Each August some of the storefronts in downtown Downers Grove (DG) display old photographs from the DG Museum, DG Historical Society, and resident collections. The first years, the posted picture was of what used to be on the current location of the storefront. But this year they displayed pictures about the railroad. In DG, "the railroad" means the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, which is now owned by BNSF. To provide a context for many of the photos, I'm going to start with 1937-47 aerial photos along the right of way from Lee Avenue on the West to Washington Street on the East in about two block increments with a little overlap at the ends. I use the letters in parentheses at the end of each caption, which are the initial letters of the street names, to refer to a picture.
I made four trips to downtown to get these pictures. The issue was avoiding reflections off the glass. My third trip was early in the afternoon while the businesses were still open. I was able to get a good shot of my remaining "problem" pictures except for one that was in a deep and filled display window and another that I could not find again.
You can see in the FMW aerial photo that the old station was still standing on the southwest corner of the Main Street crossing of the tracks. Above must be the north (track) side of the station. Below is the other side. It became a freight station after the new passenger depot was built.
Note the tracks on the south (near) side of the station. They are the freight tracks described in the next picture. The tower on the right of the picture indicates that the crossing gates were manually controlled. I noticed that there were no flashing red lights on the gates. But in a later photo we see the flashing lights were separately mounted in the middle of the street.
A picture looking South along Main Street shows both stations, the crossing tower, and the gates for the passenger and freight tracks. When I read about the brick paving, I looked again at the above picture, and it does look as though the road was dirt, not even gravel, in 1912.
And the new depot was remodeled in 1978. I didn't crop this one because the details of the picture are not very interesting so I thought it was more interesting to get a feel for the pictures in their storefront setting.
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| ILHAP BWS 3-9, Lee-Northcott-Wallbank (LNW) |
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| ILHAP BWS 3-9, Wallbank-Seeley-Montgomery (WSM) |
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| ILHAP BWS 3-9, Montgomery-Oakwood-Middaugh-Linscott (MOML) |
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| ILHAP BWS 3-9, Linscott-Saratoga-Forest (LSF) |
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| ILHAP BWS 3-9, Forest-Main-Washington (FMW) |
Stations
You can see in the FMW aerial photo that the old station was still standing on the southwest corner of the Main Street crossing of the tracks. Above must be the north (track) side of the station. Below is the other side. It became a freight station after the new passenger depot was built.
Note the tracks on the south (near) side of the station. They are the freight tracks described in the next picture. The tower on the right of the picture indicates that the crossing gates were manually controlled. I noticed that there were no flashing red lights on the gates. But in a later photo we see the flashing lights were separately mounted in the middle of the street.
A picture looking South along Main Street shows both stations, the crossing tower, and the gates for the passenger and freight tracks. When I read about the brick paving, I looked again at the above picture, and it does look as though the road was dirt, not even gravel, in 1912.
And the new depot was remodeled in 1978. I didn't crop this one because the details of the picture are not very interesting so I thought it was more interesting to get a feel for the pictures in their storefront setting.
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| Jim Arvites posted An eastbound CB&Q passenger train departs Downers Grove, Illinois for Chicago in 1909. (Downers Grove Historical Society) |
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| Marty Bernard posted CB&Q Depots in Downers Grove, Illinois, circa 1910. Two postcards found in one of my Mom's Scrapbooks. The back of the postcards say "Heritage Fest" with no date. All I know is what is at the bottom of the cards. Michael Matalis: Excellent!!! Top photo is of the old Main St depot that was between Main St and Forest Ave. After the new (and current) depot was built, it was became a freight house. East Grove is Fairview and the building is very interesting, it's the first time I've seen it. Michael Matalis shared |
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| BRHSLIST/2017-10/msg00063 Class K-1 No. 607 is pulling the 7:20 am "dinky" into Chicago. The image is undated and shows the new Downers Grove Depot shortly after it was built in 1911: |
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| BRHSLIST/2017-10/msg00063 [You can see at least one track on the other side of the depot. And a baggage cart hiding under the roof.] |
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| Jim Arvites posted View of the CB&Q passenger depot at Downers Grove, Illinois during the 1920's. The station was built in 1911 and is still used in commuter service by Metra today. This is also the site of the famous 1947 Zephyr train wreck that killed 3 people and injuried more the 30 others. (Downers Grove Historical Society) Jon Roma Not to be confused with the other, more famous and more deadly Naperville accident the year before. Here's the ICC report from the Downers Grove accident: https://www.jonroma.net/rail/accident/usa/icc/3092.pdf. Dennis DeBruler The building in the background to the left of the train was the original depot. It was converted to a freight house after the new depot was built. Dave Rodgers I could see it was a freight house. Interesting that it was the original depot. I'm sure at one time Downers Grove was the largest city west of Chicago on the Q. Dennis DeBruler When CB&Q built their own line to Chicago in 1865, I heard at a presentation that four towns already existed. The problem with presentations is that I can't look up the fact later. I remember that Naperville and DG were mentioned. I think Berwyn and Hinsdale were the other two. DG was the terminus for commuter service and had a coach yard, turntable and water tower. The microwave tower is now where the center of the turntable was. Jim Arvites posted View of an eastbound Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad commuter train arriving at the CB&Q passenger depot at Downers Grove, Illinois during the 1920's. The station, built in 1911, is still used by Metra today. (Downers Grove Historical Society) Jim Sinclair: I see an interlocking tower behind the train and I guess I never thought about the fact that before CTC, (I presume) each set of crossovers had an interlocking tower to expedite traffic. I'd love to see an Employees Timetable for this route and time period to determine how many towers there actually were! If anyone knows, please chime in. |
Marty Bernard describes the 1947 train wreck that sheared off the track side of the depot, killed 3 people and injured 30.
The track on the south side of the depot was used for all trains while they cleaned up the 1947 wreck.
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| BRHSLIST/2017-10/msg00060 |
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| BRHSLIST/2017-10/msg00060 |
Freight Tracks
These are some other views of the freight tracks mentioned in a couple of the above station photos.
Turntable
If you look at the first three aerial photos above, you can see that there used to be some tracks north of the mainline. Near the left side of the MOML photo, you can see the old turntable. Downers Grove used to terminate some of the commuter trains. The turntable was used to turn the engines for their run back to town. The first view below is looking East and the second is looking West.
Turntable Update:
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| Eddie G Hoffmann commented on his post The Turntable and Water Tower. |
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| Rickey Michael commented on Eddie G hoffmann's post It is about 1910 and it was taken at the Burlington turn table in Downers Grove and it was among my mothers things that I found when she passed away. No date was on the photo, but research says about 1910. My grandfather is standing on the far Right. He lived on the same street near that turntable. He worked for the railroad until his death in 1942. |
Yard
"As far back as 1877 suburban passenger service was operated on the Chicago Division of the C. B. & Q. Railroad between Chicago and Downers Grove." [Steve Pahl share]
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| Also posted by Jim Arvites Jim posted again Eric Sibul shared |
The above seems to have been cropped from this photo.
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| Michael Matalis shared I came across this photo on the Downers Grove Historical Society Facebook page, it shows the commuter yard that used to sit west of Forest Ave, date unknown, but I'd say early 1900's. Until 1953 Downers Grove was the terminus of many of the CB&Q's commuter trains. Note the rods [signaling pipelines] stretching along the bottom left side of the photo, they connect the track switches with a tower at the east end of the yard, which meant that the operator sometimes had to manhandle hundreds of yards of pipe in order to throw a switch! Must have been fun in icy weather. |
Yard Update:
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Classic TrainsBurlington commuter trains, circa 1920
In about 1920, long before E units and gallery cars took over the Burlington Route’s Chicago suburban service, five trains, each headed by a 4-6-0, stand in the yard at Downers Grove, Ill., poised to take commuters into the Windy City.
L. E. Griffith coll.
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| Eddie commented on his post Our Rail Yard and Turn Table was a busy place back in those days. |
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| Greg Burnet posted From today's Trains newsletter... "Two E5 diesels thunder through Downers Grove, Ill., with the Chicago–Minneapolis Morning Zephyr in January 1948. CB&Q photo" |
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| Comments on Greg's post |
Interlock
Tower R controlled the mainline crossover switches, as well as the switches
from the mainlines into the yard and station tracks, and their
accompanying signals. The switches within the yard would have been hand-thrown by a switchtender or the brakemen on the suburban trains. The text for the smaller photo reads: "The first interlocking signal tower was built in 1893 between Forest Avenue and Belmont Road."
Engines
Engines 25, 500, and 1592.
Trains
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| Per Joe's comment: "just west of the Naperville station looking east" |
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| Per Joe's comment: "from Western Springs looking west towards Highlands" |
Misc
It is too bad this track elevation never happened in the suburbs. Chicago forced the railroads to elevate their tracks while they were still money machines because the internal combustion engine had not yet changed their market. After years of trying to figure out who would help pay how much for the construction (I believe BNSF, Metra, state and federal), last year they finally finished a grade separation between Belmont Avenue and the tracks.Update, Joe's comment: "The CB&Q wanted to elevate their tracks to eliminate all the grade crossings, but several towns did not want a huge viaduct separating their towns in two. The elevation would have extended from Berwyn to just past Belmont." My reaction is that the towns were wrong. Did the elders of those towns think people could walk across the tracks? I notice that BNSF has installed a fence on the right-of-way north of Gilbert Park. A viaduct, but not an embankment, would cause less separation than what we have now. The silver lining is that the grade crossings make it a lot easier to do rail fanning.
Update:
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| Bill Molony posted Chicago, Burlington & Quincy class S1A 4-6-2 Pacific-type #2830, about to depart from the Downers Grove yard on September 25, 1952, the last full day of regular steam suburban operation on the CB&Q. Russ Schneider And metra is still using those cars...Ray Weart The cars being pulled by the steam engine are actually long retried and living on a siding in Michigan. There are some ex CB&Q Gallary cars in service but they date to the 1960's. |
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| Jim Arvites posted View of a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad commuter train with Pacific steam locomotive #2830 on the lead of four new bi-level coaches at the Downers Grove, Illinois coach yard in 1952. (Downers Grove Museum) Jeff Lackman Great photo. I don’t recall having seen steam on the bilevels. Jim Arvites posted James Myers Back in steam days, how did they turn the locomotives in Chicago & Aurora?? Doug Plummer We had a turn table at Aurora round house and one at Burlington train station in Aurora. Dennis DeBruler If you go back far enough, they turned them in Downers Grove because that was the end of the commuter runs. https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/.../downers-grove...John Czerwinski I didn't know those coaches were that old. Jim Arvites The first bi-level commuter coaches were delivered to the CB&Q in 1950. Ted Lemen The late Roger Koenig had movies of C&NW bi-levels in service being pulled by steam on the line through Mt. Prospect that he showed at a meeting of the 20th Century RR Club of Chicago. As General Car Foreman at California Avenue shops, I oversaw rehab of the old St. Louis Car Company cars (small windows) in the early 80s, and there were still some steam heat fixtures on them, which were removed. Jeff Kehoe Thanks, Ted Lemen. I was gonna ask how they heated them w/steam engine power? |
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| Jerry Nolan commented on Jim's post |
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| Bill Molony posted Chicago, Burlington & Quincy class S2A 4-6-2 Pacific-type #2914 pulls an eastbound train of gallery cars out of the Dowers Grove depot on the morning of September 4, 1951. Thomas Manz I never knew the CB&Q had bi-level commuter cars before the other Chicago roads.Eric Quick Always the pioneers. If there weren't these pictures of gallery cars with steam power, I would never believe it. Looks like a generator car behind the tender? And I wonder what's at the end.Jerry Nolan There are also a couple pics online showing the green and yellow C&NW bi-level cars being pulled by steam. The Milwaukee never got their bi-level cars until 1961. Got their money's worth out of those old heavyweights, lol. |
In May, 2019, to celebrate Founder's Day, some of the stores again displayed historical photos in their storefront.
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| This photo was a duplicate of the first photo from the 2014 collection, so I deliberately showed the storefront context of the photos. But when I got home, I noticed this print had a better exposure. So I zoomed in on the details, which were relatively clear of glare. |
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| Marty Bernard posted CB&Q Depots in Downers Grove, Illinois, circa 1910 Two postcards found in one of my Mom's Scrapbooks. The back of the postcards say "Heritage Fest" with no date. All I know is what is at the bottom of the cards. Note the triple track even then. So the CB&Q race track was triple track through Downers Grove Main Street and just west was a yard (with turntable) where, depending on the year, most, some, or none of the commuter trains were stored and/or turned, i.e., none, some or all the commuter service went past Downers Grove. West of Downers it was double track, not triple track until maybe 1960. Marty Bernard shared Marty Bernard also shared Marty Bernard posted Michael Matalis: Excellent!!! Top photo is of the old Main St depot that was between Main St and Forest Ave. After the new (and current) depot was built, it was became a freight house. East Grove is Fairview and the building is very interesting, it's the first time I've seen it. Michael Matalis shared |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's share The top photo is of the 1865 depot that was west of Main. After the current depot was built in 1912, this building became the freight house. Note the track south of the depot. Attached is a photo of a photo displayed by the DG Historical Society in a storefront window. The track closest to the depot is the one that left the mainline just west of Forest Avenue, went past both depots and joined the mainline again west of Washington Avenue. The next track was an industrial spur to some industries west of Forest Avenue. There were also some team tracks east of main street that occupied the land that is now a drop-off drive and a parking lot. These team tracks are one reason why DG has so many Sears homes. All of the material to build a house would be delivered in a boxcar. |
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| Marty Bernard posted Photo of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy's First Suburban Passenger Train to Downers Grove, Illinois early 1880s. From the Downers Grove Reporter, September 24, 1936. Marty Bernard shared |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's share Downers Grove was the terminus for commuter service until 1953. It had a turntable, water tower and coach yard on the west side south of Warren Ave. This is a July 1, 1946 aerial @ 1:27,200. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's share In this vandalized version, I marked the turntable (yellow) and Tower R (green). To help orient this view with today's satellite view, I included Prince Pond (blue) and Gilbert Park's Baseball Field (purple). |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's share I include this 1948 Wheaton topo map because I can't believe how wrong it is. I've looked at a lot of topo maps, and I have never seen one this wrong. It is basically the same information as the 1908 map including St. Joseph Creek not being in a culvert through downtown. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's share The microwave tower stands in the middle of the land that used to have the turntable. The water tower was in the northeast corner of this remaining service area. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4.. |
The interlocking tower controlled the mainline crossover switches, as well as the switches from the mainlines into the yard and station tracks, and their accompanying signals. The switches within the yard would have been hand-thrown by a switchtender or the brakemen on the suburban trains. That's why Tower R was on the south side of the tracks.
ReplyDeleteThe photo of the EMD FT diesels is actually just west of the Naperville station looking east, and the photo of the Twin Cities Zephyr was taken from Western Springs looking west towards Highlands.
The CB&Q wanted to elevate their tracks to eliminate all the grade crossings, but several towns did not want a huge viaduct separating their towns in two. The elevation would have extended from Berwyn to just past Belmont.
Excellent post. I'm glad someone took the time to document all the photos displayed and gather them in one place on the internet.
I learned from Darryl Van Nort on Facebook that the Zephyr was the Denver Zephyr instead of the Twin Cities Zephyr. Nick Dey clarified that it was the original 1936 Denver Zephyr. The 1956 consist had domes.
ReplyDelete