Before I get to the story I need to lay the ground work.
As many of you know the BRHS has received files from the
Aurora,IL. local. I've been going through the files before
they go to the archives to remove personal info. And any
BN material.
Tonight I stumbled on a file, that's going to the archive,
that contains something I never experienced while working
or ever heard about before.
The Aurora lodge was actually two lodges but with one
seniority list. An Aurora lodge at Galesburg handled frt.
and passenger between Galesburg and Chicago. It also
worked any locals between Galesburg and Mendota. The lodge
at Aurora covered everything else between
Chicago,Savanna,streator,Mendota,Rockford,etc,etc.
In 1938 an Aurora Division,Galesburg based crew was
ordered out of Cicero and departed 12:45PM with 97 cars
destined Galesburg. At Eola while the train was being
"worked" they were instructed to run to Wedron on the Fox
River branch, pick up four cars of sand and take them to
Congress for set out on the south wye to the IHB. The crew
then returned to Eola, gathered up their train and
proceeded to Galesburg just under the 16 hour "hog law".
Needless to say timeslips flew.
Leo Phillipp