The Chicago, Aurora & Elgin 45 Mins #SRP-CA&E $29.95 18 minutes have been added to The Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, one of our most popular tapes. They describe the run from Forest Park to the Chicago loop on the Lake St. line and the return from the loop to Des Plaines Ave. via the Garfield Park line. They show the Congress St. Expressway under construction: a huge swath of ten lane desert incised into what once had been quiet neighborhoods. The pattern for the new rapid transit tracks are clear in the center. The remainder of the operating El is cantilevered over thin air from buildings that remain at the edge of what once was Van Buren St. beyond Canal. The trip west is marked by a decreasing emphasis on development of the Expressway. You can follow the pattern of where the planners are going to put it, but the further you go the more ephemeral the pattern becomes. Even with this important addition, the price of our C.A.& E. tape remains $23.94. Frank Pfuhler’s almost complete record of the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin. Starting in each of its western terminals, Aurora and Elgin, it traces the line all the way to Forest Park, the transfer point to the Chicago Transit Authority. You’ll be in the cab for miles of exciting, high speed running and on the ground for dozens of run pasts. You’ll see the rare freights. The rolling stock is turn of the century, but 1950s operation across the Illinois prairie in springtime is as fast as any rapid transit line that runs today. The “Roarin Elgin”, as it was called, was the true relic of a bygone age of transportation. It survived as long as it did because of its close relationship to its commuters. It died because the city of Chicago decided to run the rails of the elevated parallel to a new expressway. Although the center of the expressway already belonged to the CA&E, they refused to run trolleys in what they considered a hazardous situtaion. Color back