Chicago, Aurora and Elgin: Gone but not forgotten...

50 years ago this month, the CA&E ceased operations in rather dramatic fashion, by stranding thousands of its commuters downtown. A fascinating account of this unique day in Chicago transit history can be found here:


http://members.aol.com/awnicholls/CAER/lastday.htm

Here's a story we featured on the restoration of one of the Roarin' Elgin's wooden interurbans at IRM...

http://railroad.net/articles/railfanning/cae308

-otto-

Interesting piece. I suspect that that experience helped drive many people into their automobiles.---BTW the CA&E, back in the 1920's, was Dr Thomas Conway's first experiment in refurbishing moribund interurbans. He purchased the "down at the Heels" CA&E in 1922, and by 1925 had it running on time and tripled its profits. He then sold the proprty to the Sam Insull Empire and went on to create Ohio's Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad ( in 1930) and at the same time revitalized the Philadelphia & Western.