly embarrassed that I did not notice my name on the dedication page. I remember looking at the top of the page and seeing the Library of Congress data, and then going right to the Table of Contents. When I saw Northwestern “L” I turned right there to see what pictures you had included.

This is the first time anyone has dedicated a book to me, and I am very surprised and honored. It was totally unexpected. Thank you very much for this recognition, although I do not think I merit the title of “Dean”. “Old Man” might have been more appropriate as there are many others who deserve to be called “Dean.”

So, thank you again for the book dedication. It is a fine book, and I hope it will generate many sales.

Sincerely, Ray

When I can slip a few pictures in there that Ray DeGroote hasn’t seen before, I think I have done pretty well, because Ray has seen just about everything before. And, he is characteristically modest about his accomplishments. I can only hope for a small fraction of his wisdom, if I am lucky enough to reach his years.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks!

-David Sadowski

Our Latest Book, Now Available for Pre-Order:

Chicago’s Lost “L”s

Arcadia Publishing will release our new book Chicago’s Lost “L”s on July 12, 2021. Reserve your copy today!

From the back cover:

Chicago’s system of elevated railways, known locally as the “L,” has run continuously since 1892 and, like the city, has never stood still. It helped neighborhoods grow, brought their increasingly diverse populations together, and gave the famous Loop its name. But today’s system has changed radically over the years. Chicago’s Lost “L”s tells the story of former lines such as Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Kenwood, Stockyards, Normal Park, Westchester, and Niles Center. It was once possible to take high-speed trains on the L directly to Aurora, Elgin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The L started out as four different companies, two starting out using steam engines instead of electricity. Eventually, all four came together via the Union Loop. The L is more than a way of getting around. Its trains are a place where people meet and interact. Some say the best way to experience the city is via the L, with its second-story view. Chicago’s Lost “L”s is virtually a “secret history” of Chicago, and this is your ticket. David Sadowski grew up riding the L all over the city. He is the author of Chicago Trolleys and Building Chicago’s Subways and runs the online Trolley Dodger blog.

The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

Title Chicago’s Lost “L”s
Images of America
Author David Sadowski
Edition illustrated
Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2021
ISBN 1467100007, 9781467100007
Length 128 pages

Chapters:
01. The South Side “L”
02. The Lake Street “L”
03. The Metropolitan “L”
04. The Northwestern “L”
05. The Union Loop
06. Lost Equipment
07. Lost Interurbans
08. Lost Terminals
09. Lost… and Found

The price of $23.99 includes shipping within the United States.

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NEW DVD:

A Tribute to the North Shore Line

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the demise of the fabled North Shore Line interurban in January 2013, Jeffrey L. Wien and Bradley Criss made a very thorough and professional video presentation, covering the entire route between Chicago and Milwaukee and then some. Sadly, both men are gone now, but their work remains, making this video a tribute to them, as much as it is a tribute to the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee.

Jeff drew on his own vast collections of movie films, both his own and others such as the late William C. Hoffman, wrote and gave the narration. Bradley acted as video editor, and added authentic sound effects from archival recordings of the North Shore Line.

It was always Jeff’s intention to make this video available to the public, but unfortunately, this did not happen in his lifetime. Now, as the caretakers of Jeff’s railfan legacy, we are proud to offer this excellent two-hour program to you for the first time. The result is a fitting tribute to what Jeff called his “Perpetual Adoration,” which was the name of a stop on the interurban.

Jeff was a wholehearted supporter of our activities, and the proceeds from the sale of this disc will help defray some of the expenses of keeping the Trolley Dodger web site going.

Total time – 121:22

# of Discs – 1
Price: $19.99 (Includes shipping within the United States)

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks!

-David Sadowski

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