The Great Third Rail – Central Electric Railfans’ Association (CERA) Bulletin 105 is the story of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad. The book includes a system map and a family tree of the history of the divisions. There are chapters on the Fox River Division, Third Rail Division, the railroad equipment and maps and timetables. The book is a softcover spiral book. It is the first edition of the book.

Section I of the book is the about early operation in Elgin, the development of the Aurora streetcar lines and the expansion of the system into the different branches from with Elin and Aurora. 

Section II discusses the expansion of the system into Chicago. The chapter talks about the passenger services offered. Also, there is information on the freight operation. The section ends with the decline of the system.

Section III titled “Cars, Cars, Cars has a roster of the passenger cars the railroad used over the years. There are photographs and schematics of the interurban passenger cars. Also, included is a roster of the freight and maintenance cars and pictures and schematics of some of the freight motors. 

Section IV The Great Third Rail – Central Electric Railfans’ Association (CERA) Bulletin 105 of is titled Maps and Timetables. Included in this section are maps of the system and timetables from different years. The maps are quite detailed. For example, there is a map of the Elgin City System and the Wheaton yard. 

The CERA encourages the study of the history, equipment, and operations of urban, suburban, interurban, and main line electric railways. The Great Third Rail – CERA Bulletin 105” published by the organization. A number of those publications are available on this site. Meetings are also held monthly by the organization in Chicago, IL. More information about the CERA is available on their website.

If you are a Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin Railroad enthusiast, you will want to add The Great Third Rail – Central Electric Railfans’ Association (CERA) Bulletin 105 to your collection.