I am truly appreciative of Charlie Vik's documented and very
interesting correction to my childhood memories of the long gone
Chicago & West Towns trolley Harlem Avenue line.
His observation that the West Towns actually directly served all
three Berwyn CB&Q depots is fascinating. I wonder whether the trolley
double tracks that he mentions on both sides of the CB&Q crossing
were true double tracks or just serving as passing sidings. The
tracks on Harlem Avenue south their terminus at Ogden Avenue were not
lifted for some time and they were single c. 1941-43-6?, at least the
last four or five blocks. We used the double track Riverside line of
the West Towns all the time, and the single track on Harlem always
stood out as "different" (and something for a child to carefully
cross with his bicycle).
Charlie mentions a "spur that was abandoned". Was this on Harlem
Avenue north of the tracks? If so these rails may still have been in
in the early '40s, although perhaps abandoned many years previous. If
this track had continued on for only about a mile, it would have
connected with the West Towns line through Riverside to La Grange,
and would have provided the West Towns with a very convenient short
cut to their car barns and shop at Cermak and Harlem Aves.
The busy CB&Q Harlem Avenue crossing has been a major headache for
both railroad and county for decades. It was one of the central
reasons for an ill-fated post WWII proposal to elevate the CB&Q
tracks from about La Vergne to ? Hollywood. The planning for this
"Chinese Wall"was far along until the Berwyn city Council killed it
by reputedly refused to even bring it up for discussion. Well,
apparently an entire new study has in the last two years been
completed about burying Harlem Avenue under the tracks through a
grand underpass (I have been shown the plans and study). This of
course severely impacts the retail businesses along Harlem on either
side, so exactly where this proposal now stands, I do not know.
Denny
--
Denny S. Anspach, MD
Sacramento
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