Geneva Station new hours
Weekdays 5am to 9pm
Contact info for
Rail Fans, TOAST,
Iron Horse Tours & Talks
& Station Reimagined
email: gastorybook@gmail.com
tele: 815/483-7494
Call 815/483-7494 for info.
Newsletter​​​​​​​​
Contents
Geneva Passenger News
Metra Board News
Amtrak News & Trips
Local & Western Rail History
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Local engineer, conductors tell
their stories
Scroll Down
Station
Reimagined
Tired of Track Anxiety
in La Fox?
Geneva Station Wish List and
Station
Reimagined
Scroll down
and La Fox Station News
Please email Rusty If you
don't see your name,
"Just Beyond the Rails"
Geneva to Chicago
Geneva
Geneva Depot
1893-1959
GONE
Built in anticipation of the Columbian Exhibition in 1893.
Mill Race Inn was one of Geneva's iconic restaurants located on the river at State St & Bennett St. (Rt 25).
GONE
Railroad bridge over Fox River was built in 1906 to handle 4 sets of tracks. Apparently it only had 3 sets of tracks at one time. In 2025,
a third track was added between Geneva and W. Chicago.
Kane County Cougars since 1882
GONE
The Illinois State Training School was an institution for “wayward” girls in Geneva, Illinois. Built around the turn of the century, it was in operation into the 1970s.
Many of its alumni describe it not as a school but rather as a cruel prison, with locked doors and bared windows.
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It was located 1/8 mile south of the tracks off of Rt. 25.
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A subdivision now occupies the land. However, a small cemetery still remains.
West Chicago
Seen north of tracks
Canadian National
Union Pacific
Seen north of tracks
add locomotive in case
Add old rr station
Last operating manned (24/7) tower on EJE System (now Canadian National) Union Pacific won't let them close this tower!
Trains every 24 hours: Canadian National- 30; Union Pacific -100+.
West Chicago's Robber Baron
John W. Gates grew up in a small farm in West Chicago.
He became Texaco's largest stockholder. His wife's brother and niece, Col. Baker and
Dellora Angell (who married Lester Norris), inherited his massive fortune using it for
St. Charles benefit.
Winfield
Hedges Station
Cannot be seen from the tracks
Oldest remaining train depot in the State of Illinois
From 1849 to 1854, it was used as a rail passenger depot along a strap-rail track segment laid when the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad came through the area.
It served as a train depot up until 1854, when Galena and Chicago Union Railroad built another depot on the south side of the tracks going through town.
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A "strap-rail track" was used because iron was hard to obtain in sufficient quantities for new railroads. This is the only example of strap-rail track in the Midwest.
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In 1978, the Winfield Historical Society was formed to save Hedges Station and restore a portion of the building as a period depot museum to be called "Hedges Station" in honor of John Hedges, its first stationmaster.
The move of the depot to the northern end of Oakwood Park took place in 1981,
Chicago Aurora & Elgin
Electric Commuter Train
1902 -1957
Headquarters
Maintenance and Yards
Wheaton
Ride several of these cars at the Fox River Trolley Museum in
So. Elgin
Wheaton
The steam powered Chicago & Northwestern and the electric powered Chicago, Aurora and Elgin tracks paralleled each other beginning in Wheaton into Chicago. Although both railroads issued memos forbidding engineers not to race each other, those memos were ignored.
Wheaton
Chicago Golf Club
Still an active golf course located 1 mile south of tracks
First 18 hole golf course in the United States and still rated as one of the top 100 courses in the world.
The Chicago, Aurora, & Elgin Electric RR (1902 -1957)
had a stop in Wheaton at the golf course.
Not only did the CA & E stopped at the Chicago Golf Club, the train had a siding.
The private car would sit at the siding until the passengers were ready to return to the city!
Chicago Golf
Club Siding
Glen Ellyn
Located 1 block west of train station.
Glen Ellyn
Freight Train Wreck
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Who Killed the Fish?
In May 1976, a rail failed causing one freight train to clip another causing a chemical spill in addition to numerous injuries.
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Crews poured water on the chemicals mistakenly causing the water to enter the sewer system which found its way into Lake Ellyn ultimately causing all the fish to die.
Two of the train crew involved in the wreck enjoy a beverage every Thursday at Geneva's Third Street Station Bar & Grill.
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Villa Park
Gone
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Ovaltine was manufactured
in Villa Park from 1917 until 1988.
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The building once stood on the north side of the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin tracks, just south of the Chicago & North Western tracks.
Elmhurst
Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Co
Can be seen looking North
The company began excavating the quarry at the northeast corner of First Street and West Avenue in 1883. The quarry was mined until 1992, when DuPage County purchased it for use as a floodwater reservoir.
O'Hare Airport
Butch O'Hare, killed in WWII,
was the son of an Al Capone associate. Butch's father always wanted the best for his son. The U.S. Navy's first Medal of Honor recipient
was also honored in 1949 when the city retired the name "Orchard Field Airport (ORD) and renamed the airport O'Hare.
O'Hare opened in 1944
O'Hare today
Proviso Yards
Can be seen just North of the tracks
Chicago & North Western opened the yard in 1929 and at the time it was touted as
the largest such facility in the world. It is Union Pacific's most busiest yard.
Maywood
Cemetery
Cannot be seen from tracks
About 3,500 graves at the Forest Home and Concordia cemeteries had to be moved to make way for the Congress -now Eisenhower- expressway, delaying construction and pushing up costs.
Planners talked about elevating the highway above the graveyards, but decided that would be too expensive. Many of the bodies moved at Forest Home were victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Oak Park
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Can be seen North from tracks
Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church building that houses the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
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The structure, designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the Prairie style, opened in 1907 and is cited as an early example of modern architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright's son invented Lincoln Logs
Chicago
Garfield Park Conservatory
Can be seen South of the Tracks
One of the largest and most stunning botanical conservatories
in the nation.
Chicago
Chicago & North Western's magnificent train station opened in 1911.
In 1984, the head house was razed.
Three years later in 1987, the glass-and-steel 42-story building opened.
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The Powerhouse at the north end of the train shed, remains.
CNW Waiting Room 1912
Geneva
on a
Historical Significant
Rail Line
The Galena & Chicago Union RR (Galena) laid the first tracks out of Chicago in 1849. At Junction (now W. Chicago), the tracks turned north crossing the Fox River at Elgin, then
continued to Rockford.
With talk of a transcontinental railroad, the Galena RR then laid tracks from Junction west over the Fox River reaching Geneva in 1853.
The railroad continued building to the Mississippi River. During this period the Galena RR was absorbed by the newly formed Chicago & North Western.
After building a bridge over the Mississippi River, ithe railroad leased an Iowa railroad that ran between Clinton and Council Bluffs.
When the Union Pacific and Central Pacific met in Promontory, Utah, in 1869, those two railroads with the Chicago & North Western became the most direct route between Chicago and San Francisco.
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​Today, there is no long distance passenger service going through Geneva.
However, this line is Union Pacific's main freight artery between Chicago and the West Coast.
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