Elgin & Belvidere

The Elgin & Belvidere Electric Company

by Stephen M. Scalzo

Ed. note: This is the 55th and final Stephen Scalzo History Collection article we are publishing on the electric railways of Illinois. Stephen wrote histories of all but a handful of the state's lesser-known electric lines and we elected to save a hometown favorite for last. We'd like to again extend our thanks to Richard Schauer and Ray and Julie Piesciuk, who made available these materials, and to Kimberly Scalzo, Stephen's widow, who donated his priceless collection of historical documents and photos to IRM.

Headline image: One of the E&B's handsome St. Louis-built interurban cars, number 201, is turning from Logan onto State Street in Belvidere on June 6, 1907. All photos are from the Stephen Scalzo Collection of the Illinois Railway Museum except where noted.

The Elgin & Belvidere Electric Company (E&B) was incorporated on March 9, 1905, with $2,500 (later increased to $2,000,000) of capital to build a 37-mile long interurban line between Elgin and Belvidere. Mr. Bion J. Arnold, a distinguished city transit expert, was hired as the engineer to supervise the construction of the railroad by the Main Construction Company. When problems developed in the sale of the construction bonds, Mr. Arnold decided to use his own funds to finance construction. Mr. Arnold shortly thereafter became the principal owner and promoter of the railway. Surveying of possible routes for the company began almost immediately, and in the summer of 1905 actual construction began. Construction of the railway was completed by the spring of 1906 at a cost of nearly $2 million, which included the purchase of the Belvidere local streetcar line. The company encountered franchise problems in Elgin and Belvidere which were settled by early 1911.

Passenger service was inaugurated on February 2, 1907, with 11 single-ended interurbans operating 18 daily round trips on an hourly schedule that took one hour and 45 minutes to operate over the trackage. At Belvidere the company's interurbans made connections with the Rockford & Interurban Railway (R&I) interurbans operating west to Rockford and Freeport; at Elgin the company's interurbans connected with the Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railway interurbans operating east to Chicago and Aurora. Besides the terminal points, stops were at Almora, Gilberts, Freeman, Huntley, Coyne, Union, Marengo, Garden Prairie, and Camp Elworth. Interurbans entered Elgin over the Elgin Aurora & Southern Traction Company's trackage to the Union terminal. The population of the area served was estimated to be 52,000. The company competed with the Chicago & North Western Railroad for the Chicago-to-Rockford business, but effective competition was virtually impossible because interurban travel took considerably longer.

Car 201 was the first interurban car to run into Belvidere, presumably on the date passenger service was inaugurated, February 2, 1907. This photo is at Logan and Whitney looking east, with the old Methodist Episcopal church in the background.

The St. Louis-built combines on the E&B were not as long as the big 62' combines on some other Midwestern lines, but they were undeniably handsome cars. Car is shown in Belvidere.

The right-of-way was constructed with sufficient width to eventually allow for double-tracking. The topography of the area was level, with a maximum of 2% grades and with several long tangents, one extending west of Gilberts for over nine miles. Trackage consisted of 70-pound rail on cedar ties, although some cypress and tamarack ties were used, in gravel ballast. The overhead construction was of the bracket type in the country and cross suspension through towns, with high tension wires, feeder, telephone, and bracket arms to support the trolley wires supported on cedar poles. A telephone system was installed over the entire system that was used to dispatch trains from the Marengo station, with jacks located on poles every half-mile so that interurban crews could connect their portable box telephones. Electric power was purchased from the Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railway's Clintonville substation at 26,400 volts AC and transmitted over the power lines located on the right-of-way poles to substations at Gilberts, Union, and Garden Prairie, approximately 10 miles apart. The two rotary converters at those substations each had 300kw capacity to provide 600 volts DC to the overhead. A ribbed concrete-steel bridge was constructed over the Kishwaukee River near Belvidere.

Freight service was offered from the beginning, with express freight traffic interchanged between connecting interurban systems. A connection was installed at the Borden Condensed Milk Company at Marengo, and considerable milk was transported to Marengo from southern Wisconsin.

A three-car train of Niles car 209 bracketed by St. Louis cars 205 and 204 is westbound in Marengo on Prairie just west of State Street.

The handsome substation in Union was located on Jefferson Street about where the pump house for the city water tower is located today. In 1915 it was rebuilt as the world's first fully automatic substation. This building was razed, but a surprising number of E&B structures still stand in one form or another, including the Kishwaukee River bridge in Belvidere, the substations in Gilberts and Garden Prairie, and the building in downtown Marengo that housed the dispatcher's office. The Marengo carbarn stood, albeit heavily modified, well into the 1990s.

On October 1, 1907, the company began operating a few daily limited interurban trains with R&I equipment between Elgin and Rockford. Earnings climbed from $118,478 in 1906 to a peak of $147,177 in 1918, with ridership peaking at 555,997 in 1908. Passenger revenue per mile was never very great as the population in the area served was not significant; the eastern half of the system carried most of the passenger traffic. The operating ratio was high and the rate of return for the company seldom was greater than 2%, even in the good years. During 1915, as a result of a fire at the Union substation, the country's first automatic substation was put into service, and gradually all the other substations were automated as an economy move. The company also experimented with gasoline generators to provide electric power for the overhead as a means of reducing power costs.

During World War I the company carried many troops. Wage hikes during World War I, a two-week strike by employees in 1919, and a tornado in April of 1921 all combined to reduce revenue. In September of 1918, the company petitioned the Public Service Commission for a 25% freight rate increase.

Car 204 is shown early in its service life on the Kishwaukee River Bridge east of Belvidere, certainly the most distinctive photo location on the E&B. The truss bridge in the background is on the Chicago & North Western; this route was the first railroad built west out of Chicago, in 1851.

In a scene encountered every day on the E&B, gentlemen wait at an attractive waiting shelter - in this case, Illinois Park - as an interurban car comes to a stop.  Illinois Park is a section of Elgin just west of Wing Park, on the east side of Tyler Creek, and this was the first stop for westbound cars after leaving city trackage.

The increased use of private automobiles and the construction of concrete highways in the area created serious financial difficulties for the company during the 1920s. By 1926, only 10 daily interurban trips were being operated, with earnings of $103,721 from 197,336 passengers carried. Most of the milk transportation was lost to trucks during the early 1920s, and as a result, freight cars were coupled to the rear of evening passenger trains in an attempt to reduce costs.

In 1926, the R&I system went into bankruptcy, and a year later the system's individual interurban lines were sold off. On May 1, 1927, the Elgin Belvidere & Rockford Railway was incorporated with $1,050,000 of capital. That company was the consolidation of the Rockford and Belvidere section of the R&I, and the E&B. The new company leased six lightweight streetcars from the Rockford local streetcar system for one year. Operation of those cars in place of the original interurban equipment was successful in reducing operational costs. However further concrete highway construction and the resulting bus competition quickly drew away more passengers and freight business, and the results were not financially successful for the company.

This view looking north on State Street in Belvidere shows an E&B car at the very western end of the system, at the corner of State and Pleasant. Here, passengers will need to transfer to an R&I car to continue west toward Rockford and Freeport.

Time grows short for the E&B as car 208, rebuilt late in its life with a bizarre "phone booth" protruding cab at each end, leans into a curve at an unknown location.

All freight service was abandoned in August of 1928 as an economy move, as that revenue only amounted to about 17% of the earnings of the company. After the lightweight streetcars were returned to Rockford, the old interurbans were modified for one-man operation and returned to service. Ultimately, the stock market crash of October 1929 and the resulting depression doomed the marginal profitability of the company. Gradually the number of round trips declined, until by early 1930 only four round trips were operating. Earnings declined to $70,668 in 1930 with only 19,533 passengers being carried. After a study by Insull determined that $1 million would be needed to modernize and repair the system, the company saw that raising that amount and continued operations were fruitless. All passenger service was suspended on March 9, 1930. The Illinois Commerce Commission approved the abandonment of the service on May 14, and over the next month, all the overhead was removed by company employees. Mr. Arnold then personally supervised the scrapping of the remaining trackage and equipment through the remaining 1930s. Two Forney steam locomotives were purchased, and the trackage was removed gradually until completed in 1935. Some electrical equipment of the remaining interurbans was sold, but eventually no buyers were located and the equipment was scrapped.

In 1964, the Illinois Railway Museum, at that time located on leased property at North Chicago, Illinois, purchased about six miles of the E&B right-of-way located east of Union at a delinquent tax sale for its new museum site. Over the ensuing years, the museum has reconstructed trackage on most of that right-of-way and on adjoining land in order to operate its collection of interurbans, streetcars, and other railroad equipment.

Belvidere City Railway

The Belvidere Electric Railway (BER) was incorporated in 1895 with $35,000 capital and received a franchise on September 5, 1895, to construct a streetcar line. A single-track line was constructed on State Street from Sixth Street to Madison Street, with a passing track located in the middle of the Kishwaukee River bridge. A carbarn was constructed at Madison and Webster Streets. After streetcar service began, another line was constructed on Lincoln Street to the City Park. The company never developed heavy traffic, and three single-truck streetcars provided all the service.

The Belvidere City Railway, affiliated with the Elgin & Belvidere, was incorporated on March 11, 1905. The E&B wanted its interurbans to enter Belvidere over the streetcar trackage. After a lengthy franchise conflict with the city, the E&B constructed trackage along Church and Logan Avenues to the east city limits at Warren Avenue in 1906, and shortly thereafter purchased the BER. On State Street, a connecting track was constructed to connect with the Rockford & Interurban.

Belvidere City Railway 2 is southbound on State and has just crossed the Kishwaukee River. On the left is the National Sewing Machine Company, which occupied the entire space north of Meadow to the River and the east-west span from State to Warren.

On December 11, 1907, a fire destroyed the carbarn and three streetcars, and service was halted until new streetcars arrived on April 1, 1908. Afterward, all maintenance was done at the E&B's Marengo shops. At its peak, the system only operated two streetcars over two miles of trackage. Earnings were never very much, and the company's paving assessments were sold for $275 during 1914.

The city council repealed the company's franchise on September 2, 1915, with all streetcar service being halted 11 days later. The physical plant of the system remained unused until November 1916 in hopes that another company would take over the operations. The unused trackage and overhead was then removed, with the E&B interurbans retaining trackage rights from the eastern city limits to the downtown terminal.

This article was edited and laid out by Frank Hicks. Thanks to Ray and Julie Piesciuk and to Richard Schauer for making available the materials from the Stephen Scalzo Collection that were used to publish this history.

Roster of Equipment

Elgin & Belvidere

201-206 (six cars) - DE DT RR interurban combines - St. Louis, 1906 (order #609) - L 47'1", W 8'6", H 12'9", Wt. 61,000 lbs. - Baldwin MCB trucks, 4 x GE 74 motors, GE Type M control - car 205 loaned to Chicago Aurora & DeKalb, destroyed in wreck early 1920s

207-209 (three cars) - DE DT RR interurban coaches - Niles, 1907 - L 49', W 8'6", H 12'9", 50 seats - Baldwin MCB trucks, 4 x GE 74 motors, GE Type M control

301-306 (six cars) - DE DT AR lightweight interurban coaches - American, 1927 - L 45'6", W 8'8", H 10'8", Wt. 35,750 lbs., 52 seats - Brill 177E1 trucks, 4 x GE 247 motors, K-75 control - leased from Rockford Public Service from August 1927 to August 1928

105 (one car) - DE DT RR interurban coach - Jackson & Sharp, 1901 - L 44'7" - StL 23MCB trucks, 4 x GE 57H motors, K-14 control - ex-R&I, acquired as part of the EB&R reorganization in 1927

198 (one car) - DE DT RR interurban coach - rebuilt ex-Manhattan Railway elevated car, acquired as part of the EB&R reorganization in 1927

199 (one car) - DE DT RR interurban coach - rebuilt ex-R&I parlor car, acquired as part of the EB&R reorganization in 1927

101-102 (two cars) - DE DT RR express motors - McGuire-Cummings, 1906 - L 45', W 8'8", H 12'9" - Baldwin trucks, 4 x GE 74 motors, GE Type M control - 101 wrecked early 1920s

103 (one car) - DE DT RR express motor - built 1909 (builder?) - ex-Chicago Aurora & DeKalb 21, acquired 1923 following wreck of car 205

151 (one car) - DE DT RR express motor - built by R&I, 1907 - L 46'7", W 8'7", H 12'8", Wt. 46,000 lbs. - Peckham 14AX trucks, 4 x GE 57H motors, K-14 control - ex-R&I, acquired as part of the EB&R reorganization in 1927

93 (one car) - line car - built by R&I, 1911 - L 40', W 8', H 12'7", Wt. 64,488 lbs. - Peckham 14AX trucks, 4 x GE 57H motors, K-14 control - ex-R&I, acquired as part of the EB&R reorganization in 1927

97 (one car) - cab-on-flat utility car - built by R&I, 1907 - L 46'7", W 8'7", H 12'8", Wt. 46,000 lbs. - Peckham 14AX trucks, 4 x GE 57H motors, K-14 control

54, 64 (two engines) - 0-4-4T Forney steam locomotives - built by Pittsburgh in 1893-1894 (builder #s 1506 and 1513, respectively) - ex-Manhattan Elevated, acquired September 1930 for use in dismantling the line

500 (one car) - MOW boxcar

Belvidere City Railway (incomplete roster)

1 (one car) - DE ST Bombay Roof city car

2 (one car) - DE ST DR city car

3-4 (two cars) - DE ST AR city cars - St. Louis, 1911 (order #894) - St Louis 72 truck

Car 201, which was the first car into Belvidere in early 1907, was still in service and largely unchanged at the end. Here, it's parked alongside the Marengo shop building in the late 1930s.

Car 203 acquired a few minor modifications over its service life, including roof mats. It's shown parked alongside the Marengo shop building in the 1930s.

Another view shows the slowly deteriorating car 203 at Marengo, though here it's been adorned by fans with flags and a headlight.

Car 205 and another unidentified car are westbound at Marengo on the west side of State Street. The protruding bay window on the right was the E&B dispatcher's office and is still evident at this location. Car 205 was loaned to the Chicago Aurora & DeKalb in the early 1920s and wrecked while on the CA&D.

Car 208 was rebuilt in the 1920s with strange, diminutive motorman's cabs protruding from each end, presumably to increase visibility. The experiment was not repeated. Other changes included steel sheathing on the sides and unusual, possibly pneumatic or hydraulic, trolley bases. Heavy rebuilding work like this was done not at Marengo, but at the CA&E shop in Wheaton. Car 208 is shown at the Marengo shop complex after abandonment.

Cars 207-209 were extremely attractive cars as built and were typical of Niles practice. Car 209 is shown in Marengo after abandonment, mostly unchanged from as-built condition other than paint.

One of the E&B's first two freight motors, 101, was said by one source to have been wrecked in the early 1920s but it's pictured here at the Marengo shops in August 1932. Its poor condition, though, may suggest it's been out of service for some time. To the right can barely be seen Chicago Aurora & DeKalb 24, an interurban car acquired from that line in the early 1920s as a replacement for E&B car 205, which was wrecked while on lease to the CA&D. It is thought that car 24 never ran on the E&B. 

Car 102 was the second of the E&B's original freight motors, and lasted until the end of freight service on the line. It's shown after abandonment flanked by the two Forney steam engines that arrived to help scrap the line. The one on the left exhibits the makeshift platforms mounted to the engines to help remove overhead line hardware.

Freight motor 103 was ex-Chicago Aurora & DeKalb 21 and was purchased around 1923, supposedly to replace E&B 101. It's shown at the Marengo shops after abandonment.

Forney 54 was an ex-Manhattan Railway elevated 0-4-4T built by Pittsburgh in 1893. It and another identical engine numbered 64 (both their Manhattan numbers) were among the last four elevated Forneys left in New York and were purchased from Interborough Rapid Transit in September 1930. The final two Manhattan Forneys were squirreled away but scrapped on orders of the Office of Defense Transportation in 1943 (thanks to Bill Wall for this information).

E&B 500 appears to have been a tool car or MOW car of some sort, obviously rebuilt from a steam road boxcar.

Route Map

Click here for a route map of the E&B and Belvidere City Railway

Elgin & Belvidere Stops - Mileage from Elgin

0.0 - Elgin

0.1 - West Side Junction

1.0 - Hamilton Avenue Siding

1.1 - Larkin - Edison Switch

1.9 - Wing Park Siding

3.3 - Almora

8.1 - Gilberts

8.7 - Evans Pit Siding

9.4 - Marks Siding

13.0 - Huntley Siding

13.1 - Huntley

14.7 - Coyne

17.6 - Smith Siding [located roughly where Johnson Siding is today]

20.5 - Union

21.5 - Schneider's Siding

24.2 - Marengo

24.7 - Marengo Shops

27.4 - Thorne Siding

30.3 - Garden Prairie

32.4 - Camp Epworth

34.4 - West Pit Siding

36.4 - Belvidere

This photo, taken on May 14, 1933, just after the E&B rails were removed, shows the interurban's underpass on the east side of Belvidere where it crossed under the C&NW line from Belvidere to DeKalb. The grade in the background is the C&NW line that paralleled much of the E&B. Today this is approximately at the corner of Jamestown Avenue and Bridgewater Drive in Belvidere.

This photo was taken on the same date and shows the E&B bridge at West Pit, located just north of where the Farm & Fleet is today. The bridge bears a striking resemblance to IRM's Boot Creek bridge.

In happier times, a St. Louis E&B car crosses the bridge east of Belvidere over the Kishwaukee River. This distinctive bridge still exists today.

This view, taken in May 1938, shows some of the last E&B trackage to be taken up. We're looking north on Sponable Street in Marengo at the "Borden Curve" on the E&B, where the interurban cut north from Prairie Street to rejoin the C&NW alignment on its way to Belvidere.

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