question about MILW ex-C&E trackage

[djohanns]

Hi,
I was looking at the overview maps of the Milwaukee road tracks in Chicago found on the web site, and started wondering a bit about the ex-C&E trackage.  Did those tracks join up with the now CTA red-line tracks just north of CTA\'s Sheridan station?  Is the red-line perhaps running on ex-C&E tracks from that point on up to Evanston?  Did they run parallel?  Any idea where I could find more C&E information?

Thanks for running the Chicago Switching site, it\'s a great resource.

Dan Johannsson

[djohanns]

Did some digging around and found the answer.  I\'m finding the C&E stuff pretty interesting and will continue to see what other info I find on it.

Dan

[tom mann]

Dan,

We\'re always interested in any info you can find.  

Perhaps Tom Burke can shed some light on your questions.

------------
Thomas Mann
http://www.mannresearch.com/chicagoswitching

[tom burke]

Dan:

The Milwaukee Road\'s Chicago & Evanston (C&E) line used to run all the way into downtown Evanston where it terminated.  Around 1917 the forerunner of today\'s CTA took over the Milwaukee Road\'s passenger and freight obligations north of Irving Park Road in Chicago when the line was elevated onto viaducts.  

The rapid transit lines used electric freight locomotives to handle the carload freight interchanged to it by the Milwaukee Road at the Buena Yard south of Montrose and north of Irving Park Rd.  This service ended in the early 1970s when the Milwaukee Road\'s C&E line was cut back farther south as traffic declined.

The area used for interchange between the rapid transit lines and the Milwaukee Road is now Challenger Park and parking lots north of Grace St.

Bruce Moffat\'s excellent book \"The L\" details the early history of the rapid transit lines into Evanston as well as the parallel Milwaukee Road C&E line.  I encourage you to seek it out.  Lots of good historical photos.  The Shore Line Interurban Historical Society puts out First & Fastest magazine and a few years ago F&F did a feature piece on this operation.  You can do a Google on Shore Line and get ordering information I am sure.

Tom

[tom mann]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0915348306/qid=1099882034/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6507328-8052023?v=glance&s=books

Tom - is this the book you\'re referring to?

------------
Thomas Mann
http://www.chicagoswitching.com

[tom burke]

Yes, that would be the correct book!  A very well-written and interesting book which includes a lot of C&E Line coverage in the early sections with rare photos.

Tom B.