1.
EMD E5
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The E5 was distinguished from the otherwise very similar E3, E4 and E6 by being clad in polished stainless steel to match the Burlingtons Zephyr trains. Like those other models, the E5 had a sloping “slant nose”, the E5 was the sixth model in a long line of passenger diesels of similar design known as EMD E-units. The E5 used twin 12 cylinder 567 engines developing a total of 2,000 hp at 800 rpm, two D. C. generators, one per engine, provide power to four motors, two on each truck, in an A1A-A1A arrangement. This truck design was used on all E units and on MP7100 AA6, CB&Q9908, eMC/EMD has built all of its major components since 1939. The last surviving EMD E5 diesel, named Silver Pilot, is owned and operated by the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. Last used on the Fort Worth and Denver Railway on the Texas Zephyr, the E5 is matched with one of the Burlingtons Nebraska Zephyrs, list of GM-EMD locomotives IRM Roster, Chicago Burlington & Quincy 9911A Burlington Route Historical Society, Rosters, Equipment & Structures
2.
Nebraska Zephyr
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The Nebraska Zephyr was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad between Chicago, Illinois, Omaha, Nebraska and Lincoln, Nebraska. It operated from 1947 to 1971, until 1968 the two original Twin Cities Zephyr articulated trainsets, the Train of the Gods and Train of the Goddesses, operated the service and became synonymous with it. The Nebraska Zephyr was one of many trains discontinued when Amtrak began operations in 1971, the Train of the Goddess set is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. The Burlington introduced the Nebraska Zephyr on the Chicago–Omaha–Lincoln route on November 16,1947, the Zephyr joined four other trains on the route, the Exposition Flyer, Denver Zephyr, Ak-Sar-Ben, and Fast Mail. On-board services included a car, dining car, and cocktail lounge. The trains operated on a schedule between Chicago and Lincoln. Westbound #11 departed Chicago at 12,45 PM and arrived in Lincoln at 10,30 PM, eastbound #12 departed Lincoln at 11,00 AM and arrived in Chicago at 8,45 PM. The 551-mile trip took 9 hours 45 minutes, a speed of 56 miles per hour. Although the Burlington removed the distinctive Zephyr trainsets in February 1968, a June 1968 timetable advertised a dinette coach as the only amenity, and the running time had lengthened to 11 hours 30 minutes. The Nebraska Zephyr lost its name prior to its discontinuance on April 30,1971, one trainset was known as the Train of the Goddesses and its cars were named Venus, Vesta, Minerva, Psyche, Ceres, Diana, and Juno. The other trainset was known as the Train of the Gods and its cars were named Apollo, Mars, Neptune, Cupid, Vulcan, Mercury, and Jupiter. Each consist included the cars, cocktail lounge, two 60-seat coaches, a coach-dinette, dining car, a parlor car, and a parlor-observation car. Early typical motive power for trains was provided by a pair of shovel-nose diesels named Pegasus and Zephyrus. In their original configuration the two cars, Diana and Mercury, had 19 seats and a private drawing room. In 1942, prior to the sets entering service as the Nebraska Zephyr,42 standard seats replaced the parlor seats, the Burlington added two new baggage cars, the Argo and Olympus, to the trains in February 1948. Finally, cost-cutting in the 1960s led to changes in the food service arrangements on the trains. In 1963 the Burlington removed the lounges from the Venus and Apollo. In 1966 the dining cars Ceres and Vulcan were rebuilt as cafeteria cars featuring vending machines, the Burlington withdrew the sets from service in February 1968, though the Nebraska Zephyr continued to operate
3.
Union, Illinois
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Union is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 580 at the 2010 census, up from 576 in 2000, a post office called Union has been in operation since 1852. The village was named for the union of the United States. Union is located at 42°14′7″N 88°32′33″W, according to the 2010 census, Union has a total area of 0.83 square miles, all land. As of the census of 2000, there were 576 people,204 households, the population density was 950.4 people per square mile. There were 208 housing units at a density of 343.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 98. 09% White,0. 35% Native American,0. 87% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 3. 99% of the population. 15. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.15. In the village, the population was out with 28. 0% under the age of 18,7. 5% from 18 to 24,34. 2% from 25 to 44,19. 3% from 45 to 64. The median age was 36 years, for every 100 females there were 92.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.6 males, the median income for a household in the village was $56,528, and the median income for a family was $57,500. Males had an income of $38,393 versus $25,536 for females. The per capita income for the village was $21,218, about 5. 8% of families and 5. 2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2. 9% of those under age 18 and 16. 7% of those age 65 or over. Union was the site of the worlds first fully automatic substation, on the current site of the tower just east of Main Street. Union is also the home to the Illinois Railway Museum and the McHenry County Historical Society and it is also the home of Donleys Wild West Town amusement park and the site of the oldest and largest Antique Phonograph Show in the world. The Marengo-Union Times local newspaper website
4.
McHenry County, Illinois
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McHenry County is a county located in the U. S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 308,760, McHenry County is one of the five collar counties of the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area. Long known as a center of agriculture and recreation, it has recently experienced rapid rates of suburbanization and urbanization. McHenry County was formed in 1836 out of Cook and LaSalle counties, the county was named for Major William McHenry, an Indian fighter who died in Vandalia in 1835. McHenry County originally stretched all the way east to Lake Michigan, with the county seat centrally in McHenry, but in 1839, the Counts House,3803 Waukegan Rd, McHenry Charles H. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 611 square miles. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 1.29 inches in February to 4.56 inches in June, McHenry County is like much of the Upper Midwest, as it usually sees hot, humid summers, and cold, snowy winters. The county is notably susceptible to high wind events, blizzards, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, McHenry County government is based primarily out of Woodstock, the county seat. The McHenry County Government Center, located on the end of Woodstock along Illinois Route 47. The current Sheriff of McHenry County, Illinois is Bill Prim, as of the 2010 United States Census, there were 308,760 people,109,199 households, and 82,288 families residing in the county. The population density was 511.9 inhabitants per square mile, there were 116,040 housing units at an average density of 192.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 90. 1% white,2. 5% Asian,1. 1% black or African American,0. 3% American Indian,4. 3% from other races, and 1. 7% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 11. 4% of the population. In terms of ancestry,34. 4% were German,18. 7% were Irish,14. 2% were Polish,10. 8% were Italian,7. 8% were English, and 3. 7% were American. The average household size was 2.81 and the family size was 3.25. The median age was 38.0 years, the median income for a household in the county was $76,482 and the median income for a family was $86,698. Males had an income of $61,971 versus $42,125 for females. The per capita income for the county was $31,838, about 4. 9% of families and 6. 2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8. 3% of those under age 18 and 4. 6% of those age 65 or over
5.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
6.
Reporting mark
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A reporting mark is an alphabetic code of one to four letters used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain railroad networks. In North America the mark, which consists of an code of one to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment. The Association of American Railroads assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U. S, surface Transportation Board, Transport Canada, and Mexican Government. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name, as it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code, the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. In another example, the mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX because the state transportation agency owns the equipment used in these services. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation, which is a railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR, the standard ISO6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When the owner of a mark is taken over by another company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway in the 1990s, some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If the acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas, CMO originally belonged to a predecessor of the CNW, which passed it on to them, from which the UP inherited it. Some of these still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on the first letter of the reporting mark, railinc, a subsidiary of the AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Railinc offers a free online look-up of reporting marks and other industry reference files through the Railincs Freight Rail 411 website, a railway vehicle must be registered in a national vehicle register using a 12-digit number derived from the old UIC system of vehicle numbering. The number contains the country in the third and fourth digit. The VKM must not contain special signs or digits, the VKM is preceded by the code for the country, where the vehicle is registered and a hyphen. Some examples, When a vehicle is sold it does not normally be transferred to another register, the Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD, the UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number
7.
Illinois Terminal Railroad
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Interurban passenger service slowly was reduced, and it ended in 1956. Freight operation continued but was hobbled by tight street running in some towns requiring very sharp radius turns, in 1956, ITC was absorbed by a consortium of connecting railroads. The Illinois Traction System, at its height, provided passenger rail service to 550 miles of tracks in central. The systems Y-shaped main line stretched from St. Louis to Springfield, Illinois, with branches onward from Springfield northwest to Peoria, a series of affiliated street-level city trolley lines provided local passenger service in many of the cities served by the main line. The longest-lived segment was at East St. Louis area of the descended from an Edwardsville-Alton interurban line bought by the Illinois Traction System in 1928. Because the Illinois Traction/Illinois Terminal traversed some towns on street trackage with very tight turns, freight operation required the use of short trains, new bypass trackage was constructed around some towns for freight operation to partially solve this problem. Springfield was an example of this, in a few other towns, arrangements were made with a parallel steam railroad for trackage rights in order to provide a bypass. Louis 12 Staunton-Hillsboro With the Great Depression, the Illinois Traction System staggered, Louis for almost another two decades. United States postal contracts helped provide revenue to make this service viable, in the 1950s, with the final dominance of the automobile, ITCs passenger service became hopelessly unprofitable. This was even after IT had purchased three electric multiple car streamlined train sets from St. Louis Car Company designed somewhat upon the North Shore Lines Electroliners. On March 3,1956, ITCs interurban passenger service ended, followed by its last passenger service, because the ITR had some valuable trackage and lineside freight customers, it was acquired in June 1956 by nine Class I railroads. These collectively continued to operate ITR as a short line to carry freight to the acquiring railroads. The co-owned reorganized Illinois Terminal Railroad took down its trolley wire and abandoned much of its trackage, particularly the street running in towns. At various points ITC track was connected to trackage of adjacent lines and was available for optional routing, for the following 25 years the ITC continued to operate diesel-powered trackage north and east of St. Louis, providing freight business for the railroads that owned it. The Norfolk and Western Railway purchased its partners interests in the Illinois Terminal Railroad on September 1,1981, ironhorse formed a subsidiary for its St. Louis operation known as the Railroad Switching Service of Missouri. The spools were used by the Post-Dispatch in the production of its daily circulation newspaper, rSMs locomotive was an EMD SW-8, formerly owned by the United States Army. When not in use, the locomotive was parked in an area in a subway tunnel beneath Tucker Boulevard. Heading north from the Post-Dispatch, the line continued in the subway for approximately four blocks and then ran for another three blocks through the center of Hadley Street
8.
Tram
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A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets, and also sometimes on a segregated right of way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways, Tramways powered by electricity, the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. However, trams were used in urban areas before the universal adoption of electrification. Tram lines may run between cities and/or towns, and/or partially grade-separated even in the cities. Very occasionally, trams also carry freight, Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains, but the size of trams is rapidly increasing. Some trams may also run on railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line. For all these reasons, the differences between the modes of rail transportation are often indistinct. In the United States, the tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph, in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail. If necessary, they may have dual power systems — electricity in city streets, trams are now included in the wider term light rail, which also includes segregated systems. The English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish trame, a Romanesque word meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, the identical word la trame with the meaning crossbeam is also used in the French language. The word Tram-car is attested from 1873, although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars, when electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys. The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was replaced by other more reliable devices. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller, Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US, the term may also apply to an aerial ropeway, e. g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Over time, the trolley has fallen into informal use
9.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
10.
Indiana Railroad
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The Indiana Railroad was the last of the typical Midwestern United States interurban lines. It was formed in 1930-31 by combining the operations of the five major systems in central Indiana into one entity. The predecessor companies came under the control of Midland Utilities, owned by Samuel Insull and it was Insulls plan to transform the Indiana interurban network into a new Indiana Railroad by modernizing the profitable routes and abandoning the unprofitable ones. The IR faced bankruptcy in 1933, and receiver Bowman Elder was designated to run the company, payments on bonded debt were suspended. Elder was able to keep the system virtually intact for four years, during the late 1930s, the routes were abandoned one by one until a 1941 wreck with fatalities south of Indianapolis put an abrupt end to the last operation of interurbans in Indiana. The late 1890s was a time of horse-drawn carriages and wagons pulled along unpaved streets and roads, some of these trolley lines eventually expanded into the countryside and by 1911 grew into hundreds of miles of interurban lines networked across Indiana. When before we had moved by horse and carriage, we now rode on plush seats to places 20 miles,30 miles, in 1930, this unprofitable network became the new Indiana Railroad interurban. The plan was to both passenger and freight business and improve efficiency. A brief description of these IR predecessor interurban companies follows, the Indiana Railroad was created on July 2,1930 when Midland Utilities purchased the Union Traction Company of Indiana and transferred ownership to IR. Union Traction was the largest interurban system in Indiana with 410 miles of trackage and 44 miles of streetcar lines in Anderson, Elwood, Marion. UTC was created in 1897 to operate a line between Anderson and Alexandria, and in 1902 came under the control of the Schoepf-McGowan Syndicate. In 1906 UTC also purchased all of the Dayton and Muncies trackage in Indiana, in 1910, UTC had a very bad wreck at Kingsland. Two wood bodied cars impacted head on, with one telescoping into the other and this is considered the worst accident in the history of interurban transit. UTC absorbed the Indianapolis, New Castle, and Toledo in 1912 and extended its trackage from New Castle to Muncie, although it attempted a passenger revival with the purchase of new equipment, UTC went into decline in the 1920s along with the other Indiana interurban systems. In 1925, it entered receivership whereby it continued operating by delaying paying interest on its bonded debt and it survived this bankruptcy whole and passed into IR control in 1930 intact. At the same time as UTC was acquired, three other systems already owned by Midland Utilities were put under the control of IR. The largest was the Interstate Public Service Company, which was reorganized as an independent company known as Public Service Company of Indiana, the IPS operated the line from Indianapolis to Louisville, which had been built between 1896 and 1907 under a variety of small independent lines. During the 1920s, IPS modernized its fleet of cars extensively and it operated extensive passenger services from Indianapolis to Louisville and operated suburban services around Louisville
11.
North Chicago, Illinois
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North Chicago is a city in Lake County, Illinois, United States, and an outer suburb of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 32,574 at the 2010 census, North Chicago hosts the Great Lakes Naval Training Center and the headquarters of Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie. North Chicago is located at 42°19′20″N 87°51′16″W, according to the 2010 census, North Chicago has a total area of 7.915 square miles, of which 7.9 square miles is land and 0.015 square miles is water. The city is situated on Lake Michigan, North Chicago includes a Lake County Forest Preserve unit, the Greenbelt Cultural Center and Forest Preserve. Industrial development began almost immediately with a depot being set up in 1892, most notable was the arrival of the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company. The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1895 and as a city in 1901, a Veterans Administration hospital went into service in 1926. This facility was threatened with closure in recent years, but has been retained on condition of merger with the Naval Hospital. In 1922, Dr. Wallace Abbott moved his new company, The Abbott Laboratories, historically, North Chicago was known for large populations of Eastern European immigrants. Housing was segregated in the mid 20th century, and until as late as 1957 the African-American section of town lacked sewers and paved roads. Latterly, Latinos have arrived in significant numbers, particularly from Mexico and it is possible that North Chicago has over time been the most diverse and multicultural municipality in Lake County. At one time, Navy personnel were a part of the scene in North Chicago. Now, with the degeneration of the Strip, or entertainment district along several blocks of Sheridan Road, sailors are rarely seen north of the railroad trestle. The racial makeup of the city was 47. 89% White,29. 92% Black or African American,3. 76% Asian,0. 71% Native American,0. 13% Pacific Islander,13. 30% of some other race and 4. 29% of two or more races. As of the census of 2000, there were 35,918 people,7,661 households, the population density was 4,586.3 people per square mile. There were 8,377 housing units at a density of 1,069.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 47. 72% White,36. 26% African American,0. 84% Native American,3. 59% Asian,0. 15% Pacific Islander,7. 66% from other races, and 3. 79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18. 24% of the population,21. 8% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.09 and the family size was 3.64
12.
Interurban
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The interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. They were prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Limited examples existed in Europe and Asia, Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, and the cars that ran on the rails. The interurban, especially in the United States, was a cultural institution. Most roads and town streets were unpaved, and transportation was by horse-drawn carriages, the interurban provided vital transportation links between the city and countryside. In 1915,15,500 miles of railways were operating in the United States. For a time, interurban railways were the fifth-largest industry in the United States, by 1930, most interurbans were gone, with few surviving into the 1950s. The term interurban was coined by Charles L. Henry, a senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes, means between cities, the interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F, Due identified four characteristics of an interurban, Electric power for propulsion. Passenger service as the primary business, equipment heavier and faster than urban streetcars. Operation on tracks in city streets, and in areas on roadside tracks or private right-of-way. The definition of interurban is necessarily blurry, there was a large amount of consolidation of lines following initial construction. In 1905 the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as a railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits. It drew a distinction between interurban and suburban railroads, a suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic. A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to city center. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made frequent stops. The 1880s and saw the first successful deployments of electric traction in streetcar systems, most of these built on the pioneering work of Frank J. Sprague, who developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor and using a trolley pole for pickup
13.
Trolleybus
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A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws power from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit and this differs from a tram or streetcar, which normally uses the track as the return path, needing only one wire and one pole. They are also distinct from other kinds of buses, which usually rely on batteries. Power is most commonly supplied as 600-volt direct current, but there have been, currently, around 300 trolleybus systems are in operation, in cities and towns in 43 countries. Altogether, more than 800 trolleybus systems have existed, but not more than about 400 concurrently, the trolleybus dates back to 29 April 1882, when Dr. Ernst Werner Siemens demonstrated his Elektromote in a Berlin suburb. This experiment continued until 13 June 1882, after there were few developments in Europe. In 1899, another vehicle which could run either on or off rails was demonstrated in Berlin, routes followed in Eberswalde and Fontainebleau. Max Schiemann on 10 July 1901 opened the worlds fourth passenger-carrying trolleybus system, although this system operated only until 1904, Schiemann had developed what is now the standard trolleybus current collection system. In the early days there were a few methods of current collection. The Cédès-Stoll system was operated near Dresden between 1902 and 1904, and in Vienna, the Lloyd-Köhler or Bremen system was tried out in Bremen, and the Cantono Frigerio system was demonstrated near Milan. Throughout the period, trackless freight systems and electric canal boats were also built, Leeds and Bradford became the first cities to put trolleybuses into service in Great Britain on 20 June 1911. Apparently, though it was opened on 20 June, the public was not admitted to the Bradford route until the 24th, Bradford was also the last to operate trolleybuses in the UK, the system closing on 26 March 1972. The last rear-entrance trolleybus in Britain was also in Bradford and is now owned by the Bradford Trolleybus Association, birmingham was the first to replace a tram route with trolleybuses, while Wolverhampton, under the direction of Charles Owen Silvers, became world-famous for its trolleybus designs. There were 50 trolleybus systems in the UK, Londons being the largest, by the time trolleybuses arrived in Britain in 1911, the Schiemann system was well established and was the most common, although the Cédès-Stoll system was tried in West Ham and in Keighley. Smaller trackless trolley systems were built in the US early as well, the trackless trolley was often seen as an interim step, leading to streetcars. Buses and trolleybuses in particular were seen as entry systems that could later be upgraded to rail as appropriate, some trolleybus lines in the United States came into existence when a trolley or tram route did not have sufficient ridership to warrant track maintenance or reconstruction. In a similar manner, a proposed tram scheme in Leeds, worldwide, around 300 cities or metropolitan areas are served by trolleybuses today. See also Trolleybus usage by country, for example, new systems opened in Lecce, Italy, in 2012 and in Malatya, Turkey, in 2015
14.
Chicago Rapid Transit Company
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The Chicago Rapid Transit Company was a privately owned firm providing rapid transit rail service in Chicago, Illinois and several adjacent communities between the years 1924 and 1947. The CRT is one of the predecessors of the Chicago Transit Authority, leading up to the consolidation of the L companies into the CRT was decades of the Chicago Elevated Railways Collateral Trust, an entity directly attributed to utilities magnate Samuel Insull. CER also resulted in the through-routing of trains from one line to another. The CRT was an amalgamation of several elevated railroad operators, each of which operated service in a section of the city. These predecessors include, Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad, Lake Street Elevated Railroad, Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad, the CRT network was entirely at or above grade level until the 1943 opening of the State Street subway, now part of CTAs Red Line. The assets and operations of the CRT were assumed by the newly established Chicago Transit Authority on October 1,1947
15.
Railway turntable
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In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came. This is especially true in areas where economic considerations or a lack of sufficient space have served to weigh against the construction of a turnaround wye. In the case of locomotives, though most can be operated in either direction, they are treated as having front ends. When operated as a unit, the railway company often prefers, or requires. When operated as part of a multiple unit locomotive consist, the locomotives can be arranged so that the consist can be operated front end first no matter which direction the consist is pointed. Turntables were also used to turn observation cars so that their windowed lounge ends faced toward the rear of the train and these early wagonways used a single point-to-point track, and when operators had to move a truck to another wagonway, they did so by hand. The lack of switching technology seriously limited the weight of any loaded wagon combination, the first railway switches were in fact wagon turnplates or sliding rails. Turnplates were initially made of two or four pieces of wood, circular in form, that replicated the track running through them and their diameter matched that of the wagons used on any given wagonway, and they swung around a central pivot. Loaded wagons could be moved onto the turnplate, and rotating the turnplate 90 degrees allowed the loaded wagon to be moved to another piece of wagonway, thus, wagon weight was limited only by the strength of the wood used in the turnplates or sliding rails. When iron and later steel replaced stone and wood, weight capacity rose again, however, the problems with turnplates and sliding rails were twofold. First, they were small, which limited the wagon length that could be turned. Second, their capacity could only be accessed when the wagon was on top of them and still. The railway switch, which both of these problems, was patented by Charles Fox in 1832. As steam locomotives replaced horses as the means of power, they became optimised to run in only one direction, for operational ease. The resulting need to turn heavy locomotives required an upgrade to the existing turnplate technology. Like earlier turnplates, most new turntables consisted of a pit in which a steel bridge rotated. The bridge was supported and balanced by the central pivot, to reduce the total load on the pivot. This was most often achieved by a steel rail running around the floor of the pit that supported the ends of the bridge when a locomotive entered or exited, the turntables had a positive locking mechanism to prevent undesired rotation and to align the bridge rails with the exit track
16.
Union Pacific Railroad
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The Union Pacific Railroad is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and it is also one of the worlds largest transportation companies. Union Pacific Railroad is the operating company of Union Pacific Corporation. Union Pacific Corporations main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the second largest freight railroad. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all freight rail lines in the U. S. The original company was incorporated on July 1,1862, under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet the Central Pacific Railroad line, the line was constructed primarily by Irish labor who had learned their craft during the recent Civil War. The two lines were joined together at Promontory Summit, Utah,53 miles west of Ogden on May 10,1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America. Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, the namesake of the city of Durant, Iowa, the first rails were laid in Omaha. It built or purchased local lines that gave it access to Denver, Colorado, to Portland, Oregon and it also owned narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Colorado Rockies and a standard gauge line south from Denver across New Mexico into Texas. UP was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, exposed in 1872 and its independent construction company the Crédit Mobilier had bribed congressmen. The UP itself was not guilty but it did get bad publicity, the financial crisis of 1873 led to financial troubles but not bankruptcy. The company was reorganized as the Union Pacific Railway on January 24,1880, the new company declared bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893. When it emerged in 1897 it reverted to the original name, the corporate headquarters of the Union Pacific Corporation were located in New York City from its initial founding in the 1860s until Drew Lewis became CEO in the mid-1980s. He relocated it to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, later the headquarters was shifted to Dallas, Texas, before relocating to Omaha to join the operating headquarters. From the ICC annual reports, except 1979 is from Moodys, on December 31,1925 UP-OSL-OWRN-LA&SL-StJ&GI operated 9,834 route-miles and 15,265 track-miles. At the end of 1980, Union Pacific operated 9,266 route-miles and 15,647 miles of track, Moodys shows 220,697 million revenue ton-miles in 1993 on the expanded system
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Library
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A library is a collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing. It provides physical or digital access to material, and may be a building or room, or a virtual space. Libraries range in size from a few shelves of books to several million items, in Latin and Greek, the idea of a bookcase is represented by Bibliotheca and Bibliothēkē, derivatives of these mean library in many modern languages, e. g. French bibliothèque. The first libraries consisted of archives of the earliest form of clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered in Sumer. Private or personal libraries made up of books appeared in classical Greece in the 5th century BC. In the 6th century, at the close of the Classical period. A library is organized for use and maintained by a body, an institution. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of librarians who are experts at finding and organizing information, Libraries often provide quiet areas for studying, and they also often offer common areas to facilitate group study and collaboration. Libraries often provide facilities for access to their electronic resources. Modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats, the first libraries consisted of archives of the earliest form of writing—the clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered in temple rooms in Sumer, some dating back to 2600 BC. These archives, which consisted of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, mark the end of prehistory. Things were much the same in the government and temple records on papyrus of Ancient Egypt, the earliest discovered private archives were kept at Ugarit, besides correspondence and inventories, texts of myths may have been standardized practice-texts for teaching new scribes. There is also evidence of libraries at Nippur about 1900 BC, philosopher Laozi was keeper of books in the earliest library in China, which belonged to the Imperial Zhou dynasty. Also, evidence of catalogues found in some destroyed ancient libraries illustrates the presence of librarians, the Library of Alexandria, in Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. The library was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II, an early organization system was in effect at Alexandria. The Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Selçuk, Turkey was built in honor of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus by Celsus’ son, the library was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus. Private or personal libraries made up of books appeared in classical Greece in the 5th century BC
18.
Marengo, Illinois
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Marengo is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,648 at the 2010 census, Marengo is located at 42°15′3″N 88°36′18″W. According to the 2010 census, Marengo has an area of 5.01 square miles. Grant Highway State Street Telegraph Street Marengo was first called Pleasant Grove, the present name commemorates the Battle of Marengo. A post office called Marengo was established in 1844, Marengo is governed by the mayor, Donald Lockhart, and a city council of eight aldermen. As of the census of 2000, there were 6,355 people,2,387 households, the population density was 1,598.5 people per square mile. There were 2,475 housing units at a density of 622.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 92. 07% White,0. 30% African American,0. 27% Native American,0. 28% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,5. 54% from other races, and 1. 53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13. 00% of the population,24. 9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the family size was 3.17. In the city, the population was out with 29. 3% under the age of 18,8. 6% from 18 to 24,31. 0% from 25 to 44,19. 2% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.3 males, the median income for a household in the city was $50,214, and the median income for a family was $57,209. Males had an income of $41,298 versus $26,317 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,225, about 3. 9% of families and 4. 4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5. 4% of those under age 18 and 5. 5% of those age 65 or over. The Marengo-Union Times is the newspaper of record in Marengo, IL and it has a circulation of 6,300 and is mailed to every home and business in the greater Marengo and Union, Illinois area. Marengo official website The Marengo-Union Times local newspaper website Marengo Township Early History Marengo Early History
19.
Metra
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Metra is a commuter railroad in the Chicago metropolitan area. The railroad operates 241 stations on 11 different rail lines and it is the fourth busiest commuter rail system in the United States by ridership and the largest and busiest commuter rail system outside the New York City metropolitan area. There were 83.4 million passenger rides in 2014, up 1. 3% from the previous year, the estimated busiest day for Metra ridership occurred on Nov.4, 2016—the day of the Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series victory rally. Using Chicagos rail infrastructure, much of which was created in the 19th century, the Illinois General Assembly established the RTA, Metras creation was a result of the anticipated failure of commuter service operated and owned by various private railroad companies in the 1970s. Freight rail companies still operate some routes, however, these operations are guided by contracted service agreements, Metra owns all rolling stock and is responsible for all stations along with the respective municipalities. Since its inception, Metra has directed more than $5 billion into the rail system of the Chicago metropolitan area. Since its founding in the 19th century, Chicago has been a major Midwestern hub in the North American rail network and it has more trackage radiating in more directions than any other city in North America. Railroads set up their headquarters in the city and Chicago became a center for building cars, passenger cars. By the 1930s Chicago had the worlds largest public transportation system, by the mid-1970s, the commuter lines faced an uncertain future. The Burlington Northern, Milwaukee Road, Chicago and North Western, to provide stability to the commuter rail system, the Illinois General Assembly formed the Regional Transportation Authority in 1974. Its purpose was to fund and plan the Chicago regions public transportation, in the beginning the Regional Transportation Authority commuter train fleet consisted of second-hand equipment, until 1976 when the first order of new EMD F40PH locomotives arrived. That F40PH fleet is still in service today, less than a decade later the Regional Transportation Authority was already suffering from ongoing financial problems. In 1983 the Illinois Legislature reorganized the agency and that reorganization left the Regional Transportation Authority in charge of day-to-day operations of all bus, heavy rail and commuter rail services throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. It was also responsible for directing fare and service levels, setting up budgets, finding sources for capital investment, due to the broad range of responsibilities entrusted with the Regional Transportation Authority, the Commuter Rail Service Board was created in 1984. It was renamed Metra in July 1985, the newly reorganized Metra service helped to bring a single identity to the many infrastructure components serviced by the Regional Transportation Authoritys commuter rail system. Metras operating arm, the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation, was created as a separate subsidiary which operates seven Metra owned routes. Contracts were set up with the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads to operate four other Metra routes, while Metra owns all rolling stock and is responsible for most stations on those routes, the freight carriers use their own employees and control the right-of-way for those routes. In keeping with Metras purpose to provide an identity for commuter rail in the region
20.
EMD F7
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The EMD F7 was a 1,500 horsepower Diesel-electric locomotive produced between February 1949 and December 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors and General Motors Diesel. Although originally promoted by EMD as a unit, the F7 was also used in passenger service hauling such trains as the Santa Fe Railways Super Chief. The F7 was the model in GM-EMDs successful line of F unit locomotives. In fact, more F7s were built than all other F units combined and it succeeded the F3 model in GM-EMDs F unit sequence, and was replaced in turn by the F9. Final assembly was at GM-EMDs La Grange, Illinois, plant or GMDs London, Ontario, the F7 differed from the F3 primarily in internal equipment and some external features. Its continuous tractive effort rating was 20% higher (e. g.40,000 lb for an F7 with 65 mph gearing, a total of 2,366 cab-equipped lead A units and 1,483 cabless-booster or B units were built. Many F7s remained in service for decades, as railroads found them economical to operate, as most of these engines were bought and operated before two-way radio became standard on most American railroads, this was a major point of contention. The F7s prime mover is a 16-cylinder 567B series Diesel engine developing 1,500 hp at 800 rpm. The 567B is a mechanically aspirated two-stroke design in a 45 degree Vee configuration, with 567 cu in displacement per cylinder, for a total of 9,072 cu in. A direct current generator that is coupled to the flywheel end of the engine powers four traction motors. EMD has built all of its major components since 1939, starting in August 1953 EMD installed 567BC and 567C engines in a few F7s, see roster below. There are no easily identifiable differences between late F3 production and early F7 production, the differences were all internal electrical system changes. However, no F7 had chicken wire grilles of most F3s, the F9 is distinguishable from the late F7 by having five, rather than four, carbody center louver groups covering the carbody filters. The additional one is placed ahead of the first porthole, where F7s have no openings, the F9s greater power output, of course, cannot be seen from the outside. There were also two main classes of F7s, passenger and freight, most passenger units had upper and lower headlights, but this wasnt always the rule. Many freight units had the upper Mars or Pyle brand warning light as well, and some passenger units only had a single upper headlight, ie the Pennsylvania. Many units had the upper lights plated over later in life, or the door light removed/plated over and these early warning lights had lots of moving linkages and a motor that were high maintenance for the shops. The identification of locomotive phases is a creation of railfans, although now used in Diesel Spotters Guide, EMD used no such identification, and instead kept track of the marketing name and individual locomotives build numbers
21.
Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad
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The North Shore Line was formed in 1916, when industrialist Samuel Insull acquired the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railway Company. Beginning in 1919, the railroad provided freight and passenger service between the Chicago Loop and downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After World War II, the North Shore Line began to face a decline in passenger ridership. The Chicago Transit Authority Yellow Line currently operates over a portion of the former right-of-way, other rail services serve various other former markets of the North Shore Line. The predecessor of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee was founded in 1891 as the Waukegan & North Shore Rapid Transit Company, as the company grew and made plans for expansion, it became the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad. Electricity was provided by a line with a semi-flexible wand that reached from the train to the electric line. Every 10 miles or so was a substation that used large transformers to boost the voltage to the line to about 20,000 volts, when the company exited reorganization in 1916, it was renamed to Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad. Chicago utility magnate Samuel Insull acquired a controlling interest in the railroad, the North Shore Line of 1916 consisted of a main line whose southern terminus was at Church Street in Evanston, Illinois, somewhat north of the Chicago city limits. The line continued north through Chicagos wealthy north shore communities along Lake Michigan – Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, the line continued through Highwood, location of the railroads headquarters and main shops, and continued through Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, North Chicago, and Waukegan. From Waukegan, the line traversed Zion before entering Wisconsin and tapping Kenosha and Racine, the entire main line in Illinois was double track, but pockets of single track remained in Wisconsin. There were some stretches of track where the train would reach a speed of 90 mph, at Lake Bluff, a branch diverged to the west to serve Libertyville and Area, now Mundelein. At North Chicago Junction, a branch led to downtown Waukegan via city streets, the original arrangement at the railroads southern terminus in Evanston was for Chicago-bound passengers to transfer to the Northwestern Elevated there. Following the railroads acquisition by Samuel Insull, limited-stop North Shore Line trains began connecting with special L trains that ran express to the Chicago Loop. In 1919, the North Shore Line obtained trackage rights over the Northwestern Elevated and modified their cars with third rail equipment, during the early 1920s, the railroad instituted a number of named, limited-stop trains, some carrying deluxe dining and parlor/observation cars. One of the railroads most distinctive named trains, inaugurated in 1917, was the Gold Coast Limited, the North Shore also created a network of motor coach lines to feed on potential traffic from territory not directly served by the companys trains. The North Shore therefore sought to build a new line through the Skokie Valley – what was then undeveloped rural land approximately four to five miles west of the lake shore route. The needed real estate purchases and financing were arranged in 1923 and 1924, an arrangement was made with the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, wherein local L service was begun over the new line to the Dempster Street station in Niles Center in 1925. It had been anticipated that the opening of the new L line would launch a real estate boom in the area as it had decades earlier in other parts of the Chicago area
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RailPictures.Net – Illinois Railway Museum photographs at RailPictures.Net.
