Thursday, January 12, 2012














I found this photo at My Link page for the Illinois Railway Museum, located to the right of Your computer screen at www.irm.org

We are at the Chicago Transit Authority's Kedzie Avenue elevated rapid transit station along the old Garfield Park elevated line, during September of 1953.

The City of Chicago Illinois, was preparing to begin construction of the Illinois U.S Rt # 290 Congress Expressway, and the old Garfield Park rapid transit line, would be one of the first things to have to go.

A westbound train of wooden turn of the century electric interurban cars from the Chicago, Aurora And Elgin Railroad, enters the Kedzie Avenue station during the final week of operation for the Garfield Park elevated line. The next week, all Chicago, Aurora And Elgin trains would now make Des Plaines Avenue in west suburban Forest Park Illinois, their new east terminal. This would hurt the C,A & E financially, eventually causing them to go out of the passenger business in 1957.
Their freight business or what was left of it, would also follow in 1959.

Luckilly, several former C,A & E cars like # 319 shown leading this train, have been preserved and operate today at The Illinois Railway Museum, The Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin Illinois, and a few other tourist railroads as well.

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