Leo,
I remember my brother, a Q brakeman, saying that the first Irish Mail crew
back to Eola changed engines and did the Alley Job. Early on they would
trade an SW for a G engine or vice versa. I remember a G engine in the
Spring 1954 on the Irish Mail at North Aurora. I don't remember the engine
number. It was 500 something. My dad and I used to watch the steam
draglines and pit engines at the gravel pit in North Aurora. The draglines
were really large and fun to watch (for a little kid). Dad and I would go
anywhere there was steam of any kind operating. I wished I had had a camera
back then. As with all pictures, those pictures in the mind fade with
time. The C.N. & W. came into Aurora up by St. Joe's Hospital. They had a
turntable there, about where the police station is now. Don't remember ever
seeing steam there more than a couple of times. Also remember the C.M. & G.
and the E.J. & E. steam engines running by the playground off Douglas Ave.
The C.M. & G. train was in the morning and the "J" ran in the afternoon.
Ken
On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 9:37 PM, <qutlx1@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> Jeff,
>
> We've discussed the question of the origin of the name Irish Mail here
> several times and dont have anything firm. I'm purely guessing that it has
> something to do with the area the line went thru as the "Irish Club" is a
> social club just off the line a couple blocks North of Illinois Ave. Aurora
> is
> full of the these social clubs(Luxembourg Club,etc,etc,etc) and they are
> located in neigborhoods where their names reflected the origin of the re
> sidents.
> One thing is certain there was only one Irish Mail. The mails that used to
> go to West Chicago were mails.
> If you want to get Ben Darling,and some of the other old timers rolling
> around in their graves start calling anything else a mail. Believe me I
> learned first hand when they were working !! The only Irish Mail went up
> both
> sides of the river.
>
> Leo Phillipp
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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