CERA Fan-trip 8 September and Zoom this Friday

[daveklepper]

Central Electric Railfans' Association <[e-mail]>

Subject: Announcing a CERA Fantrip and This Friday's Zoom

Date: September 8, 2021 at 12:24:51 EDT

Reply-To: [e-mail]

CERA FANTRIPS ARE BACK! Join us Oct. 3 for a Fall Foliage Fantrip to the East Troy Electric Railway In our first fantrip in over a year, we'll be a visiting East Troy via a round-trip chartered motor coach on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021.    The trip includes a catered luncheon aboard a former South Shore Line car at East Troy, an exclusive charter on the newly refurbished North Shore Line 761 and a tour of East Troy's modern shop facility. See the CERA website for all the details and registration information!    CERA ON ZOOM, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. (CTD) ILLINOIS TERMINAL by Harvey Laner This week's program is a detailed look at one of America’s great interurban systems. Illinois Terminal grew out of William B. McKinley’s, 1900 purchase of the Danville Street Railway & Light Company to transport coal to his power plant there. In four short years, McKinley acquired additional utility companies with street railway operations, connected them with rail lines and in May of 1904 put the developing system under the control of a new entity, the Illinois Traction System. As America entered the Depression decade, the McKinley Lines had evolved into a decidedly different railroad than the Illinois Traction System of ten years earlier. McKinley’s scattered collection of little traction lines had been fused together into a whole new entity. It became increasingly evident that no other interurban electric line in the country had made as dramatic a transformation as the Illinois Traction System from a country trolley line to a full-service railroad—complete with a new name, Illinois Terminal—that offered competitive freight service, intercity passenger runs and big-city suburban services. Through the 1930s, the financial challenges were mounting as the automobile and the improving roads they traveled brought increased competition and lower ridership. Though the war brought increased ridership, the post-war years into the 1950s were increasingly difficult. In 1954 ten area railroads banded together and purchased the Illinois Terminal which led to a series of events that saw the final interurban passenger runs on March 3, 1956, and the closing of the remaining passenger service, the St Louis-Granite City Bridge service on June 22, 1958. The program draws heavily on the very rare, exceptional quality movie footage of railfan cinematographers William C Janssen, Dr. Howard Blackburn and Ray Vecchi, with footage dating back to the mid-to-late 1930s. There is also a cameo appearance of movie footage filmed by Harvey Laner in 1957 in the final days of St. Louis-Granite City Bridge Car service. Special thanks go to Dale Jenkins, President of the Illinois Traction Society who provided invaluable support in the production of this program. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83126685411?pwd=R1B1bnRWVEtNL2xaSHlyeWlLSUVCZz09 Meeting ID: 831 2668 5411 Passcode: 959625 Dial in: 312-626-6799 Questions? Send us an email at [e-mail]   Central Electric Railfans' Association P.O. Box 503, Chicago, IL 60690