Geneva Branch

 

      Date of Opening: September 21, 1909

      Date of Abandonment: October 31, 1937

      Length of Route:

            Main line: 9.35 miles

            Sidings: 0.4 miles

            Industrial spurs: 0.07

      Total Number of Stations:

      Number of Tracks: 1

      Type of Traction: Third rail with various sections of trolley wire

General Overview:

The Geneva Branch was the Aurora & Elgin’s last branch built out to the Fox River Communities. It ran in a predominantly westerly direction branching off from a point roughly two miles northwest of Wheaton on the Elgin Branch roughly paralleling the Chicago and Northwestern onward through West Chicago to Geneva.

The branch was a single track line built by a company known as the Chicago Wheaton & Western Railway. Interestingly enough, the Chicago, Wheaton & Western (CW&W) was not a subsidiary company of the Aurora & Elgin (unlike the Batavia & Eastern Railway which was incorporated to build the Batavia Branch). Instead, it seems that it was an independent interurban line that planned on connecting with the Aurora & Elgin.

The CW&W’s construction standards were well below what typically defined the Aurora & Elgin’s high speed lines. With its single track line and quite a bit of street running, the Geneva Branch was very much like the typical Midwestern interurbans of the day. Its failure to have a single substation anywhere along the line caused a bit of trouble for the branch which faced a constant lack of power throughout its lifetime.

The branch opened on September 21st, 1909, with trains running only as far as West Chicago. Timetables listed the service as the Chicago Wheaton & Western, though crews and equipment operating over the line were always from the Aurora & Elgin. By December the line had been extended out to Geneva and on August 25th, 1910, service was extended once again, this time to St. Charles over two miles of trackage belonging to the Fox River Division of the AE&C.

The branch found itself poorly patronized throughout its existence owing primarily to the parallel Chicago and Northwestern which provided Geneva and West Chicago residents with faster and more direct service into downtown Chicago. Its low ridership would eventually catch up with the branch during the economically stressed days of the depression. It finally ended up getting shut down on October 31st, 1937 and rail service was replaced with busses connecting to the Elgin Branch at Lakewood.

Full branch profile and history coming soon.

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