Ten or twelve of my close relatives worked, at one time or another, for The North Shore Line, some on the trains, some on the electric cables, some in the "pit," just North of Washington Avenue, where the cars might be parked, or switched from Northbound to Southbound or vice-versa, or they were moved into bays for repairs or repainting, and maybe one or two in the corporate headquarters in the giant building on the North end of town.
And almost everyone I knew around Highwood when I was a kid rode that line somewhere... Up to Waukegan to get a paper bag full of fresh deep-fried shrimp from the Hilltop Fish Market; maybe down to Glencoe to watch a movie; I even went with my Mother a couple of times up to Milwaukee. She loved to shop at the Globe Store, and the North Shore ran right down the middle of the street up in Waukegan, and the train stopped right by the front door of the store.
As a kid, I
remember making many trips down to the Davis Street Station, in
Evanston, where there was a "magic and trick" shop about a half block
from the station, and they didn't mind if a little kid hung out for an
hour or so, before spending a dollar on some knick-knack, and then
boarding the next Northbound train, to take him back home.
We always boarded at the Washington Street crossing near my house -- my
Mother got to know just about everyone working the trains, after years
and years of her life, day after day after day, riding that electric
line from Highwood to her job at Abbott Labs, in North Chicago.
This is an advertisement for help from The Racine Journal-Times, dated
Sunday May 17, 1959:
Then, a few short years later, The North Shore Line began to petition the authorities in Springfield, Illinois and Washington, D.C., for permission to abandon most of the "North line" -- the part that passed through Highwood on its way from Chicago to Milwaukee and back.
This came as a surprise to many folks, my Mother included - she had to buy her first car, and actually pay attention to the roads and traffic, on her way to work every day.
When they were granted the right to abandon the line, the tracks laid unused for a long time, before they were torn up, and most villages, cities and other agencies along the right-of-way converted the rail-bed into recreational paths for walkers, runners, bicyclists, and the occasional robber and/or rapist.
I suppose that most of the younger generations living up here on the North Shore of Chicago's suburbs have no idea what it was like to ride an electric train.
And personally, I think that's too bad.
Here's an article from The Jacksonville Daily Journal (Jacksonville, Illinois), reporting on the move to shut down the "North line" of the railroad, dated Saturday June 30, 1962:
