What appears below is a listing of future chapter titles. Beneath each chapter title is a rough sketch of that chapter's content.
Introduction
- What is an Interurban?
- What was the Great Third Rail?
Chapter I: The Beginning (1899-1902)
- The Fox River Valley
- Everett-Moore syndicate and the Aurora and Chicago Ry (1899)
- Pomeroy-Mandelbaum syndicate and the Chicago, Wheaton & Aurora RR (1899)
- Aurora, Wheaton & Chicago Ry (1899)
- Franchise acquisition
- First six cars (1902)
Chapter II: Up and Running (1902-1906)
- Service Begins (1902)
- Service to Batavia (1902)
- Service to Elgin (1903)
- Parlor service begins (1904)
- Service to downtown Chicago (1905)
- Service to Mt. Carmel (1906)
Chapter III: The Third Rail Division (1906-1915)
- The Elgin, Aurora and Southern Traction Company
- The Merger (1906)
- The Chicago, Wheaton & Western and Geneva (1908-09)
- Service to St. Charles (1910)
- Fire destroys general offices (1913)
IV: Hard Times (1915-1922)
- New Aurora Terminal (1915)
- Receivership (1919)
- Foreclosure
- The House Divided and Sold
V: The Conway Era (1922-1926)
- R. M. Stinson and Dr. Thomas Conway Jr.
- The Chicago Aurora & Elgin Railroad
- Locomotives 2001 and 2002
- Infrastructure rehabilitation
- Pullmans (1923)
- “New” Parlor Cars
- Conway Called Away
VI: Insull’s Railroad (1926-1932)
- Insull
- The North Shore, South Shore, and the “Big Three”
- Cincinnatis (1927)
- Car 500 (1927)
- End of Parlor service and 435 & 436 (1929)
- Black Tuesday (1929)
- Insull Steps Down (1932)
VII: The Depression (1932-1941)
- North Shore woods (1936)
- Ex-WB&A cars (1937-8)
- Geneva Branch Abandoned (1937)
- New Aurora Terminal (1939)
- St. Louis cars ordered (1941)
VIII: World War II (1941-1945)
- Pearl Harbor
- St. Louis cars delayed
- War Paint
- Aurora & Elgin and North Shore equipment swaps (1942)
IX: The Postwar Years (1945-1953)
- St. Louis cars arrive (1945)
- The plan for cars 461-468 and ten 2-car articulateds
- Congress Superhighway
- Temporary Garfield Park wooden trestle
- Alderman James B. Bowler (Chi 25th ward)
- Garfield Park street running on Van Buren
- The Last Train from Wells Street
X: Last Stop: Forest Park (1953-1957)
- “Loop in a loop” terminal at Forest Park (1953)
- July 3rd, 1957 and the Evening Commute
XI: Only Freight Trains Run Here (1957-1959)
- The Big Tour (1958)
XII: The Languishing Days (1959-1961)
XIII: Scrapped (1961-1963)
XIV: The Rails are Gone but the Path Remains
- Rails-to-Trails and the Illinois Prairie Path
- Villa Park stations preserved
- Aurora Terminal platform demolished (1991)
- Warrenville station demolished