What's new at CERA!

JOIN US OCT. 3 FOR AN EAST TROY EXCURSION!!

Fantrips are back! Register for a day trip Oct. 3 for a Fall Foliage Fantrip to the East Troy Electric Railway

In our first fantrip in over a year, we'll be a visiting East Troy via a round-trip chartered motor coach on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. 

The trip includes a catered luncheon aboard a former South Shore Line car at East Troy, an exclusive charter on the newly refurbished North Shore Line 761 and a tour of East Troy's modern shop facility.

Click here for all the details and registration information! 

Or buy tickets online. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number, and if applicable, email address.

Or Call Us Direct at (312) 987-4391

IN-PERSON MEETINGS TO RETURN!!

Beginning Friday, Sept. 24, CERA members are invited to our first live, in-person member meeting since before the COVID-19 pandemic began! 

We’re pleased to announce that we will be returning to the Conference Chicago meeting rooms for our monthly meetings in 2021.  Conference Chicago is located at 525 S. State St., Chicago.

Our tentative first program, which is subject to change or cancellation due to the lingering uncertainty surrounding public health regulations, features Bill Van Dorn presenting on the history of the relatively short-lived interurban conglomerate Ohio Electric on Friday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. (CENTRAL.) 

CERA FANTRIPS ARE BACK!

Join us Oct. 3 for a Fall Foliage Fantrip
to the East Troy Electric Railway

In our first fantrip in over a year, we'll be a visiting East Troy via a round-trip chartered motor coach on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. 

The trip includes a catered luncheon aboard a former South Shore Line car at East Troy, an exclusive charter on the newly refurbished North Shore Line 761 and a tour of East Troy's modern shop facility.

Click here for all the details! 

RECORDING AVAILABLE!

CEDAR RAPIDS: A TALE OF TWO INTERUBANS
Watch the wildly successful July 23 program from railfan newcomer Luke Stephens.

Take a ride over the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway and the Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern Railroad

Many of the interurbans of Iowa continued to provide electrically operated passenger and freight service well into the 1950s. Two of those were the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway (Crandic) and the Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern Railroad. 

Watch the recorded Zoom session here.

Luke Stephens is a Cedar Rapids area high school student who has a curiosity about “the way things used to be” where he lives. After seeing a 1920s photo of a Crandic interurban on the main street of his hometown, he began to research the interurban industry in general and the Crandic in particular. The result was a 20-minute video that impressed many of us “old timers” with his depth of research and articulate presentation.

Luke now presents an expanded PowerPoint program on both of the Cedar Rapids interurbans with views along the line and insights into the operation of these roads. Many photos in both black-and-white and color (edited by John Nicholson), maps, and other graphics promise to make this an entertaining and informative program. Be sure to join us and spread the word to other CERA members.

RECORDED PROGRAMS AVAILABLE TO ALL

David Wilson: From the Garfield 'L' to Blue Line Rapid Transit

Watch David Wilson's fascinating presentation of how a historic “L” and interurban corridor was transformed into today’s Eisenhower Expressway and its pioneering rapid transit line. 

The program, which clocks in at an hour and 52 minutes of fascinating stories and photograpy can be viewed here. 

Watch 20th Century's LeHigh Valley Transit program.

20th Century Railroad Club welcomed CERA President John Nicholson for a reprise of the Lehigh Valley Transit portion of John's August CERA Zoom meeting. That's the program we had not been able to feature in a recording. So click here to see and hear the history of Pennsylvania inter-urban line Lehigh Valley Transit.

The recording of the April 14 presentation for 20th Century  runs just about an hour long. 

TIME TRAVEL TO CHICAGO'S METROPOLITAN "L"

On Friday, Feb. 12, 2021 Bruce Moffat presented: Chicago’s Metropolitan “L”. The Zoom program recording is available here.

OTHER CERA ZOOM PROGRAMS

RIDE THE NORTH SHORE LINE AGAIN!We were happy to see at least 282 viewers on our Jan. 22 program about the North Shore Line. Watch the recorded program by following this link.

MANHATTAN TRANSFER

David Wilson takes us on a trip to New York City in this recorded Zoom program.

THE LOOP "L"

Patrick Reardon's history of The Loop: The "L" Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago. The edited video of the program is now live.

Ray DeGroote's October railfanning in Hungary and the Czech Republic, is also available.

And from John Nicholson comes September's presentation ofthe Chicago South Shore and South Bend.

If you’d like to present a program with CERA via Zoom, contact us. We can scan your photos or slides and format them into a PowerPoint program for presentation.cc