Kendall Times Xmas

2 Special Holiday Edition

3Special Holiday Edition


It was called the Gary by Je� Kehoe

It started out as a family bike ride along the Virgil L. Gilman Trail; you know, the one that starts out west at Waubonsee Community College, runs through Aurora and Mont-gomery, then stops at the east end of Montgomery near Hill Avenue, and is usually a pleasant ride of about 15 miles. A popular trail, there’s lots of scenery and bridges along the way.

But as we approached that old bridge spanning the Fox River near Broad-way (Route 25), the youngsters who'd been leading the way for the past several miles slammed on their brakes. Standing still now, nervous-ly looking ahead at the ancient old bridge rusting away before u they asked, “Is this thing gonna be strong enough to hold us?”

My reply was, “Of course! It used to hold steam locomotives weighing 100 tons, so it certainly will hold a group of bikers even though it’s old and kinda feeble. I knew the history

of that bridge, you see.

The trail we were riding was once part of a railroad known as the Chi-cago Milwaukee & Gary. Its tracks had been torn up long ago, but its roadbed remains today, paved over, providing a smooth surface on which to walk, jog, or ride a bicycle. Trains have always needed a fairly level sur-face on which to operate, and this route was no exception. In fact, it was rather well built. It has survived well over a century.

Not many people using the Virgil L. Gilman Trail know it was once the Chicago Milwaukee & Gary, or just “The Gary” to oldtimers and rail-road enthusiasts. Built in 1905 as a route that would bypass rail conges-tion the Windy City, the name was

rather misleading: It didn’t go to Chicago Milwaukee or Gary! Nor did it ever get enough business to make a profi t.

Running from Rockford to Momence, Illinois (near the Indiana border): the single-track 100 mile Gary route cut a crescent-shaped curve aero northern Illinois’ prairies. Locally, it ran through Kane and Kendall Counties, but some of the track it used belonged to the Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway. That 25-mile section between Aurora and Jo-liet was “rented track” that required fees to be paid, much like the cost of using a toll road. So, fees coupled with tough restrictions imposed by the EJ&E on what kinds of freight could run over their rails resulted in condition that hampered, rather

than helped, the growth of the Gary. The savings from not having to con-struct the 25-mile section between Aurora and Joliet turned out to be no savings at all for the Gary. It was doomed.

Enter, the Milwaukee Road (formal-ly known as the Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul and Pacifi c Railroad), who in 1922, saw taking over the smaller, weaker Gary as an easy way to get coal from mines in southern Indiana to their own coal-hungry fl eet of lo-comotives in Illinois. The cost of ac-quiring the Gary, however, included the Milwaukee’s agreement to pay o� a staggering $3 million of the Gary’s debt. Then, as part of the Mil-waukee, the line proceeded to lose $930,000 in the fi rst three years. As business waned and the Depression hit, the Gary was soon down to just three trains a week, hardly enough to pay for its upkeep. The last train from Rockford to Aurora ran uncer-emoniously on April 1 6, 1947. Then the Gary was fi nished in the City of Lights, o� cially abandoned.

Once its rails had been removed, the Fox Valley Park District stepped in to convert the old roadbed into a bike trail. Portions of the line in Kendall County owned by the EJ&E (as well as that old bridge over the Fox River) still had their tracks in place, but saw only infrequent use until they too were removed in the late 1970s.

As to the actual age of the rusty old bridge we rode across on that beau-tiful Fall day not too long ago, one account has it dating back to 1885, while others claim it more likely was built in 1923. But, had the Gary sur-vived into the present day, the old bridge would have been replaced. Today, the line would probably be busy with trains carrying coal to our power plants, operating as its found-ers intended; as a route to bypass congested rail tra� c in Chicago. Un-fortunately, that’s just wishful think-ing about a long gone, nearly forgot-ten railroad once known as the Gary, now part of our local history

History Corner with Je� Kehoe

Kendall Times Xmas

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