The Wheaton yard and shop complex was the primary storage and maintenance facility on the Chicago Aurora and Elgin.
Car 411, the only half-motor Pullman and the only one that had Baldwin trucks, sits in Wheaton Yard on March 14, 1957.
Photo from the collection of Jay Williams
Car 500, in a fading "Sunset Lines" scheme, sits in Wheaton Yard on August 10, 1941. Removed from service after a motor blew out, it has been in this location for more than ten years.
Photo from the Van Dusen Collection Photo No. ILL-24, IRM
435 waits in Wheaton Yard still sporting its stained glass arch windows betraying its history as a former wooden car. The jumpers attached suggest that the car has just come from service, or is about to be coupled to another car and put out on the road.
Photo from the collection of Jay Williams
A more "up to date" looking 435, seen here after modernization in Wheaton Yard. Behind it is car 436, the other former parlor car. These two cars had similar histories but had several slight external differences. As can be seen in this photo, the destination sign on 435 used two roller curtains (one for destination and one for class of train) like the Pullmans, while the 436 used a single roller curtain containing both sets of information like the Cincinnatis.
Photo from the collection of Jay Williams
Car 453 sits coupled to 451 in Wheaton Yard shortly after their delivery in 1945. Note the strip along the edge of the trolleyboards which were designed to give the cars a more streamlined appearance. These strips were removed fairly early on in the cars' careers.
Photo by Wilbourne Cox, from the Van Dusen Collection
Photo No. ILL-21, IRM
Ex-WB&A car 600 sits in front of a Pullman in Wheaton yard on April 13, 1946. The car bears the Sunset Lines logo in the variant of the blue and grey the scheme without the light stripe along bottom of the car.
Photo from the Van Dusen Collection
Photo No. ILL-22, IRM.
Sandwiched between two motor cars is 701 in the "early American" scheme with the Sunset Lines logo. The baggage door seen here, which was not used on the CA&E, is left over from service on the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis where this car served as combine. The baggage compartment was converted into passenger space with the installation of bench seats arranged longitudinally against the door.
Photo from the Van Dusen Collection
Illinois Railway Museum, Photo No. ILL-23.
The CA&E's only lightweight interurban car, 500, is seen in Wheaton Yard on June 21, 1942. In a short amount of time it will be sent to the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad to operate in their city service.
Bob Crockett, C Scholes
Car 316 sits in the Washington Blue livery in Wheaton Yard with car 301 tucked in behind it on March 13, 1949.
From the collection of Jay Williams
A scene in Wheaton Yard looking northwest after the start of scrapping. A 400 series car (still in the second-to-last paint scheme) is stored with a pair of flatcars in front of it. An assortment of steel cars (including the 420 and 450 series) is also visible, as is the shops building in the background.
Photo by Jim Dyer
Car 427, a product of the Cincinnati Car Company, in Wheaton Yard. The black smoke seen billowing up from behind the shops is from insulation being burned off of feeder cables for salvage. The young man hanging out of the car is a friend of the photographer.
Photo by Jim Dyer
A 400 series car (what appears to be car 412) is seen in Wheaton Yard with a pair of flatcars after the start of scrapping.
Photo by Jim Dyer
A solitary ex-WB&A car sits in Wheaton Yard. A caboose is on the right.
Photo by Jim Dyer
A 400 series car, along with several wooden cars, sits stored in Wheaton Yard during the scrapping of the railroad.
Photo by Jim Dyer
Cars 407 and 314 sit stored end to end in Wheaton Yard after the shutdown of service. These cars were mechanically and electrically incompatible with each other.
Photo by Jim Dyer
During the dismantlement, the scrappers cut a road through Wheaton Yard. This is that road as seen looking east from a point just north of the shops. Both the old and new towers are visible in the distance.
Photo by Jim Dyer
Following the sale of the railroad's property to Commercial Metals, every material that had any value was gotten at and collected. Here we see a shot of a heap of coiled cables to be salvaged. Other salvaged parts are visible at the right. Most likely this was in back of the shops.
Photo by Jim Dyer
Looking down the length of a servicecar in Wheaton Yard during scraping. The front end of a 400 series car (almost certainly the same car in both this and this photo) is visible ahead.
Photo by Jim Dyer
Looking east at a series of ties ripped up during the scrapping of Wheaton Yard. To the left is the road the scrappers created through the yard. The shops building is at the right.
Photo by Jim Dyer
This shot looks north through Wheaton Yard from the road the scrappers created.
Photo by Jim Dyer
In this shot we are looking at car 430, another 420 series car (at left) and car 300 in Wheaton Yard. The paint on the cars is badly faded making the long inactivity and lack of maintenance on the cars apparent.
Photo by Jim Dyer
We are facing west out of the side of a steel car stored in Wheaton Yard. Three 450 series cars are lined up in this shot. These were the newest cars on the railroad, having only been in service for twelve years when the railroad shut down. It was hoped to sell these cars to another transit operator, but the sale never came.
Photo by Jim Dyer
A caboose and a weed sprayer as seen from the road cut through Wheaton yard sometime after the abandonment of the railroad.
Photo by Jim Dyer
Car 456 and another 450 series car are stored in Wheaton Yard sometime after the shutdown, On the next track over is car 427, a product of the Cincinnati Car Company. In the background on the right are the old and new dispatcher's towers.
Photo by Don Bruno
402 is seen stored in Wheaton Yard on June 17, 1956.
Photo by Don Ross