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49 at the main shops on Chicago's south side.
This was a freight train that was built at the CandIT Shops in an attempt to obtain additional revenue by hauling less than a carload freight at night a few years before the end while the company was under Insull's control. The line was an early victim of bus, truck and railroad competition, and passenger traffic in the early 1920s had dropped because of concrete highways and automobiles (the line and its preceding companies had undergone four bankruptcies).
At that time, the line's principal creditor was the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois that was under Samuel Insull's control. Insull tried to recoup his investment from the losses which was being encountering.
However, when the Illinois Central Railroad announced in the mid 1920s that it was going to electrify its commuter service (then steam operated) which operated in almost a straight line from the south side into downtown Chicago (and which the CandIT paralleled but in a roundabout way only to a connection with Chicago's south side elevated), it was finally realized that the CandIT could not compete.
Additionally, the property was extremely deteriorated - wooden passenger interurbans which needed replacement, worn out trackage between Chicago and Blue Island, etc. Thus, the line was abandoned on April 23, 1927.
This was a freight train that was built at the CandIT Shops in an attempt to obtain additional revenue by hauling less than a carload freight at night a few years before the end while the company was under Insull's control. The line was an early victim of bus, truck and railroad competition, and passenger traffic in the early 1920s had dropped because of concrete highways and automobiles (the line and its preceding companies had undergone four bankruptcies).
At that time, the line's principal creditor was the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois that was under Samuel Insull's control. Insull tried to recoup his investment from the losses which was being encountering.
However, when the Illinois Central Railroad announced in the mid 1920s that it was going to electrify its commuter service (then steam operated) which operated in almost a straight line from the south side into downtown Chicago (and which the CandIT paralleled but in a roundabout way only to a connection with Chicago's south side elevated), it was finally realized that the CandIT could not compete.
Additionally, the property was extremely deteriorated - wooden passenger interurbans which needed replacement, worn out trackage between Chicago and Blue Island, etc. Thus, the line was abandoned on April 23, 1927.
Caption data from Stephen Scalzo; photo courtesy the Bill Volkmer collection
