Re: [CBQ] CB&Q Naperville street running photo request

["Mike Schattl" <mike@schattl.com>]

Okay thankies for the info. It's a shame there's no pics that we know of.

Mike SchattL

On 3/25/2024 10:32 AM, Leo Phillipp via groups.io wrote:



Doug gives me far too much credit. I don’t personally have photos of the quarry line track but I did talk with a couple old time employees years ago who had worked on it.

There are a couple sites/companies on the internet that provide old plat maps. You can view and if desired buy copies. They are a wealth of info. Once you master the search functions. That’s  where I learned a lot about the quarry line.

You could also try contacting the Naperville Heritage society.

I’m not aware of any quarry line photos on the BRHS flicker function on the BRHS site. But very soon members will have a search function to aid us after the photos move on April 1 within the site.For those interested in that line and Burlington Park I also recommend internet searches. 

The Q job that worked the quarry line and the industries off the main was the “east end way freight”. It was based out of Eola. There are quite a few photos of it at Naperville and working the industries in town on the BRHS flicker site that is available to BRHS members. 

I just queried Burlington Park Naperville and found a wonderful article and photos on the Du Page county forest preserve site. While that sight refers to Burlington Park as unique it was not at all. The Q was doing the same thing the electric lines, the CNW and others did to generate ridership. They created a park for folks to go to and these parks were very popular for awhile until they faded away. Burlington Park faded quicker than others. I don’t believe the reason quoted on the forest preserve site for the closure is accurate as it comes from a modern perspective. 

Burlington Park drew folks from as far away as Galesburg and west based on a sign at the Galesburg RR museum advertising the train. It seems logical that the vast majority of folks came out to the park from Chicago on Q trains and as Chicago developed more or more of its own attractions there was less reason to board a train for the hinterlands.

I’ve also read that the change to a 5 and 1/2 day workweek and then 5 days along with automobiles led to much of the decline in rr parks as folks had more independence and options of where and how to find entertainment.

Here a short list of some other suburban rr parks around Chicago.

Laurel wood-Batavia- C.&N.W. closed around same time as Burlington Park

Riverview(later Fox River park)-Montgomery-C.A&E Fox River line

Electric Park-Plainfield,IL- The Joliet,Aurora and Plainfield electric line

Glen wood-Batavia,Il-C.A.&E.

Dellwood-Lockport

All these and other parks all had wooded sights and water as their attractions.

Leo

On Mar 25, 2024, at 9:33 AM, Douglas Hosler <dehosler40@gmail.com> wrote:

 Thank you for bringing this up, Mike!  Sorry that I have no pictures.  Lots of memory. 

Leo Phillipp would likely have some photos or know of some. But I am sure anyone who does have photos would be welcome. 

That was an operation my much older brothers (18 and 14 years old, I was a “whoops”) watched and I watched.  There were three lots between our house and that spur, so action on that spur was hard to miss.    

Small correction (just a block away).  Once the track to the quarries and a brewery (later the city power plant and a lumber yard) curved off the triple track mainline, it ran down a kind of odd street, Ewing (we pronounced it "U-wing”). Ewing didn’t have curbs or gutter or sidewalks.  Ewing was a block away from Mill Street which did have curbs and gutter and sidewalks.  In fact Mill Street ran under the railroad. It ran through what was called "the Mill Street viaduct" so the curve of the spur from the mainline had to be very sharp.  

My brothers saw G-class engines (I assume from Aurora) backing down and coming back.  By my time it was an R-5 Prairie and later an O-1 Mikado.  

Leo does work on all kinds of things!  He might not get a chance to finish something (I bet he has a thousand projects) on the operations of the mainline train that worked the industries main line from Aurora to Congress Park (?) and back).  Naperville would be an interesting place because not only were the quarries worked (the house I grew up in had a basement made from quarry rock) - and later other things - but also (Leo pointed out to me) there was a kind of amusement park on the West Branch of the DuPage River that the Q served with a train from Chicago (something completely gone by the end of the Depression). It explained the strange overgrown spur that I noticed as a kid walking along the mainline.  That spur divided from the downtown spur and went along the main line west from Mill Street to the river crossing. 

Doug (Doug Hosler)

 

On Mar 25, 2016, at 1:47 AM, Mike Schattl <mike@schattl.com> wrote:

Hello,

Does anyone have any pics of the CB&Q Naperville branch that ran down the center of Mill Street to the Quarry near Naperville's downtown?? I can't find any pics online of this unique and long gone operation. Thanx in Advance!!

Mike SchattL

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