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