This final post of the day is about commuter trains in Chicago.
What other roads had commuter trains besides the PRR (2?), Milw, CBQ, CNW, IC, CSSB, RI, CIW?
Thank you.
CNS&M, C&WI (provided tackage).
Previously, tackage was intended to be trackage (rights)
Wondering were, Union Station, La Salle St. and Dearborn incorperated separately from their tenant 'roads? Would that make them commute train providers?
Commute train----SP Coast Div fireman speech....I wish all you were there....early '60s.
CA&E operated commuter service up till 1957 (came into downtown Chicago over the CTA Garfield Park line until Sept. 1953, then cut back to Desplaines Avenue, Forest Park). GM&O operated the plugs on the Joliet line prior to merging with IC. IC ran not only the electrified suburban service, but until the early 30s retained a steam-operated service between Addison and Chicago. NYC ran some local trains on commuter-friendly times to/from Elkhart. Not sure when the last of those operated. Hope that helps! Art
Chicago Union Station Co. was a joint subsidiary of PRR (50%), CB&Q (25%) and MILW (25%). Alton/GM&O was a tenant. It provided a joint facility for the owners and tenant but did not own or operate any equipment.
Dearborn Station was owned by C&WI, which was a joint subsidiary of Erie, Monon, GTW, C&EI and Wabash. ATSF was a tenant. C&WI also owned a main line to State Line Tower with a branch to Dolton. It operated commuter service to Dolton until 1964 and provided switching for its owners at Dearborn Station and some on-line freight customers.
Wabash/N&W also provided a single weekday round trip to Orland Park. This has expanded under Metra to 15 trips in each direction on weekdays and 3 round trips on Saturdays. This line is my daily ride to and from work.
The CA&E is one RR you don't hear mentioned often. As a youngster I rode the "Roarin Elgin" from Wheaton to points both east and west. In light of today's traffic congestion in the western suburbs I have to wonder if there are regrets as to letting the CA&E go out of business?
Since we are the subject of Chicago commuter trains I would like to find out if anyone would know about the locomotive power used on the Milwaukee Road and the Chicago and Northwestern. From about 1950 to 1955 the Milwaukee Road used steam engines on the commuter runs. They had six driver wheels. My guess would be they must have been using Hudsons or Pacifics. We moved from Itasca to Wheaton in 1955. The Northwestern served that area. They were still using steam engines at that time. They were phased out shortly thereafter. In addition to the regular commuter trains on the Northwestern they also used the Kate Shelley as a commuter train all the way to Geneva on the Fox river. Of course it was diesel-electric.
iron mountain The CA&E is one RR you don't hear mentioned often. As a youngster I rode the "Roarin Elgin" from Wheaton to points both east and west. In light of today's traffic congestion in the western suburbs I have to wonder if there are regrets as to letting the CA&E go out of business?
Considering that the CA&E almost literally paralleled C&NW from Wheaton to Chicago and much of the area along its former lines west of Wheaton is still undeveloped to barely developed, I'm not so sure that it would fill a useful niche even today. The lack of a downtown terminal would be a major handicap and CTA's proposal for Forest Park-Wheaton PCC's in 1958 fell somewhere between grandstanding and asking from where the money to operate it would come.
CSSHEGEWISCH wrote in part...
." Considering that the CA&E almost literally paralleled C&NW from Wheaton to Chicago and much of the area along its former lines west of Wheaton is still undeveloped to barely developed, I'm not so sure that it would fill a useful niche even today".
It seems that developement follows the reliable transportation corridors. CA&E having had the ability (as I understand it) to traverse the loop instead of ending at a stationary point may have ended up being most desirable for the developers. Of course when the CA&E was neutered from the loop it became worthless.
Dick
It also depends on which era you are talking about. Grand Trunk Western had a few trains that left Valparaiso for the 2 hour trip into town but they were stopped in the mid 1930's.
Steve
If my memory is correct, the C%NW used mostly Pacifics on Chicago commuter runs in 1952, with possibly a few ten-wheelers.
The Burlington used E-units in the regular passenger pool, might be on the Denver Zephyr one day and on a commuter run another. Except the E-5's never were on commuter runs, only E-7's and E-8's. With some Pacifics still providing some steam for a few rush hour commuter runs.
And there was no business of matching diesels with gallery Budd cars and steam with single-level converted cleristory roof single level cars. Diesels were on both and so were steam. And head-end power cars, converted coaches with arch roofs, were on all commuter trains, which required head end power, which none of the locomotives provided.
Occasionally an off-p[eak Burlington two-car or three-car plus head-end power car gallery train would be pulled by a GP-7 instead of an E-unit.
rrboomer It seems that developement follows the reliable transportation corridors. CA&E having had the ability (as I understand it) to traverse the loop instead of ending at a stationary point may have ended up being most desirable for the developers. Of course when the CA&E was neutered from the loop it became worthless. Dick
CA&E always terminated at Wells Street Terminal and never operated on the Loop L like the North Shore Line. Also remember that CTA's replacing of the Garfield Park L with the Congress line precluded operation onto the Loop L anyway.
Hi - CTA prepared studies for operation of both the CA&E (from Wheaton to Desplaines Av., as Paul mentioned) and for the North Shore from the Loop to Waukegan. The CA&E study was based on use of the pre-War PCCs; for the North Shore it would have been higher-performance rapid transit PCC cars and an A/B service pattern up the Skokie Valley. Both went no place, for lack of suitable funding sources. CTA was prepared to accommodate CA&E in the Congress-Dearborn-Milwaukee subway (the west side connection to that opened on June 22, 1958, by which time CA&E was freight only.
Some knowledgeable sources reported that CTA retained a section of the Humboldt Park Branch after the "L" shuttle service quit running in the E50s, to use as a CA&E turnback/layup facility. Humboldt Park was the "L" line that ran parallel and to the north of North Avenue, joining the Milwaukee Avenue "L" line at the North/Damen station.
Over the weekend had a discussion about the NYC suburban trains and heard something I was not aware of previously. Going WAY back (pre-1920) NYC and NKP had a routing for NW IN suburban trains that ran one-way on the first carrier and then back on the other carrier's line. It was also asserted that the NYC-NKP operation was intended more to get workers to/from NW IN steel mills and other industries, as opposed to being Chicago-oriented.
Hope the above is of some interest! Art
In the teens and twenties, Samuel Insull acquired control of all three of Chicago’s big, high-speed interurban lines. These were the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee, the Chicago Aurora & Elgin and the Chicago South Shore & South Bend.
Of course, only the South Shore Line still runs today.
A little about the others may be found at: Remembering the 'Ror'n' Elgin
and Riding the Electroliner
Glen Brewer
Railroad Glory Days
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