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?

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)

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)

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)

Hard Times (1915-1922)

      Second Aurora Terminal (1915)

      Receivership (1919)

      Foreclosure

      The House Divided and Sold

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

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)

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)

World War II (1941-1945)

      Pearl Harbor

      St. Louis cars delayed

      War Paint

      Aurora & Elgin and North Shore equipment swaps (1942)

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

Last Stop: Forest Park (1953-1957)

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

      July 3rd, 1957 and the Evening Commute

Only Freight Trains Run Here (1957-1959)

      The Big Tour (1958)

The Languishing Days (1959-1961)

Scrapped (1961-1963)

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)