From the Mailbag: Memories of the CA&E

We recently received an email from Christopher Brown, with some recollections you might find interesting:

I am 65 years old and grew up in Aurora, Illinois. I spent countless hours in my youth at the riverside platform of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad observing arrivals and departures, helping to flip seats, unload newspapers, and generally sitting and talking with many motormen and conductors.

One motorman, "Andy," who was younger than the others, spent time explaining how everything worked and even allowed me to ride for free up to Forest Park and back. I was told to "duck down" every time we approached a grade crossing however, so Andy would not lose his job since I wasn't supposed to be in the motorman's compartment with him. He said there were company "spotters" who occasionally were positioned along the right of way to report any illegal employee conduct!

Although I had ridden the C A & E all the way into the loop Wells Street Terminal before the line was cut back to Forest Park in 1953, watching Ed Allen's colored film footage of the turning loop brought back a lot of memories too.

In 1961 or 1962, when I was old enough to drive, I spent a lot of time tracing the C A & E right of way to see all the original buildings and bridges before they were removed, like the Batavia Power House and various depots along the line. I also drove over to Wheaton to witness the burning of most of the C A & E's fleet of cars and freely walked through the Wheaton shops buildings which were wide open at that time. I gathered all the original blueprints and roller signs I could which later went to RELIC in South Elgin, along with the original "end of the line" black lantern with red lens that I liberated at Aurora before the scrappers arrived. I also gave them everything I found in the old Aurora Station on Broadway behind the ticket agent's booth, such as numerous rubber stamps of all the destinations. By that time bums and hobos were already inhabiting the Aurora Broadway terminal building. Another artifact I gave to RELIC was an original handbook of rules from the former Chicago Aurora and DeKalb Railroad which had ceased operations many years before the C A & E.

You many not believe this, but I was so aggravated when the C A & E suspended passenger service that I actually telephoned Frank Flannigan, then president of the railroad, at his Wheaton residence to protest! I was only 12 or 13 years old at the time!

He listened patiently to me and said he hoped the interurban would resume service soon and that "it would be a tragedy if it didn't!"

For several years I read every newspaper story I could find about the C A & E and how Governor Stratton wanted the State of Illinois to buy and operate the line and Lambert O'Malley's periodic progress reports about the railroad's imminent return to passenger service and "one-seat" ride to the loop! Of course none of it was ever to happen.

Then, six years later the North Shore Line succumbed to the same fate, and according to John Horacheck who I occasionally speak with, many of the same "players" who had been involved with the systematic demise of the C A & E were again involved with the demise of the North Shore Line! He has gone over original NSL company files for years that were given to him and found their names. Horacheck is trying to find a publisher for his new book about the Electroliners at this time.

By the way, I rode a Silverliner on the final day of North Shore Line operations up to Milwaukee and back to the Roosevelt Road station in Chicago. I'll never forget how damned cold it was that day, but it was toasty warm inside that Silverliner however.