BRHSLIST
[Top] [All Lists]

[CBQ] Irish Mails

To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CBQ] Irish Mails
From: qutlx1@aol.com
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 16:40:12 EST
Comment: DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys
Delivered-to: archives@nauer.org
Delivered-to: mailing list CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=lima; d=yahoogroups.com; b=Vvx27Xo3G6ULSD1cRM2c9q6P6YFpIPCyCjAJ/ZgZVgso8it7rSf2h14lBl0egBw5eLVz5ZcBosX34KIKxvzO9she4eyVB9eQspzTAhDSx5fDKr+02hwMwe1xKv2KG/4c;
List-id: <CBQ.yahoogroups.com>
List-unsubscribe: <mailto:CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
Mailing-list: list CBQ@yahoogroups.com; contact CBQ-owner@yahoogroups.com
Reply-to: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sender: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Charlie,

You raise a question near and dear to my heart. THE IRISH MAIL was the job 
from Eola to W Batavia/Geneva on the west side of the river.It also did the 
local work on the east side up to North  Aurora before turning to return to 
Eola. 
I asked many times but none of the old heads in the 70's knew why it was 
called the Irish Mail. I have checked with a friend of mine who is a 
professional 
historian at the Geneva ,IL history center and he did some checking and came 
back empty handed. Geneva was founded by Swedes. My theory(and that is all it 
is)follows: on the near west side of Aurora was an Irish neighborhood,in fact 
the Irish Social Club, still exists on North Highland Ave. with it's back door 
opening onto the West Batavia/Geneva main. My guess is the job that once 
operated on this line as a passenger or mixed carried the U.S. mail and the 
name 
stuck with the job going through the neighborhood. But let's be clear there was 
only one IRISH MAIL according to old heads like Ben Darling and Hughie Talbot. 
Hughie was the engineer on the IRISH MAIL for many years and retired at age 
70. He was very clear. "There's only one Irish Mail. The other jobs are mails." 
He was also the BLE greiver for many years.Ben Darling was the engineer on the 
1:00PM mail for many years. You know for an old guy my memory is still pretty 
good if I say so myself !
If my memory of job assignment history is correct, and I believe it is,up 
until General Mills opened  THE IRISH MAIL went up both sides of the river to 
the 
end of each line. When Gen. Mills business grew to where the Irish Mail 
simply couldn't get everything switched in it's 16 hours the job was cut back 
to 
North Aurora on the east side and gradually the new MAILS were added to keep 
Gen. Mills happy. Just remembered; the engine assignment log book at Eola Rdhse 
and the crew callers "board" at Aurora depot both showed the three jobs going 
to West Chicago as "mails" ie 500 AM Mail,100PM mail,1100PM mail.
The 8:00AM job to West Batavia/Eola/North Aurora and back to Eola was shown 
as Irish Mail. 
Oh,here's further circumstantial evidence to support my theory. The east side 
of Aurora above the West Chicago branch was know as Pigeon Hill. This area 
was settled by Eastern Europeans with Slavic surnames. Many of them are still 
there. It's like walking into one of the ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.
The younger guys would often refer to the West Chicago jobs as the 5:00AM etc 
Irish Mail only to be corrected by the old timers.
I vote we try and keep history correct. There was only one IRISH MAIl !

Leo
  
  Weren't the trains going up to West Chicago called the "Irish Mail"? Seems 
to me I've heard that term used in reference to locals working out of 
Aurora/Eola
or am I missremembering something? And just why would they have been called 
that? The only "Irish Mail" that I've heard about (other than on foreign 
railways) 
would be the children's pump vehicle from the first part of the last century. 
And if those locals were the "Mail" was that a rememberence of a mixed or 
passenger train
that did carry the mail between Aurora and West Chicago?
Charlie Vlk
----- Original Message ----- 
From: mailto:qutlx1%40aol.com 
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 10:27 AM
Subject: [CBQ] West Chicago Lesson

Early one morning I take the call to work the 5:00AM Mail. This was one of 
three jobs running between Eola and West Chicago each day to keep the General 
Mills plant switched continuously. I had caught the afternoon and night jobs 
before so I thought I was familiar with the workings. This was in the early 
70's 
when General Mills was shipping from four trks at least three times a day 
with 
extras running to the plant on Sundays. Up until this day we typically went 
to West Chicago with a train that would fit on one of the 4 yard trks when we 
arrived at the yard adjacent to the plant. Typically there would be two open 
trks,one to yard your train and one to come back thru to get on the west end 
and 
start making up the strings of cars for the plant,etc. So this day we pull 
into West Chicago and when we reach the east end we have to pull out to foul 
the 
main (which is our way back to the west end) in order to get the w/c clear of 
the main on the west end. So I've got to hang onto a couple cars. When the 
crew met in the geeps' cab back at Eola noone mentioned this possibility and 
not 
having run into it before I asked the hogger what the normal plan in this 
situation was. He replied just hang onto a couple and set them over on one of 
tracks on the east end.
He and I proceeded with this plan but of course there wasn't enough room on 
either of the trks for two cars so...... we coupled up began to make room by 
starting to shove west. During the process I received a violent washout from 
the 
west end coming from the waycar steps with a newspaper. Cutting off and still 
hanging onto one car we pulled up and backed down the main to the w/c where I 
was met by Rip who proceeded to rip me from top to bottom. Luckily we didn't 
corner anything and ended up making a drop on the car into a trk on the west 
end. We then went about the long overtime day of switching the production 
plant 
and the other customers around town. After that day I knew what to do with 
the excess cars when we got to G.M.!
It wasn't long after that day that I started catching the afternoon mail on a 
semi regular basis and we we're going to West Chicago with 40 and yes at 
least twice with a 60 car train ! Talk about a switching nightmare. 
Today when you cross the West Chicago branch on RTE 38 in West Chicago you 
may find 3 or 4 cars in the entire yard. It all goes by truck and the rail 
loading docks have been converted to truck.

Leo 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com 
    mailto:CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>