Ghost Tracks of Hillside Illinois 

Excellent video. Growing up in Hillside it brought back a lot of memories. Who remembers S&H Green Stamps? I recall all the tracks that are now the Illinois Prairie Path along Litt Drive then crossing Mannheim. Great that you left the natural sounds recorded during your visit without any music tracks.

I happened to come across this video documentary while looking for something else. I like history of all sorts, and I was glad I took time to watch it even though I'm not from the Hillside area. I like the fact that there were no words spoken and that all relevant info was on screen. The rest is left for thought Even the shaky video and ambient background noise gave it the "right there" realism.

Thank you for the documentation I remember them all. I especially have good memories of the one in North Riverside mall parking lot. A spur line is very visible over the tracks have been recently taken away.

Great video, kind of sad to see the small scraps of RR tracks & hardware laying there. A good history lesson, more people should investigate there local RR history, before it is forgotten forever! Thank you!

my grandfather designed the mount Carmel spur that split at Bellwood avenue and proceeded to the cemetery in Westchester, he was the track foreman for the Aurora and Elgin Railroad, he lived on Madison street in Bellwood , when he drew up the route for the spur line, he had the tracks run next to his home, he had his own semaphore so he could signal the operator to stop, my grandmother had a kitchen in the basement ,she would cook food for the track gang in an emergency, she also had big a potbelly stove in the basement where the workers could warm up on a cold winters night, my dad brother and myself used to ride on the Aurora and Elgin using my grandfathers pass.

This was a very informative and interesting video. It's sad to see railroads cease to exist, but usually they leave behind some awesome pieces of history that can be accessed here in the present, and hopefully in the future.

Awesome video Irving! Having worked in this area back in the 80's & early 90's I often wondered about the railroads there especially the CA&E. I used to drive under the Wolf Rd viaduct everyday. There's also another gost like rail line that ran from the North Riverside/Forest park border just west of Harlem Ave through Waldheim Cemetary. It may have been taken up by now,I think that line was active back in the 60s into the early 80s. I seem to remember it crossing Cermak Rd in North Riverside

Thanks again for posting the video. The Roaring Elgin was part of me for a good part of my life. I still lament the passing of the CA&E and the CNS&M (the North Shore). The only inter-urban left is the South Shore (NICD) from Chicago to South Bend. They were all related being part of the Insull Empire. Cting

Thank-You! History should be appreciated, and supported. Just in my short lifetime those tracks have gone away. I'd like to think that future generations will appreciate the rail grid that once ran through Hillside.

Thank-You. I grew up around there and I wanted to at least preserve the memories. Your channel has some good stuff, so I subscribed!

Remarkable work Irving. I remember the old CA&E bridges with the beautiful ironwork fencing. They looked like chevrons. We played in the old underground oil tanks where the IC crossed the CGW and CA&E just west of Vallette. Got in trouble of course. Early 70s. Fuel company. Nasty.

Excellent documentary of abandoned railroads. I love looking at the Google Earth maps to see where so many railroads once were. Although I'm from Michigan and have never been in this part of Chicago (except maybe on Amtrak), I was able to locate Manheim & Wolf Ave to see exactly where you were filming. Once again, great video. Thanks!

This was great. My wife is from Bellwood, and she tells me that a freight line used to run along Manheim on the east side that ran very close to the houses. This was about 1962-1965. Being a fan of both the CA&E and CGW, this footage was most interesting to me.

Thanks for trip down memory lane,Grew up in that area.

I'm glad you liked it. I well remember the Manheim track but as I got older, the trains got fewer. The tracks stayed there , I think through most of the 1970's, then they were gone. The rail bridge over the expressway, lasted until the highway construction of the mid 1990's, then that too was gone. Bellwood needed to raise money, so the Village managed to get some of the CGW right of way opened up for housing. New residents of the area probably have no idea that a railroad was a neighbor.

Nice video! I used to have a lot of family in this area (nearly 50 years ago) and we'd stay at a motel in Hillside when visiting them. The only business I remember from those days is the Peter Troost Monument Co. on Roosevelt Road, still there today. The CA&E Mount Carmel branch ran nearby, with the trolley wire still hanging over it into the 1960's. Sadly, I never got to see a train on it.

This certainly takes me back. I grew up in Maywood, just a couple of blocks from what is now the Illinois Prairie Path. I can remember when there were three sets of rail tracks that crossed 19 th avenue, near the old Canada Dry bottling plant (we lived about a block further down). Further west was the Proviso Rail yard in Melrose Park. We used to call it Hobo Junction. Back in the 50's, during the summer time, my brother and I took turns sleeping out on the front porch of our house. I can remember waking up in the middle of the night listening to them uncoupling and coupling rail cars down by the tracks. There was something incredibly soothing about the noise that would make. It would allow me to fall gently back to sleep.

I also remember the old Poplar CA&E terminal...very small. We would pass it on our way to St. Domitila's Church in Hillside on Sunday evenings. I lived in South Elmhurst.

Thank-you for the heads up on that page! I've started reading and the "Memories" section has already given me a better mental image of the line, and the Bellwood interchanges. Thank-you, again, for viewing and commenting! (AND--Thank-You for keeping History alive!)

Great vid!! i added the sidings to my Illinois Central map

"History falls to parking lots & shopping malls". This was interesting, thanks for the post!

grew up in south Elmhurst...(Yorkfield)..I live near the 4 corners now...Utah...I enjoyed seeing were I grew up...thanks

Thank-You for viewing and commenting. Your comments are exactly the sort of motivation I need to do more videos!

Very well done. Be nice if you could include historic photos along with the contemporary scenes.

Thabks for this info! I might be exploring these today.

Thank-you! Nice compliments like yours motivate me to do more. The Hillside area has a number of railroad features and ironically the expressway, and State Highway construction have erased quite a few of the memories. It appears that the area will see something new. The new Amtrak "Blackhawk Service" is reportedly going to go through town on the CN. That would mean four more trains a day. It's been just over forty years since the last passenger service.

Thank-you! Compliments keep me producing more vids!

nice footage, great there is no stupid music to go with it, there is old line near me I have always wanted to check out

great video todays people do not grasp the fact if there was no train acces you just had farm and praire note all big sububs were on tracks

You caught my interest when you mentioned a ghost track going through a cemetery! It took me a little bit to locate the old roadbed on Google Earth. It looks like the missing track started up next to the Forest Park CTA Station (I-290/Harrison/Des Plaines Ave) and the went south-southwest across the cemetery grounds and came out near the Armory at Cermak & 1st Ave. It may have gone further south but the land there has been radically bulldozed. This is something that I might record!

Nice video. Haven't been up that way in many years. Back in the late 70's and early 80's I bought the CERA (Central Electric Railfans Association) book/bulletin, "The Great Third Rail" and had loads of fun combining my photography hobby with my interest in the CA&E by taking new, as-it-looks-today pics of the much older ones in the book. I wrote a short story about the Hillside area which was published in the local paper (made the cover!). Got 60 bucks, I want ya ta know...lol. Again, good post.

Thank-You, Sir!

When I was in high school a friend of ours lived in the house on the NE corner of Mannheim and Madison in Bellwood. The tracks crossed Mannheim on an angle right there and we very rough to drive over. They were so rough that often they would knock hubcaps off cars. They would always end up in her yard. Her father would take them and hang them on the side of their garage that faced Mannheim and sell them. We called him the Bellwood hubcap man

Nice video. The IC (now CN) tracks are still active.

I lived very close to the areas covered in the video and I hardly ever saw the trains. I was at the Target, the other day, and there is not a trace of the old right of way. It won't be much longer until we have a complete erasure of all that rail history. And, thank you for commenting!

Wolf Road is a great place to grab the CN (the old Illinois Central Freeport Sub) but it's a cold wait on Saturday when there are not as many trains.........

I lived in Hillside in 1978. Our house was off Madison and Mannheim on Hyde Park street. I worked at JoJos restaurant (graveyard shift) on Mannheim. Need to get back to see how much has changed. Things never stay the same.

It would be nice if the tracks were still there. I was showing the Manheim right of way, to a friend, and it was hard to pick out exactly where the tracks were located. There are now many generations of folk who will never know where this stuff used to be.

I hear you on the video tech! In those days I would have been lucky to pay for 12 shots off a Instamatic! I'll try to get some more clips from the Bellwood area. Did you know about the trolley line that left the CAE at Bellwood, and went south into Westchester?

I never saw any action at the bridge! I also remember the quarry well, and yes, the bridge/grade crossing/ramp, was messed up there. That area has really changed over the years...............

I think the horn was drifting down from Proviso. It's just about a mile north of that location.

i remember the quarry cause they used it for a landfill also and the trains crossing the road there wasnt any lights or gates always made me nervous about getting hit

I lived in Hillside in the 1950s on Oak Ridge Ave. just south of the RR crossing. That spur in the video went back to a place where they made big concrete sewer/water pipes, then I guess to the quarry. I played on those tracks as a kid. East of that a ways were tracks that went north and south through a little tunnel that went under the then IC tracks.

Cool video awesome job

Fascinating stuff!!!

Also Irv, there is a set of tracks in Forest Park that run directly north of the El stationand then turns north crossing Madison St 4 blocks west of Des Plaines Ave and goes into River Forest where it crosses the UP west line and through Thatcher Woods. There is an old train trestle over the Des Plaines River. It then crosses 1st Ave (Rt 171) a few blocks south of North Av.Appears to cross over North Ave east of 5th Ave continuing NW across 5th. Crosses Fullerton east of 17th Ave. Still in use?

I recall some of those locations, and that wolf road overpass getting whacked once by an oversized load on a low boy going under it.

great video- very revealing

I don't know if you'd be interested, but I did a "Yorkfield School Location" video a few years back. Also, there is a Facebook "Yorkfield School" site. The FB page has a number of photos from many years past that include the YF neighborhood, the school building, and class photos. Thank-you for viewing and commenting!!

I think that northern set of tracks is Union Pacific and they are still used. It's pretty amazing how many tracks there are in that area (or were...).

Thanks for the subscription! The Old North Shore Line Shore Line Route is a bike Trail Now, perhaps you have ridden it??

Wow. Very interesting fact video. I don’t know too much of the CA/E. I’m a northwest sider. I know more about the CNSM. Chicago traction history.

The CA&E was not a country trolley. It was a big fast heavy weight 3rd rail Inter-urban. I rode it many times thru Hillside from Elmhurst into Chicago.

13:54 you can even hear a faint train horn reminding you of what once was in that area.

No, but I wish I had. I'm in the west suburbs and as I don't have a bike rack, I'm kind of short choices unless I want to pedal somewhere.

yeah cause they used too run along side the quarry then cross the road i think they used do a little street running i know they tore out the tracks along side addison that ran behind sizzler and ended at lake st or before that also a spare line that ran through itasca area think that was MWR i remember the old CNW line that ran in villa park too carol stream they always park the train and grab lunch at high view

Irv, if you look at the Google satalite map of the area by the North Riverside Mall you'll see tracks that clearly lead off the old IC line between Harlem and Veterans Drive that go by the Edward Don Company and head north crossing Cermak Rd where there's actually a crossing. Then it goes through Cemetary property where it splits into two tracks, one continuing north where the tracks appear to end at 16th St the other turns west running along Greenburg Rd. wher it goes maybe a mile and ends.

went passed there many times and never knew this. Going down Mannheim Rd, Roosevelt Rd. I knew the Illinois Prairie path had something to do with the CA&E or CGW.

At Butterfield the power lines marked only the CAE ROW the CGW ROW ran though the now standing buildings

I took a series of still photographs years ago when they were taking out the railroad bridge across the Eisenhower. Don't know where they are offhand.

I don't know if you mentioned it and I did not see it mentioned in the comments if it is i apologize. There was a second viaduct on Wolf road North of the one shown the the video that was taken down in the 70's or 80's. The one shown was The A&E.

I've lived in Westchester since 1970, am the son of a streetcar motorman in St. Louis and my family and I have always lived by a railroad or streetcar line, sometime not even knowing it. My home is actually in the so-called Terminal Addition, that terminal being the Westchester rapid transit line. You can imagine when he I moved to Westchester how thrilled I was to find rail all over the place and abandoned rail and my home has an art gallery of Westchester L photos. I am also a journalist who has written extensively about streetcar lines in St. Louis, Missouri, in the suburban area of Normandy, where my family moved in 1954. Until about 10 years ago the Mt. Carmel line alongside Roosevelt Road still had a treastle over a creek in place until a restaurant was built on the adjacent property and the right-of-way of that line as it came south from Harrison Street and curved west along Roosevelt is still obvious and the line poles are still in. It's all shown in this wonderful film! P.S. Properties on Cermak Road west of Mannehim are set back from the street on the north side because the land was owned by the company which intended to extend the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin there to the junction of Cermak/22nd street and Butterfield Road, which was the hamlet of Eutopia.

This is just sad when you think about it..

Do not railfan the Freeport in mid-day, you will see no trains. Only 5 or 6 a day run down the line, and most are in the morning. So it you are going to railfan it, go no later than 7:30 AM, because around here they usually run around 7:30 to 10:00, and they run them in bunches, so If you see one in the AM hours, chances are you will see one in no more than 45 mins

would be nice if the bridges on the old B&O Altenhiem sub were rebuilt and like that but the City of Chicago want the railroad to foot the total bill, CN dont have to worry about that anymore since they acquired the "J" Line.

Are there any remains of any crossing gates?

along Mannhiem there were 3 tracks 1 for CA&E 2 for GCW IC and the terminal rail shared wish i could post a pic of the map but anyways

It is touching that one will trace out such lineage in such an engineered environment. I relate as one from the Chicago area who has tracked my own known phantom and former railroad paths. Google Earth has provided a marvelous source of perspective.

The Westchester at ONE TIME GOING TO BE TIED In THE CTA but the deals feel through in 1950's.. On WOLF ROAD going to SAINT CHARLES ROAD, NORT about 1 1/2 Blocks on the EAST SIDE IS HILLSIDE SWIMING POOL on the WEST SIDE is a Street going WEST WHICH WAS GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD ROAD BED WITH TWO MAIN LINE and ONE FOR LIGHT INDUSTRY that use to be in the AREA ...

Look my name R.S. my home Aurora IL!

where is the horn at 13:52

can you do bellwood,il cause theres tons of ghost railrtoads

Very interesting video. Brings me back to the days when I lived in the area, many decades ago. Was always fascinated by trains and especially abandoned lines.

I lve in Illinois didnt know about this

Allot of your statement are incorrect. The Chicago Aurora& Elgin Tracks were North of Butterfield Rd by 1 1/2 blocks. There were no tracks in MT Carmel Cemetery. The stairs on the Wolf Rd. viaduct were for the Aurora/Elgin Stations. Just to the South on the West side of the Street was the St. Domitilla Old School (Now Apartment buildings) Across Wolf rd. was the old Wolf Farm.

all those businesses and school are still active, so are the train tracks.

I hope you mean the abandoned tracks and not the video? LOL!

Yo pienso si el tren carga con cajas de pollo

The planned portion of the CA&E on 22nd street was never built but the right-of-way was started. The trolley line along Roosevelt to Wolf and into the cemetery can be seen in numerous photos. And around the vicinity of Mannheim and Warren there were all sorts of tracks and stuff well into the 1980s. Also, the curve of the Westchester rapid transition line as it swung north along Westchester Boulevard is still evident because the power poles there are still in place as they were (!). Also, the street next to the tracks (Marshall I think) curved along with the line! I have an aerial photo of the Westchester line including the junction, the quarry and the Mount Carmel line I will be happy to send to you if you can give me an email address. Mine is wbrasle@ucls.uchicago.edu. Trains ran along Mannheim into the industrial era north of Roosevelt ran as I remember as late as the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Your on my block 1:46

sharlei hender feild dan ronald mc coy i think now that a sergent general yes