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"Railroad's Economic Impact in Illinois"
By Joseph Szabo, FRA Administrator
Published in the Spring 2010 issue of First & Fastest

Congratulations to the Shore Line Historical Society and its members on the publication of the 100th issue of First & Fastest. This is a wonderful accomplishment, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to share with you my comments on the economic impact of railroads at a conference that Illinois Governor Pat Quinn convened on January 15, 2010, in Chicago.

As some of you know, I grew up in Chicago as a fifth generation railroader and have spent my entire career in the railroad industry. I worked nearly 20 years on the Illinois Central and at METRA, as both a freight and suburban passenger conductor, and then spent roughly 14 years at the United Transportation Union as Illinois Legislative Director. I also served as Mayor of Riverdale and was active for many years in civic causes focusing on transportation planning in the Chicago region.

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  FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo, a Chicago native, wrote "Railroad's Economic Impact in Illinois" for the Spring 2010 issue of First & Fastest.
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"A Conversation with Samuel Insull"
100th Issue Special Report, research by your Managing Editor
Published in the Spring 2010 issue of First & Fastest

On April 1, 1910, your Managing Editor sat down with Samuel Insull to have a conversation about the “traction load” and its impact on the electric utility business.

It was a fascinating discussion as Mr. Insull, who has been referred to as Thomas Edison’s principal apostle for central generation of electricity, outlined his business strategy.

Young man, you certainly were persistent in your calls to my secretary to schedule this meeting. Truly, I did not believe that I had time to talk with you until I learned of your desire to discuss the traction load.

This is my son, Sam Jr.; I call him Chappie. Chappie is very interested in electric railways, so I thought that he might listen and learn from our conversation. I would not be a bit surprised if one of these days Chappie goes out and buys his own interurban so that he will have a full-size electric train set with which to play.

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  First & Fastest's Managing Editor conducted "A Conversation with Samuel Insull," which appeared in the Spring 2010 issue.
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"Amtrak — The Interurban of the 21st Century?"
By Norman Carlson
Published in the Autumn 2009 issue of First & Fastest

Over 100 years ago, around the prior turn of the century, the rage in local transportation was the electric interurban railway. The term “interurban” is derived from Latin for between cities. The origin of the word is credited to Charles L. Henry, an Indiana state senator who became a U. S. Congressman and founder of the Union Traction Company of Indiana, which became a 400-mile system in central Indiana.

Interurban electric railways were the transition between the horse and buggy and the automobile, a technology that was being introduced at the same time. In addition to removing the isolation of rural areas, the interurbans brought electricity to towns and villages along the way as well as to the farms in their territory. The greatest development of the interurbans was found in the Midwest, particularly Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

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  Norman Carlson wrote "Amtrak — The Interurban of the 21st Century?" which appeared in the Autumn 2009 issue of First & Fastest.
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"Can You Top This?"
By Stanwood C. Griffith
Published in the Spring 2009 issue of First & Fastest

Reminiscences of My Trolley Adventures Dating Back to Just Before World War II

It has been suggested that before my Alzheimer’s gets to the point where I can’t remember what the subject is, that I should record some of my remembrances. To summarize, I have ridden almost every company that operated East of the Mississippi River at the end of World War II. I did not get into New England but I have been there since. Bill Janssen and I used to vie with each other as to who had ridden what and the most Birney operations. Now that he is no longer with us it is conceivable that I have ridden more operations than hardly anyone. You can be the judge.

I was born in 1926 so I missed most of the little town operations, and regrettably the Cincinnati & Lake Erie and the Indiana Railroad. I can remember seeing streetcars in Rockford, but didn’t ride. My mother and I got off of the New York Central and got onto a river steamer for New York City in 1937, so I probably saw the Albany cars, but don’t remember.

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  Stanwood C. Griffith's article "Can You Top This?" appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of First & Fastest.
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"Please Don’t Snag the Hangers"
By Richard R. Gill
Published in the Winter 2005-06 issue of First & Fastest

Kensington Interlocking, on the Illinois Central, was one of those places where a tower operator could really mess up big. And when you messed up big, there was no doubt that you did it, because there wasn’t anyone else around to blame. With one bubblehead move, you could:

  1. Stop the Illinois Central Electric’s commuter rush hour;
  2. Delay long-distance passenger trains (including the Panama Limited if you were really unlucky);
  3. Bring 100 cars of coal to a squealing, teeth-rattling, how will-it-get-started-again-without-breaking-in-two stop;
  4. Force a crew onto their hours-of-service limit; and
  5. Tie up the entire west end of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad (South Shore). The IC didn’t much care about this particular issue—more about that later.

Messing Up Big” could trigger up to five verbal events:

  1. The operator’s outburst, usually “Oh, s__t!”
  2. The Signal Maintainer’s fiendish laugh, “Ha, H-A-A-A-H, you really stepped in it this time, buddy boy.”
  3. The phone call from the Chicago Division Dispatcher, and sometimes from the South Shore Dispatcher, too
  4. The phone call from the Load Supervisor (1)
  5. The phone call at home on the next day, from ‘way on high.’ “Mr. Zimmerman wants to know what happened out there last night.” You knew that this one had come down through at least seven layers of managers who couldn’t wait to kick it down one more level. There was no level lower than the tower operator. His was truly the bottom.

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  Richard R. Gill wrote "Please Don't Snag the Hangers," which appeared in the Winter 2005-06 issue of First & Fastest.
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