DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

Fittingly, a troupe that debuted as Chicago Transit Authority (the eponymous agency brought legal action to get that name changed) asked that question.  For years, the South Shore Line, properly the Chicago South Shore and South Bend, issued all-year-around printed timetables, advising that all published times shown were those in effect in Chicago.  When both Indiana and Illinois were on Standard Time, the South Bend passenger had to mentally add an hour; for that part of the year when Illinois and the Indiana Region observed Central Daylight Time, the South Bend passenger might not have had to make any changes, as Indiana was far enough west in the Eastern Time Zone for those counties on Eastern Standard Time to stay on Eastern Standard Time.  Those changes might not have inconvenienced too many passengers on the east end of the railroad, as, well into the 1960s, the railroad offered a memory pattern schedule with hourly South Bend Limiteds, with Gary Expresses on the half hour.  Conditional and positive stops for the morning Limiteds sufficed to serve any passengers from LaLumiere or Hudson Lake or New Carlisle for Bendix or downtown South Bend.  These days, the conditional stops are gone, although with all trains pulling out of Michigan City to form South Bend departures, there are morning departures for any local passengers so inclined.

Conditions were more complicated on the North Shore Line, the much-lamented and more than a little bit missed Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee.  Yes, the railroad operated entirely in the Central Time Zone.  After the War, though, Illinois observed Daylight Saving Time whilst Wisconsin did not.  So much for agricultural interests favoring Daylight Saving Time.  The cock crows at sunup, irrespective of what's on the clock, and farm kids know about morning chores before they head off to school.  Thus, when Wisconsin did adopt Daylight Saving Time, that ended on the final Sunday in September, whilst Illinois stayed with it until the final Sunday in October.

Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966 codifying that states did not have to observe Daylight Saving Time, but if they did, they had to begin it and end it on a date set in Washington, D.C.  That Act might have been motivated in part by the sort of charmingly confusing scheduling operators of trains and buses operating across the Cheddar Curtain had to use.  Consider the evening peak time, Milwaukee to Chicago, as governed by the North Shore Line's final employee timetable.

When Illinois and Wisconsin were in agreement over what time it was, Waukegan Local 6 offered service that reflected the end of the day shift at many factories and businesses, from 3 pm to 4 pm.  Electroliner schedule 816 ran on a stop-skipping schedule leaving at 4.50 pm while a train of one to six conventional cars, perhaps augmented to up to six cars at Edison Court ran as the 'Liner Follower, Train 424.

The railroad discovered, relatively early during Electroliner operation, the limitations of a fixed formation train.  Immediately after the War, there was no 'Liner Follower in the timetable.  When large crowds were anticipated at the Milwaukee Terminal, the Electroliner would be run as a second section of the Waukegan Local, first stop at or south of Edison Court, while a train of conventional cars would run on the schedule ordinarily protected by an Electroliner.  If you were a passenger headed for Racine or Kenosha and looking forward to a glass of Milwaukee's Finest on the way home, you were out of luck.  That soon after the War, though, passengers might have been used to such things.

A Friday, possibly close to an unofficial holiday, might have led the railroad to anticipate traffic.  Note the snow cover, something more common in March in those days.  Local train 18 operated on a schedule similar to Train 6.

The railroad also discovered, probably to its dismay, that the bulk of passenger loadings were from Waukegan south to Chicago.  Thus, an Electroliner scheduled at 5 pm according to Illinois-only Daylight Saving Time is leaving Milwaukee at 4 pm, and it's less likely to be overwhelmed by traffic at the Milwaukee Terminal.  From Waukegan south, though, those evening passenger loadings warrant extra seats.

Thus, the mysterious Train 8, the empty stock working of Train 19, scheduled for the benefit of employees offered transportation as a fringe benefit (as long as the Shore Line Route operated, Nineteen connected with a Waukegan via Shore Line express at North Chicago Junction; after that service ended, Nineteen connected with a Mundelein express at Deerpath) simply scurries back to Edison Court when Milwaukee time is Chicago time.  When only Illinois observes Daylight Saving Time, the car from Nineteen becomes a 'Liner Follower as Train 224 at Zion, Monday to Friday, adding cars as required at Edison Court.  Weekends, Train 226 does the 'Liner Follower stops from Waukegan to Chicago.  Thus three schedules, differing in number and day of leaving, all to cope with Daylight Saving Time in effect in Illinois only.

When Daylight Saving Time is in effect in Illinois only, what is 5.15 pm in Chicago is 4.15 pm in Milwaukee, and the early afternoon Waukegan Local is Train 10, but the passenger boarding at Oklahoma Avenue at 4.29 Milwaukee time doesn't have to rush up the steps to that stop any faster.  There's a car coming and if that passenger is headed for Taylor Avenue in Racine, that car will set him down.

Finally, note Train 426 with its 6.05 pm departure time.  The Milwaukeean lingering a little longer at work or in a nearby saloon to ride to a stop not served by the Electroliner has the same opportunity to linger when that schedule is offering the 5.05 departure, Milwaukee time.

Charmingly confusing the schedules might have been, but if it was your habit to ride the afternoon local or the Limited that would get you to Racine or Kenosha, it was predictably there.