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Reflections
The electric road that linked Yorkville and Morris : Reflections : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisThe electric road that linked Yorkville and Morris
| by Roger Matile
| 11/10/2005
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Drive south along Ill. Route 47 from Ill. Route 71in Yorkville and you’ll find lots of development these days.
New subdivisions are popping up on former farmland, Joliet is just over the horizon to the east, and business development is getting a start.
As you motor along a few miles south, you’ll come upon small clusters of buildings along the west side of the road, first at Kentland and then at Lisbon Center. These are the visible remnants of what was the area’s all-weather transportation route for grain, supplies, and passengers in the era before dependable automobiles and paved roads.
Starting in the years immediately before the turn of the 20th Century, plans were put in place to link most towns east of the Mississippi River with a web of electric rail routes. The vehicles that would travel these routes are known today as “light rail,” but in those days they were called interurban trollies.
The trolley craze got its start when dependable sources for electrical current and workable electrically powered trolley cars were developed. Since they ran on rails, they provided all-weather transportation, and since they were powered by electricity they were quiet and efficient. From Aurora, an electric line ran southeast to Plainfield and Joliet and from there to Ottawa. Likewise, a line ran along the Fox River from Aurora to Yorkville.
But the vast, rich rural area between Yorkville and Morris was not served by either good roads or an convienient rail network. As a result, farmers had lots of trouble getting crops to market and obtaining such necessities and coal and lumber. So the farm and business communities combined to promote a new electric road that would connect the Aurora Yorkville & Morris that served Yorkville and Aurora with Morris.
The new line, dubbed the Fox & Illinois Union Railway, was begun in the fall of 1911. Although its promoters boasted it would be finished in just 60 days, weather and other factors conspired against them. By the fall of 1912, trackage had been extended only eight miles south of Yorkville, and it took another couple of months before the line reached downtown Morris.
But in the summer of 1912, with construction moving along, the line ordered some rolling stock, including a single express car and two combination passenger-baggage interurban cars. The passenger-baggage cars were 48 feet long, and included a 27 foot long passenger compartment, a separate smoking compartment for the gents, and a large baggage compartment.
The express car, designed to haul light freight, was only 36 feet long and had no passenger seating. Instead, it featured one center-mounted baggage door on each side plus end doors that could connect it to the passenger-baggage interurban cars..
The line chose a livery of brown, dark red, and yellow. The car sides were painted dark brown, the roofs painted dark red, and the trim and lettering on all the cars was done in yellow. Unlike most interurban cars, all three were equipped with oversized railroad-style knuckle couplers to allow them to haul standard railroad freight cars when necessary.
The line met the Aurora Elgin & Chicago (formerly the Aurora Yorkville & Morris) line in Yorkville on what is today Van Emmon Road. At the same spot, there was a siding connection to the Chicago Burlington & Quincy's Fox River Branch line, that still connects Streator with Aurora, running through the Kendall County communities of Millington, Yorkville, and Oswego.
With the switches on the sidings, freight cars could be transferred back and forth from the CB&Q to the Fox & Illinois Union. That meant no more long trips into town for coal and lumber for farm families living between Yorkille and Morris. And with the lines connected, Fox & Illinois Union cars could use a section of the AE&C line in downtown Yorkville to pick up and drop off passengers.
From Van Emmon Road in downtown Yorkville, the line ran due south, climbing out of the river valley before hitting the level prairie a tad south of today’s intersection with Rotue 47 and Route 71. There it ran due south along what would one day become Route 47. A power substation was located at Walker's Crossing (Walker Road and Route 47), and there were sidings in Kendall County at Lisbon Center, Kentland, and Central in Kendall County to serve the grain elevators located there.
At the Morris end of the line, the tracks passed under the Rock Island Railroad before ending with a connection at the Chicago Ottawa & Peoria Electric Railway at the Hotel Commercial. The line’s connection to the Rock Island was located on the north edge of Morris, where there was also a siding at the old Quaker Oats Company plant.
Although economically important, the line had a brief history. In 1924 the line was sold to a syndicate of Kendall and Grundy County farmers who had championed its construction and which tried to continue its operations. But on Jan. 31, 1925, the AE&C abandoned interurban service between Aurora and Yorkville. That cut off passenger access to Aurora and Chicago. In February of 1931, the line was permitted to stop its passenger service and turn into a freight line servicing the grain elevators between Morris and Yorkville. Eventually, the line was killed as the bad times of the Depression passed when farmers were able to buy their own trucks and cars and roads improved. The line was finally abandoned on Oct. 15, 1938.
Drive along Route 47 south of Route 71 today and you can still see the flat right-of-way, as well as the grain elevators and freight buildings, with their elevated freight doors, that are remnants of a brief, innovative era in local transportation history. |
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