Philip
Overton's "Burlington Route: A History of the Burlington Lines" does not
indicate in which direction the construction was undertaken, as such. On page
7, the references are to a railway from Aurora "by way of Batavia to a junction
with the Galena", but logic would suggest using the G&CU for supply from Turner
Junction, especially as the Aurora Branch obtained "discarded obsolescent strap
iron, Norway pine rails on which to fasten it, and a twelve-ton locomotive"
from the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad for this first 12 miles.
On page 8, it notes that on 1st May 1850, there was a strike for more pay by
men working on the roadbed and that it must have been short-lived as on 1st
August, "grading on the final section into Aurora was underway. By August 22
the rails were already as far south as Batavia, providing an excuse for running
a special train, evidently sponsored by the Aurora Branch but operated by the
Galena Road, to the end of the track and back again".
There is no mention of the commencement of the grading work, other than that
the contracts for grading were awarded to four contractors on 20th December
1849 at varying rates per cubic yard, nor any indication where they started
from. However, as there were four contractors, they would have held contracts
for different parts of the line and therefore the work would have started from
four different points, so the concurrent references above to both Aurora and
Batavia are feasible if they were different contracts and contractors. A
possible scenario would be with each contractor working southwards - one from
Turner Junction, one to Batavia, one from Batavia and one to Aurora.
I can't help with the date of the building - have you considered newspapers for
both queries?
Hope this helps
Rupert
----- Original Message -----
From: Philip Weibler
To: CBQlist
Cc: Charlie Vlk ; Rupert Gamlen ; Sally DeFauw
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 4:54 PM
Subject: Aurora Branch Railroad and Turner Junction depot
Hello Rupert, Charlie, and CBQlist -
The West Chicago City Museum - present day caretakers of the Aurora Branch RR
Turner Junction depot - is searching for answers to two relevant questions:
1) Was the Aurora Branch built "from Aurora northerly twelve miles to a
connection with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad......at Turner
Junction...", or was it built south from Turner Junction? The first locomotive
to operate on the line, the G&CU (C&NW) PIONEER, would have been made available
at the Junction, and one might suppose that construction materials would also
have been delivered there.
Has anyone found any historically valid report on the building of this line?
2) Does anyone have documentation to show when the existing Turner Junction
depot was built? The information may be available on r-o-w maps or on
valuation reports. This depot must be one of the oldest CB&Q depots extant.
The West Chicago City Museum hopes to have the depot open to visitors - at
least on a limited basis - by this coming Spring, in time for the BRHS Spring
Meet on April 18th.
Thanks to Rupert for posting the link to the 1928 Documentary History of the
CB&Q, which gave rise to these questions. However, it will take a while to get
my tongue straightened out after tripping over "Oquawka" several times.
PAW
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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