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Before the North Shore Line by Edward W Tobin CERA #141
Before the North Shore Line by Edward W Tobin CERA #141
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket.
Copyright 2008, 224 pages. Lots of photos.
The Early years 1894-1916
Bluff City Electric Street Railway
Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS6
PROLOGUE 7
CHAPTER 1 THE BEGINNING 8
Introduction 9
A Little Waukegan History 9
Bluff City Electric Street Railway Formed 12
Rails Extended South Through North Chicago 21
Enter C. E. Loss-Bluff City Electric Obtains Larger Powers 25
New Directors and Officers Chosen-Additional Financing Obtained 29
North Shore Interurban Railway Company Formed and Renamed30
Growth of the Railroad Proceeds Rapidly 32
Electric Power Innovations Undertaken 36
Line Extended South to Evanston-Extensive Capital Projects Undertaken 44
CHAPTER 2 ALONG THE NORTH SHORE 48
Reproduction of a brochure published by the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric circa 1900
CHAPTER 3 A. C. FROST TAKES CONTROL 70
Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway Sold-A.C. Frost Takes Control 71
Libertyville Branch Constructed 71
Beginnings of a New West Line Constructed 77
Waukegan Fox Lake and Western Electric Railway Enters the Scene 81
C&ME Expands to the North via a New West Line 83
Frost Reports to the Stockholders-Branch Line Extended to Mundelein 87
CHAPTER 4 EXPANSION INTO WISCONSIN BEGINS 90
C&ME Railroad Company (Wisconsin) Formed-Expansion into Wisconsin Begins 91
Racine Extensions Opens-Additional Electrical Power Provisions Made 91
C&ME Railway Company (Wisconsin) Formed96
Frost Again Reports to the Stockholders 98
Naval Station Constructed-Operations to Milwaukee Projected 98
More Corporate Changes-Chicago & Milwaukee Power Company Formed 101
Stockholders Meeting Cites Progress-Another Corporate Shift Undertaken 102
Operating Agreement with the Northwestern Elevated and CM&SP Revised 103
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 5 ON TO MILWAUKEE106
Bank Panic of 1907 Brings Receivership 107
Through Service Begins Between Evanston and Milwaukee 116
Ridership Continues to Grow-Direct Entry into Chicago Further Studied 126
Improvements Ongoing Under Receivership-Ravinia Park Opened-New Receiver Named 131
Wisconsin Bridges Become an Issue 136
Conductors and Motormen 141
Trains Rerouted Through Waukegan and North Chicago 144
Waukegan City Service Rehabilitation and Expansion Considered 147
T M E R& L Seeks Control of C&ME 149
Protective Committee Formed 151
Receivership Era One of Struggle 53
Samuel Insull Interests Take Formal Control 154
Conclusion 155
CHAPTER 6 EQUIPMENT ROSTER 156
Roster of Rolling Stock 158
Streetcars and Early Interurbans 161
The Intururban Car Matures 170
Luxury Cars for Milwaukee Service 186
Service Cars 198
CHAPTER 7 THE C&ME IN REPRISE 210
C&ME in Postcards 210
The Name Survives 216
INTRODUCTION -- This publication covers the start in 1894, of what later became the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad, a.k.a. the North Shore Line. It continues through into the 1900s until the Insull interests took over the road in 1916.
A reader might ask, "Has yet another publication been written dealing with the North Shore Line?" After all, five fine books on the subject have been previously published (leaving out the primarily picture books), two by the Central Electric Railfans' Association (CERA), two by the eminent late North Shore researcher George V. Campbell, and one by William D. Middleton; all of which are out of print. The answer, in the opinion of this author, is that no one book could possibly cover the full historical spectrum of this relatively long lived electric interurban railroad. Even CERA and Campbell couldn't tell the story in just one volume each. The purpose of this book is not to try and surpass those splendid efforts but to further augment the written record.
In some instances, contradictions were found between Campbell's findings and what the author is now presenting. These contradictions can only be attributed to working with different source materials making such problems inevitable. Rather than submerge the differences, the author can only apologize to the reader and leave it to future historians to reconcile the differing accounts as additional documents surface.
The North Shore Line remains one of the most famous and popular of the electric interurbans, even among individuals who were born after the railroad ceased operations in January 1963. Research on the railroad continues into the twenty-first century with additional data being found in libraries, historical associations and museums. Both Campbell and this writer were fortunate enough to have first hand knowledge of the railroad having ridden and photographed the line extensively. It is hoped later researchers will thus have the benefit of being able to examine and compare these "first hand" works in seeking to reach their understanding of what the North Shore Line meant to the development of the territory it served for so long and so well. The "final" book on the North Shore has yet to be written.
A great deal of the information presented in this work has been gleaned from North Shore Line corporate files that the author has endeavored to consolidate and interpret as accurately as possible. Not all of the information in these files is dated so certain assumptions had to be made after close study and comparison with other dated material. Where information from other publications has been used, an appropriate reference is incorporated into the text or as a footnote. Extensive reference has been made to the Street Railway Journal and its successor, the Electric Railway Journal which was invaluable in cross checking data as well as offering interesting insights into the electrical railway industry the publication covered.
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