DG 'Rusty' Alderson,
TOAST President
Mostly 1830 -1930
Rusty's
All American
Stories
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Not an official Metra Site
Gilded Age & Train Historian
Train Railfan
Historical Characters, Lincoln Family,
Frontier Arizona, Early Railroads
TOAST email: GAstorybook@gmail.com
"Just Beyond the Rails"
Geneva to Chicago
Geneva
This Geneva Depot served passengers in the 1893-1959
The current railroad bridge over the Fox River was built in 1906. Built to handle 4 sets of tracks, apparently it only had 3 sets of tracks, then was reduced to two. Currently, the bridge will be back to 3 sets of tracks soon.
Kane County Cougars since 1882
The Illinois State Training School was an institution for “wayward” girls in Geneva, Illinois. Built around the turn of the century, it was in operation into the 1970s.
Many of its alumni describe it not as a school but rather as a cruel prison, with locked doors and bared windows.
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It was located 1/8 mile south of the tracks off of Rt. 25.
West Chicago
West Chicago
Canadian National
Union Pacific
This is the last operating tower on the EJE System (now Canadian National) and is still manned 24/7. Union Pacific won't let them close this tower! Train traffic every 24 hours: Canadian National about 30; Union Pacific over 100.
add locomotive in case
Add old rr station
West Chicago's Robber Baron
John W. Gates grew up in a small farm in West Chicago.
He became Texaco's largest stockholder. His wife's brother and niece, Col. Baker and
Dellora Angell (who married Lester Norris), inherited his massive fortune using it for
St. Charles benefit.
Winfield
From 1849 to 1854, it was used as a rail passenger depot along a strap-rail track segment laid when the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad came through the area.
It served as a train depot up until 1854, when Galena and Chicago Union Railroad built another depot on the south side of the tracks going through town.
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A "strap-rail track" was used because iron was hard to obtain in sufficient quantities for new railroads. This is the only example of strap-rail track in the Midwest.
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In 1978, the Winfield Historical Society was formed to save Hedges Station and restore a portion of the building as a period depot museum to be called "Hedges Station" in honor of John Hedges, its first stationmaster.
The move of the depot to the northern end of Oakwood Park took place in 1981,
Hedges Station
Oldest remaining train depot in the State of Illinois
Chicago Aurora & Elgin
Electric Commuter Train
Headquarters
Maintenance and Yards
Wheaton
Wheaton
The steam powered Chicago & Northwestern and the electric powered Chicago, Aurora and Elgin tracks paralleled each other beginning in Wheaton into Chicago. Although both railroads issued memos forbidding engineers not to race each other, those memos were ignored.
Wheaton
Chicago Golf Club
First 18 hole golf course in the United States and still rated as one of the top 100 courses in the world.
The Chicago, Aurora, & Elgin Electric RR (1902 -1957)
had a stop in Wheaton at the golf course.
Not only did the CA & E stopped at the Chicago Golf Club, the train had a siding.
The private car would sit at the siding until the passengers were ready to return to the city!
Chicago Golf
Club Siding
Glen Ellyn
Glen Ellyn
Freight Train Wreck
In May 1976, a rail failed causing one freight train to clip another causing a chemical spill in addition to numerous injuries.
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Crews poured water on the chemicals mistakenly causing the water to enter the sewer system which found its way into Lake Ellyn ultimately causing all the fish to die.
Two of the train crew involved in the wreck enjoy a beverage every Thursday at Geneva's Third Street Station Bar & Grill.
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Villa Park
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Ovaltine was manufactured
in Villa Park from 1917 until 1988.
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The building once stood on the north side of the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin tracks, just south of the Chicago & North Western tracks.
Elmhurst
The Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Company quarry viewed from the east in December 1967. The company began excavating the quarry at the northeast corner of First Street and West Avenue in 1883. The quarry was mined until 1992, when DuPage County purchased it for use as a floodwater reservoir.
O'Hare
Butch O'Hare, killed in WWII,
was the son of an Al Capone associate. Butch's father always want the best for his son. The U.S. Navy's first
Medal of Honor recipient
was also honored in 1949 when the city retired the name "Orchard Field Airport (ORD) and renamed the airport O'Hare.
Proviso Yards
Chicago & North Western opened the yard in 1929 and at the time it was touted as
the largest such facility in the world.
South of Maywood
About 3,500 graves at the Forest Home and Concordia cemeteries had to be moved to make way for the Congress -now Eisenhower- expressway, delaying construction and pushing up costs. Planners talked about elevating the highway above the graveyards, but decided that would be too expensive. Many of the bodies moved at Forest Home were victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Oak Park
Home of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright
Unity Church can be seen from the tracks
Frank Lloyd Wright's son invented Lincoln Logs
Garfield Park Conservatory
One of the largest and most stunning botanical conservatories
in the nation.
Chicago
In 1984, the head house was razed and replaced with the glass-and-steel 42-story Citicorp Center (now 500 West Madison),
which was completed three years later in 1987.
CNW Waiting Room 1912
Geneva Railroad Line
Historical Significance
The Galena & Chicago Union RR (Galena) laid the first tracks out of Chicago in 1849. At Junction (now W. Chicago), the tracks turned north crossing the Fox River at Elgin, then
continued to Rockford.
With talk of a transcontinental railroad, the Galena RR then laid tracks from Junction west over the Fox River reaching Geneva in 1853.
The railroad continued building to the Mississippi River. During this period the Galena RR was absorbed by the newly formed Chicago & North Western.
After building the bridge over the Mississippi, it leased an Iowa railroad that eventually connected with the Union Pacific at Omaha.
When the transcontinental railroad between Omaha and Sacramento was completed in 1869, Geneva was on the Overland Route which was the preferred (and fastest) route for travelers heading to the Pacific Ocean.