Friday, November 30, 2018

Chicago Surface Line Streetcar № 1137, Lost and Found.

The full length of Chicago Surface Lines streetcar, № 1137, can be seen. The rear of the car is in the foreground. Built-in 1903 thru 1906 by the St. Louis Car Company for the Chicago Union Traction Co. This Car was then purchased and operated by Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) – the predecessor to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
The full length of Chicago Surface Lines streetcar, № 1137, can be seen. The rear of the car is in the foreground. 
Car № 1137 was disposed of by Chicago Surface Lines in April 1946. There was a housing shortage at the time, and people were actually living in old streetcars. Some were bought by GI's, returning from World War II. All the under-gear would have been removed for salvage as scrap.

It was found at a residence in Weyauwega, which is located in the middle of Wisconsin, sided with wood.
Sharon Krapil says there were long-held rumors a train car was behind the walls of the wooden structure in her back yard.
"We certainly hope that this discovered Chicago streetcar can be preserved. It would be a real shame if it has survived for more than a century, just to be reduced to kindling now" says Bill and Sharon Krapil, the new property owners.

Amanda Husberg and her family, which included siblings Bob and William, lived in the trolley car in Weyauwega from 1946 to 1948. There was a double bed on one side for her parents, a bunk bed for her and her brother Bob and then a crib for her brother William who was born in 1947. There was also a cardboard, a wardrobe, and upright piano in it for Amanda who began taking piano lessons at the age of five.

Husberg’s parents sold the trolley car in 1948 when they moved to Chicago.

The Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois has two cars that are restored and in operation today.
Construction crews began to carefully peel away the exterior of the home, as there were suspicions about what was actually behind them.
The rear of the trolley car was converted into a kitchen, closet, and back porch. Here the three-fold doors are seen on the trolley’s right, rear side.
Not much of the original markings are seen on the trolley. Here, stencils rail experts date to the 1930s or 40s, warn riders to not get on or off moving cars.
The rear of the trolley car was converted into a kitchen, closet and back porch. Here, the back door can be seen on the left of the photo.
The bright red, wooden car has few markings detailing who made it, or what rail company used it. Here a logo is seen with what appears to be an overlapping S and L, surrounded by an O. It is actually a C, the symbol for the Chicago Surface Lines company. The predecessor to the Chicago Transit Authority, or CTA. Rail experts say the car was made by the St. Louis Car Company between 1905 and 1906 for the CSL.
The front of the trolley car is boarded up, as it was turned into a small bathroom, complete with a bathtub and toilet.
The original wooden and rattan seats were likely removed when the car was converted into a living space. A view looking through the living area towards the kitchen is pictured.
The original wooden and rattan seats were likely removed when the car was converted into a living space. A view looking through the bedroom, towards the bathroom is seen. Longtime Weyauwega residents say the couple who lived in the home had bunk beds to conserve space.
The original wooden and rattan seats were likely removed when the car was converted into a living space. A view looking towards the bathroom is seen.
The front of the trolley car is boarded up, as it was turned into a small bathroom, complete with a bathtub and toilet.
The rear of the trolley car was converted into a kitchen, closet and back porch. Here, the back door can be seen in the center of the photo.
A view of the house is seen, looking at the front of the former trolley.

RESTORED STREETCAR № 1374.
Chicago Surface Lines "Matchbox" streetcar № 1374, built by St. Louis Car in 1906.
CSL Streetcar № 1374
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Monday, November 26, 2018

Sandy's Drive-In's of Illinois.

Sandy's was the name of a chain of American fast-food restaurants begun in 1956 by four businessmen from Kewanee, Illinois: Gus "Brick" Lundberg, Robert C. Wenger, Paul White, and W. K. Davidson. Sandy's was the ancestor of the Hardee's chain in the mid-west.

In 1956, four men set out to start one of the first McDonald's franchises outside the McDonald brothers' home state of California. Ray Kroc had just begun selling McDonald's franchises outside California, and the four friends partnered to buy the right to open McDonald's restaurants in central Illinois.

In June 1956, they opened their first restaurant in Urbana, Illinois, only the third McDonald's restaurant to open outside California. The Urbana store proved popular with students, professionals, and young families at the University of Illinois. It did so well that the group decided to open additional McDonald's restaurants in Decatur and Peoria, Illinois.

However, Ray Kroc notified them that Peoria and Decatur were not included in the central Illinois territory. Furthermore, that changed the terms of the franchise contract, which meant they would owe a higher percentage of their profits to McDonald's. Having invested heavily in the Peoria location, including erecting the building, the partners decided instead to open their own restaurant and settled on the name Sandy's. 

Sandy's chain adopted a Scottish-based theme to combat the Scottish-rooted McDonald's, even though the latter was not based on a cultural theme of any kind.
The menu of the first Sandy's restaurant included a 15¢ hamburger, a 20¢ milkshake, and a 10¢ bag of french fries, much like McDonald's. However, none of the four founders were interested in expanding their local chain.
Lundberg, in particular, viewed the enterprise as a chance to build a "people-oriented organization whose members worked hard but also had some fun while earning a legitimate profit." Sandy's was different in a number of ways from other fast-food chains of the time:
  • Operators of most restaurants owned their stores and did not lease from the corporation.
  • Operators were not required to buy supplies from the corporation; instead, they were permitted to "shop around" as long as the supplies met company standards.
  • Lundberg visited every store periodically and became personally acquainted with every employee.
Ray Kroc filed an ongoing series of lawsuits that finally ended with an out-of-court settlement in 1965. Despite this distraction, Sandy's grew from seven stores in Illinois in 1959 to 121 in five states in 1966.

An Employee.
In 1961, insurance man Jack Laughery was so impressed with Lundberg and his business approach that he left a successful practice to join Sandy's, becoming president in 1967. By the end of the 1960s, Sandy's, though still successful, was short of cash, a major handicap with the pricey new television advertising being actively employed by its competitors.

Meanwhile, the successful Hardee's chain in the Southern U.S. (founded by Wilbur Hardee) had money and was looking to expand its operations. Hardee's solution was a merger.

On November 30, 1971, it was announced that Hardee had purchased all of Sandy's Drive-In stock. The plaid berets of Sandy's were soon gone. Sandy's had expanded to Belgium and Canada before being dismantled.

Originally, Sandy's was to merge with Hardees but maintain its own identity. In 1973, ninety percent of Sandy's locations agreed to switch to Hardee's; the rest remained Sandy's restaurants. 

By 1979, the last Sandy's location in Muscatine, Iowa, became a Hardees. Any remaining locations went under independent ownership and changed their names to avoid infringing on Sandy's name: 

These locations included Zandy's in Great Falls, Montana, until it closed in January 2009 after a break-in and declining profits; Sandie's in Billings, Montana; Andy's in Cincinnati, Ohio; and Bucky's in Lawrence, Kansas, until it closed on December 14, 2007.

Illinois Locations:
  1. Addison 
  2. Aurora
  3. Belleville
  4. Benton
  5. Bloomington
  6. Bolingbrook
  7. Canton
  8. Champaign
  9. Charleston
  10. Collinsville
  11. Creve Coeur
  12. Decatur
  13. DeKalb
  14. Dixon
  15. East Alton
  16. Elmhurst
  17. Freeport
  18. Galesburg
  19. Geneseo
  20. Hillside
  21. Jacksonville
  22. Kankakee
  23. Kewanee
  24. Macomb
  25. Mattoon
  26. Moline
  27. Monmouth
  28. Mt. Vernon
  29. Normal
  30. Pekin
  31. Peru
  32. Peoria
    1. 401 South Western Avenue, West Peoria
    2. 423 Main Street, Peoria
    3. 4419 North Prospect Road, Peoria Heights
    4. 200 West McClure Avenue, Sandy's Thrift & Swift Drive-In, Peoria
  33. Quincy
  34. Rock Island
  35. Rockford
  36. Springfield
  37. Sterling
  38. Streator
  39. Urbana

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.