What appears below is a listing of future chapter titles. Beneath each chapter title is a rough sketch of that chapter's content.

Introduction

      What is an Interurban?

      What was the Great Third Rail?

Chapter I: The Beginning (1899-1902)

      The Fox River Valley

      Everett-Moore syndicate and the Aurora and Chicago Ry (1899)

      Pomeroy-Mandelbaum syndicate and the Chicago, Wheaton & Aurora RR (1899)

      Aurora, Wheaton & Chicago Ry (1899)

      Franchise acquisition

      First six cars (1902)

Chapter II: Up and Running (1902-1906)

      Service Begins (1902)

      Service to Batavia (1902)

      Service to Elgin (1903)

      Parlor service begins (1904)

      Service to downtown Chicago (1905)

      Service to Mt. Carmel (1906)

Chapter III: The Third Rail Division (1906-1915)

      The Elgin, Aurora and Southern Traction Company

      The Merger (1906)

      The Chicago, Wheaton & Western and Geneva (1908-9)

      Service to St. Charles (1910)

      Fire destroys general offices (1913)

VI: Hard Times (1915-1922)

      Second Aurora Terminal (1915)

      Receivership (1919)

      Foreclosure

      The House Divided and Sold

V: The Conway Era (1922-1926)

      Conway

      The Chicago Aurora & Elgin Railroad

      Locomotives 2001 and 2002

      Infrastructure rehabilitation

      Pullmans (1923)

      “New” Parlor Cars

      Conway Called Away

VI: The Insull Era (1926-1932)

      Insull

      The North Shore, South Shore, and the “Big Three”

      Cincinnatis (1927)

      Car 500 (1927)

      End of Parlor service and 435 & 436 (1929)

      Black Tuesday (1929)

      Insull Steps Down (1932)

VII: The Depression (1932-1941)

      North Shore woods (1936)

      Ex-WB&A cars (1937-8)

      Geneva Branch Abandoned (1937)

      New Aurora Terminal (1939)

      St. Louis cars ordered (1941)

VIII: World War II (1941-1945)

      Pearl Harbor

      St. Louis cars delayed

      War Paint

      Aurora & Elgin and North Shore equipment swaps (1942)

IX: The Postwar Years (1945-1953)

      St. Louis cars arrive (1945)

      (plan: 461-468 and 10 2-car articulateds)

      Congress Superhighway

      Temporary Garfield Park wooden trestle

      Alderman James B. Bowler (Chi 25th ward)

      Garfield Park street running on Van Buren

      The Last Train from Wells Street

X: Last Stop: Forest Park (1953-1957)

      "Loop in a loop" terminal at Forest Park (1953)

      July 3rd, 1957 and the Evening Commute

XI: Only Freight Trains Run Here (1957-1959)

      The Big Tour (1958)

XII: The Languishing Days (1959-1961)

XIII: Scrapped (1961-1963)

VIV: The Rails are Gone but the Path Remains

      Rails-to-Trails and the Illinois Prairie Path

      Villa Park stations preserved

      Aurora Terminal platform demolished (1991)