CLOSING DOWN AHEAD OF THE RAIN.

In 1957, the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad abruptly suspended all service just past noon on 3 July.  Passengers at Desplaines Avenue were more than a little bit cranky when the train they were hoping to board all of a sudden was moved past the platform without boarding, and nobody offered any substitute transportation.  Things got more interesting as offices closed for the holiday.

These days, the Illinois Railway Museum offer visitors a chance to experience living history, as we documented for 2016 and 2017.  Everybody is in on the plot and there's no unpleasantness when the trains set down at the Seemann Road platform.

Last week Friday, the show was ready to go on, but the weather gods had their own say.  For safety reasons, no electric cars operate during thunderstorms, and to protect the vintage cars, the wood interurbans, which the cash-strapped interurban continued to operate right up to the end, do not run in the rain.

At about 11.30, it looked like business as usual at Wheaton, where steel cars from Elgin and Aurora combined to make up a mid-day Chicago Express.

A few Chicago and North Western Bi-Level Commuter Streamliners were operating in those days, although the control cab cars and push-pull operation came later.  The smoke is rising off Shay 5, which was pulling a short coach train.  The threatening skies are to the northwest.

The Chicago Express was able to go to Forest Park and return by noon.  Three wood cars on a well-patronized Chicago Local got caught by the court order.  Hicks Car Works documented that move.

The steel cars finished their run and headed to the car barn for the last time.

A few minutes later, the now-empty wood cars, running as an equipment extra, returned.

Yes, that's an impressive looking wall cloud moving in.  As Randall Hicks observed, "And since heavy rain was approaching, the wood cars had to rush to get back into the barn before the deluge. It's not easy changing ends, throwing switches, and doing it all in a hurry! And it was so hot, I really didn't mind being thrown out of work."

The Roarin' Elgin cars finished their work for the weekend.

The Commuter Streamliner was able to continue operating much of the afternoon.  It's water tight and air-conditioned.  And yes, there was a passenger on one of the runs wondering if that was her Metra train to work in Chicago once upon a time.  Yes it was.  Sign of advancing age.

That was not the end of the immoderate weather for the day.  Another line of storms rolled through late in the afternoon, which forced an early end to a concert laid on for the evening as well as a fireworks show.