My first ride on the Chicago Aurora and Elgin occurred in 1952 between Aurora and the Wells Street station in Chicago, Illinois. I was immediately fascinated with the railroad, the sparks, the swaying motion, the speed, and of course the roar of the traction motors beneath! Thereafter, I spent many hours at the Aurora terminal next to the Fox River after grade school each afternoon. I got to know many motormen and conductors while waiting on one of the wood benches under the covered roof of the concrete platform for trains to arrive or leave. One motorman was very kind to me. I think his name was Andy Hughes. He was younger than the others and showed me how to throw the "knife switch" from overhead current to third rail power in the box in the motorman's compartment. I always offered to help reverse the seats for the next eastbound trip, going through each car and even the smoking section. In those days the Chicago newspapers were delivered by the CA&E and carried right up front next to the motorman! I'd help them remove each bundle of newspapers to a waiting van too. And I'd spend time inside the Broadway station when there were no trains at the platform chatting with the ticket agent and ladies at the snack counter.

One afternoon my favorite motorman "Andy" asked me if I'd like to ride up to Forest Park with him and I jumped at the opportunity! He wore the typical railroad uniform and when he pulled out his pocket watch and got up from the wood bench I followed him into the motorman's compartment and stood by him as he shut the door and waited for the conductor's highball and off we went! He told me to hang on to the metal bars by the front window as I watched him operate the controller, brake lever, and air horn. It was fun to switch from single track to double track as we left the Aurora station and headed up to Illinois Avenue under wire. Then we reached Aurora Avenue and Hankes Avenue and switched from overhead to third rail power. Andy told me to duck down whenever we crossed an intersection so none of the railroad's "spotters" would see a kid riding illegally in the motorman's compartment and he wouldn't get fired! It was a great trip and I still remember pulling into the turning loop at Forest Park to unload passengers for the transfer to CTA trains and then slowly moving on to the CA&E's own westbound platform there. Andy then introduced me to another crew and I boarded an Aurora bound car but this time had to ride in the passenger compartment. I do remember foolishly walking between cars while they were in motion which still frightens me to this day! But it was another memorable experience.

Not too many months later, in July 1957, I was saddened when all passenger operations were suspended. I'd still go down to the Aurora platform, but they had boarded up the wood ramp from the Bridge and shut down the Broadway terminal station. Over the next months the rails started getting rusty and the weeds grew fast. The Aurora Beacon News kept running stories that passenger service might resume shortly, but it never happened. After a few years it was obvious the CA&E was gone forever. When I read that scrapping operations had begun, I went back to the Aurora station and snipped the wires that held the big red lens light at the end of the Aurora branch line and took it home for safekeeping. I also went into the abandoned Aurora station where bums were sleeping and the stagnant air smelled like urine inside. It was very dark in there, but I managed to take all of the remaining items from inside the ticket agent's cage including all the little rubber stamps that printed each stop and brought those home as well. I made one trip up to Wheaton, Illinois while they were tipping the fleet of rolling stock over and setting them on fire. I went inside the Wheaton shops buildings and took all of the remaining blueprints and flags and lanterns and roller signs and third rail insulators and anything else that was left, and brought those home too.

Years later, I gave those things to the group called "RELIC" in South Elgin along with a very rare hardbound copy of Motorman's Rules from the Chicago Aurora and DeKalb line that went out of business in the 1930s. Occasionally I would drive along the former right of way before the Illinois Prairie Path took over and remember going into the old power plant outside of Batavia, Illinois alone! It was very dark and damp inside that huge old building which was still standing at the time. So was the little passenger platform by the Wilson Street bridge in Batavia. The passenger platform at the Lakewood station was still there although covered with weeds and small trees by then. Someone told me most of the companies old records may have been buried at that site. When I saw the Prince Crossing station it was after a map making firm had moved out and the building was really beginning to deteriorate. But it was nice to see the stations still standing up at Villa Park and Ardmore Avenue. I went inside the old Warrenville Station too just before they were convening a town hall meeting there, but I have heard it has been torn down now. There were many artifacts still remaining along the CA&E prior to the Prairie Path taking over. I found many platforms, some still even showing the company colors of red on piping used around the sides of a platform or for handrails by stairways to the street below.

A couple years later I rode the North Shore Line on its last day of operations from their south loop station all the way to Milwaukee and back home late that night and nearly froze to death! It was one of the coldest days I can remember! But it was toasty warm inside the old Silverliner." My picture was on the front page of the Chicago Tribune the following day which carried a story about all the fans that showed up for one last ride.

After my two favorite electric interurban railroads were both gone, I moved away from the midwest to Florida where I now live. I know I would have become an employee of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin if it had survived, but my motorman friend, Andy, even told me it would not be around when I grew up, and he was right. I was so upset that the CA&E had shutdown, I even called Mr. Frank Flannigan, it's last President, at his home near Wheaton, Illinois. He was very polite and probably intrigued that a kid of only 12 years of age would find it so important to contact him personally about the railroad's problems. He told me it would be a tragedy if the CA&E did not resume passenger operations some day. There was another Irishman by the name of Lambert O'Malley who took over management of the Wheaton shops after the shutdown and kept a smaller crew of employees busy repainting CA&E cars, stations, platforms and even repairing rails for an eventual return to service. But there was no place to store CA&E passenger cars in Chicago, even if they had started sharing the new Congress Street median trackage with CTA trains. My own personal opinion is that CA&E's owners and shareholders had little or no interest at all of staying in business. Although they were in the best possible legal position owning a right of way between Desplaines and Laramie Avenue that the new highway needed, they sold it outright instead of bargaining with the State of Illinois for a new guaranteed entrance into the City of Chicago. That was a fatal mistake, since it effectively ended any legal claim of hardship due to circumstances beyond its control.

Christopher Brown
Sarasota, Florida

The Aurora and Elgin played a large part in my life as I was growing up. It was our family's means of getting to see one another before we owned a car.

Living in Forest Park, Illinois it was easy to pick up the trains to go to the Lake Wood Station and transfer to the bus to get to Geneva to visit my relatives. It was fast and clean.

The wish I had growing up that someday I would work for the line and operate the big interurbans. But fate was not to allow it.

The worst day happened when I was having my 17th birthday on July 3, 1957. That was the day I was in downtown Elgin and a single car pulled up to National St.

Knowing the motorman somewhat, he showed me the order to pull all the Watch Company commuter cars back to Wheaton as soon as possible. That was about a little after 12 noon. The end had arrived for a once proud and great line. The span of service was only 55 years.

There was so much politics to wanting to shut the railroad down it sure was not going to be kept running.

Everybody that knew of the line wishes it was still running today. The old expression wishing just isn't going to make it happen. You don't know what you have lost until it's gone.

William Ahrens