Aurora's history is closely linked with the role of the railroad
Aurora is often called "the Birthplace of the Burlington Railroad."
That mighty railroad got its start as a modest 12-mile branch line originating in Aurora.
In October 1848, Chicago's first railroad had begun operations. It was the Galena and Chicago Union, which later became the Chicago and Northwestern.
Businessmen from Aurora and Batavia immediately began planning for their own railroad route to Chicago. The Aurora Branch Railroad was chartered on Feb. 12, 1849.
The Aurora Branch would build tracks from Aurora to Batavia to Turner Junction (now West Chicago). By a lease agreement, the Aurora trains would travel the remainder of the way to Chicago on the existing tracks of the Galena and Chicago Union. It was not until 14 years later that the Aurora would build its own direct line to Chicago.
The Aurora Branch began construction in 1850; the portion from Batavia to Turner Junction was completed first, beginning service on Sept. 2, 1850. The railroad was still awaiting delivery of its locomotives, so it had to borrow one from the Galena and Chicago Union.
That engine - which had also been the first run on the Galena - was "The Pioneer." It can be seen today at the Chicago History Museum.
The Aurora-to-Batavia portion of the line was completed shortly and regular service between Aurora and Chicago began on Oct. 21, 1850, with two trains a day going in and two coming back. Each way was a two-hour ride.
Many small railroad lines were building at the time, and the Aurora Branch soon expanded through merger and acquisition. In 1852, it became the Chicago and Aurora Railroad. By 1855, it was the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy (or CB&Q), a name determined by its three terminal destinations.
Westward expansion followed throughout the rest of the century, until the Burlington Route could use the slogan, "Everywhere West."
When the new CB&Q began looking for a spot outside of Chicago to build its permanent car shops, Aurora was chosen. Construction of the Aurora shops began in the fall of 1855 and they were completed by the end of 1856. Built at a cost of $150,000, the complex originally consisted of seven buildings and employed 350 men.
A limestone roundhouse (still standing today) was one of the original buildings, starting out as a semicircle with 22 stalls and a turntable in the center. By 1866, the whole 40-stall circle had been completed.
By 1900, the Aurora Shops had expanded to 70 acres stretching along north Broadway from Spring Street to Pierce. Trains from the Chicago line were quartered there and all types of railway vehicles were produced and repaired there - from freight cars to coach cars to locomotives.
In peak times, between 1,000 and 2,400 men were employed there - including blacksmiths, machinists, carpenters, painters, upholsters and laborers.
By the 1910s, the automobile was making an impact. Auto traffic made street-level railroad tracks and crossings an impediment in larger towns like Aurora.
The project of elevating the tracks through Aurora was begun before World War I and finally completed in November 1922. The 5-mile, $6 million, reinforced concrete structure was a great engineering feat and still carries trains today.
The rise of the auto, combined with the Great Depression of the 1930s, seriously affected passenger traffic on the railroad. To re-energize its passenger travel, the Burlington introduced the sleek, streamlined, stainless steel Zephyr in 1934. Its first public showing was a record-setting dawn-to-dusk run from Denver to Chicago on May 26, 1934.
The engineer at the helm for that run was Aurora's own Jack Ford. The restored Pioneer Zephyr can be seen today at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.
Those glory days of the railroad are long gone, but there remain a few reminders.
On South Broadway, the Burlington passenger station - built in the 1920s - sits empty but imposing since its closure in 1988.
On North Broadway, there remain some hints of the vast Burlington Shops, closed in 1974. The Machine Shops were renovated as the Aurora Transportation Center in 1988.
And the roundhouse, once in near-ruin, was reopened in 1996 as Walter Payton's Roundhouse Complex. Today, it continues as Two Brothers Roundhouse.
About this series
In honor of Aurora's 175th birthday, this is the second in a series of historical columns by John Janos, executive director of the Aurora Historical Society. The society, founded in 1906, is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the collection and preservation of Aurora's heritage.