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

This is our 315th post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 1,170,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store.
As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

DONATIONS

In order to continue giving you the kinds of historic railroad images that you have come to expect from The Trolley Dodger, we need your help and support. It costs money to maintain this website, and to do the sort of historic research that is our specialty.

Your financial contributions help make this web site better, and are greatly appreciated.

Our 10th Anniversary

February 3, 2025April 28, 2025David Sadowski 16 Comments

An westbound two-car CTA “L” train crosses over the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal tracks circa November 1959. We are by Kenilworth Avenue in Oak Park during construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway. The highway is depressed below grade in this area, and the two railroads are in the south portion of the expressway footprint. All the buildings seen here are still extant. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

As of this January 21st, the Trolley Dodger blog is now ten years old. Each year since 1963, this date has commemorated the end of service on the North Shore Line interurban. I thought it would be a good date to associate with beginnings as well as endings.

It has been some months since our last post. We only had a few last year. This has led some people to ask about my health, or if I am still continuing with this.

Fact is, I am fine and have been busier than ever. In early December, we turned in our first draft of our next book, and this was accepted by our publisher. We have been scanning lots of images, and have added many important ones to our collection, some of which are featured here.

Acquiring new images costs money, and the research involved with our books is very expensive. Much of my work this past year has involved raising the funds to pay for all this. If you would like to help out, there is information further down in this post about our annual fundraiser.

We have been quite active on our Trolley Dodger Facebook group, which has added about 250 members since our last blog post. I realize that many of you are not on Facebook and therefore wouldn’t see any of that.

The Facebook group has been very useful as our members are very knowledgeable and are an aid to research. If I post something there that I am not sure about, I can often get locations identified quickly by someone on the group, along with finding out additional useful information.

My longtime friend Raymond DeGroote, Jr., who is 94, fell and broke his hip last November 1st. He needed partial hip replacement surgery, and contracted pneumonia while in the hospital. Ray went into a rehab facility, where he remained until January 22nd. Now he is back home once again, and is temporarily receiving round-the-clock care while he builds up his strength so he can negotiate those stairs. We wish him the best and hope he makes a full recovery.

I wanted this anniversary post to be extra special, and we have lots of exceptional, very rare images here for your consideration. Now that work on our new book is a lot further along, our hope is to have at least one new post every month for the rest of the year.

I have been interested in how the CTA transitioned the Garfield Park “L” into the Congress rapid transit line west of Laramie Avenue (5200 W.) for a long time. I was a small child when this construction was going on, and we lived in the area. Back in the 1980s, I wrote to the legendary George Krambles himself, asking how this was done. He replied there were at least three temporary rights-of-way, but that he was not clear on the details.

Since then, I have learned quite a bit about this, and some of that information (and many pictures) can be found in my 2018 Arcadia book Building Chicago’s Subways. Many more pictures have appeared on this blog.

Still, there were two remaining questions that needed answering. First, exactly where did the old Garfield Park alignment join up with the new Congress “L”? There was such a junction, we know, because service was offered on both lines simultaneously on June 21, 1958, and some maintenance work continued at the old Laramie Yard until around April 1959.

Second, where was the crossing between the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal tracks and the CTA moved to, while the new flyover was being built? They originally crossed each other at grade just east of DesPlaines Avenue in Forest Park. Now, there is a flyover that takes the freight line north of the CTA, and also carries both sets of tracks over the expressway (now I-290).

I recently discovered several photos by the late Jeffrey L. Wien that answer both questions. You will find them later in this post.

As I look back on our first ten years, I can honestly say that I have learned a lot. I thought I knew a few things when we started this journey, but it has been an educational experience for me. That is, in large part, due to our readers being so knowledgeable. So I have to thank all of you for that.

Another difference between now and then is our standards and capabilities for photo restoration have greatly improved. Experience is a great teacher, and we have worked on thousands and thousands of images since then.

My goal has always been to create a resource where people can find useful information about the history of electric railways. With over 1.1 million page views, I believe we have achieved that goal. When I do Google searches, doing my own research, the hits that come up often include things I have posted. Trolley Dodger pictures show up all the time on Facebook too.

I’m excited about the future as I look forward to the next ten years of the Trolley Dodger. And the best thing about this continued journey is we will do it together.

Enjoy!
-David Sadowski

PS- You might also like our Trolley Dodger Facebook auxiliary, a private group that now has 2,038 members.

Department of Corrections

This real photo postcard shows a crash between two Metropolitan “L” cars on the Humboldt Park branch. There is a different picture of the same wreck (again, from a RPP) on page 60 of my 2021 book Chicago’s Lost “L”s. The question was always, where was this taken? The best guess at the time was looking west from Kedzie Avenue (3200 W.) so that’s what I put in the book. On the other hand, Andre Kristopans thought it was near the west end of the line (Lawndale Avenue, 3700 W.). Turns out it was near Ballou station. This was later renamed to St. Louis Avenue (3500 W.) meaning it’s between where the two guesses were. Further research by Ron Tee turned up a March 15, 1909 article about the accident in the Herald News.

Our Annual Fundraiser

Since we started this blog in 2015, we have posted more than 16,000 images. This is our 314th post.

In the near future, we will need to renew our WordPress subscription, our domain registration, and pay other bills associated with maintaining this site, so it is time for our Annual Fundraiser.

The Trolley Dodger blog can only be kept going with the help of our devoted readers. Perhaps you count yourself among them.

If you have already contributed in the past, we thank you very much for your help. Meanwhile, our goal for this fundraiser is just $700, which is only a fraction of what it costs us each year. The rest is made up from either the profits from the items we sell, or out of our own pocket.

There are links at the top and bottom of this page, where you can click and make a donation that will help us meet our goal again for this coming year, so we can continue to offer you more classic images in the future, and keep this good thing we have going.

We thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Our Next Book Project

On December 7, 1958, CA&E wood cars 319 and 320 ran on a charter that became the last passenger movement on the railroad. Here, the fantrip train has reached the off-street Aurora terminal on a very wintry day. (Don Swanson Photo)

FYI, we are hard at work on 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.

CA&E locos 4005 and 4006 head up a freight train at Lakewood siding in June 1956. (Don Swanson Photo)

James P. Shulman took this picture of Chicago Aurora and Elgin #456 on January 12, 1947 at Wheaton, when this car was just about one year old. It was still lettered in Futura type.

Here is a picture of Chicago Aurora and Elgin #401 at the Wheaton station on March 18, 1956. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

Here is another picture of Chicago Aurora and Elgin #401 at the Wheaton station on March 18, 1956. We are looking to the east. (Raymond DeGroote, Jr. Photo)

This is how the abandoned Chicago Aurora and Elgin right-of-way looked in June 1960, nearly three years after the end of passenger service and one year after the last freight train. We are looking west from Fifth Avenue in Maywood. The gates have been removed but the tracks are still in place. Formal abandonment of the railroad was approved the following year.

Recent Finds

North Shore Line electric loco 456 is moving freight in North Chicago on the last full day of service, January 20, 1963. The weather was bitterly cold. There was no slacking off for the NSL’s employees, even though everyone knew the storied interurban had come to the end of the line. The photographer is not known, but I do think it’s very possible Jeffrey L. Wien is one of the three guys on the right… carrying a case that most likely has his movie camera in it. I think he’s the guy in the middle, grinning, because he’s in his element.

North Shore Line car #159 and an Electroliner are at the Mundelein Terminal in June 1961. The Liner was there on a fantrip, as they did not operate on this branch line in regular service. We are looking west.

North Shore Line express motors 238 and 231 are at Pettibone Yard in the 1950s. 238 has been converted to a snow plow, as the interurban had ended less-than-carload freight in 1947. This image was scanned from an 838 Kodachrome slide– which at 28x40mm is somewhat larger than 35mm’s 24x36mm. Kodak had a series of Bantam cameras that took this size, but it did not catch on.

North Shore Line car #703 is parked at Roosevelt Road in Chicago on a very snowy February 11, 1960.

The photographer must have been riding on a North Shore Line train to capture this picture on August 23, 1959. We are looking west towards the former Niles Center “L” station at Asbury Street in Evanston, last used in 1948. After being rented out to local businesses, the station building was torn down in the 1970s. The Skokie Swift began using these tracks in 1964, just over a year after the North Shore Line quit. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

CTA trolley bus 9361 was built by Pullman-Standard in 1948, and was retired on December 15, 1966. On February 26, 1965, it is heading west on Route 80 – Irving Park Road. The bus has just gone under the four-track North Side “L”. and is about to traverse the Milwaukee Road’s freight track just west of there. Until 1973, this track brought interchange freight to the CTA via the ground-level Buena Yard. Further north from here, there was a ramp connecting with the “L”. This was once a Milwaukee Road commuter line, but the Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company took over service north of Wilson Avenue in 1908. By 1912, this “Evanston Extension” of the “L” went as far north as Linden Avenue in Wilmette. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

On July 3, 1967, CTA trolley bus 9527 is eastbound on Irving Park Road, having just passed under the North-South “L”. This bus was built by Marmon-Herrington in 1951-52. The last Chicago trolley bus ran in 1973. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

This looks north from the 35th Street station on the South Side “L” on November 6, 1950. The walkway led to the former 33rd Street station, which had been closed the year before. The photographer noted that this walkway was used by students at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The walkway was closed on September 25, 1961. (William C. Hoffman Photo) M.E. writes, “This photo shows the three tracks that ran from south of Indiana Ave. north to Roosevelt Rd. The middle track was used by express trains (obviously not going in both directions simultaneously), and probably by North Shore Line trains that ran as far south as 63rd and Dorchester on the Jackson Park line for a time.
Your caption mentions the 33rd St. station. This trackage was the original South Side L from 1892, when the city was a lot smaller than today. So this trackage had a lot more stations, which (if I remember correctly) were at Congress, 12th St. (a.k.a. Roosevelt Rd.), 16th St., 18th St., 22nd St. (a.k.a. Cermak Rd.), 26th St., 29th St., 31st St., 33rd St., 35th St. and 39th St. (a.k.a. Pershing Rd.). Trains (other than express trains) on this structure stopped at all these stations (although after the State St. subway opened in 1943, mainline trains could serve L stations only as far north as 18th St.). This was before 1949, when the Kenwood line still used this trackage and before A/B skip-stop service began on the north/south mainline. After 1949, stations other than Cermak and 35th were closed to speed up service on this section. Cermak became a B (Jackson Park mainline) station and 35th an A (Englewood mainline) station.
By the way, until the 1949 major change, Englewood trains went not to Howard St. but to Ravenswood. Only Jackson Park, Evanston Express, and North Shore Line trains went to Howard. Before the 1949 cutback, Kenwood trains went into the Loop and some went as far north as Wilson Ave. After 1949, the Ravenswood line got its own trains between Kimball and the Loop.”

When Jeff Wien took this picture looking north along Pulaski Road at Irving Park Road in March 1973, CTA trolley buses were in their very last days. Here, we see 9624, a Marmon-Herrington, built in 1951-52. The Buffalo ice cream parlor was a local landmark for decades. Established in 1902, they moved to this location in 1918. It closed in 1978 and a gas station replaced it.

CTA prewar PCC car 7019 is heading north on Cottage Grove at 93rd on September 23, 1954. Route 4 streetcar service ended the following year. Our resident south side expert M.E. adds, “This intersection had a lot of trackage, for two reasons: (1) The 93rd-95th St. car line used Cottage Grove Ave. to move between 95th St. and 93rd St.; (2) A car barn was situated a block east on 93rd St. at Drexel. Notice all the trolley wire, which also indicates how much trackage existed at this intersection.”

Here’s the same location in October 2022.

On June 29, 1966, CTA single car unit 44 heads south from the Linden Avenue terminal, working an Evanston branch local. For a time, there was an automatic gate installed here to keep people and animals out of the yard. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

On July 14, 1963, this is the view looking south at South Boulevard on the Evanston branch of the “L”. As the sign at right notes, this was the changeover point from overhead wire to third rail. Evanston would not allow the “L” to use third rail north of here until 1973. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

Chicago Surface Lines Nearside streetcar #5773 is on Through Route 5: Cottage Grove – South Chicago in the late 1930s. Don’s Rail Photos: “5773 was built by Brill Car Co in 1912, #18322. It was retired on February 8, 1946.”

On May 11, 1958, William C. Hoffman captured this view, looking northwest towards the 43rd Street station on the Illinois Central Electric suburban service. You can see the former Kenwood “L” Terminal and Yard in the distance at 42nd and Oakenwald. That branch had closed on November 30, 1957, when its 50 year lease ran out with the Chicago Junction Railway, which owned it. This date also marked the end of wood cars on the “L”. The Kenwood “L” was demolished within a few years, although remnants still exist.

I was recently contacted by someone working on the effort to turn the old Kenwood “L” right-of-way into a south side version of the 606 Trail. They were wondering when the bridges over various streets were removed after the line was abandoned in November 1957. They were certainly gone by September 5, 1960, when this picture was taken at Vincennes Avenue.
(William C. Hoffman Photo)

Here is the former Kenwood “L” embankment at Cottage Grove Avenue on September 5, 1960. The Chicago Junction Railway was still active at this point, adjacent to the former “L”. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

A view of the old Kenwood “L” at Drexel Boulevard on September 5, 1960. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

This is where the old Ellis Avenue station was on the Kenwood “L”, as of September 5, 1960. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

We are looking north along Stony Island at 63rd Street on May 19, 1961. The eastern end of the Jackson Park “L” is at left. During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the “L” went further east of here. The Jackson Park branch has since been cut back to Cottage Grove. This image was restored from an early Ektachrome slide that had shifted to red. (William C. Hoffman Photo) M.E. writes, “In my early lifetime, the L structure over Stony Island Ave. was not there. The structure ended abutting Stony Island, but not spanning it. The streets here were a mini business district, there was a Greyhound bus station on Stony Island south of 63rd St., and Hyde Park High School was on Stony Island south of 62nd St. The 63rd St. streetcars traveled east to Stony Island, then turned right (south) to 64th St. to their terminal on 64th. To start their westbound trips, they went a block farther west on 64th St. to Harper, then north to 63rd St., then west. And of course Stony Island had its own streetcar line (and traffic ran in both directions).”

Chicago Transit Authority streetcar 3137 is at Root and Halsted (end of the 43rd Street car line) in 1952. The bridge belonged to the Stock Yard branch of the “L”. This was one of a few older trolleys that the CTA had painted in green and creme in the early 1950s. The sign at rear advertises the Chicago Daily Drovers Journal, founded in 1873 to report on the Union Stockyards. It is still in business today at: http://www.drovers.com (E. Rinke Photo)

Here’s how the Stock Yards “L” looked on Exchange Avenue near Racine Avenue on September 1, 1954. This “L” branchy was abandoned in 1957. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

We are looking west from the transfer bridge at the Indiana Avenue “L” station in the south side on November 6, 1950. By then, the Kenwood branch had become a shuttle. The CTA widened the platform so it could berth here, and northbound main line trains were relocated onto what had formerly been the express track (no longer in use, as the CTA had instituted A/B skip stop service). The Stock Yards branch always ran as a shuttle from the opposite platform. (William C. Hoffman Photo) M.E. notes: “This photo shows people on a wide platform. The space occupied by that platform was initially the third track that northbound mainline trains and northbound Kenwood trains used, before the Kenwood line was cut back to a shuttle from Indiana Ave. east. That change took place in 1949. This transfer bridge enabled passengers on:
(1) northbound mainline and Kenwood trains to reach southbound mainline trains and Stock Yards trains, and
(2) southbound mainline and Stock Yards trains to reach northbound mainline trains and Kenwood trains.”

On August 30, 1960, a southbound eight-car train is at 35th Street on the South Side “L”.
Construction of a new center-island platform has started. This turned out to be ill-fated, as the station was destroyed by fire not long after it opened. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

The picture was taken on October 18, 1962, the day after the station fire at 35th Street. It shows the train with the burned up car and a crowd of people nearby, including the fire department. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Subject: CSS&SB South Shore Line Hegewisch Station 1970s
Location: Chicago, Illinois (Hegewisch neighborhood)
Date: Circa 1970s
Photographer: Unknown
This picture shows the old South Shore Line station at Hegewisch, near the Illinois-Indiana border. It was replaced by a newer station in 1992, and as this slide has square corners, it probably predates 1981.

Subject: CSS&SB South Shore Line Interurban #104
Location: Michigan City, Indiana
Date: April 1963 (processing date)
Photographer: Emery J. Gulash
Emery J. Gulash (1918-2006) was a very well known railfan photographer.
CSS&SB #104 was built by Pullman in 1926, job #4936. It was lengthened in 1943. Air conditioning and picture windows came in 1950. All cars in this series were retired by 1983, and many went to museums. The facade from the historic Michigan City station has been saved and is planned to be reused with a new building behind it. The South Shore Line street running has been replaced by new double track on private right-of-way.

Subject: CSS&SB South Shore Line Electric Loco #901 (and presumably #900)
Location: Unknown
Date: Circa 1950-55 (based on the style of slide mount
Photographer: Unknown
CSS&SB electric steeplecab #901 was built by Baldwin/Westinghouse in 1929 as IC #10001. The CSS acquired it in 1941. It appears to have been retired sometime in the 1960s.

Whenever a movie theatre pops up in one of these photos, I post it to Cinema Treasures. Pittsburgh Railways PCC streetcar #1724 passes the Art Cinema at 809 Liberty Avenue on March 23, 1968. The adult theatre was offering a double feature of Fanny Hill Meets Dr. Erotica and Unholy Matrimony. It opened in 1931 as the Avenue Cinema and was renamed the Art Cinema in 1935. Redeveloped in 1995, it is now the Harris Theatre. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

On February 23, 1957, Queensboro Bridge streetcar #602 is posed by a BMT “A” train. The bridge train stopped running on April 7, 1957, as the last streetcar in New York City. Car 602 was built in 1929 by Osgood-Bradley for New Bedford, Massachusetts. Although similar in appearance to Brill Master Units, these cars were called Electromobiles. Several came to the bridge operation in 1948.

This circa 1948 picture of CTA “Jitterbug” 5002 caused a lot of discussion on our Facebook group, namely, where is this? But the consensus is, this is the original turnaround loop at DesPlaines Avenue on the Garfield Park “L”, looking east. William Shapotkin says the Chicago Great Western’s control tower is just barely visible at left. The yard here, and the turnback loop, were reconfigured in 1953 when the Chicago Aurora and Elgin cut back service to here. It was rebuilt again in 1959 during construction of the adjacent expressway.

From 1940 to 1952, the Pacific Electric ran in the median of the Hollywood Freeway (now U.S. Route 101) through Cahuenga Pass in Los Angeles. Here we see it during a 1948 fantrip. I can’t quite make out the car number. The Chicago Transit Authority opened its Congress rapid transit line in an expressway median in 1958, but by then, this one was already gone, and the space is now occupied by additional highway lanes.

CTA #4410, built in the early 1920s, is part of a fantrip train at Lake and Homan on October 21, 1973. This was about a month before the 4000s were taken out of service. (Arthur H. Peterson Photo)

We are looking northwest from Marshfield Avenue towards the Lake and Paulina “L” junction on August 15, 1963. The Paulina “L” still crossed over the Lake Street “L”, but the tracks north of here were only being used for shop moves, work trains, and charters by this point. A new connection to the Lake Street “L” was used by Douglas Park trains from 1954 to 1958, and is used by Pink Line trains today. The white structure was added during construction of this connection for use by the work crews. The upper level tracks here, along with the Lake Transfer station and trackage all the way north to the Milwaukee Subway was removed in 1964. (William C. Hoffman Photo) M.E. adds, “You may want to add to your caption that, after the Dearborn St. subway opened in 1951, this segment of trackage also provided the only way to move L cars between the Logan Square – Dearborn St. subway – Congress and LaSalle St. line and the rest of the system.”

The view looking north from around Chicago Avenue along the old Paulina “L” on June 26, 1960 during a fantrip. New CTA single car units 41 and 42 were used. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

This is the old Paulina “L” bridge over what are now Metra tracks. On June 26, 1960, the “L” structure was still intact all the way between Lake Street and the Milwaukee Avenue Subway, but only the southbound track was in use for shop moves, equipment transfers, work cars, and fantrips like this. The bridge is still there, used for signals. (William C. Hoffman Photo) (William C. Hoffman Photo)

To capture this view today, showing the north portal of the Milwaukee Avenue Subway, you would need a drone. But on June 26, 1960, you could take this picture while looking out the window of a fantrip train, turning sharply south onto the old Paulina “L”. That structure was demolished in 1964. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

To get this shot, the photographer must have been on a boat in the Chicago River, passing under the Van Buren Street bridge. We see the two side-by-side bridges used by the Metropolitan “L”. They were still in service for Garfield Park “L” trains when this picture was taken on May 12, 1957. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

By July 26, 1959, when this picture was taken, the Garfield Park “L” was no longer running, so the twin Met “L” bridges had been permanently raised. They were torn down around 1961. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

Another view of the Met “L” bridges, also from July 26, 1959. It was taken from the east side of the Chicago River, as you can see the 547 W. Jackson building in the distance.(William C. Hoffman Photo)

On July 28, 1958, the old Metropolitan “L” structure, last used by the Garfield Park “L” the month before was being demolished in this view looking east from Morgan Street. The new Congress line, which replaced it, is at right. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

By November 18, 1962, when this picture was taken, there were still a few remnants of the old Metropolitan “L”. This is what’s left of the old Canal Street “L” station after the structure here was torn down in 1961.
(William C. Hoffman Photo)

This is the view looking east along Van Buren Street at Ogden Avenue on June 17, 1958. We see the temporary Garfield Park “L” right-of-way, and the new Congress “L” at right, which would replace it five days later. Meanwhile, a Douglas Park “L” train rides along on the Paulina “L”. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

The same location, looking the same way, but on July 9, 1957. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

On October 19, 1953, demolition of the Garfield Park “L” structure was well underway in this view looking northwest from Claremont (2332 W.) and the construction site of the Congress expressway. The portion crossing Western Avenue has been removed.
(William C. Hoffman Photo)

This is all that was left of the Western Avenue “L” station on the Garfield Park “L” on November 1, 1953. This station was last used on September 27, 1953. For nearly five years, Garfield Park trains ran on a ground-level temporary right-of-way on Van Buren Street, just north of the expressway footprint to the left. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

As of July 27, 1958, when this picture was taken, the new CTA Congress “L” had been running for a month, and the old Garfield Park structure was still there. This was near Kilbourn Avenue (4500 W.), one of two places where it crossed the highway. The “L” was finally removed by November 1959. (William C. Hoffman Photo)

The solid gray line shows how the old Garfield Park “L” cut across the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway just west of Kostner (4400 W.). Disregard the purple line, that’s just marking different sections of the map.

Here is the partially demolished Garfield Park “L” structure. looking east at Kostner Avenue (4400 W.) from a slide processed in November 1959. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

The Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway was completely shut down during removal of the Garfield Park “L” structure, where it crossed the highway just west of Kostner (4400 W.). This slide was processed in November 1959. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

When the Congress expressway was built, the Garfield Park “L” crossed its footprint at two locations– here (4500 W.) and at Sacramento Boulevard (3000 W.). The existing “L” structures were retained, supported by additional steel called an “interlining.” That is how the Englewood “L” is supported now, where it crosses the Dan Ryan expressway. I do not know if any of the steel supports there came from here. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Since the Congress expressway was shut down temporarily for removal of the old Garfield Park “L”, it looks like photographer Jeffrey L. Wien walked over to the fence near the Congress “L” to get this shot near Kilbourn Avenue (4500 W.).

We are looking east from Cicero Avenue, as the Garfield Park “L” was being dismantled circa November 1959. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

A contemporary view of the same location.

After taking the previous picture, it appears that photographer Jeffrey L. Wien walked west along the temporarily closed Congress expressway for this shot of a two-car westbound Congress train near Cicero Avenue. This slide was processed in November 1959.

This pair of CTA flat-door 6000s is signed for Garfield Park in this circa 1955-58 photograph. But it’s not entirely clear where the location is. My guess is this at Central Avenue, by comparison with the next picture, where the location was identified. This was scanned from an original Ektachrome slide that had faded to red. I had attempted to color-correct this same slide (or one just like it) ten years ago, without success, but now this one doesn’t look too bad. It was a lot of work, though.

Here’s how the slide looked before I started working on it.

CTA 6039-6040 are at Central Avenue on the Garfield Park “L” on March 25, 1958. This was another early Ektachrome slide that had faded to red. On June 22, 1958, the CTA opened the new Congress rapid transit line as far west as the Cicero Avenue station. The Congress expressway was only open as far as Laramie Avenue, and construction gradually headed west. The “L” used a variety of temporary rights-of-way until everything was finished in 1960. Presumably, the tracks at right connected to the new Congress median right-of-way, while the ones at left went to the old Garfield alignment (which included Laramie Yard).

If this map, made by a Google user, is accurate, it shows where the Garfield Park “L” ran at ground level in the area by Central Avenue (5600 W.). The Lotus Tunnel is not shown, but would be in approximately the same location as where the Garfield “L” ran, east of Central, bringing the current “L” into the expressway median. If true, this would suggest the Garfield tracks were temporarily relocated to the north of where the tunnel is, but I am not sure if that is what really happened.

This picture was taken at the same time as the previous one at Central Avenue. The crossing gate at left has been removed, which supports my theory that Central Avenue was closed for traffic. In earlier photos at this location, Garfield Park trains were using tracks that veered off to the left. Now, Congress trains headed off to the right. The two-car train of flat-door 6000s has a run number and is on the westbound track. In the next picture, the train has its headlight on and also seems to be heading west. This slide was processed in November 1959. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

While the Congress median line opened as far west as Cicero Avenue on June 22, 1958, service west of there remained on various temporary rights of way until 1960. Here, we are looking east at the temporary “L” station at Central Avenue, circa November 1959. Generally speaking, there were perhaps three different temporary alignments, and the progression was to keep moving the “L” farther north, until the permanent alignment was ready. Here, what had been an island platform was, by the time this photo was taken, only being used by one set of tracks. You can see where some of the rails on the south end of the platform have been removed. Central Avenue appears closed to traffic, as an underpass was being built, going underneath the highway. There is a control tower at Central Avenue, to switch trains to either the old Garfield alignment at left, or the Congress route at right. By November 1959, this tower probably wasn’t in use. It was necessary to have continued access to Laramie Yard until about May 1959, as the new facilities in Forest Park were not ready yet. Graham Garfield’s excellent chicago-l.org web site explains: “On October 16, 1959, the permanent eastbound Congress Line track was placed in service between Parkside and Pine avenues thru Lotus Tunnel. A temporary side platform was placed in service. Three days later, on October 19, the permanent westbound track and a temporary westbound side platform was placed in service, closing the previous temporary platform. Meanwhile, between the permanent tracks, the new, permanent island platform was constructed. The new Central station platform (with temporary fare controls) was placed in service on October 10, 1960, with westbound trains first using it, followed by eastbound trains the next day. On October 11, 1960, the third and final temporary Central station was closed.” It’s not clear how this photo fits into the sequence of events, unless the temporary island platform became a side platform as seen here. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

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)

CTA Congress (now Blue Line) “L” trains switch from the expressway median to an alignment at the south end of the highway via the Lotus Tunnel, seen here in March 1971 with a pair of westbound 6000s. We are just east of Central Avenue. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

This slide, processed in November 1959, shows an eastbound Congress-Milwaukee “L” train, made up of single-car units 39-40, at Austin on Chicago’s west side. The Congress expressway was under construction, but hadn’t reached this point quite yet. The train is running on temporary trackage at ground level.
At left, that’s Columbus Park. When the highway was built, a bit of the south end of the park got shaved off.
In the distance you can see Loretta hospital and also the temporary station at Central Avenue. The B&OCT tracks are to the south of the CTA, and the crossover point was west of here. The temporary Central station was in the same location as the permanent one, but the temp station had two platforms on the outside of the tracks, while the permanent station has a central platform.
When the Garfield Park “L” became the Congress line, the new portion only ran as far west as Cicero Avenue. Everything west of there was the same as before. There were a few different alignments of temporary tracks leading to DesPlaines Avenue, with the CTA and B&OCT leapfrogging each other at times. The current alignment was finished in 1960, which is also when this part of the highway opened. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

We are looking mainly to the east from Austin Avenue, the borderline between Chicago and suburban Oak Park, in March 1971. This shows where the permanent alignment of the Congress (now Blue Line) “L” goes, compared to the previous picture. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

We are looking east from Austin Avenue along the future site of the Congress expressway circa November 1959. The highway would slice off a small part of Columbus Park at left. The Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal tracks are at right. Far in the distance, bulldozers are clearing the way for the expressway. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

In this slide, processed in November 1959 but possibly taken earlier, we see an eastbound Congress A train approaching the Austin Avenue station in the distance. A bridge is under construction that spans the portion of the highway footprint that has already been dug out. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

The same location as the previous slide, but this time, with a westbound train. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

This circa November 1959 view looks east just west of Lombard Avenue in Oak Park. A westbound train approaches. In the distance, you can just make out the “L” station at Austin Avenue. The orange bridge under construction is Lombard Avenue. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

The same location today. We are looking east along Flournoy Street at Lombard Avenue in Oak Park, In the distance, we see the same house as in the 1959 photo.

This is the same location as the previous picture, with an eastbound train. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

Oak Park residents may be surprised to know there was once an “L” station at Ridgeland Avenue on what is today the CTA Blue Line. But it was short-lived, only open from September 1957 until March 1960. This slide was processed in November 1959. The Garfield Park “L” previously had a station at Gunderson Avenue, a side street a few blocks west of here. It was on a side street because that’s where some new homes were built by a developer named Gunderson at the turn of the century. The CTA originally planned a permanent station here, but opted for secondary entrances to the stations at Austin (Lombard) and Oak Park Avenue (East Avenue) instead. You can see the bridge that crosses the highway at Austin Avenue under construction in the distance. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

CTA 6123-6124 are heading eastbound at the temporary Oak Park Avenue station in Oak Park in March 1960. These cars formerly were used on the Evanston branch “L” and had trolley poles for use there (third rail was not permitted). These have been removed, as the Congress line was all third rail, but you can see remnants. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

A westbound CTA two-car train is about to take the crossover at Kenilworth Avenue in Oak Park during a snowy March 1960. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

An eastbound CTA train has just crossed over the B&OCT tracks near Kenilworth Avenue in Oak Park in this circa November 1959 view. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

An eastbound two-car CTA train of flat-door 6000s has just crossed the B&OCT tracks at Kenilworth Avenue, a short distance west of Oak Park Avenue in March 1960. Near Central Avenue, the B&OCT tracks are south of the CTA. By the time they reach the Forest Park terminal, they are north of the CTA. Before the start of the highway project, the crossover point was just east of DesPlaines Avenue. While a new flyover was under construction near that location, the crossover was temporarily moved further east, as seen here. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

The bank building in the distance is still there today. It looks as though the bridge over the future highway may be under construction already, in this circa November 1959 view looking east towards Oak Park Avenue. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

CTA 4235 (at left) is at the head of a westbound two-car CERA fantrip train in Oak Park, on temporary trackage during construction of the adjacent Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway. The date is September 14, 1958. By 1955, the new highway was already open as far west as Laramie Avenue. There were two parallel sets of tracks west of there, through Oak Park and Forest Park, the CTA and the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal. The tracks were moved in stages to the north end of the expressway footprint. Then, the area to the south was dug out and by 1960, the tracks were relocated to their present location just south of the highway, which opened the same year. The location was identified as Ridgeland but I believe it is actually west of Oak Park Avenue. You will note how the B&OCT tracks are north of the CTA in this 1958 photo. That would imply the temporary crossover that brought them there was located east of here at the time. Photos from November 1959 show this crossover was at Kenilworth Avenue, just west of Oak Park Avenue. (Robert Heinlein Photo)

In March 1960, we are looking east along the expressway footprint from just east of Harlem Avenue. In the far distance, you can just make out where the CTA tracks curve to the north and cross the B&OCT at grade. A Chicago and West Towns bus is also just barely visible on Oak Park Avenue. The CTA train is heading westbound and is just about to stop at the temporary Harlem Avenue station. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

A pair of CTA single-car units heads east on temporary trackage at Harlem Avenue in March 1960. This was during construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) expressway, which opened in this area later in the year. Notice how the CTA tracks veer off to the left in the distance, while the B&OCT tracks are already north of the “L”. While the current flyover arrangement was being built west of here, the location of where the two railroads crossed was moved somewhere further east. Originally, they crossed at grade a short distance east of today’s flyover. The single-car units were brand new and were first assigned to Congress-Milwaukee before some began being used on Evanston in 1961. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

An eastbound Congress “L” train has just passed Harlem Avenue in March 1960. The two railroads here are on ground-level temporary tracks, while their eventual home is at right, below grade. Harlem Avenue is the dividing line here between Forest Park and Oak Park. There are below-grade traffic lanes where the railroads were. The Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal tracks are, at this point, north of the CTA’s. They crossed each other at a point further east of here while construction of a new flyover was underway a short distance west of Harlem. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

It’s March 1960, and CTA single car units #25 and 26 are heading westbound on the Congress route temporary trackage at Harlem Avenue. The expressway was still under construction here at this time, and would open later in the year. Here, the B&OCT tracks are north of the CTA. The crossing point between them appears to be off in the distance, where you can see the CTA veer off. Now there is a flyover west of Harlem Avenue that takes the B&O over the CTA. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

CTA 6041-6042 head east at the temporary Harlem Avenue station in March 1960. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

This March 1960 view looks northwest from Harlem Avenue, along the future site of the Congress expressway. The retaining wall at left may be for the eventual ramp used today by westbound traffic, which enters via the left lane. The CTA and B&OCT temporary tracks are at grade level, but were relocated later in the year into a cut at left of this picture, just out of view. In the distance, at left, you can see a large gas holder, then a local landmark, but which has since been removed. As this is west of Harlem, everything you see is in suburban Forest Park. DesPlaines Avenue is a half-mile west of here. (Jeffrey L. Wien Photo)

At noon on Sunday, October 12, 1958, a two-car CTA train made up of flat-door 6000s heads east from the DesPlaines Avenue terminal in Forest Park. There were three sets of tracks for motorists to cross on DesPlaines Avenue. From the looks of the tower at left, the CTA’s may have been manually operated. After the highway project was completed, an underpass took traffic underneath all three. The concrete slab at left is probably where a temporary bypass road took DesPlaines Avenue traffic around the construction site, while the underpass was being built. The view looks northwest. (Robert A. Selle Photo)

CTA 6191-6192 approach the DesPlaines Avenue Terminal in Forest Park circa 1959, when the Congress expressway was being built nearby.

Recent Correspondence

A Garfield/Westchester “L” train crosses the B&OCT tracks in Forest Park, circa 1948. This area has changed so much as to be virtually unrecognizable, but we are looking to the east. The freight tracks are turning to the north, while the “L” turns south towards DesPlaines Avenue. Behind the “L” train, out of view, is the Hannah Avenue station. East of here, the two trains ran parallel to each other to about Central Avenue, a distance of about two-and-a-half miles. The Eisenhower expressway runs through here today, with a flyover keeping the CTA Blue Line apart from the B&OCT as they cross each other (and the highway).

The Hannah Avenue “L” station (7400 W/700 S) in Forest Park, circa 1948.

Jack Franklin writes:

This edition was especially meaningful to me. I was in middle and high schools on the west side of Chicago Austin area, when the Congress X-way was being built. I rode on the Garfield Park L all the time during the transition. From ground level to to elevated to street running and other modes. When I would go to the Forest Park pool (Now the Forest Park Aquatic Center) with my cousin Bob who lived down the street from it, I would watch the Garfield Park L cross the B&O tracks just north of the pool.

One day while we were hanging out at the pool and looking for girls, I saw an L train derail heading westbound toward the crossing. There were derails in place on the L tracks, so the train must have tried to go through an open one. Some scurrying around by wreck crews and the L train was quickly back on the rails again. Lots of excitement.

In 1959, I was working in the Horder’s Warehouse at Clinton and Jackson across from Union Station. From our office windows we could see the elevated structure being taken down and the bridges being dismantled. Your pictures brought back some memories for me.

Jon Roma writes:

David, this is apropos of my comment to your 10th anniversary post, regarding the Metropolitan “L” station labeled as Clinton St., but actually named Canal St. (see comments section)

It turns out that I have an image showing the actual front façade of that station, albeit from a bit more distance than I would have preferred. This is one of my favorite bought slides, and I think the CPD officer on foot patrol in the foreground adds a bit of color to this fascinating street scene that includes the Metropolitan “L” and Chicago Union Station.

The slide does not carry any identifying information, so, alas, there is no photographer to credit. Feel free to use this as you see fit.

Some of my recent replies are long-winded, but that’s a reflection of how thought-provoking the shared images are to me.

Great photo, thanks for sharing! I have updated the caption to the photo you refer to, changing it to Canal Street.

Again, Jon Roma:

Hi, David.

I just tried to post a reply to the comment about the street crossing just south of the Linden Ave. yard in Wilmette, but I think it may have gotten eaten by WordPress. I can try reposting if it is truly lost.

https://i0.wp.com/thetrolleydodger.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ebf059a.jpg

My comment expressed doubt that the middle rail has anything to do with the crossing warning devices, but its purpose is a mystery. Incidentally, I also tried to share the morsel that the crossing still exists.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XBSqEAJHiaoLNHuU6

The pictures of the various track alignments along the Congress Expressway in Oak Park and River Forest are fascinating, but they open up several cans of worms because we are forced to try to piece together the construction staging in the absence of factual details. Because public funds were used for the highway and subway work, the documents probably exist – albeit in some yet-to-be-uncovered location buried deep in a library – perhaps in Springfield, or even here in Urbana-Champaign.

It is revealing that the B&OCT/CTA crossing appears to have moved at least once before the permanent alignment and grade separation were put into service. To a signal historian like me, this begs the question about what they did with the interlocking in the interim. The old interlocking governed the crossings of CRT/CTA and the B&OCT in addition to the split where B&OCT became two separate main lines belonging to the Soo Line and CGW. Of course, once the CTA construction was complete, the interlocking devolved into just the split, as the CTA was by then no longer part of the plant.

It’s conceivable that there was a temporary interlocking when the tracks were relocated, though that would have been a somewhat expensive proposition. If the interim situation persisted for more than a few months, it would likely be documented in at least one B&OCT operating timetable.

As I mentioned in my public comment a few days ago, I am very happy that the Trolley Dodger is back. I will reiterate how happy I am to hear that you are hoping for shorter and more frequent posts, because I think they’re easier to follow and digest.

Regards.

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:

New Compact Disc Titles, Now Available:

HFIH
Hi-Fi Iron Horse
Price: $15.99

Hi-Fi Iron Horse is a unique collection of early steam recordings, made between 1949 and 1954. Portable tape recorders were not yet available when the earliest of these was made, but there was still another source for making high-quality audio– the optical sound track of motion picture film.

Featuring in-service steam of the Baltimore & Ohio, Bessemer & Lake Erie, Burlington, Canadian National, Delaware & Hudson, East Broad Top, Erie, Grand Trunk Western, Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain, Western Maryland, and Rutland Railway.

Total time – 50:49

TSOS
The Sound of Steam
Reading 2124
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)

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 314th post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 1,142,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store.
As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

DONATIONS

Your financial contributions help make this web site better, and are greatly appreciated.

Postcards From the Bridge

May 14, 2023May 21, 2023David Sadowski 15 Comments

This real photo postcard image shows the four-track Metropolitan “L” bridge (actually two separate bridges, side by side), but it also shows a small experimental lifeboat moored at left. One author’s research into the history of this boat is featured in this post, and also sheds some further light on when this photo was taken.

From the start of the Trolley Dodger in 2015, I hoped this blog would become a resource for others, and I am pleased that this has happened. Sometimes these inquiries take strange and unexpected turns, and that is certainly the case regarding the early real photo postcard shown above. This interesting tangent of Chicago history is covered in detail further down in this post. Research can raise just as many questions as it answers, and that is definitely what happened here regarding the small experimental boat visible in the lower left-hand corner of this and other postcards of the Met bridge.

We also have a goodly number of excellent images for your perusal, from some of the great traction photographers.

We regret the passing on April 30th of Robert Heinlein, aged 84. He was one of the giants in his field, and our next post will be a tribute to him. Some of Mr. Heinlein’s photos are in my recent book The North Shore Line, and I am glad he was able to see the finished product. He spent his entire career sharing his knowledge and helping others, and he will be sorely missed. You can read his obituary here.

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 1,162 members.

I will be giving a program on my new North Shore Line book on 7:30 pm on Friday evening, May 19th, at Chicago Union Station for the Railroad & Shortlines Club of Chicago. There is no charge. Please do not arrive before 7:15 pm.

Chicago Union Station
Room 107A
500 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois

Please enter at 500 W. Jackson Boulevard, between Clinton and Canal. Call 312 725-0432 during the meeting for assistance.

We gave two presentations in April that were well attended and received. First, we spoke at the Libertyville Historical Society on the 17th. You can view that presentation here. To date, there have been about 3500 views.

On the 20th, we were at the History Center of lake Bluff and Lake Forest. You can view that presentation here.

Postcards From the Bridge

Sandy Cleary writes:

Good morning! I hope this finds you well 🙂

I’ve been lost on the site for a few weeks since finding it—it scratches an itch I also have—and I’m really grateful for the work that you’ve done in documenting a lot of pretty niche historical artifacts. I’m very curious about one in particular. It’s mentioned in this post here, above the text “I recently bought this real photo postcard, circa 1910.”

I’m pretty certain it comes from the summer of 1907. The boat docked in the lower left of that photo is an obscure lifeboat designed by Robert Brown, of Chicago; it was tied up to the Chicago Sanitary District dock in 1907 but Brown stopped paying docking fees in March, 1908 and it’s absent in another 1908 photo of the bridge. Debris on the loading dock to the northeast of the bridge matches debris visible in Detroit Publishing Co. photo 070152 (here at the LOC), which was taken at the same time as 070153 (LOC link); based on the SS Pueblo’s transit records that photo must’ve been taken on July 30th, 1907.

I’ve been working on writing up the history of Robert Brown’s boat, which features in some other Chicago lore a few years later, and for which the photographic so far consists of only three photos: the two Detroit Publishing Co. ones, and whoever took the picture used in the postcard you found. It was reused in numerous postcards (colorized with the title “Elevated R. R. Jackknife Bridge over Chicago River, Chicago”—you can find examples on eBay).

The one you posted, though, is by far the clearest. I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the postcard’s copyright or who might have printed it? I’ve never been able to find what the photographic source might’ve been. A clearer example, one which might make the text on the white sign north of the boat legible and make it easier to fix the exact date the photo was taken, would be invaluable but I’m not sure where to start looking.

(Also, the version you’ve found is evidently a different crop—the colorized version shows more of the western bank and the dock itself).

I appreciate your time—any pointers on anything more about that postcard or the photo that was responsible for it would be incredibly helpful. The work you did on restoring the one you found was already enough for me to conclude when the boat was actually tied up at Van Buren St., which I’d been despairing of finding possible.

Kind regards
Sandy

Thanks for writing. It’s remarkable how small details in such photographs can be of so much use to researchers today.

In the meantime, what a remarkable piece of scholarship you have achieved!

As you can see, the reverse side of the postcard doesn’t identify the maker. But perhaps it can still be identified by comparison with other postcards with the same printing, whose manufacturers are known to experts.

Would it be alright for me to share your original note with the readers of my blog (and accompanying Facebook group)? You never know what useful information others might have to share.

Sandy Cleary:

Absolutely, you can share with whomever! The information I have is unfortunately pretty limited. From my boat-focused point of view, what’s known is:

1. Chicagoan carpenter Robert Brown designed and built an odd-shaped lifeboat in 1905, which was photographed for a magazine in ~1905/1906
2. His company, the International Automatic Lifeboat Company, paid the Chicago Sanitary District a $5/mo docking fee for the Van Buren St. dock between October, 1906 and March, 1908
3. Hans Behm took three photos of the Metropolitan West Side railroad bridge on July 30th, two of which depict the boat.
4. It’s gone by a September, 1908 photo of the bridge taken, I think, by the Chicago Sanitary District (because the MWRD has posted this picture a few times)
5. The only other photo is the one from the postcard, which must’ve been taken between October, 1906 and March, 1908. The overall bridge configuration seems to be the same between the postcard and the 1907 photos, as does the debris seen on the loading dock on the northeast side of the bridge:

After that the boat disappears for a few years, until it was found sunk in the north draw of the Wells Street Bridge (just south of the Chicago & North Western depot there. Then it was shown for a few months as “The Foolkiller,” putatively the world’s first submarine, after which it disappears again and is now only really relevant for weird Chicago lore.

Fortunately a lot of the Chicago Sanitary District records are online, and I was able to get in touch with someone from Commonwealth Edison who also had some useful information, but I have to imagine a lot of the information from the L companies pre-merger is gone. It seems to me that there might have been some reason why people were taking pictures of the Met’s bridge around the same time, but I’m not sure what that might have been.

I know that there was pressure to have it removed because of how significantly it impacted the channel by ~1911 or so—tracing over old Sanborn maps from 1906 really drives home how dramatic that constriction was:

At the time the western span of the Jackson Blvd. bridge and the Metropolitan West Side crossed what Sanborn identifies as property belonging to the Pacific, Fort Wayne & Chicago, during its period when it was not part of the Penn, I think—I am not a train girl. The Met’s viaduct would’ve crossed over the PFW&C freight house, before that whole west bank became Chicago & North Western property again. In any case the bridge wasn’t actually torn down until 1961 (by that point, as I understand it, the CTA hadn’t been using it to carry rail traffic since 1958).

Thank you so much again for your time and for your help with this. How these photo postcards worked has been something of a mystery to me. Numerous different versions seem to have been made, and I just don’t know whether these were the same company, or different companies skirting copyright because Google Images wasn’t a thing at the time, or what. But the fact that there is such a high-quality photo, anywhere, is extremely heartening.

I suspect the postcard that I have was very short-lived in the marketplace, as this was a transition period between real photo postcards and printed ones. Even if some of the colorized versions may have used the same original negative as a starting point, the eventual results look more and more like drawings rather than photographs.

As to the sudden popularity of pictures of the Met “L” bridge, starting in 1907, this coincided with a major change in how people could write messages on postcards:

DIVIDED BACK PERIOD: 1907-1915

“In 1907, a major change on the address side of postcards occurred. This change was prompted by the Universal Postal Congress, the legislative body of the Universal Postal Union. The convention decreed that postal cards produced by governments of member nations could have messages on the left half of the address side, effective October 1, 1907. The Universal Postal Congress also decreed that after March 1, 1907, government-produced cards in the United States could bear messages on the address side.2 Congress passed an act on March 1, 1907, in compliance with the Union’s decree, allowing privately produced postcards to bear messages on the left half of the card’s back. The next day, the Postmaster-General issued Order No. 146, granting privileges to privately produced postcards that were already granted in international mail, including the allowance of message space. On June 13, 1907, the Postmaster-General issued Order No. 539, which allowed government-produced postcards to bear messages on the left half of the address side.3 These changes to the backs of postcards ushered in the Divided Back Period, which spans from 1907 until 1915. The Divided Back Period is also known as the “Golden Age of Postcards,” due to the vast popularity of postcards during this time period.”

“Another type of postcard that began to be produced and popularly used during the Divided Back period and through the White Border period is the “real photo” postcard. “Real photo” postcards were first produced using the Kodak “postcard camera.” The postcard camera could take a picture and then print a postcard-size negative of the picture, complete with a divided back and place for postage.”

Source: https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/postcard/postcard-history

Sandy Cleary:

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard “real photo post card” as a term before I read your blog, and then noticed “RPPC” everywhere on eBay.

There are, as far as I can tell, three versions of this postcard. The first two are the colorized ones, which are labeled on the back as no. 171 of the Franklin Post Card Co.—of Germany, although ironically the earliest example I can find, postmarked August 17th, 1909, says “Made in Germany.” There were two distinct crops of that. The first (type A) is the widest crop, and it’s the one where the “E” in “Elevated” is written more like a backwards 3.

The second (type B) is one that the UIC Library gives copyright to Copelin Commercial Photographers in a black-and-white photographic form. This seems to be more common; the earliest postmark so far I’ve found is from September 13, 1910. Both of these two show up with postmarks as late as 1915. They went through different print runs, though; the back variously says:

* Aug. 17 1909: “No. 171. Made in Germany” (Type A)
* Sep. 13 1910: “No. 171.” (Type B)
* Aug 16, 1911: “No. 171” (Type B)
* Nov. 3 1911: “171” (Type B) (it’s possible the “No.” has been scratched off)
* Oct. 14 1912: “No. 171. Publ. by Franklin Post Card Co., Chicago, Ill. Made in Germany” (Type A)
* Aug. 13 1915: “No. 171. Publ. by Franklin Post Card Co., Chicago, Ill.” (Type B)

…As I write this up I realize this means that the widest version is rarer because it’s the German version. The design on the back, with the more ornate “Post Card” lettering, is identical to other postcards published by (for example) M. Weixelbaum, of Lima, and Provincetown Advocate and the Cardinell-Vincent Co. in addition to Franklin. I don’t understand why some postcards were made in Germany and some were not. Apparently the early 1900s was “postcard mania” in Germany, according to Deutsche Welle. I’d never heard of that before.

Anyway, the third one is the one you’ve found, which has different writing, and is also a much closer crop. Here are all three, superimposed:

What is a little puzzling to me is that the postcard you found is of such high quality that implies (to me) that a medium-format negative was accessible to whomever wound up creating all of the derivatives, which I wouldn’t have expected if it was being held in, say, the Franklin vault. But if it was a Franklin photo, the reverse doesn’t look like the reverse of any Franklin postcards. I tried image-searching for postcard backs looking for something similar, and turned up these from Vermont, which use the same language but a different font in “Post Card.”

Given your link, that creates the unfortunate possibility that what you have is, in fact, the only copy of that postcard, because it was created by someone who was interested in the bridge (or liked the composition), had access to the original, and printed it as a one-off postcard, which is why so far as I can tell it’s never appeared elsewhere. The title is odd—as you note, this isn’t the Northwestern, and the bridge seems to have been well-known as a Metropolitan West Side bridge to locals. Or perhaps it dates from the 20s or 30s, and whoever was writing it just guessed. I don’t know.

I’m also not sure if it’s significant (beyond “postcard mania”) that the early examples are German. There was a big German population in Chicago at the time, and the Germans apparently did like postcards. Germans also liked bridges; Scherzer was born in Illinois, but his parents were German immigrants. One of the earlier photos of the Met bridge (I think it might be the oldest) is from a German postcard:

Text says: “‘Folding’ Bridge over the Chicago River (bridge closed)”; handwriting says (I think): “Dear Dad: Sent you today (payday) $1.00 worth of 1 and 2-cent post stamps. Let me know if these arrived safely.”

It has occurred to me that I could poke around here in Berlin to see if there’s anything promising, but if memory serves most Chicagoan immigrants came from further north (Pomerania and such). Here in Berlin our train esoterica is only the “ghost stations” from the Cold War and that some of our subway stops are mildly radioactive because they used uranium oxide glazing in the tile.

Anyway! Thank you again for your time, and for the link to that Smithsonian article!

This is all very interesting to me, and should also interest my readers. Thanks very much for sharing these wonderful images.

In the early years of photography, negatives were usually large enough to be contact printed onto photo paper, without using an enlarger. The “chicken scratch” writing on my postcard could have been inked onto a glass plate, on top of the negative, or it may have been applied to the negative itself. The proportions of postcards are more rectangular than many of the standard film formats of the time, which may help explain the cropping.

While doing further research into this story, I came across a series of blog posts.

Is this something you wrote?

Sandy Cleary:

Yeah, that’s me 🙂

The “Foolkiller” was originally covered by Cecil Adams in the “Straight Dope” column of the Chicago alternative weekly Chicago Reader, and then later by podcaster Mark Chrisler of The Constant. It’s been stuck in my head for about fifteen years, so I’ve been trying to pull together as much as I can rather than leaving things on various email threads or chat discussions, in case any one else ever goes searching. It’s also been a good way to start organizing my thoughts on the matter (I don’t think many people read that blog).

That’s an interesting steer, re: the negatives. The UIC holding is described as a “photographic print” although I understand the MWRD (the Chicago water authority) apparently found a number of glass plates in their archives. The Library of Congress also (I think) has the original Hans Behm photos, which are described as glass 8×10 negatives (here’s one of them below). I need to read up on that era of photography, apparently.

(The Detroit Publishing Co. photos taken by Behm were also turned into colorized photo postcards, although they don’t seem to have been as popular, or at least most of the Met depictions are not those. There’s an early one that the Central Electric Railfans’ Association wrote up about ten years ago; that’s given a copyright date of 1907 but it must be earlier because the bridge doesn’t have the circular pilings that it would retain for most of its life and were in place by 1907; on the other hand, the Palmer Building is visible (leftmost skyscraper) and that was built sometime between 1903 and 1906).

FYI, I wrote that CERA blog post you refer to.

Sandy Cleary:

I’ve also seen your name on the Industrial History page about the bridge, come to think of it.

And this brings the story up to date. Ms. Cleary’s blog posts, linked above, shed additional light on the story of this experimental boat, which I can summarize as follows. This was one of several attempts at creating a safer lifeboat, to be carried on ships, and for rescues. A number of such ideas were patented in the late 1800s and early 1900s, all very speculative, of course.

The International Automatic Lifeboat Company prototype, designed by Robert Brown, was moored in the Chicago River for some period of time, and not always near the Metropolitan West Side “L” bridge. The US Navy studied the concept and decided it was not practical, as it would have been too difficult to get people into this boat during rescues. This most likely doomed its prospects.

At some point, the boat sank, and was later pulled out of the river, whereupon some enterprising persons displayed it as a supposed submarine, which it was not.

The postcard we have mistakenly identifies this as the Northwestern “L”. In actuality, it was the Metropolitan West side Elevated, but some of its trains did go to Chicago’s northwest side. The Northwestern “L” actually ran to the north side, despite the name.

I hope that further information may shed more light on this story in the future. In the meantime, here are some additional examples of postcards showing the Met “L” bridge.

-David Sadowski

Trackwork near the Met bridge was somewhat complex. Tracks to the right fanned out, leading to the Wells Street Terminal. The tracks at left connected to the Loop “L” via Van Buren Street. (Robert Heinlein Collection)

We are looking west from the Wells Street Terminal towards the dual bridges over the Chicago River. (Robert Heinlein Collection)

This is the only photo I have seen that shows the interior of the Met bridge interlocking tower. (Robert Heinlein Collection)

A 1906 postcard, made at a time when messages could only go on the front of the card.

The back of the 1906 card. Only the address was permitted here.

A 1908 postcard.

By 1908, messages were allowed on the left side of the card back.

A 1909 postcard, based on the 1907 photo.

The rear of the 1909 postcard.

A 1911 postcard, based on the 1907 photo.

The back of a 1911 postcard.

A 1912 postcard.

The back side of a 1912 postcard.

A 1915 postcard, clearly based on the 1907 photo.

The back side of a 1915 postcard.

A 1919 postcard.

The back side of a 1919 postcard.

A 1920 postcard.

And here are some later views of the bridge, from various angles:

A view of the Metropolitan “L” crossing the Chicago River on July 10, 1949. We are looking to the northwest.

Over the years, I have seen many poor quality duplicate slides with this view, looking to the northwest, with a Garfield Park “L” train crossing the Met bridge over the Chicago River, with Union Station in the background. However, this was scanned from an original red border Kodachrome slide, circa 1955-58. The name of the photographer is not known. This must be a Garfield train, and the results are stunning. Douglas cars were re-routed over the Lake Street “L” in 1954. Logan Square trains began running via the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway in 1951.

CTA 2256 is part of a four-car Met train, turning from Market Street onto the double bridge over the Chicago River in March 1951.
(Truman Hefner Photo)

This picture of the old Met bridge over the Chicago River is undated, but probably dates to circa 1952-55 based on the type of red border Kodachrome mount it is in. But it is certainly after the the other picture in this post, taken at much the same location, since the building at rear, or part of it, was in the process of being torn down. This was not related to expressway construction, since the “L” at this point was north of there. Once the Congress rapid transit line opened in 1958, this section of “L” was taken out of service and by the early 1960s it had been torn down.

Stylish Coit Tower sits atop Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, and has afforded an unparalleled view since its completion in 1933. In April 1987, when this picture was taken, the view included Muni streetcar 578, built in 1896. Although it resembles a cable car, it uses overhead wire. It is occasionally operated for special events and is the oldest streetcar in use in the country. In recent years wheelchair access was added.

A Milwaukee Road push-pull commuter train is at Rondout (an unincorporated area in Lake County, IL) on September 2, 1963. Bi-levels were introduced to the Milwaukee Road around 1961 and ridership was much lower than it is today, so often one car sufficed instead of seven or eight as you see today on Metra. The station here was removed around 1965 on what is now the Metra Milwaukee District North Line. I believe we are looking to the northwest, and that the overpass may be the former North Shore Line Mundelein branch, which had been abandoned on January 21, 1963. There was a tower located kitty-corner to the station, to the right and behind the photographer, which was last used in 2015. (William D. Volkmer Photo)

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “410 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 December 31, 1942, as a two motor coach by closing in the open platform and changing the seating.” Here is how it looked in December 1958 at the Mundelein Terminal. (Russell D. Porter Photo)

North Shore Line Electroliner 801-802 is on the CTA “L” in August 1962.

This is a nice overhead view of a four-car train of North Shore Line Silverliners on Chicago’s “L” in August 1962.

North Shore Line cars 157, 169, and 175 are heading southbound on the Sixth Street Viaduct in Milwaukee on April 19, 1959.

There are not many color photos showing this prewar paint scheme, seen here on North Shore Line coach 739 at the Milwaukee Terminal on June 25, 1942.

North Shore Line coach 173 is at the Mundelein Terminal in November 1962, just two months before the end of service. Car 160, now at the Illinois Railway Museum, is at right on a storage track. (Walter Schopp Photo)

After the North Shore Line abandonment, car 727 went to the Southern Iowa Railway. Here it is shown on June 14, 1964, next to Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Northern car 100. Within a few years, both cars ended up on the Iowa Terminal Railroad (now the Iowa Traction Railway), but unfortunately, car 100 was destroyed in a 1967 fire. 727 is still operable.

Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee #607 is at North Chicago Junction on November 16, 1941. “The ‘Big Hook’ operating as a loco, hauling a 12 car drag and caboose.” The color is described as orange and black. (Vic Wagner Photo)

North Shore Line city streetcar 359, a 1920s product of the St. Louis Car Company, is shown at North Chicago Junction on March 2, 1941. This was the south end of the line for Waukegan streetcars. (Vic Wagner Photo)

North Shore Line Silverliner 771 at the Milwaukee Terinal.

$A three car Chicago and Milwaukee Electric (predecessor of the North shore Line) express train, made up of woods including car 401, from an early colorized postcard. The location here may be Lake Forest. Don\s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): "401 was built by Jewett Car in 1909 as parlor-buffet car. In 1917 it was converted to straight coach and retired in 1935. It was leased to Chicago Aurora & Elgin and renumbered 142 in 1936. It came back for a short time with the CA&E number in 1945 and sold to CA&E in 1946. It was retired in 1953."$

A three car Chicago and Milwaukee Electric (predecessor of the North shore Line) express train, made up of woods including car 401, from an early colorized postcard. The location here may be Lake Forest. Dons Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “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.”

As the song goes, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot at the former site of the North shore Line’s Milwaukee Terminal, seen here on August 24, 1966. The former switchman’s shanty was the only thing carried over. (Richard H. Young Photo)

On June 6, 1954, the National Railway Historical Society held a farewell fantrip on the Red Arrow interurban line to West Chester, PA. Here, the fantrip cars are stopped at the West Chester Water Works. Car 66 was built by Brill in 1926 and was declared surplus in 1970, after Red Arrow was taken over by SEPTA. It is now at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, PA.

Fairmount Park Transit car 10, built by Brill in 1896, as it appeared on April 6, 1946, not long before the line was abandoned. There are not many color photos of this operation. (David H. Cope Photo)

Fairmount Park Transit was an interesting streetcar operation that ran from 1896 to 1946, all on the grounds of a public park in Philadelphia, completely separate from the rest of the local streetcar system. Here we see car #1.

This picture was taken on July 26, 1961 at the Red Arrow Lines (Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company) 69th Street Terminal. Amazingly, the sign still mentions the Lehigh Valley Transit interurban, which stopped operating in 1951, and which hadn’t operated to this station since 1949.

A Lehigh Valley Transit Liberty Bell Limited interurban car is heading northbound at West Point in Pennsylvania on September 18, 1948. Rail service ended three years later. (James P. Shuman Photo)

CTA PCC 4382 appears to be turning east from Clark Street onto Division Street. Close examination of the slide shows the streetcar is signed for Route 36 – Broadway-Downtown. As Steve De Rose notes, the south portion of Broadway-State was “bustituted ” on December 5, 1955, and the Blatz ad campaign on the side of the car dates this picture to 1956.

Chicago Surface Lines PCC 4125 and red car 1403 are at 73rd Street and Vincennes Avenue in March 1947, as the newest and oldest streetcars in the CSL fleet. (Vic Wagner Photo)

The Union Stock Yards, as seen from the “L”, probably circa 1908 when this branch line opened. From a real photo postcard.

CTA 4409 is at the head of a two-car fantrip train at Francisco on the Ravenswood “L” on November 25, 1973. This was at the end of regular service for the 4000-series cars, built in the early 1920s. (Arthur H. Peterson Photo)

A view looking north at the CTA Linden Avenue “L” yard in Wilmette in June 1966 shows where the North Shore Line’s Shore Line Route tracks branched off at right and continued north. After service ended in 1955, the CTA incorporated some of this trackage into its storage yard, which has since been reconfigured.

This duplicate slide was described as showing the CTA Douglas Park “L” at Kenton Avenue in May 1952. That may be the correct date, but I believe it actually shows an eastbound Garfield Park train between Laramie and Central Avenue. West of here, the “L” turned to run parallel to the B&OCT. The area at left is where the Eisenhower expressway runs today, and this is approximately the location of the Lotus tunnel.

CTA 2102 is at the tail end of a Lake-Dan Ryan train in April 1975, turning the sharp corner from Wabash to Lake. After the horrific crash here two years later, where some “L” cars fell off the structure, additional steel was added to help prevent a future reoccurrence.

Passengers are boarding an eastbound South Shore Line train, headed by car 107, at Michigan City, IN in May 1959. Now, the line is being double-tracked at this location, and the street turned into a private right-of-way. The facade of the old station is going to become part of a new redevelopment here. From left to right, the several cars visible include an early 50s Chevy, a ’59 Chevy, a ’55 Oldsmobile, a late ’50s Cadillac, a 1956 Buick, and a 1959 Ford.

A South Shore Line train, with car 101 at the helm, is at the East Chicago station on February 8, 1953. In 1956 the street trackage here was replaced by a new bypass route, running parallel to the Indiana Toll Road. (James P. Shuman Photo)

Chicago Aurora and Elgin 404 at Forest Park, circa 1955-57. We are looking north. After interurban service was cut back to here in 1953, the CA&E had a track for midday car storage, seen at left.

The final fantrip on the Chicago Aurora and Elgin took place on a wintry December 7, 1958, about six months prior to the complete abandonment of the interurban, which had stopped operating passenger service on July 3, 1957. I am not sure of this location in Chicago’s western suburbs, although the sign at right would suggest it is at one of several Main Streets in the area. Wood cars 319 and 320 were used. By this time, automatic gates had been removed, and the train had to be flagged at each such crossing. Jason Learakos: “Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The photo is facing east across Main Street from the station there.” Mike Franklin says we are “looking SE at Main St., Glen Ellyn.”

Chicago Aurora and Elgin wood car #20, built in 1902, ran for 55 years on that interurban before heading to the Fox River Trolley Museum, where it remains. Here it is in October 1970, when this operation was still known as “RELIC.” These are former tracks of the Aurora, Elgin, and Fox River Electric, which was affiliated with the CA&E.

Chicago Aurora and Elgin car 409, the only Pullman saved from the fleet, is shown operating at “Trolleyville USA” in Olmstead Falls, OH on August 28, 1965. It is now at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Chicago Aurora and Elgin car 20 at “RELIC” in South Elgin in August 1968.

Chicago’s Central Station opened in 1893 to serve trains to the World’s Columbian Exposition site. Trains of the Illinois Central and the “Big Four” (the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, which after 1906 was affiliated with the New York Central) used this station, which was adjacent to the tracks (electrified in 1926) now used by the Metra Electric and South Shore Line. After Amtrak took over intercity passenger train operations in 1971, they consolidated service to Union Station the following year, and Central Station closed. Demolition began on June 3, 1974, which is right around when this photo was taken.

Another photo of the soon to be demolished Central Station in June 1974.

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “65 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1928, #2985, as I&SE 230. In 1933 it was sold to ICRT as 230 and in 1941 it was sold to SHRT as 65. In 1949 it was sold to Ed Tennyson and leased as Speedrail 65 where it originally operated with a modified Shaker Heights paint scheme. When repainted, the Speedrail logo was omitted. It was scrapped in 1952.” Based on that, my best guess is this picture may date to near the end of service in 1951. The location is at Sixth and Michigan in Milwaukee, by the North Shore Line Terminal. Transport Company bus 930 is also visible.

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “66 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1929, #3025, as Dayton & Troy Ry 203. It was returned to Cincinnati Car in 1932, and in 1938 it was sold to Lehigh Valley Transit as 1102. In 1949 it was sold to Speedrail, but was not rehabilitated until March 1951. But it only ran for 3 months before the line was abandoned and then scrapped in 1952.” Here it is seen during that brief period of operation in Waukesha. Larry Sakar: “aae249 is a photo I also have. The 66 is indeed laying over at the Waukesha loop/ Two questions remain to this day. 1. Was there any specific spot where the cars were supposed to stop? Seems to me I see photos of TM cars laying over parked in a variety of places on the loop. For instance that great single leading duplex shot which was the common lash-up during the WWII era is parked in a different spot than the 66. 2. I have never seen a photo of cars laying over on the Waukesha loop with passengers either boarding or waiting to board. I am inclined to think that passengers could not be carried the two blocks between the Waukesha station at Clinton Street & Broadway and the loop because when the line was cut back to Waukesha loop on 12-30-45 passenger service had been abandoned beyond downtown Waukesha. This is speculative on my part. I don’t really know. Jay Maeder and the city of Waukesha tangled over the sale of the Waukesha loop. The city wanted to buy it from Speedrail to accommodate more cars. Maeder was willing to sell. Initially he asked something like $1100 until he saw the appraisal and quickly raised the asking price to $2500. The city accused him of trying to gouge him and refused to budge beyond $1500. Maeder said they were trying to cheat him and they were. When Hyman-Michaels had the property appraised the appraisal came in at $2200! Just where he planned to turn the cars around if he sold the loop I don’t know. He publicly said there were “lots of places where Speedrail could turn the cars but I can’t think of any!” In the end the city got it anyway and it became a parking lot until the 1980s. It is now the site of a very big Walgreens Drug Store. The Motor Transport Co. freight building was torn down shortly after Speedrail came to an end.”

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “62 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1928, #2985, as I&SE 245. In 1933 it was sold to ICRT as 245 and in 1941 it was sold to SHRT as 62. In 1949 it was sold to Ed Tennyson and leased as Speedrail 62 and was scrapped in 1952.” This photo may have been taken in Waukesha and could date to just prior to the 1951 abandonment. Larry Sakar: “This is NOT toward the end of Speedrail. The lack of front stripes on the curved sider indicates that this is pre Summer 1950 when the two black stripes began to appear on the curved side cars. O’Brien photos took some great photos of the Waukesha loop including an aerial shot of it before it became the loop. They were located about a block or so east of the Waukesha station.” Mike Franklin says we are “looking SE on Broadway from Clinton St, Waukesha, WI.”

Milwaukee Electric M15 at an undetermined location. Stephen Karlson writes, “M15 is under the train shed at East Troy that was later removed. That stretch of the right of way remains off limits to boarding passengers at the preservation railway as the ground is on the same plot of land as the house that was once the station. Thus the loading platform for the electric cars is by the substation.”

Milwaukee Electric 1112 at Waukesha, WI on March 15, 1947. (Vic Wagner Photo) Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “1112 was built by Kuhlman Car in February 1909, #405. It was rebuilt in 1926. It was one of three sold for scrap in January 1952, before the rest of the cars.” Larry Sakar: “Fantastic shot of the typical Waukesha train during WWII. When first tried TM discovered that placing the single 1100 series car behind the duplex did not work. Because the door on a single 1100 was at the rear of the car and in the center of a duplex they quickly found that the door on the single 1100 did not reach the station platforms or designated loading zone. Thus, two stops had to be made. The solution was to place the single 1100 series car first. Trial and error I guess you’d say.”

Milwaukee Electric interurban car 1106 is at Mukwonago, Wisconsin, on the line going out to East Troy. Passenger service was abandoned here in 1939, although freight service continued for decades. This is currently where the East Troy Railroad Museum operates. I’ve been told that this station was located near an interchange north of where the Elegant Farmer is now, and that the station itself was moved and turned into a residence, which still exists, although additions have been made to it.

Milwaukee Electric 1105. Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “The Milwaukee Northern Ry came under TM control in 1923 and was officially merged on April 30, 1928. Under TM management 4 of their cars were rebuilt in a fashion similar to the other TM rebuilt interurbans. After 1928, most of the cars were further rebuilt and renumbered to replace the original 1100s which had been renumbered when they were rebuilt. 1101 was to have been rebuilt from MN 20, but it became 1105 instead. Thus there was no 1101.” It may originally have been built in 1907.

Milwaukee Electric streetcar 641 on route 19. Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “641 was built at Cold Springs in 1913. It was reconditioned as a two man car in 1928.”

Milwaukee Rapid Transit and Speedrail car 61 is at an undetermined location (Waukesha?) and looks rather worse for the wear, with unrepaired collision damage, probably just prior to the 1951 abandonment. Larry Sakar adds: “This is at the Waukesha station. Wilbur Lumber was directly across the street from the station. Note the cement safety island to the left of the car. It was there to facilitate loading so that passengers didn’t have to stand in the street. All traffic passed to the photo left of that island. Today a bank occupies the site of Wilbur Lumber Co. I guess the Wilburs were a prominent Waukesha family from what my friend John Schoenknecht who is the editor of Landmark, the official publication of the Waukesha County Historical Society, told me. Oh, by the way what you see in the background of that shot of the car at Wilbur Lumber is the Madison Street hill which is still there. There was a Milwaukee Road crossing that isn’t visible in the photo and once across it Broadway becomes Madison.” Mike Franklin says this “is indeed Waukesha. Looking NW across Madison St from Clinton St.”

Milwaukee Rapid Transit and Speedrail car 60. Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “60 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1929, #3030, as Indianapolis & Southeastern Traction 260. It replaced the heavy-weight cars which became TMER&L 1180 series. In 1933 it was sold to Inter-City Rapid Transit as 260 and in 1941 it was sold to Shaker Heights Rapid Transit as 60. In 1949 it was sold to Ed Tennyson and leased as Speedrail 60 and was scrapped in 1952.” Larry Sakar: “Car 60 is on the bridge over Brookdale Drive on the Hales Corners line on 10-16-49. This is the inaugural fan trip using car 60 that traveled over both lines. Both the bridge and embankment are gone. This is the location where the construction train used to take workers building the suburb of Greendale to and from cut off and went in a southeasterly direction thru what is now Root River Parkway. One of the dumbest things Jay Maeder ever said was that he “intended to restore passenger service to Greendale.” There never was passenger service to Greendale. I’m about a mile or so north of Greendale. MCTS has a bus line (Rt. 76-76th St.) that serves Greendale. I’ve yet to see a single passenger on that part of the line. Greendale is wealth personified! By the way car 65 was supposed to have been used on the inaugural fan trip but it was on the “sick list”. Another thing of interest regarding the 10-16-49 fan trip. Car 60 developed mechanical problems as soon as the car descended the “slide” onto the Rapid Transit line at 8th Street. At the Gravel Pit they put in to the siding. A fan with a vast knowledge of interurban cars opened the hatches in the floor and disconnected the motor leads on motors 3 and 4. Car 60 ran on two motors for the rest of that fan trip. The name of the knowledgeable railfan was George Krambles!! The late Lew Martin recalled that while stopped there a fan remarked, “The line has been in business for a little over a month and they have a car in the scrap line already!” Two other well known railfans were on that car. Barney Neuberger wearing his classic pork pie hat and one Mr. Albert C. Kalmbach, head of the publishing company that bore his name. Kalmbach was seated in the 4th row on the right side of car 60.”

Milwaukee Electric freight motor and utility car M15. Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “M15 was built at Cold Spring Shops in 1920 as a trailer, but it was motorized almost immediately. It was transferred to the isolated East Troy operation in 1939, and sold to the Municipality of East Troy in 1949. It is sold to WERHS in 1982 and (is) now preserved at the IRM (since) 1989.”

Don’s Rail Photos (via Archive.org): “61 was built by Cincinnati Car in August 1928, #2985, as I&SE 235. In 1933 it was sold to ICRT as 235 and in 1941 it was sold to SHRT as 61. In 1949 it was sold to Ed Tennyson and leased as Speedrail 61 and was scrapped in 1952.” Here 61 is at an undetermined location. Since it is still signed for Milwaukee Rapid Transit and Speedrail, this may be circa 1949-50. Larry Sakar: “The car is westbound on West Michigan Street at North 5th Street. The building in the background (whitish and prominent) was the Boston Store, a department store that at one time was owned by the same company that owned Carson’s in Chicago- P.A. Bergner. The building is still there but the Boston Store is not. I believe it is now housing for seniors. Note the traffic policeman standing in the middle of the intersection. Believe it or not there were no stop and go lights on Michigan Street until Speedrail was gone. Every intersection had a traffic policeman. The late Doug Traxler said the one place you did not want to get stopped was at the top of the hill at 6th and Michigan because half of your car was hanging downhill and making that turn by the NSL station was no picnic. Motorman Don Leistikow concurred and offered this tale: “Yes, I remember that traffic officer. I was one of several motormen who discovered that he had a good day when he had cigars so I, like some of the other motormen, always made sure he had a box of cigars. Things always seemed to go better for him when he had a box of cigars!” Traxler remembered him shouting at him, “Pull it Up. Pull it way up,” when he got stopped there one time.” Mike Franklin says we are “looking east on Michigan St. from 5th St. in Milwaukee.”

Gary Railways car #1 at an undetermined location. William Shapotkin: “We are in downtown Valparaiso, IN. The car is laying over in Franklin St north of Main (now Lincolnway) taking its layover at the east end-of-line. View looks south. Building at right (N/W corner of intersection) is still standing today.”

Gary Railways cars 16 and 19 on the May 1, 1938 fantrip which is considered the beginnings of the Central Electric Railfans’ Association.

Gary Railways line car #11 at the Garyton Loop. (Edward Frank, Jr. Photo)

A view of the right of way along the Gary Railways Indiana Harbor Division near Gary, IN by Edward Frank, Jr.

A view of the right-of-way along the Gary Railways Hammond Division, near Hammond IN, by Edward Frank, Jr.

A view of the Gary Railways right-of-way on the Indiana Harbor Division near Gary, IN by Edward Frank, Jr. Presumably that is his bicycle by the telephone pole. Rail service on the Indiana Harbor Division was abandoned in March 1939.

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

This is our 298th post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 980,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store.
As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

DONATIONS

Your financial contributions help make this web site better, and are greatly appreciated.

A Shoebox Full of Dreams

September 21, 2017April 19, 2018David Sadowski 16 Comments

A two-car train of PCCs near North Station in Boston August 31, 1976. The nearby Boston Garden has since been torn down and rebuilt.

One of my brothers called me recently from a garage sale, and asked if I had any interest in a shoebox full of train pictures. The cost was just $10. I figured it would have to be worth at least that much, so I said sure.

I went through the box when I got it, and discovered most of the pictures were faded color snapshots from the 1970s, probably taken with a Kodak Instamatic camera on size 126 film. Worse yet, nearly all the pictures have a textured surface.

However, it sure seems the photographer got around. He visited train museums all over the country. He went on steam train excursions. He took pictures of streetcars.

Eventually, I figured out who he was– Marvin C. Kruse.

Although, in looking up information on Mr. Kruse, I somehow got the mistaken idea he was deceased, his son wrote to me (see the Comments section below) and informs us that he is alive and well, aged 96! In fact, he has seen this post and enjoyed it. Nothing could make me happier.

When someone dies, or has to downsize, it is often up to their loved ones to go through their things and decide what to do with them. This can be a very traumatic process, for you feel as if you are dismantling someone’s life, piece by piece. And yet that is the way of the world, for life goes on. People’s belongings are often scattered to the four winds.

I decided to give an extra special effort to restore some of Mr. Kruse’s photos for the railfan community, to honor his efforts, and the sacrifices he made. I hope you like the results. They are mementos of someone’s life, from someone who should not be so easily forgotten.

-David Sadowski

PS- By the time you read this, we will have received a substantial shipment of our new book Chicago Trolleys (see below). It should only take us a short time to mail out books to all who have pre-ordered them, plus complementary copies for important contributors. We thank you all for your support. The book was completed on time and is now available for immediate shipment.

Picture caption: “1947 snow (2 ft.). This taken off Monongahela tracks just below our house. B&O yards across river.”

Winter 1947-48. “Same as other, only vertical. Big building, left foreground, is Interstate Construction & Engineers… build coal tipples.”

Photo caption: “New Have R. R. diesel passing Providence, RI engine house 12/21/47 with New York-bound train.”

A photo stop on a steam excursion, May 1961.

South Shore Line “Little Joe” 801 in October 1960.

South Shore Line electric locos 703 and 704 in October 1960.

This looks like Chicago Surface Lines red Pullman 144 at the Illinois Electric Railway Museum (North Chicago) in June 1961.

Another scene from IERM in July 1961. At left is Milwaukee streetcar 966, built by St. Louis Car Company in 1927. At right is ex-CTA/CSL sweeper E223, which was purchased for the museum by Dick Lukin in 1956.

Two 900-series South Shore Line freight locos in October 1960.

Always remember…never step on any rails. Right? (Photo stop bedlam, September 1958.)

If you’ve ever tried taking a picture at a photo stop on a fantrip, this is what happens. Invariably, someone runs right in front of you, oblivious to the fact you are trying to take a picture.

People used to climb on just about anything, in their quest to take a picture.

This is the view from an engine cab… which makes sense, if you think about it, as the engine in front of you is massive.

I think what we are seeing here is new commuter rail bi-levels on display, probably the Milwaukee Road, in July 1961. The sign at left says, “Entrance,” implying that they wanted you to walk through the cars in one direction only. At right are some vehicles from the Railway Express Agency (REA), which delivered small packages via the railway system between 1917 and the late 1960s. It was a national monopoly formed by the federal government during the First World War.

A Milwaukee Road commuter train in July 1961. This is about the time the railroad began introducing bi-levels, which the Chicago & North Western had been using for some years. I’d bet this is the same scene as in the previous picture, but from the other end. The train is on display at a station.

There wasn’t much I could do about the scratches on this picture, but how often have you witnessed a steam locomotive on a turntable? (November 1958)

Not sure of the location, but it’s June 1958, and steam is still active here.

Several steam locos are on this property in June 1958, wherever it was.

One thing about steam… as the song goes, smoke gets in your eyes. Note the small twin-lens reflex camera this shutterbug is holding. Perhaps a grey “Baby” Rolleiflex, which took size 127 film? (On the other hand, Carl Lantz thinks thinks he’s holding a movie camera.)

More steam fantrip action.

There were many such excursions in the waning days of steam (late 1950s to early 1960s).

Evidence of a Toronto trip in June 1959. This may be part of a PCC car.

The Mt. Washington Cog Railway still operates.

CTA 6000s in Forest Park , December 22, 1976.

The CTA DesPlaines Avenue yard in Forest Park, December 22, 1976. This was the 1959 configuration that was in use until the station was rebuilt circa 1980.

CTA 6000s interior, December 22, 1976.

Central City, Colorado, August 15, 1977.

What was a PCC doing in Golden, Colorado on July 8, 1976.

My previous post did not mention the ill-fated Boston LRVs. But here is one of their SF Muni counterparts, being tested by the DOT at Pueblo on July 7, 1976.

North Shore Line car 160 at the Illinois Railway Museum in the mid-1970s.

Chicago red Pullman 144 at IRM, 1970s.

Chicago Aurora & Elgin 431 at IRM, August 8, 1976.

Chicago postwar PCC 4391 at IRM in September 1975.

San Francisco cable car 16(?) on May 27, 1974.

Los Angeles streetcar 665 at Perris, California.

North Shore Line city streetcar 354 at IRM in September 1975.

North Shore Line city streetcar 354 at IRM on August 8, 1976.

SF cable car 4 on May 27, 1974.

BART on May 27, 1974.

When did they stop letting the passengers turn cable cars around in San Francisco? They were still doing it on May 27, 1974.

BART at Balboa Park on May 27, 1974.

An SF Muni PCC on Market Street, May 27, 1974.

An SF Muni trolley bus on Market Street, May 27, 1974. Looks like construction may already have been underway on the Muni Metro subway.

An SF Muni PCC on Market Street, May 27, 1974.

Don’s Rail Photos: “717 was built by Brill Co in 1925. It was rebuilt in 1939 and rebuilt in 1951 as 5167. It became LAMTA 1815 in 1958, It was retired and restored as717 at OERM in March 1960.” Here, we see it at Orange Empire on May 31, 1974. Was it ever used in service with this color scheme?

I’m wondering if the streetcar at right is Key System 987. The steam loco is Western Pacific 334, a 2-8-2 built in 1929 by American Locomotive. We see both at the Western Railway Museum on May 26, 1972.

A Toronto Peter Witt at Trolleyville USA, Olmstead Falls, Ohio, on August 23, 1975.

I assume this is probably an ex-PE car at the Orange Empire Railway Museum on May 31, 1974.

A Los Angeles streetcar at OERM, Perris, California on July 6, 1976.

Here, we see Brooklyn car 4573 at the Branford Trolley Museum. It was built by the Laconia Car Company in 1906 and was acquired by the museum on 1947. Here is how it looked on August 31, 1976.

Marvin C. Kruse on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California on May 24, 1974.

Marvin C. Kruse at the Andrews Raiders Memorial in the Chattanooga Military Cemetery on October 23, 1907. According to Find-a-Grave: :”Memorial erected by the State of Ohio to the Andrews Raiders. In early April, 1862, a band of Union soldiers lead by civilian James Andrews infiltrated south from the Union lines near Shelbyville, Tennessee and met at Big Shanty, Georgia (near Marietta). On the morning of April 12, 1862, 20 of them (2 raiders never arrived and 2 others overslept and missed the adventure) stole the passenger train “The General” during its morning breakfast stop. With the farms and factories of Georgia supplying the Confederate Army fighting further west, the Raiders’ mission was to burn the railroad bridges between Atlanta and Chattanooga, thus isolating the Confederate Armies from their supply sources and enabling the Union Army to seize Chattanooga. Due primarily to the persistency of William Fuller, conductor of the stolen train, and, secondarily to the rainy weather and unlucky miscoordination with the Union Army to the west, the Raiders failed. All 22 at Big Shanty that morning were captured. Eight, including James Andrews, were tried and hanged by the Confederate Army in Atlanta. In 1866, after the war, they were reburied in a semi-circle at the Chattanooga National Cemetery. On the imposing granite monument, erected in 1891, are the names of 22 of the raiders. The memorial is topped by a bronze likeness of the “General”.” This story inspired the classic 1927 Buster Keaton film The General.

Philadelphia PCC 2278, in bicentennial garb, on Route 53, September 2, 1976.

SEPTA Red Arrow cars at 69th Street Terminal on September 2, 1976.

An Amtrak GG-1 in Baltimore on August 31, 1977.

This is not a very good picture, but it does show a Liberty Liner (ex-North Shore Line Electroliner) on September 2, 1976.

SEPTA Red Arrow car 13, built by St. Louis Car Company in 1949, as it looked on September 2, 1976.

Red Arrow car 18, also built in 1949. These double-ended interurban cars closely resembled PCCs but did not use PCC trucks.

A Washington, D.C. subway car at the Rhode Island Avenue station on September 1, 1977.

A PCC car at the Roanoke, Virginia Transportation Museum on August 27, 1975.

A PCC car at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke on August 27, 1975. This is DC Transit 1470, built by St. Louis Car Company in 1945.

J. G. Brill built car 249 for Oporto, Portugal in 1904 and features maximum traction trucks. It was retired in 1972 and is shown at the Rockhill Trolley Museum on August 24, 1975.

A Washington, D.C. subway car at the Rhode Island Avenue station on September 1, 1977.

A PCC car at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke on August 27, 1975. This is DC Transit 1470, built by St. Louis Car Company in 1945.

This is Sacramento Northern 62, a Birney car built in 1920 by American Car Company. We see it here at the Western Railway Museum on May 26, 1974.

San Francisco Municipal Railway “Magic Carpet” carr 1003 was one of five experimental double-end cars built in 1939 by the St. Louis Car Company. This lone survivor is seen at the Western Railway Museum on May 26, 1974.

At left, we see Muni car 178, and next to it is “Magic Carpet” car 1003, at the Western Railway Museum on May 26, 1974.

This open car was built by Brill in 1912 and was used in Rio De Janeiro. It’s shown at the Rockhill Trolley Museum on August 24, 1975.

This looks like a Sacramento Northern electric freight loco (Western Railway Museum, May 26, 1974).

This San Francisco cable car was on display at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds on May 26, 1973. Many children played on this car over the years. It was originally a California Street car using a side grip and was not updated when Muni took over the line. I read that in 2005 it was in storage, listed as being in poor condition with a broken frame. I am not sure if it still exists.

This equipment is at the Travel Town Museum at Griffith Park in Los Angeles on August 26, 1977.

A Los Angeles streetcar and a Pacific electric “Blimp” interurban at Griffith Park on July 5, 1977.

In the distance, we see a pair of Key System bridge units at the Western Railway Museum on May 26, 1974. These ran in Oakland over the bay Bridge, and were retired in 1958.

Toronto PCC 4394 on October 25, 1973.

North Shore Line car 757 at East Troy, Wisconsin on June 23, 1974. This car has since gone to the Illinois Railway Museum.

The East Troy Trolley Museum, June 23, 1974.

A Chicago Transit Authority 4000-series “L” car in Louisville, Kentucky on June 3, 1974.

A pair of 700-series South Shore Line freight locos at the Gary, Indiana station in 1974.

Chattanooga, Tennessee on June 2, 1974.

A New Orleans streetcar at Union Station in Chattanooga, June 2, 1974.

A pair of 700-series South Shore Line freight locos at the Gary, Indiana station in 1974.

Steam at Union, Illinois, August 8, 1976.

The Burlington Zephyr at IRM, 1976.

IRM, August 8, 1976.

South Shore Line cars in storage at Michigan City, Indiana on July 17, 1977.

A “Little Joe” in Michigan City, July 17, 1977.

Illinois Terminal cars at IRM, July 1977.

IRM, June 23, 1974.

Illinois Terminal cars at IRM, June 23, 1974.

IRM, August 8, 1976.

IRM, September 1975.

IRM, August 8, 1976.

IRM, September 1975.

Recent Finds

Boston MTA 3292, signed for Braves Field, is on a double-track loop with the ball park at the right. The Boston Braves played there last game here on September 21, 1952 (exactly 65 years ago today), after which the team was moved to Milwaukee. Following the 1965 season, they became the Atlanta Braves. A portion of Braves Field still exists as part of Boston College’s Nickerson Field. We discussed streetcar service to Braves Field in our previous post More Mystery Photos (July 29, 2016).

Hammond, Whiting & East Chicago car 67 was built by American Car in 1917 and was converted to one-man operation in 1932. Streetcar service ended in 1940. Notice how similar this car is to some operated by the Chicago Surface Lines. For much of its history, the HW&EC was run by the Calumet & South Chicago Railway, which became part of CSL in 1914.

Chicago Surface Lines crane X-3 at Dearborn and Washington in 1942. Tracks were being put back in the street after construction of the Dearborn Subway, which was 80% completed when work stopped due to wartime materials shortages. The subway did not open until 1951.

New Castle (Pennsylvania) Electric Street Railway “Birney” car 363 at Cascade Park loop on August 24, 1941. Streetcar service was abandoned on December 11th of that year. This car was formerly Penn-Ohio Power & Light 363 and was painted orange. (John A. Clark Photo)

New Castle (Pennsylvania) Electric Street Railway “Birney” car 359 at Cascade Park loop on August 24, 1941. This car was ex=Penn-Ohio Power and Light 359, and was painted orange and cream. (John A. Clark Photo)

This odd, boxy streetcar is Black River Traction car #1 in Watertown, New York. This was a 1906 product of the Barber Car Co. Some consider this an ugly design, but apparently these cars were well-built. Apparently this line abandoned streetcar service on August 17, 1937, but this negative is dated June 20, 1938. The sign on the side of the car doesn’t really solve this mystery– there were two championship heavyweight bouts between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, and these took place on June 19, 1936 and June 22, 1938. For more information on the Barber Car Company, click here.

Black River Traction car 5, with a date given of June 20, 1938. Not sure whether this car was also built by the Barber Car Company.

Recent Correspondence

Jack Bejna writes:

I recently came across this photo, and, after looking at it awhile I realized that this is an image of the CA&E crossing the Chicago River. It appears to have been taken from Franklin Street looking generally northeast. The train appears to be an eastbound train just entering the Wells Street Terminal. Look at the two cars and you’ll see Car 436 leading trailer 603. In addition, below the El structure there is the substation that provided the power for the terminal area. The picture was taken in 1939.

Jack continues:

I enjoyed your latest post about Boston’s great trolleys. Keep up the great work.

Here is the latest stuff, the CA&E and the CNS&M woodies. As usual, some of the images aren’t the best, but it’s all I could find in my continuing search for the best of the CA&E!

Increasing suburban traffic found the CA&E short of cars. In 1936, the CNS&M came to the rescue by making some of their older wooden cars available for lease.

In 1936, cars 129, 130, 133, 134, 137 (Jewett 1907), cars 138, 139, 140, 141, 144 (American 1910) and cars 142 and 143 (Jewett 1907) were leased for suburban service and returned to the CNS&M after World War II. These cars were later purchased in 1946 and finished their long careers in suburban work on the CA&E.

I know our readers appreciate your efforts in restoring and sharing these rare pictures with us. Thanks to you, they are looking better than ever.

After CA&E service was cut back to Forest Park in 1953, these cars were no longer needed and were soon scrapped. Interestingly, these old woods were the last passenger cars bought by the Aurora & Elgin.

CA&E 129.

CA&E 130.

CA&E 133.

CA&E 134.

CA&E 137.

CA&E 138.

CA&E 139.

CA&E 140.

CA&E 141 at Batavia Junction.

CA&E 142 at the Wheaton Shops.

CA&E 143.

CA&E 144.

Our New Book Chicago Trolleys— Now In Stock!

On the Cover: Car 1747 was built between 1885 and 1893 by the Chicago City Railway, which operated lines on the South Side starting in April 1859. This is a single-truck (one set of wheels) open electric car; most likely a cable car, retrofitted with a trolley and traction motor. The man at right is conductor William Stevely Atchison (1861-1921), and this image came from his granddaughter. (Courtesy of Debbie Becker.)

We are pleased to report that our new book Chicago Trolleys will be released on September 25th by Arcadia Publishing. You can pre-order an autographed copy through us today (see below). Chicago Trolleys will also be available wherever Arcadia books are sold.

Overview

Chicago’s extensive transit system first started in 1859, when horsecars ran on rails in city streets. Cable cars and electric streetcars came next. Where new trolley car lines were built, people, businesses, and neighborhoods followed. Chicago quickly became a world-class city. At its peak, Chicago had over 3,000 streetcars and 1,000 miles of track—the largest such system in the world. By the 1930s, there were also streamlined trolleys and trolley buses on rubber tires. Some parts of Chicago’s famous “L” system also used trolley wire instead of a third rail. Trolley cars once took people from the Loop to such faraway places as Aurora, Elgin, Milwaukee, and South Bend. A few still run today.

The book features 226 classic black-and-white images, each with detailed captions, in 10 chapters:

1. Early Traction
2. Consolidation and Growth
3. Trolleys to the Suburbs
4. Trolleys on the “L”
5. Interurbans Under Wire
6. The Streamlined Era
7. The War Years
8. Unification and Change
9. Trolley Buses
10. Preserving History

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781467126816
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date: 09/25/2017
Series: Images of Rail
Pages: 128

Meet the Author

David Sadowski has been interested in streetcars ever since his father took him for a ride on one of the last remaining lines in 1958. He grew up riding trolley buses and “L” trains all over Chicago. He coauthored Chicago Streetcar Pictorial: The PCC Car Era, 1936–1958, and runs the online Trolley Dodger blog. Come along for the ride as we travel from one side of the city to the other and see how trolley cars and buses moved Chicago’s millions of hardworking, diverse people.

Images of Rail

The Images of Rail series celebrates the history of rail, trolley, streetcar, and subway transportation across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the people, places, and events that helped revolutionize transportation and commerce in 19th- and 20th-century America. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

The book costs just $21.99 plus shipping.

Please note that Illinois residents must pay 10.00% sales tax on their purchases.

We appreciate your business!

For Shipping to US Addresses:

For Shipping to Canada:

For Shipping Elsewhere:

NEW – Chicago Trolleys Postcard Collection

We are pleased to report that selected images from our upcoming book Chicago Trolleys will be available on September 25th in a pack of 15 postcards, all for just $7.99. This is part of a series put out by Arcadia Publishing. Dimensions: 6″ wide x 4.25″ tall

The Postcards of America Series

Here in the 21st century, when everyone who’s anyone seems to do most of their communicating via Facebook and Twitter, it’s only natural to wax a little nostalgic when it comes to days gone by. What happened to more personal means of communication like hand-written letters on nice stationery? Why don’t people still send postcards when they move someplace new or go away on vacation?

If that line of thinking sounds familiar, then Arcadia Publishing’s Postcards of America was launched with you in mind. Each beautiful volume features a different collection of real vintage postcards that you can mail to your friends and family.

Pre-Order your Chicago Trolleys Postcard Pack today!

For Shipping to US Addresses:

For Shipping to Canada:

For Shipping Elsewhere:

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 195th post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 322,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store.

As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

DONATIONS

Your financial contributions help make this web site better, and are greatly appreciated.

The Trolley Dodger

Musings on transit, past, present, and future

Michigan City IN

Our Latest Book – The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railway

Our 10th Anniversary

Postcards From the Bridge

A Shoebox Full of Dreams