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Re: [CBQ] Irish Mails

To: <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Irish Mails
From: "Charlie Vlk" <cvlk@comcast.net>
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 17:11:51 -0600
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Leo-
Thanks for the bit of history.... and for all the extremely interesting posts 
you've been making!!!!!
Your writing style is great and the stories even better!!!!  
Thanks for the memories....
Charlie Vlk


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: qutlx1@aol.com 
  To: cbq@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:40 PM
  Subject: [CBQ] Irish Mails


  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 

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