Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad

The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Depot was built by the Aurora and Chicago Branch of the railroad in 1855 to replace an earlier depot built at the corner of Webster and VanBuren Streets. This was the year the railroad became the C. B. & Q. The old depot was moved a short distance to the north and became a freight depot. Passenger service halted about 1943 and this building became a freight depot until 1966 when it closed for good.

In 1849, the plan was to build only the twelve miles of track from Aurora to West Chicago (then Turner Junction) through Batavia and to call the new railroad the Aurora Branch.

A meeting was held late in 1848 to reconsider building a railroad to the north. John VanNortwick, Chief of the Galena Road, and perhaps the moving spirit behind the new road, was at the meeting. Soon he represented those who wished to link Aurora with the Galena and Chicago Rail Road. Later he served as the fifth president of the new railroad from 1857-65.

On September 2, 1850, after the track was laid from West Chicago to Batavia, the first passenger train left Batavia at 6:30 a.m. to make connections with the Galena Road. This train was made up of an engine named the "Pioneer" and a single coach borrowed from the Galena Road. This engine is now on display at the Chicago Historical Society's Museum.

On October 22, 1849, a passenger depot was authorized for Batavia at Webster and VanBuren Streets. This new depot became the Depot Museum.

It is a broad-eaved "shed" building in a board and batten frame in Gothic Revival style. There have been a few exterior repairs, but the building is basically unchanged from its original construction.

Other railroads that once served passengers from Batavia included the Chicago and Northwestern, built in 1870 to take limestone to West Chicago and on to Chicago. Its depot was at Wilson and Water Streets. The Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin electric (commonly known as the Third Rail) had a station on the south side of Wilson at the river. It was in operation until 1957.

A streetcar line began in 1896, and its cars ran twenty times daily between Geneva and Aurora on its Batavia Avenue track.

For more on the VanNortwicks, see VanNortwick Industrial Empire.

CABOOSE

The caboose was the working headquarters of the conductor and the rear brakeman. It was equipped with closets, a stove, desks, bunks, and lockers that were long boxes with hinged lids on each side of the car and covered with flat cushions to serve as seats or cots.

It was the job of the men on the caboose to watch the brake system air pressure gauge and for hot boxes. The men checked for the hot boxes by watching out the windows of the cupola. The opened and closed switches and kept way-bill records for each freight car. They cleaned and refilled kerosine marker lights and hand lanterns. A very important job was the protection of the rear of the train when it stopped. A brakeman/flagman walked out along way behind the train with a lantern or flag to stop another train approaching on the same track. These men "rode the rails" and did these jobs until the 1970s.

If a train trip took more than a few hours, the men ate and slept in the caboose. They could make their own coffee on the stove and would buy food from farms along the way for the meals they prepared in the caboose.

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