The CA&E collection is huge, over 200 photos, so choices have to be made. The railroad is already extremely well represented in books and magazines, of course, and for the most part the photos in the collection don't add a lot to what's already published. I'll limit the many roster shots mostly to pictures of cars that were preserved. Very few have info, but those few are interesting.
11
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| Nov. 23, 1944 This, of course, is before it was rebuilt into a line car. Fun fact: 11 is the only wooden car ever on the roster that had one king post instead of two queen posts on each side. |
303
309
311-315
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| You can never have too many interior photos. This is a Kuhlman in later years. |
315
316
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| July 1, 1945 |
317
318
321
460
FAN TRIPS
This is a 1940 CERA fan trip with the 318, paused at the end of track in Elgin.
Luckily, I can name all of the people in this picture! (L to R)
Howard Odinius
Fielding Kunecke ("my cousin")
Karl Pearson
Herschel Pemberton - Conductor
Edward Barmore - Motorman
Frank Krejcik
Dave Prescott
Arthur Kirby
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| Now it's your turn! |
"Aug. 10, 1941
The Special at the C M St.P.&P.
under pass on the Elgin branchs
Nos. 9, 11 and 319. the latter
was dragged both ways the controls
will not operate with the freight
motors"
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| "Aug. 10, 1941 On the Aurora branch along the Fox River We were backing in the hole to let a regular passenger by." |
WORK SCENES
Here the IC diamonds at Elmhurst are being rebuilt.
The work equipment in the background appears to be from the CTA, so they may have also hired CTA crews to do the work.
Here the 500 has been loaded onto a flatcar and is presumably on its way to Highwood to get a new identity, in 1941.
And here the old linecar 45 is working on the overhead at Elgin. That dates this to no later than 1947.
WORK EQUIPMENT
9
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"Nov. 23,1944 This car has been striped of its G.E. 66 machines for use on the passenger equipment." |
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"Jan 28, 1945 Don't get excited, they just slapped a coat of brown under coater on this car, put new grab irons & step iron on her. Pulled the G.E. 66 machines and spotted her out behind the old freight house on the Aurora mainline south of the car barns. New rails in the left foreground." |
THE GENEVA BRANCH
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| On the Geneva line, to be sure, but where exactly? I'm going to say Wheeler's siding, at Anderson and State in Geneva, but it could be elsewhere.... |
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| This looks like it must be on the Geneva branch. |
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| And then this would be Geneva Jct., back before the branch was abandoned. |
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| High Lake Station |
MISCELLANEOUS
46
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| Good interior photos are always hard to find, but when was this one taken? The only clue is the partial view of an advertising card. It's obviously promoting "Du Barry Was A Lady", a movie which came out in 1943 and starred Bert Lahr among others, based on a musical by Cole Porter. And then I propose that "ANGER" is actually "Background to Danger", another movie that came out in 1943. QED. We make this site as educational as we can! |
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| 6-15-40 Eastbound freight |
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| "Oct. 15, 1944 #89 at Lincoln Ave. Wheaton 4 cars used to be unusual for a branch line train. This train goes to Elgin." |
16
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| "Sept. 4, 1944 #16 just pulling out of Batavia Part of the station can be seen at the extreme left" |
I guess the interesting thing here is that you can see the Geneva-St. Charles branch running down the middle of Main St. heading east, I believe, and it appears the wire is still up.
This is the only picture in the CA&E collection taken of preserved equipment. This is at Brookins, of course, in the early days, with cars 319, 303, 451, and a Fox River car.
Finally....
They just don't make postcards (or dime stores) like they used to.
13 comments:
The mystery photo "On the Geneva line, to be sure, but where exactly? I'm going to say Wheeler's siding, at Anderson and State in Geneva, but it could be elsewhere...." might be near the corner of 3rd street and Main street in St Charles looking at the old church there. The rails seem to be curving slightly to the left which I know they did before they turned onto Rt 64. Hard to say for sure without being able to see the top of the building but it does very closely align with the street view here.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9127355,-88.3165727,3a,42.9y,144.06h,87.53t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1ssm2RJrcPBp0wXx7ZjKXWVA!2e0!5s20120901T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D2.4678192445485934%26panoid%3Dsm2RJrcPBp0wXx7ZjKXWVA%26yaw%3D144.05635786842404!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDQyOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Did #9 spend the rest of its years as a trailer? Given the timing (war scarcity), I could see the shops pulling traction motors temporarily if rebuilds were taking too long or impossible.
The photo of the 303 is interesting. It looks to me like it has a black side sill, suggesting this is something of a transition livery between early (black side sill with Sunset Lines emblem) and late (blue side sill, no emblem, “PSAs” next to the doors) versions of the blue paint scheme. There’s also what looks like a flag sticker in the first side window, which I’ve never noticed before on a CA&E car photo. I’m guessing this was taken during the war.
No, I don't think so. In later years it was usually trained with 7 and used in freight service like 5 and 15.
I suppose that's possible. Seems to me like too many trees.
what do you mean by "King post" in reference to #11?
There were a'lot more trees around that area back in they day. You can see them in the aerial photo below. Still not definitive but pretty close.
https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/kane/flight9/0bwu05054.jpg
Look it up.
The third miscellaneous photo is quite interesting. It includes car 436 which was one of the steel-sided wood cars. It was set up to operate in train with steel cars, as it is in this photo. O. Anderson
I too am curious about the king post description. Even after “looking it up” as you responded, I still don’t fully understand. Were you being rude because he posted anonymously? You’re usually very helpful in responding.
I have to agree with Derek. The car 425 is signed for St Charles, and the quality of light and shadows to me says its a midafternoon northbound trip on Anderson/3rd in the summer. The qualities of the church tower window are distinct and identical in the historic photo and the Streetview. Often the steeple got added later on churches so I would not rely on that part. O Anderson
I recommend remedial education for our confused friends that involves deep dives into Eric Sloan books. Or, we could try basic google searches that give us wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_post https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_post UNSIGNED on purpose
OK, maybe that came across as rude. But I would have thought this was common terminology in roof trusses, bridges, or almost any type of construction. Also, I have no way to insert pictures into comments, so you need to look it up to get a better idea than I can provide in words. Sorry.
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