The legendary Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee was running its last day of service, with a full schedule of trains.

Jeff

Since the sun is still shining, that can't be the last trip, even though it is headed towards the barn on a part of the system that lost passenger service about 8 years earlier.

The following day I trudged through the snow to the Mundelein station where everything was covered by a pervasive silence and white drifts across the platforms..just the sound of the wind.
Every piece of equipment had been taken away and the four tracks surrounding the station were as empty as the parking lot. The block signal in the distance had no indication. A local radio station ( WGN) had some interviews and news briefs off and on about the abandonment.
It seems as much of a waste today as it did that cold morning.

How long after that was it before they started tearing everything up? That time before the scrappers came must have been really odd, with the RR in place but nothing running...

I was in Great Lakes in Navy book camp in June 1963 and can remember seeing them scrapping equipment from my classroom window.

The suspiscion on the abandonment is based on the Susquehanna Corporation as a holding company owning the line, created out of North Shore assets presumably,
(as I read along some other sources) who how that was done from is thought that it was a General Motors controlled company, and you know how the LA streetcars died.

How the North Shore was abandoned hits more to some underhand dealings going on.

I grew up in Mundelein during the pre and post abandonment periods. The tracks and overhead remained there remained surprisingly intact for some time. At one point there was a goofy idea promoted by some local mayors to run Milwaukee Road commuter trains detouring on the Soo Line to connect to the Mundelein branch where they would proceed to Roundout and reconnect to their home line. They actually approached the Soo Line and were turned down. Bear in mind none of these municipalities had any money. A local handcar race was scheduled on the abandoned tracks the following summer and on the day of the race much to their dismay they found the crossover switches locked in the wrong direction. The Mundelin station stood for some time and was leased as a Parks and Recreation building and for a couple of winters, the former parking lot was turned into an ice skating rink. If you go to Mundelein today, you will see one of the oddest uses of a former right of way. A house was built high atop an embankment where the tracks crossed the first road out of the station and sits side saddle wedged into the small footprint atop the embankment right at the crossing. You would have to see it to appreciate how odd it looks. There is some track remaining buried under brush and dirt as well as being paved over on a spur that was the original lead to the station site prior to it's relocation. The little Plymouth engine and it's crew sent to scrap the line had to cut down trees etc to pull up the rails as I watched. They gave up in disgust and retreated before they got to the end of the line. Little remains today to signify any of this occurred or that the North Shore was an integral part of the community.

Fortunately, I made the effort the summer before the end to ride the line.

Riding the Electroliner