North Shore Line

A short drive to Lake Bluff gave me a chance to photograph a southbound Milwaukee to Chicago train (8)(12) both coming and going around the curve at Scranton St.  If you go by there now it is doubtful you would even know a railroad ran at that location! The switcher at Northfield (9) became the location of a bowling alley which, in turn, was torn down in the early 1990's for an expensive town house complex. My, how times change! Also at Northfield is a shot of one of the southbound Electroliners (10) silently flying through at the Willow road crossing. Just a few miles south was the busy Dempster station in Skokie showing a two car Silverliner train (car 409 is the second car) coming in for its stop (11). Compare this with shots of the SOAC car demonstration in the early 1970's when Dempster was the northern terminus of the CTA Skokie Swift: a service that took over the North Shore Line from the Chicago Howard Street Station to this location in 1964 over the former North Shore tracks. Because I went to Downtown Chicago weekly I often took my camera with me. A Milwaukee Express is shown on the then high speed portion of the CTA at the Loyola College station on the North Side of the city. Baggage Coach 250 is in the lead on this portion where third rail operation was in use. (13) The final shot was taken in 1959 at the Mundelein station showing Cincinnati car 727 (14) waiting to depart to Chicago. Car 727 is alive and well in Iowa as the official car of the last freight interurban in the United States: Iowa Traction located near Mason City. Currently its interior is being redone. After viewing Iowa Traction picture to return here hit the reverse arrow on your screen.