Ray and Groups-
There is no shortage of photos of East End station photos taken in the 1950’s and 1960’s! But you are right…slides and photos sell for (IMHO) stupid prices. Why copies of slides can command prices they do is a mystery to me. As somebody who is interested in preserving history (by making it widely available, not locking it in a vault) it is offensive to me that material that cost pennies (or in the case of original railroad blueprints and other material was sent out free by the railroad or retrieved from a dumpster) is now going for big bucks.
That being said, however, there is a curious lack of photos of trains and facilities on the East End which cannot be attributed to the Chicago Fire (1871) and the Chicago General Office Building Fire which only would have destroyed railroad copies of prints held in engineering and other files . The only earlier “train” photos Aurora-Chicago are pretty much ones of commuter trains at depots.
There is maddingly a few stereopticon cards taken in Riverside pre-1872 which suggest a series of photos were taken with the photographer stepping off of trains at each station but no more of the series (P.B. Greene who was famous for pre-and-post Chicago Fire views) have been found.
What is missing are the Chicago “suburban depots” both pre- and post- track elevation:
Indiana Avenue Station and Roundhouse located on the St. Charles Air Line
Ewing Street
14th Street pre-CUS passenger and engine facilities and approaches to PFtW&C Union Depot
Canal Street (full depot, not the waiting shed) Probably two different buildings, first one south of the tracks and second one north (or vice-versa?)
Halsted Street
Blue Island Avenue
Ashland Avenue
Western Avenue (full depots) Three different buildings, first one south of the tracks and second one north, third post-track elevation. Also Western Avenue engine facilities are very sparsely photographed!
CC&IC Junction
Douglas Park Two different buildings. First North of the tracks, second south after track elevation.
Lonsdale / Lawndale / Millard Avenue / Shedd Park Likely three buildings…first north of the tracks, second south and third brick originally at grade and raised for track elevation (Shedd Park).
Chicago Driving Park (Madison and Crawford) Some facility there; at least a ticket office or run around track on this branch stub
Crawford Two different buildings south of tracks.
Suburban ones are better covered. Ones not mentioned have adequate photos:
Belt Line Depot / Chicago & Millington junction
Cicero / Hawthorne / Cicero Avenue First north of tracks, second south. Likely two different buildings.
Clyde First building ornate wood, second one photo on BRHS website.
Morton Park No photos; first south of tracks, second north and connected to Laramie Avenue bridge with stairs
Lavergne First building north of tracks burned. Replaced with second. Third CB&N style building well photographed.
Harlem Avenue First building likely two stories, replaced with well-photographed single story or heavily rebuilt.
Riverside Need a good photo of the brick combination depot which was first added on to with half of a replacement passenger depot and then moved to become the freight depot (and again to accommodate Track 3 and a rearranged commuter yard. Need photos of the roundhouse and turntable.
Kensington Possible earlier wood building prior to LaGrange Road / Fifth Avenue stone depot as construction date of that building is not verified.
Hazel Glen and Robbville primarily milk platforms but small frame depots may have been erected
West Lyons This was likely similar to the brick combination passenger/freight depots erected on the original line at Naperville, Downers Grove and Lyons/Riverside
Highlands Date of construction of this classic building is confused and no pre-1900 photos have surfaced; was there a frame predecessor?
Clarendon Hills Likely two buildings. First north of the tracks and replaced by 1911 building on south that was remodeled in 1943 with stucco.
Westmont / Greggs / Bushville What station buildings existed prior to the 1921 stucco depot?
Burlington Heights No photos of this station (likely two story) located about where the Pepperidge Farm plant is east of Fairview Avenue.
Belmont / Lacton No photos of pre-remodeled 1916 built station stucco added likely in 1940s. There was a prior depot likely on the north side of the tracks.
Auxvergne It is not known if a station or flagstop was established here just east of Lisle.
Lisle- The first depot built c.1863 was the only frame building built original for the opening of the Chicago Branch and it burned and was on the south side of the tracks and was replaced with the one that was on the north side of the tracks and is now moved and restored as a museum. Likely similar to the 1874 replacement.
Naperville Park Was there a depot or platforms here?
Burlington Park There was a platform serving the park which was railroad owned. A pumphouse supplied water to the engine water tanks in Naperville
Thatcher’s There was a milk platform somewhere in the later vicinity of the Rt 59 crossing and possibly a depot?
Eola/Lunds/Decorah Have photo of depot being moved from north side of tracks to south(?). There must have been a previous depot on north based on its architecture.
Farnsworth Avenue / Scraper Works There were platforms here to serve the workers and likely a Aurora shop train served the plant.
In my opus “Mileposts to Chicago” am not going to cover items such as Aurora, the Stockyards, the Lumber District, Freight Houses, Operations, or locomotives and rolling stock in any great detail as these have been and will be covered in the Burlington Bulletin or Zephyr by others.
There are around 100 topics which either cover a town or other location with at least a page or two of text and graphics. Many have a great deal of information running multiple pages. There are relevant sidebar topics which are unlikely to appear elsewhere that may also be of interest. A few possibly non-CB&Q items are included that are of local interest that tie into the subject material.
As I have mentioned before, this is a labor of love for me which started when I was a kid and saw a photo of the original Grossdale depot on display in the window of a real estate agency in my hometown Brookfield. I would like to publish this as an e-book as the volume of material is too much for a traditional print book and I am not sure that interest in the history of the Aurora Branch, Chicago & Aurora, and CB&Q service Aurora to Chicago warrants even a print-on-demand version. I intend to make digital copies available (in a yet undetermined manner) to BRHS members and to libraries and local historical societies that may be interested.
If anyone has any pre-1930ish photos on the East End I would appreciate corresponding directly with you about them or following up on any leads for same that you may have. I have done extensive research and have about tapped out all the sources I can think of for visual material. I am planning a trip to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland in hopes that some of the material might be available in the Engineering Field Notes, drawings, photos and other material in conjunction with the ICC Valuation Study c.1919. I have reconstructed the station history of a number of towns that the local historical societies have faulty data on and, as you can probably gather from the above list, found some locations that most of us were not aware ever existed on the East End. I am interested in railroad drawings such as pre-1950s track diagrams, especially pre-Chicago track elevation projects and pre-Aurora track elevation.
I have been working on this for more than 15 years and have done research at the Newberry Library and any other likely physical collection I can think of, deep online sources including newspapers, trade journals, legal material, histories, maps, books of all kinds, magazines and other material. I have started to write text and photo captions and pull the graphics and found material together into “chapters” as I feel I am at the end of the road in the data collection phase….but would love to find more on the topics that I have discussed above!!
Even if you don’t have material and are interested in the East End I would love to hear from you, either on these two groups or directly to me via email.
Thanks,
Charlie Vlk
BRHS #24
Mt. Juliet, TN
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> On Behalf Of Ray Bedard
Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2022 9:45 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Suburban Commuter Stations
What started this message was a slide of the Hollywood station on ebay dated 1970. It just sold for $51.01. WOW, I can not believe it. I have photos I took of several suburban stations in the early 1960's. I think I should sell them on ebay.
RAY
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