The Fight for the 5:05

Like commuters everywhere, riders of the Chicago & North Western's 5:05 train to Geneva, III. find plenty of cause to grumble. The train runs up to an hour late, the coaches are sooty, the lights almost too dim to read by, the roof occasionally leaks and rains out bridge games. But these gripes were mild compared to the howl that went up when the line asked the Illinois Commerce Commission to discontinue the 5:05.

Bad as the 5:05 was, some Geneva travelers thought that the other commuting trains, the 5:33 and the 5:50. were worse. To save the 5 5:05, they formed the Fox Valley Commuters Association; from Quaker Oats Vice President John R. Murray, Insurance Broker Samuel Insull Jr. (son of the famed public-utilities tycoon) and other commuters, they raised $1,500 to fight the railroad. In 17 hearings before the commerce commission, the commuters argued that the line has been juggling its figures to show an annual loss of $37,742 on the train.

The commuters claimed that the 5:05 would show an annual profit of close to $5,000 if its antiquated steam locomotive were replaced by a diesel all the time instead of only 45% of the time. They ridiculed what they called the road's "airy promises" to schedule another train terminating at Geneva, demanded a written guarantee.

Last week the 5:05 resembled a college football special en route to the big game, as commuters thronged North Western's Chicago depot wearing engineers' caps and sandwich boards. They passed out pamphlets and shouted fight slogans. Passengers were invited to lampoon the line in a ten-week songwriting contest,* the grand prize to be "an autographed throttle from an old, reliable North Western steam engine," and a rendition of the top jingle by a barbershop quartet in the depot.

* Sample entry: Hey you, North Western/Spare our 5:05/Though you fight to kill it/To beat you we will strive/Rah! Rah! Rah!

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