This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2015) |
Chicago and Joliet Electric | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Chicago and Joliet Electric Railway, or C&JE, was an electric interurban railway linking the cities of Chicago and Joliet, Illinois. It was the only interurban between those cities and provided a link between the streetcar network of Chicago and the cities along the Des Plaines River Valley in north central Illinois, which were served by the Illinois Valley Division of the Illinois Traction System.
The C&JE was an outgrowth of the Joliet streetcar system, which was acquired by the American Railways Company of Philadelphia at the start of the 20th century. In 1900 a line was built north from Joliet to Lemont, with an extension to Chicago opening in September 1901. The line ran along the DesPlaines River from downtown Joliet to the corner of Archer Avenue and Cicero Avenue on the edge of Chicago, with an across-the-platform connection with Chicago City Railway (Chicago Surface Lines after 1914) Archer Ave. streetcars. [1]
A carbarn and transformer were built in Lyons Township (Bedford Park after 1940) [2] ) at Roberts Road, the railway's property behind it was sold for a large corn processing plant. [3] "Argo" (annexed by Summit in 1911 [4] [5] ) had heavy traffic. Bethnia and Resurrection cemeteries and nearby restaurants attracted riders, and further west forest preserves were popular on the weekends. [6] [7]
To promote ridership on the south part of the line, the railway built an amusement park called Dellwood Park in Lockport. The park opened on July 4, 1905, at a cost to the railway of almost $300,000. Dellwood Park's carousel, boat rides, picnic areas and sulky races with a grandstand brought up to 15,000 visitors to the park on weekends in its peak years. It operated for more than thirty years; the park burned down in the 1930s. [8] [9]
In 1915 the C&JE became a subsidiary of Central Illinois Public Service Company, which was owned by Samuel Insull. Despite the use of modern suburban-type interurban cars, C&JE ridership plummeted with the onset of the Great Depression and on November 16, 1933, the rail line between Lockport and Argo was abandoned.
In 1933 the railway's subsidiary Chicago and Joliet Transportation Co. replaced most rail operation with buses. The heavy traffic Cicero-Argo segment stayed in service until 1934, when it became a CSL local bus route. In 1928 the route was extended to downtown Chicago. In 1936 the route was sold to Bluebird Coach, [7] in time it would be operated by West Suburban Transit (1965), Valley Transit and subsidiary S.W.I.F.T. (1973), Joliet Mass Transit District (1975), and Pace (1990). [10] In 2016 parts of the route are used by Pace, but it is no longer a through route. [11]
The North Terminal was at Archer and Cicero Aves., where there was a twin-loop arrangement with CCRy (CSL after 1914) Archer Ave streetcars. There was a shared station and cross platform changes could be made between the two. The two loops were not physically connected, and there was no joint trackage. There also was a stub track in Archer Ave. to store cars. [12]
The track went west down both sides of Archer to Harlem Ave. The discontinuance of the line made possible the widening of Archer Ave. from two lanes to four. At Harlem Ave. the rails came together in the middle of the street pavement and continued west. At today's 1st. Ave. interchange the rails went around a curve where Archer turns south and changes from Avenue to Road. The Lyons branch went north from here. Going south on Archer Rd. double track continued to Argo at 63rd St. Just south the rails combined to a single track to cross the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad at grade then split to both sides of the road. At Roberts Road a six car carbarn and substation #3 was on the north-west side of Archer Rd., aligned with Roberts Rd. [13] The tracks continued on both sides of Archer Rd. past Resurrection and Bethania cemetery, then south-west to Willow Springs, where they ran on the north side of the road.
The tracks left Willow Springs westbound along Archer Rd. At Sag (today's State Route 83 and 171 intersection) Archer Rd. turned south. The track combined, and single track continued west alongside the tracks of the Chicago and Alton Railroad's Joliet Subdivision, crossing the Calumet Feeder Canal (Cal-Sag Channel after 1911) on its own trestle. The tracks then aligned with Main St. Lemont, returned to double track, and continued west into town. Substation #2 was just west of Stephen St. The tracks then went west, turned south on today's New Ave., rejoined Archer Rd., and entered Lockport.
Lockport was the original north terminal of the line, after the interurban line was closed rail service south from there continued until replaced by Joliet city buses in 1934. The tracks went down State St. (on Archer Rd. alignment) past the company office, and Dellwood Park then`into Joliet on Collins Ave. At Cass St. the line turned west onto local streetcar tracks, at Ottawa St. it turned south and went one block to the terminal at Ottawa and Clinton Sts. [14]
The Lyons branch was a single track streetcar line. It began at Ogden and Lawndale Aves. in Lyons, the end of a Chicago Consolidated Traction Co. (Chicago and West Towns Railway after 1913) streetcar line. It went south in Lawndale Ave., crossed Joliet Rd., and went down into the river valley. It crossed the Des Plaines River, Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and Illinois and Michigan Canal on road bridges, went under the Chicago & Alton RR and then climbed up to the Archer Ave./Rd. intersection. Runs which connected with the interurban stopped here, Argo runs continued down the main line to 63rd St.
In 2015 the shared terminal at Archer and Cicero Aves. [15] had been commercially developed, only a small CTA bus turnaround off Cicero Ave. remained. The Roberts Road carbarn [16] had been a banquet hall and catering service, "The Landmark". The business closed in 2015. The right-of-way is still visible in parts of Willow Springs and parts are now used for parking. In Lockport Dellwood Park [17] is in the Lockport Township Park District.
Summit is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,161 at the 2020 census. The name Summit, in use since 1836, refers to the highest point on the Chicago Portage between the northeast-flowing Chicago River and the southwest-flowing Des Plaines River located just north of the city.
Illinois Route 171 (IL 171) is a 38.61-mile-long (62.14 km) north–south state highway in northeastern Illinois. It runs from U.S. Route 6 (US 6) in Joliet north to Illinois Route 72 at the Chicago–Park Ridge border. The section of IL 171 on Archer Avenue from Joliet to Summit is historically significant, originating as a Native American trail, and later serving for a time as part of the first numbered highway between St. Louis and Chicago.
Roads and expressways in Chicago summarizes the main thoroughfares and the numbering system used in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.
Brighton Park is a community area located on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois. It is number 58 of the 77 community areas of Chicago.
As the Lincoln Highway was one of the earliest transcontinental highways for automobiles across the United States and was widely publicized since its inception, the route of the Lincoln Highway was determined not only by civil engineering considerations but also by politics. In many regions, there was general consensus among those who had power or interest in influencing the route. But in a few regions the choice of route was a contentious topic during the 1920s. The highway took the following route:
Archer Avenue, sometimes known as Archer Road outside the Chicago, Illinois city limits, and also known as State Street only in Lockport, Illinois and Fairmont, Illinois city limits, is a street running northeast-to-southwest between Chicago's Chinatown and Lockport. Archer follows the original trail crossing the Chicago Portage between the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, and parallels the path of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Joliet Subdivision of the Alton Railroad. As a main traffic artery, it has largely been replaced by the modern Stevenson Expressway.
Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. It had 666 PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America. It had 68 streetcar routes, of which only three are used by the Port Authority as light rail routes. With the Port Authority's Transit Development Plan, many route names will be changed to its original, such as the 41D Brookline becoming the 39 Brookline. Many of the streetcar routes have been remembered in the route names of many Port Authority buses.
The Missouri and Kansas Interurban Railway was an interurban line running from Kansas City, Missouri through downtown Overland Park to Olathe in Kansas. It ran from 1906 until July 9, 1940 and was the last of the interurban trolley lines in the Kansas City metropolitan area. It was called the "Strang Line" for Johnson County developer William B. Strang Jr.
The 14th congressional district of Illinois is currently represented by Democrat Lauren Underwood. It is located in northern Illinois, surrounding the outer northern and western suburbs of Chicago.
The International Railway Company (IRC) was a transportation company formed in a 1902 merger between several Buffalo-area interurban and street railways. The city railways that merged were the West Side Street Railway, the Crosstown Street Railway and the Buffalo Traction Company. The suburban railroads that merged included the Buffalo & Niagara Electric Street Railway, and its subsidiary the Buffalo, Lockport & Olcott Beach Railway; the Buffalo, Depew & Lancaster Railway; and the Niagara Falls Park & River Railway. Later the IRC acquired the Niagara Gorge Railroad (NGRR) as a subsidiary, which was sold in 1924 to the Niagara Falls Power Company. The NGRR also leased the Lewiston & Youngstown Frontier Railroad.
Cermak Road, also known as 22nd Street, is a 19-mile, major east–west street on Chicago's near south and west sides and the city's western suburbs. In Chicago's street numbering system, Cermak is 2200 south, or twenty-two blocks south of the baseline of Madison Street. Normally, one mile comprises eight Chicago blocks, but the arterial streets Roosevelt Road, formerly named Twelfth Street and at 1200 South, and Cermak Road were platted before the eight-blocks-per-mile plan was implemented. Roosevelt Road is one mile south of Madison Avenue and there are twelve blocks within that mile. Cermak Road is two miles south of Madison Avenue and there are ten blocks within the mile between Roosevelt and Cermak Roads.
The Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric (AE&FRE), was an interurban railroad that operated freight and passenger service on its line paralleling the Fox River. It served the communities of Carpentersville, Dundee, Elgin, South Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, North Aurora, Aurora, Montgomery, and Yorkville in Illinois. It also operated local streetcar lines in both Aurora and Elgin.
The Manufacturers' Junction Railway is a shortline railroad in Cicero, Illinois. Originally a subsidiary of Western Electric used to switch their Hawthorne Works, after the plants were phased out it was sold to OmniTRAX, a company offering railroad management and other services.
Streetcars in St. Louis, Missouri, operated as part of the transportation network of St. Louis from the middle of the 19th century through the early 1960s.
The Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P) was a railway company and electric power utility in Portland, Oregon, United States, from 1906 until 1924.
Streetcars originally operated in Atlanta downtown and into the surrounding areas from 1871 until the final line's closure in 1949.
In Atlanta, Georgia, trolleybuses, generally called trackless trolleys there, were a major component of the public transportation system in the middle decades of the 20th century, carrying some 80 percent of all transit riders during the period when the system was at its maximum size. At the end of 1949 Atlanta had a fleet of 453 trolleybuses, the largest in the United States, and it retained this distinction until 1952, when it was surpassed by Chicago.
The Chicago and Illinois Western Railroad was an industrial switching railroad serving the west side of Chicago and southwest Cook County. From a connection with a now defunct north–south railroad line near 31st Blvd. and Western Ave. it went west along 33rd St. to Cicero. Just before Cicero Ave. it turned south and roughly paralleled Cicero Ave. to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. At the canal it turned west and paralleled the canal and then the Des Plaines River to Hodgkins. Incorporated in 1903, it was merged into the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad in 1984. In 2020 a short segment is used by the Canadian National Railway and the Cicero Central Railroad.
The Chicago and West Towns Bus Company was a street transit company in the near-west suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. It was incorporated in 1913 to operate suburban streetcar companies. When it was bought by the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) in 1981, it had 107 buses and was operating 11 of 19 routes. Some routes were still in service in 2022 as the Pace West Division.