Images of rail | Downers Grove Public Library

1) Central Illinois train depots

Author

Dyrek, Thomas, 2003-

Earliest Publication Date

2021

2) Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad

Author

Ogorek, Cynthia L

Earliest Publication Date

2016

Description

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The Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad was a short line running 16 miles from downtown Chicago to Dolton, Illinois, the first suburb south of Chicago, with another line running southeast from Eighty-First Street to the Indiana state line. Built in the 1880s, it was owned by five trunk line railroads that used it as an efficient and inexpensive route into downtown Chicago. Like many 19th-century railroads, the C&WI reached its traffic peak in the middle...

3) Chicago and the Illinois Central Railroad

Author

Downey, Clifford J

Earliest Publication Date

2007

4) Chicago trolleys

Author

Sadowski, David

Earliest Publication Date

2017

Description

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Chicago's extensive transit system first started in 1859, when horsecars ran on rails in city streets. Cable cars and electric streetcars came next. Where new trolley car lines were built, people, businesses, and neighborhoods followed. Chicago quickly became a world-class city. At its peak, Chicago had over 3,000 streetcars and 1,000 miles of track--the largest such system in the world. By the 1930s, there were also streamlined trolleys and trolley...

5) Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway

Author

Jaenicke, Paul W

Earliest Publication Date

2007

6) Illinois Central Railroad: wrecks, derailments, and floods

Author

Downey, Clifford J

Earliest Publication Date

2016

Description

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With roots dating back to 1851, the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) transported millions of passengers and countless tons of freight. Most trips were completed without incident. However, there were occasional mishaps, including derailments and collisions with other trains or highway vehicles. Most accidents were minor, while others made the national news, such as the October 30, 1972, collision of two commuter trains in Chicago that killed 45 passengers....

7) Illinois Midland Railway

Author

Kehoe, Jeff

Earliest Publication Date

2022

Description

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History of the Illinois Midland Railway built in 1914. Later tagged as "The World's Shortest Railroad," it was originally planned to cover 120 miles, but, due to financing, ended up being only 1.962 miles long.

8) Kankakee railroads

Author

Stevens, Norman S

Earliest Publication Date

2005

9) Kenosha on the go

Author

Kenosha Streetcar Society

Earliest Publication Date

2008

10) Mattoon and Charleston area railroads

Author

Sanders, Craig

Earliest Publication Date

2008

11) Reading Trains and Trolleys

Author

Smith, Philip K

Earliest Publication Date

2004

Description

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Rail transportation has been part of daily life in Reading since the 1830s. Reading Trains and Trolleys portrays the good old days of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway (reorganized as the Reading Company in 1923), the Schuykill Valley Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Mount Penn Gravity Railroad, the Neversink Mountain Railroad, the Reading City Passenger Railway, and the Reading Traction Company. The Reading Railroad gained widespread recognition...

12) San Francisco's California Street cable cars

Author

Rice, Walter

Earliest Publication Date

2008

13) San Francisco's Powell Street Cable Cars

Author

Echeverria, Emiliano

Earliest Publication Date

2005

14) Steam railroads of Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota

Author

Angel, Jim

Earliest Publication Date

2019

Description

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"Steam railroading became an integral part of the communities in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota in the late 1800s. The railroad provided hundreds of jobs and the ability to transport both goods and passengers across the Midwest. The Chicago & North Western Railway, the Chicago Great Western Railroad, the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway, the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific Railroad, and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (called...

15) The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

Author

Casto, James E

Earliest Publication Date

2006

16) The Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railway

Author

Sadowski, David

Earliest Publication Date

2025

Description

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"The Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railway (CA&E) ran electric passenger and freight service from 1902 until 1959. Although classed as an interurban, it was a hybrid of rapid transit and commuter rail. CA&E trains ran to downtown Chicago via the Metropolitan West Side "L," ending at the Well Street Terminal. This was a high-tech endeavor funded by industrialists from Cleveland, Ohio, who wanted to open Chicago's western suburbs for development. The result...

17) The Chicago Great Western Railway

Author

Fiore, David J

Earliest Publication Date

2006

Description

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The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Midwestern line that operated in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. This book provides nostalgic images and photographs of the operations, employees, locomotives, and stations of a little railroad that is now only a memory.