A Train Trip Through 1920s North Chicago

I went ahead and added some music to this unearthed 1920s silent travel film from the Huntley Film Archives, showcasing a trip on the old rail line through the North Suburbs of Chicago (including Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Highland Park, Waukegan, up to Kenosha, WI). Despite how it sounds, the musical selections are all actually from the 21st century...
The Caretaker - "The Great Hidden Sea of the Unconscious" (2011)
Calexico - "In the Quiet" (2007)
The Caretaker - "Tiny Gradiations of Loss" (2011)

[@praisegod3768]

What a TREASURE you have shared with us! Thank you!

[@timtiptop8136]

Amazing footage. Anyone else notice as the streetcar rolled through the suburbs all the large gardens in the yards? Not lawns but crops. The majority of the homes appear to have still grown their own food!

[@theproplady]

My parents had vegetable gardens in their yard up until they moved in the 90's. I'd have one today, but then I live in an apartment. -_-

[@menopassini9348]

That was probably Kenilworth, when you moved in they had civic group that taught city people how to raise their own food and small farm animals. Read it at the Kenilworth Historical Society.

[@luis_ayala_134]

Great video. Sad how the North Shore is long gone. Thanks for posting this video.

[@Lumpyone]

I moved as a kid from the Chicago to Niles in 1964, the trains from Chicago to Milwaukee had stopped running the previous year. You could still take the train from downtown Chicago to Skokie, changing from the El at Howard Street station to go north...stopping Evanston along the way. Ye Gods, I miss that stretch, hot dogs and pizza. Now I'm stuck in the Boston area. Crappy dogs, Unos chain pizza, and no Italian beef sandwiches within a thousand miles.

[@jonnydanger7181]

Chicago pizza went corporate what a shame.

[@luislaplume8261]

Try Little Italy in Lower Manhattan in NYC during the San Gennaro Festival in September on Mulberry Street. I am a New Yorker who grew up in NYC during the Mad Men era.

[@viyau]

We have all taken this route. I have taken it from Chicago all the way to Kenosha. It is nice to see the history of this area. Very appropriate music I very much enjoyed this bit of nostalgia and see who came before us

[@timward3116]

Great footage of beautiful areas that, almost a whole century later, are still beautiful! And I thought that the music added to the film really enhanced the experience of it!

[@Railwaymodeler]

I live in Waukegan, and figure that the scene shown was filmed on Genesee Street. Things have certainly changed! Recently when the city was doing some road work, I tried to get a short piece of the streetcar rail, but wasn't able to. I know the right people in city hall, but they said because much of the work was contracted out, it would be hard to get them to go through the extra effort for me. This is a great film!

[@BNforever2009]

wow!!! The North Shore road used diner cars on their trains!!! Cool!!!

[@Epicure_Voyage]

Thanks for sharing. Love my hometown, way different now.

[@huntrrams]

The echoing music and video gives its a eerie yet nostalgic vibe. Cool video!

[@badguy1481]

I rode one of that last trips of the North Shore line along this route (1960's) before it was cancelled. I remember how startled I was that the train ran down the center of city streets in Milwaukee. We caught the train at the Addison overhead "L" tracks, next to Wrigley Field. What a shame that company's like GM worked actively to end our nation's rural "inter-urban" lines to insure we ALL had to buy a car from them in order to get around. All those spots along the line, including Ravinia are still up and running and look pretty much the same. Minus, of course, the tracks and the passing train cars. What a shame.

[@lawrencebittke8478]

Awesome video! That ghostly piano background music with the crackling, hissing soundtrack really makes it!

[@applesucks2633]

Great video and perfect choice of background music! Such a simpler time… To be honest I would much rather have lived back then… Happy new year

[@JoeyLovesTrains]

I am in Massachusetts but I did live in Kenosha! And I am obsessed with the "Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee" Railroad. 🚃

[@richarderbe2802]

Thank you. Grew up in Racine and rode many times to Milwaukee and Chicago.

[@nywb]

This is "Along The Green Bay Trail" made in 1922 by the Atlas Film Company. It was a promotional film touting the experience of traveling on the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee "North Shore Line" interurban.

[@menopassini9348]

It was played in the movie theaters, NSL Executives said it was the best return on dollar of any promotion that they did. I think this was after "Have you ever got 80 MPH." Promotion. The information came up when I googled a photo of the statue in front of the Briargate station. Also found a promotion for Hot Dogs on the NSL. They bought 6 to 8 tons of Hot dogs during the Eucharistic Congress in Mundelein.to feed to passengers.

[@luislaplume8261]

@@menopassini9348 That was in 1926 the year my late mother was born. It was the best year for ridership on the North Shore lines and Chicago Rapis Transit. Even the L trains ran onto the village and town and city streets to bring passengers there. The North Shore had a station on the Loop on the northbound track on the 2nd floor of an office building that had a ramp to the L train platform.

[@eeeecccc]

70 MPH is a good clip for the 1920s.

[@MrRezillo]

Loved this. I took that train ride numerous times when I was attending Lake Forest College.

[@Robbi496]

We miss the North Shore line!

[@johnwittrock1209]

Robbi496

[@quentinkirk3870]

Robbi496 Did They Use The Purple Line Tracks🤔

[@TimEric4d3d3d3]

That fountain in Kenilworth, still there. It has changed very little.

[@SOULER820]

But it doesn't work anymore.

[@TheM3T30R]

...einfach grandios, ich bin jedenfalls fasziniert davon. Danke auch hier sehr verehrter Bad Finger, vor allem danke fürs posten des Filmchens in unserem geheimen Geheim-Bündis-Forum u.der Eröffnung des dortigen Threads. Es gibt soviele Filme von damals das man die wirklich sehenswerten oft übersieht.

[@chamalien37]

The Caretaker is a current experimental artist who adapts old recordings and standards into new semi-warped interpretations. Obviously those are classic songs of the period, but the versions you're hearing are specifically from the recent Caretaker album with different names.

[@akronrailroader6754]

Chicago Milwaukee & North Shore RR /Interurban at the height of the Samuel Insull era on the original shore line route

[@MegaChristmas365]

Fascinating. This is my hometown, and the changes in nearly a century are remarkable, yet they really haven't changed all that much. Did I hear "My Blue Heaven" ? :)

[@jazzableful]

Memories are wonderful.............just like this video......Patricia

[@quentinkirk3870]

They Could've Showed My Hometown Evanston, C/O 83.

[@luislaplume8261]

This was a long distance trolley train that had 3rd rail shoes between the wheels and was called an interurban. Who would want to travel between these 2 cities without breathing in coal smoke and ashes from a steam locomotive pulling the train? This was the best way to travel between Chicago in the Loop and Milwaukee. Too bad it went out of business due to the Federal Government building highways all over America.

[@yhwhschild3641]

Zion Waukegan North Chicago Native

[@libertyvilleguy2903]

Neat movie, enjoyed the Native American element.

[@TheNiceLive]

Sehr sehenswert wie ich meine ;) Bad Finger Chicago 1920

[@chicagojunk]

North Shore Line?

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

Yes.

[@dlovelyone4039]

Mh

[@TheNiceLive]

Sehr sehenswert wie ich meine ;) Bad Finger Chicago 1920