Dispatch No. 4, The Road of Service – Perspectives on the North Shore Line
Dispatch No. 4, published in late November 2012, is The Road of Service – Perspectives on the North Shore Line (formerly referred to by its working title "Perpetual Adoration"). This 100-page publication, edited by Norman Carlson, brings together a collection of diverse recollections by Shore Line members and people of different backgrounds who rode and/or lived along the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad. Collectively, it explains the influence the North Shore Line had on our lives and why, 50 years after its January 1963 abandonment, the railroad still fascinates many people.
The Road of Service includes an impressive collection of color photographs— most of which have not been previously published — an extensive then-and-now section of the railroad between Waukegan and Milwaukee comparing May 30, 1962 with May 30, 2012, the evening rush hour at Briergate, Ed Tobin’s recollections of the streetcar service in Waukegan, and the "Kenosha Kid," Mike Seiberlich, takes us back to hanging around the Kenosha station. Dispatch No. 4 also includes a dining car article by Dick George, as well as maps and the photos of the last day of operation, complete with the names of the crew members and the numbers of the cars on the trains.
The Road of Service is an excellent gift for those people who remember the railroad that Bill Middleton named the Standard Interurban Railroad of North America. Electroliners, Silverliners, standard cars, streetcars, on the "L," on the streets, flying down the Skokie Valley Route and a leisurely ride out to Mundelein, it is all in The Road of Service.
Dispatch No. 4 is available from Shore Line for $15.00. Shore Line members pay only $10.00. Add $8.00 for postage to a U.S. address.
