CERA Hoosier Electric Set
3 of our best Bulletins about Indiana Properties

Web-only special price
$30.00 for all 3 Bulletins. Save Up to $80.00

Bulletin #137: Faster than the Limiteds
Bulletin #132: Northern Indiana Railway
Bulletin #128: Indiana Railway: The Magic Interurban

Click Here to Order the Special Set

Our Next Program

Friday
June 26, 2009
7:00 p.m.

Chicago's First Subway
by Tony Coppoletta

Learn the story behind Chicago’s long-running dream of building subways to replace elevated lines and streetcar lines downtown, and how Chicago finally got its initial system of subways. Look forward to politics, photos, video and more!

Photo on the left was taken by Graham Garfield

Electric Rail Highlights will follow the program.

Persons with electric rail photography or announcements are encouraged to participate. Please send your digital images in advance to Tony Coppoletta at tony@coppoletta.net

The program will held at University Center, 525 S State, Chicago, IL. Click here for a map of 525 S. State St.

University Center, 525 S. State Street, in the 2nd floor conference center.

For a complete calendar of events of other railroad enthusiast organizations in the extended Chicago metropolitan area, please go to http://www.railcc.org/Events.html.

Please Note: There are no CERA programs in July and August. Our next program will be on September 25, 2009. The topic and presenter will be announced later.

Latest Additions to Digital Archive

The Earliest CERA publications, Fan trips, Maps, and Bulletins #1 through #15

From the first years of CERA, we present CERA's earliest publications including bulletins #1 through #15. Before CERA printed full sized books as bulletins, there were these shorter bulletins. The properties covered include the North Shore Line, the South Shore Lines, CA&E, and others. Click here for our list of downloads or click below to open the specific document (Adobe Reader 6 or later required).

Our Latest Books

Before the North Shore Line

by Edward Tobin

Waukegan was the birthplace of the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad, one of the nation's premier interurban electric railways. Author Ed Tobin recounts the railroad's humble origins as the Bluff City Electric Street Railway and traces its rapid evolution into the high speed Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway, taking the story up to the time that the company came under Insull control.


Read more about this fine book...

Pig & Whistle: The Story of the Philadelphia & Western Railway

by Ronald DeGraw

The men who founded the Philadelphia & Western dreamed of completing a coast-to-coast railroad network, with the P&W serving as the eastern link into Philadelphia and New York City. This idea failed, but the little railroad which served a collection of Philadelphia -area communities managed to thrive and become an electric railway success story. Three decades after its conception, the company placed into service some of the most revolutionary railway cars ever built, the famous high speed "Bullets." read more about this fine book...

The Shoreline Electric Railway Company by O.R. Cummings

One of the nation’s more unprofitable traction companies during the otherwise prosperous 1910-1924 period was Connecticut’s Shore Line Electric Railway. At its height from mid-1916 until mid-1919, the Shore Line Electric Railway operated a nearly 230-mile system that included almost 17 miles of main track in the adjacent state of Rhode Island.

Unable to withstand competition from paralleling steam railroads and the private automobile, resulted in the abandonment of various lines beginning in 1920 with all operations ending in 1924. Read more about this fine book...

The Chicago “L” by Greg Borzo.

Published by Arcadia Publishing and available at a special retail price through the CERA site, discover the world famous Chicago “L” in all its grit and glory. The thundering “L” is one of Chicago's most enduring icons. Operating 24/7 since 1892, it is not only an antique but a working antique. More than 10 billion people have ridden the “L,” which now carries half a million people a day over 222 miles of track. The heavy, rumbling “L” has a light side too. It is sought out by tourists, featured in major motion pictures, enjoyed by wide eyed kids, photographed by admirers, and studied by historians. Read more about this fine book...

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