(The following story by Amelia Flood appeared on the Kan County Chronicle website on August 15.)
GENEVA, Ill. — A yellow and green Chicago North Western train squeaked its way through Geneva on Tuesday night. It chugged along, inches high, along a track that ran in front of a model of the old Third Street Station.
“If you use your imagination, you can see the entire span of the Chicago North Western railroad,” Bill Otter said.
Otter and Ed DeRouin were on hand to present an abbreviated history of railroads in Geneva to a nearly full room at the Geneva History Center on Tuesday night. The two also built a 24-foot scale model of the Chicago North Western railroad to complement their talk, one of the activities the center has put on for its Home on the 505 exhibit.
“They’re just experts,” said Margaret Selakovich, the center’s educator.
Otter, who used to sneak out of school to visit the station agent in Deerfield, worked for 23 years for Chicago North Western and is now a railroad consultant. DeRouin had a lifelong interest in the subject and has published three books on the topic. Otter also offered railroad safety tips for those living in Geneva.
“Be there early,” Otter said. “Don’t be a last-minute person because sometimes those last-minute people get wrapped around the front of those pretty striped cars.”
DeRouin began the talk, giving a broad history of railroads and changes they had undergone.
“I like to think of the development of railroads in the 1800s as like the Internet in the 1990s,” DeRouin said.
Geneva was unique in that it was founded before the railroad came through, unlike most cities in the Midwest. DeRouin talked about the change in freight and technology over time, which led to a change from retail goods to bulk freight such as ethanol and the demise of the caboose.
Otter detailed the impact the railroads had on towns and how they elevated the role of a station agent in the community.
“You didn’t have cell phones, you didn’t have GPS [Global Positioning System],” Otter said. Station agents were important figures because they were at the hub of all news in an era when many people had little way of getting it.
The audience was made up primarily of railroad enthusiasts who asked detailed questions about today’s rail systems, crashes and where certain lines ran locally. Mary Bencini of Geneva, wanted information on the Chicago North Western line that ran through Green Bay, Wis. Her great-grandfather was one of its engineers.
“I’ve always loved trains,” Bencini said. “I kind of miss waving to the guys in the cabooses, though.”
Bencini also witnessed a 1971 crash that Otter discussed, where a rail snapped in Geneva, derailing a number of cars. Bencini was teaching at the time and took her students to see the clean up operations.
“We took our lunches and walked down to see them,” Bencini said. “I knew the kids would never forget it.”