Perpetual Adoration I
t seems strange to think that the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad has been gone more years than it operated. The North Shore Line emerged from the ruins of the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway after a financial scandal and collapse in 1916, and it provided the finest electric interurban service in the country right up to the day it shut down on January 20, 1963. The memory of other railroads has slowly faded away, but the North Shore is still remem- bered and loved. Each generation of North Shore fans has had its own nostalgic version of the “Golden Age” of the
line. Those smartly dressed guys in suits from the Central Electric Railfans’ Association who char- tered special trips in the 1940’s looked back to the orange and maroon era of the 1930’s as “their” North Shore. Railfans catching the last runs in January of 1963 loved the green and red North Shore. As a teenager in the 1970’s, I rode a Silverliner through Phantom Woods (a station on the East Troy Electric Railway Museum, west of Milwaukee) wondering what it was like to streak across fields of green and gold at 70 miles per hour in an Electroliner. This coincided with the discovery of CERA Bulletins 106 and 107 one lazy summer afternoon at the public library. Thereafter, I fol- lowed sprinkles of white limestone ballast like breadcrumbs through a magic forest of scrub trees and electrical transmission towers. Concrete foundations and bridge abutments silently confirmed, “It went that way.” In 10th grade English class I wrote a research paper on the North Shore Line. Miss Somers’ only comment was, “What would inspire you write about such an odd topic?” I couldn’t give her an artic- ulate answer back then (after all, how do you explain love at that age?), but I think I can offer a partial explanation of it today. A big part of the line’s enduring appeal has always been the “human scale” of the railroad. The CNS&M flagstop shelter article in the January, 2011, RMC shows one ex- ample of the North Shore’s spirit. Anyone catching a local train at a lonely crossroads could wait in a small but sturdy wooden shelter of mixed Prairie style/Arts & Crafts design. This was the first contact point with the railroad for many people. The shelter was functional, but visually appealing, and provided a certain measure of comfort. It spoke of progress, attainable cultural refinement, and consideration of the common good by offering hospitality to the traveler. The Arts & Crafts movement was a connection back to the days when things were more “real” in the sense that people worked with wood, steel, stone and copper. The human touch was evident everywhere on the North Shore. The complexity of the operation was within the grasp of a careful observer. One could understand the road, its traffic, its equipment. It was all done locally with the immediate cause and effect evident, from freshly re-upholstered seats in a coach to men on a line car adjusting overhead wires. Communication was done with paper, not pixels. This is not to say that new ways of doing things are bad. They just promote a different affective reaction in people. The connection to the experience seems less tangible, less human. (This is prob- ably what ancient railfans said when the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric moved the track from the side of the dirt road to private right-of-way.) Perhaps the enduring affection for the North Shore falls into the same category as the “connec- tion to the land” feeling, and the eternal mystery of reaching to understand those who went before us. Perhaps this is the root of the appeal in “real time and place” modeling. For today’s kids, their North Shore will probably be experienced through a tablet device, ready- to-run models and archeology, even via computer simulations, but they will make it their own. As the old timers pass away, the connection to those with first-hand experiences and stories will be lost. But, living, hands-on experiences can still be made with the North Shore and other historic roads at the Illinois Railroad Museum and other museums where people work to restore and run the cars. It may also be seen in the community of researchers sharing on line and at First & Fastest magazine, which concentrates on the Chicago region. In our ever-changing world of transportation and communication technology, the basic human needs for connection, understanding and wonder will remain constants. The perpetual adoration of the North Shore will continue to be a vehicle that some use to fulfill them.
KEITH M. KOHLMANN photography/KEITH M. KOHLMANN or AS NOTED. 42 JANUARY 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116