BERWYN?! Or, A Lionel Diesel Horn Shack Repurposed...

Have you ever been to Berwyn? It's a suburb of Chicago. It's a magical place. A mere lifestyle away from anywhere else. It's "different."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svengoolie

 

http://berwyn.net/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwyn,_Illinois

I am very familiar with Berwyn as I spent the better part of my youth there,  And there are 2 GOOD things I would like to say about Berwyn.

 

1.  It is the home the world famous Berwyn Toy Trains and Models.

 

2.---Sorry, I'll have to get back to you on this one.

Before Berywn Toy Trains, there was Windsor Hobby, Hobby City, AND (for a few years) Road N Rail. I spent many Saturdays on Bike hitting all three on the same day. Yeah, Berwyn is.......

So Sam, would it be safe to say that you have seen the inside of:

 

Morton West

Novi's Beef

and maybe even stepped over the border to visit Villa Nova? 

That was awesome Mitch. I watch Svengoolie here in New Hampshire on ME TV its actually on tonight. I loved his plug for your flat car at the end!

 

 

Did somebody say Berwyn?

 

Here you go.

 

I just stopped at Red Top on 26th and East Ave a few days ago. Those ladies are still exactly like I remembered.

 

I went to Morton West with Tom, the owner of Berwyn's Toy Trains. He once got caught selling cans of soda from his locker. He was sharp with business even then.

Who can tell me the name of the other movie theater in Berwyn?

 

 

If I remember Windsor hobby was right next to the tracks on ..what else..Windsor Ave... Hobby City was on 22nd and Oak Park but didn't have much in the way of Lionel... I don't remember Road & Rail.....

When he first opened, Hobby City had a lot of Lionel. I don't think he could compete once Berwyn's Toy Trains opened. I can't remember if the name was the same when Tom first opened on Harlem Ave. The last time I remember seeing Bill at Hobby City he was complaining about how the world was going to H*** with Lionel coming out with plastic base Fastrack.

 

I've heard that the guy from Windsor Hobby went way back to the post WW2 era, maybe even fixing radios and such at one time. In the early 80's my dad once called me while he was at work and I was home, and told me to go there and bring him a six-pack of Old Style from our house. The guy had a 2348 M&St.L GP all wrapped up when I got there for me to take home to dad. I'd love to know now what the story was behind how that transaction went down! I still have the GP.

 

Road N Rail was down a few stores from Connie's restaurant on Harlem. He had lots and lots of MPC from what I remember.

For the life of me, I can't think of another theater in Berwyn. After the fire at the Berwyn theater, I can only think of a theater outside the Riverside mall.

Olympic?

 

No, wait, that was in Cicero.

Those two theatres are beautiful show palaces.

Ralph

There was a small movie theater on the east side of Grove avenue, just south of Windsor.  For the life of me I can't remember the name, but it might have been called simply "The Grove."

 

Rusty

Don't know about Sam, but I attended Morton West and worked there for three years.  Been to Novi's beef a couple of times in the olden days, but I usually hung out at Cock Robin on Cermak.

 

Used to get my train table lumber from Berwyn Lumber and watch the IC deliver cars to it, which burned down in around 1977 or so...

Rusty

ROXY  It was Just south of the Burlington tracks, on Grove.

Yeah, that was it!  Thanks.

 

I remember seeing the Time Machine and The Great Escape there.

 

Rusty

WOW this spooky.  I only saw one movie at the Roxy and it was TIME MACHINE.

 

I made this movie that Svengoolie ran on his show.He was called Son of Svengoolie back when it originally aired back in the early 1980s.

Dan 

 

 

I saw this Lego spindle at the Hobby Expo in Schaumburg a few weeks ago.

Dan

 

I always like going to Berwyn Hobbies on Ogden Ave.

Dan

Dan, I agree.  Not only is it a good clean, well-stocked store, but the owner is a good, honest guy.  Great combo.

 

Art

Berwyn's fame predates even Svenghoulie.

 

Here's the unofficial song of the Ogden Street Railway Company of the late 1890's.

 

Copied from the CERA Bulletin 138: "The Chicago & West Towns Railways" by James J. Buckley, a magnificent volume of research of a traction line I knew of (as a bus company,) but otherwise very little about.

 

------------------------------------

Rolling Through Berwyn  by "The Berwyn Poet"  Sung to Marching Thru' Georgia.

 

"Oh, listen to the humming of the trolley on the wire,

See the crowds awaiting the coming of the flyer,

See the cars a-coming, flashing out electric fire,

As they go rolling through Berwyn.

 

Chorus:

Hurrah, Hurrah, we hail th' electric fire,

Hurrah, Hurrah, we swell the chorus higher,

Thus we sing the advent of the trolley and wire

As it goes rolling to Berwyn.

 

Oh how the people waited for the coming of the car,

How the prophets prophesied its coming from afar,

How the dread injunction often did its progress bar,

As it came c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g to Berwyn.

 

Chorus:

 

Don't you see the flashing of the bright electric spark,

Don't you hear the hubbub, children scream and canines bark;

That's the car a-coming through the wilds of Morton Park,

As it goes flying to Berwyn.

 

Chorus:

 

Still, it's coming nearer, everybody takes a ride;

Glad to get to Berwyn; see them come from every side;

No one but the Board of Education left in Clyde,

As we go rolling to Berwyn.

 

Chorus:

 

No more monthly ticket sales will fill our souls with woe;

No more punctured tires make our indignation glow;

But on the new electric railway to the city we will go,

As we go rolling thro' Berwyn.

 

Chorus:"

-------------------------------------------------------

 

They don't write songs like this about the CTA...

 

Rusty

 

Berwyn?  That's in PA not far from me!  Berwyn, PA

Here's Windsor Hobby, just to the right of the caboose.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/.../faves-92095601@N08/

Way cool!  Sven ran this clip on his show a few months back...

 

Mitch

I can't believe none of you experts on Berwyn remember the Ritz Theater on Roosevelt and Ridgeland!!
I spent many a Saturday seeing a double feature and a cartoon for .50 cents... A other half a buck for popcorn and a soda and I was good for the day!

I found a picture of it during my search for the Roxy, but I couldn't place the location. 

 

Thought the Ritz was more Oak Park than Berwyn.  I think I saw only one movie there, but don't remember the title.  Being the Ritz was on the far north end of town, it was out of my usual orbit.  My world was pretty much contained between Ogden and Cermak.

 

Rusty

The Ritz theater.  Never been inside but when I was 4-5 years old I thought it was a factory where Ritz Crackers were made.  It was converted to condominiums in 1986.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

My home away from home back in the day.

 

Rusty

Rich - Great nostalgia.  But your just a kid, when I was a kid and went to the Saturday afternoon movies they were 10 cents.

 

Art

Art,
When I first started to go to the Ritz and the Berwyn it was a quarter to get in. Candy was 5-10 cents and a large popcorn with a pop was 25 cents.
Those were the days!