Independence

July 7, 2021November 15, 2021David Sadowski 11 Comments

North Shore Line car 749 at the 50th Avenue station, Illinois Railway Museum, July 3, 2021.

I could not think of a better place to be on July 3rd than at the Illinois Railway Museum, which I had not visited in nearly two years. Here are some pictures from that day.

Unfortunately I did not arrive in time for the annual reenactment of the sudden mid-day July 3, 1957 abandonment of passenger service by the Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban, which stranded perhaps 3,500 riders. At the museum, museum visitors are taken to the end of the main line via a CA&E train, which then leaves them high and dry (only to be picked up by another train shortly thereafter).

I did not arrive until later in the afternoon. No CA&E cars were running, but I did capture lots of other action.

Every time I visit the museum, things are a little bit nicer, a little bit better, thanks to the dedication of their many volunteers. May it always be so.

Enjoy!

-David Sadowski

PS- We have already sent out over 100 copies of our new book Chicago’s Lost “L”s, which is available for immediate shipment. Ordering information can be found at the end of this post, and in our Online Store.

Although the 50th Avenue station was closed for renovations, North Shore Line car 749 was there for a fundraising event, where people could actually pilot the car for a brief period out on the line.

Dayton trolley bus 9809 joined the IRM fleet in 2020.

A Budd RDC (rail diesel car).

Metropolitan “L” car 2872 is under restoration. There is a picture of it in service on the Kenwood shuttle in my new book Chicago’s Lost “L”s.

Chicago Rapid Transit car 4146, a “Baldy,” was built by Cincinnati Car Company in 1915 as one of our first all-steel “L” cars. The four separate “L” companies had come under joint operation a few years earlier, and previously just had wood-steel cars that were ordered for an individual line. The center doors on these cars were never used.

CTA PCC 4391 was operating on the streetcar loop that day.

Neils No. 5 was one of two steam engines being used that day.

CTA single car units 41 and 30 were operating as a pair. The former with trolley poles, and the latter with a Skokie Swift pantograph.

Car 30 looked resplendent in a new coat of paint.

The singles were set up for one-person operation, where it was possible to have the operator collect fares on the train. They were used at night on the Evanston shuttle in this manner for some years, but it really slowed things down.

Frisco 1630, a 2-10-0, on the IRM main line.

The 1630 at the passing siding near the end of the main line.

A close-up of CTA 41’s third rail shoe.

CTA 6655-6656 were also running.

An attractive “retro” sign has already gone up for what will eventually be a model train display (but not a hobby shop, apparently).

Recent Finds

I recently acquired this 1893 map, showing the route of the Columbian Intramural Railway at the World’s Fair here in Chicago. The Jackson Park “L” connected with the CIR at Chicago Junction (65th Street on this map), a few blocks south of where the “L” ran on 63rd Street.

A CTA Skokie Swift train crosses McCormick Boulevard on September 20, 1966. The tracks going under the Swift are from the Chicago & North Western’s Weber Subdivision, which was abandoned in 1982. (James P. Marcus Photo)

Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (aka Red Arrow) car 16 at the end of the Ardmore line on June 11, 1966, six months before trolleys were replaced by buses. (Allan H. Roberts Photo)

This picture of Chicago Surface Lines pre-PCC 7001 was taken in 1935, a year after it was built. Auto parts dealer Warshawsky & Co. was located at around 1900 S. State Street, which may be this location. The streetcar is heading north.

A three-car train of cable cars on Madison Street in the 1890s. This is a colorized photo.

Cable car 1836 is part of a two-car train on Dearborn Street, circa the 1890s. This is a colorized photo.

A Pittsburgh Railways employee works on a PCC wheel in August 1957.

A 6-car Evanston Express train, made up of wood-steel cars, heads northbound approaching the Wilson Avenue station in August 1957. The Wilson Shops is in the background behind the train. At right, you can see the ramp that went down to Buena Yard.

A westbound Garfield Park “L” train crosses Austin Boulevard in August 1957. That’s Columbus Park in the background. This is now the site of I-290.

In August 1957, an eastbound two-car train of 4000s is on the ground-level portion of the Lake Street “L”, running parallel to South Boulevard in Oak Park. We are looking north. I am not sure of the exact side street here. Dan Cluley writes: “I think the picture of the Lake St. L in Oak Park (pic 397) is S Kenilworth Ave. The house at right has been replaced with a parking lot, but the tops of the Post Office & First United Church seen through the trees seem to match up.”

The same location today.

Michael Franklin writes: “This (aaa397) is looking north on Kenilworth. The twin spires in the background are the church on the NE corner of Kenilworth and Lake. The long gone Oak Leaves Offices are on the right. Building demolished in 1971.” Here we see the same building from a different angle, looking to the southeast across the “L” right-of-way.

A CTA fantrip was held on August 6, 1972, which took a four-car train down into the Lake Street “L”‘s Hamlin Yard. Two single-car units flanked a pair of flat-door 6000s, all equipped with trolley poles. Shortly after this picture was taken, car 44, in the foreground, was detached from the rest of the train, and operated across Lake Street to West Shops. We have run other photos from this trip in previous posts. The ramp connecting Hamlin Yard to the Lake Street “L” was removed many years ago.

The same location today.

J. W. Vigrass took this picture in East Chicago, Indiana, on September 15, 1956, shortly before the South Shore Line in this area was relocated to run alongside the Indiana Toll Road. That’s car 22 coming at us.

The Last CA&E Train?

There is some question whether this photo does or does not actually show the last CA&E passenger train leaving DesPlaines Avenue without passengers on July 3, 1957, shortly after the interurban was given permission to abandon service by the courts. Some people think the photo was actually taken earlier.

This is how the photo appeared in the July 4, 1957 issue of the Chicago Tribune.

Recent Correspondence

This photo appeared in our recent post Reflections in a Golden Wye (June 24, 2021):

This photo, showing a mirror at the North Shore Line’s Milwaukee terminal, was taken on January 21, 1963 (after abandonment) by Allan Y. Scott for the Milwaukee Journal. You can see the photographer in the picture, apparently using a Leica M2 or M3. This picture came from the collection of the late John Horachek. Rather than being a double exposure, it seems like the ghostly image of an Electroliner was applied to the mirror using a stencil and a product known as Glass Wax.

John Nicholson writes:

Attached is a photo of the mirror in question at the Milwaukee terminal lunch counter on the last day of operation. I ate lunch there on the last day, wondering all the while who was going to grab that mirror once the line closed. Nobody seems to know what happened to it.

So, as you can see, all the photographer had to do was take a photo of the mirror with the waiting room reflected in the background.

(Ernie Maragos Photo, John Nicholson Collection)

Thanks for sharing those. At first, some people who saw that other picture thought it was a double exposure, but it was apparent to me that it wasn’t. I figure it was applied using Glass Wax and a stencil. My mother put some Christmas decorations on our window that way when I was a small child.

John replies:

I remember the Glass Wax stencils from Christmas 1957. Once they were removed after the holiday, at least your windows got a cleaning in the process.

Miles Beitler writes:

Your latest post included discussion of why the Congress line was constructed with room for a third track between the Lotus tunnel and the Forest Park terminal. I have attached a Tribune article from 1954 which gives the “official” reason (which essentially agrees with your post).

Thanks. You can read the article by clicking on the link given above.

The question came up recently, about whether the Congress rapid transit line was planned to have three tracks between Laramie and Forest Park, and what the third track was intended for. This Chicago Tribune article from January 6, 1954 provides the answer.

The third track was added to the plans at the insistence of Governor William Stratton, who wanted to make sure that the Chicago Aurora & Elgin could resume going downtown eventually. This is described as the final issue that needed to be settled in the overall deal whereby the CTA purchased CA&E’s fixed assets in this section for $1m. This process began when the CA&E announced that they could not afford to pay for new tracks in this stretch a few years earlier. State and county officials did not want the highway extension to be the cause of the interurban’s demise. Eventually the CTA came up with the proposal that they would purchase the CA&E’s fixed assets there, which naturally all would need to be replaced anyway. This gave the CTA “skin in the game” to continue offering rail service west of Laramie. CA&E made money from both the sale of the land for the highway and the sale of the tracks and signals to the CTA.

Suburban transit riders were unhappy with the need to transfer to the CTA at Forest Park for a slow ride downtown, starting in September 1953, and Gov. Stratton’s move was partly a response to that. The article says that the third track could be used by the CA&E or express trains (CTA’s), but the CTA did not have any interest in a third track, since they considered the new line an express service in itself. And the area that would have been occupied by this third CA&E track was left vacant. It runs north of the existing two tracks. That’s why there is a third portal in the Lotus Tunnel. The only place where this got fudged was the bridge over DesPlaines Avenue, where a tight curve got eased by using part of the area set aside for this third track.

Peter Korling writes:

I was looking for the layout of street cars and elevated trains in O scale on your website. Can you help? Or if you have other layouts help me use your search machine to find them- let me know.

Another question- do you have a picture of a streetcar in the layover at Oakenwald and 35th st? I’m not sure of the street the CTA used but the cross street was Oakenwald. Near the IC tracks. Circa 1940. the date doesn’t have to be exact. I searched CTA’s website with no success. This is for my interest only I am NOT a policeman solving a case.

I drove the L line for Muni in mid 60s. I have pics. PCC cars.

My father took this B&W photo in the early 40s.

I have original print w/his signature should you know somebody who would want to buy it.

The paintings are mine. peterkorling.com

SONY DSC

(FYI, Peter’s father was Torkel Korling, a famous photographer and inventor.)

Thanks for the photos. I actually met your father a couple of times in the 1980s. We had the chance to chat over a cup of coffee and he told me many interesting things.

I am not a model railroader myself, but perhaps some of my readers can help you with that.

As for a streetcar photo at the east end of the 35th Street line, I don’t recall seeing such a picture, but naturally I will check.

Jeremy Barnard writes:

I noticed you have a page dedicated to Capital Transit trolleys. I’m trying to find someone who may have some fleet roster information for capital-transit-company that might included buses from the early 1940s.

I have a couple photos from that era of White buses and have been trying to figure out exactly which model they were.

I saw David Sadowski’s name mentioned a few times. Do you think there would be a way to ask him as well?

I’d really appreciate any help in pointing me in the right direction.

Unfortunately I don’t have a Capital Transit bus roster, although there have been some books published about this operator. You might check those, in case you have not already done so.

As for David Sadowski, that’s me, so I guess you have killed two birds with one stone there.

Maybe some of our readers can assist you further.

Thanks.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks!

-David Sadowski

Our Latest Book, Now Available:

Chicago’s Lost “L”s

From the back cover:

Chicago’s system of elevated railways, known locally as the “L,” has run continuously since 1892 and, like the city, has never stood still. It helped neighborhoods grow, brought their increasingly diverse populations together, and gave the famous Loop its name. But today’s system has changed radically over the years. Chicago’s Lost “L”s tells the story of former lines such as Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Kenwood, Stockyards, Normal Park, Westchester, and Niles Center. It was once possible to take high-speed trains on the L directly to Aurora, Elgin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The L started out as four different companies, two starting out using steam engines instead of electricity. Eventually, all four came together via the Union Loop. The L is more than a way of getting around. Its trains are a place where people meet and interact. Some say the best way to experience the city is via the L, with its second-story view. Chicago’s Lost “L”s is virtually a “secret history” of Chicago, and this is your ticket. David Sadowski grew up riding the L all over the city. He is the author of Chicago Trolleys and Building Chicago’s Subways and runs the online Trolley Dodger blog.

The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

Title Chicago’s Lost “L”s
Images of America
Author David Sadowski
Edition illustrated
Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2021
ISBN 1467100007, 9781467100007
Length 128 pages

Chapters:
01. The South Side “L”
02. The Lake Street “L”
03. The Metropolitan “L”
04. The Northwestern “L”
05. The Union Loop
06. Lost Equipment
07. Lost Interurbans
08. Lost Terminals
09. Lost… and Found

Each copy purchased here will be signed by the author, and you will also receive a bonus facsimile of a 1926 Chicago Rapid Transit Company map, with interesting facts about the “L” on the reverse side.

The price of $23.99 includes shipping within the United States.

For Shipping to US Addresses:

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NEW DVD:

A Tribute to the North Shore Line

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the demise of the fabled North Shore Line interurban in January 2013, Jeffrey L. Wien and Bradley Criss made a very thorough and professional video presentation, covering the entire route between Chicago and Milwaukee and then some. Sadly, both men are gone now, but their work remains, making this video a tribute to them, as much as it is a tribute to the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee.

Jeff drew on his own vast collections of movie films, both his own and others such as the late William C. Hoffman, wrote and gave the narration. Bradley acted as video editor, and added authentic sound effects from archival recordings of the North Shore Line.

It was always Jeff’s intention to make this video available to the public, but unfortunately, this did not happen in his lifetime. Now, as the caretakers of Jeff’s railfan legacy, we are proud to offer this excellent two-hour program to you for the first time. The result is a fitting tribute to what Jeff called his “Perpetual Adoration,” which was the name of a stop on the interurban.

Jeff was a wholehearted supporter of our activities, and the proceeds from the sale of this disc will help defray some of the expenses of keeping the Trolley Dodger web site going.

Total time – 121:22

# of Discs – 1
Price: $19.99 (Includes shipping within the United States)

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

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Happy New Year

January 15, 2020January 19, 2020David Sadowski 6 Comments

NSL 187 at Pettibone Yard on June 21, 1963, months after abandonment. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

We have lots of great, classic photos in this, our first post for 2020. We thank William Shapotkin for sharing these with our readers.

As always, we thank our readers, who add their thoughts and ideas to the various photographs we show. Thanks to you, many mysteries have been solved, with various locations identified, and we have gained invaluable insights as a result, as we share information with each other. It’s a collaborative effort, and you are an essential part of that.

The Trolley Dodger blog will celebrate its five-year anniversary in just a few days. It takes a lot of hard work to scan and restore all the images that we show here, which now number in the thousands. Some of our posts have over 100 images apiece, and this is our 245th post. That’s a lot of blood, sweat, toil, and tears.

The Trolley Dodger blog started off as very much a money-losing venture, and over the last five years, the loss has probably totaled at least $30k. But I tend to think of this as an investment in you, the reader, and in the cause of historic preservation, which I hope we all believe in. We have worked to make The Trolley Dodger into a self-sustaining venture, or at least one that only loses a small amount of money overall.

January is the one time of year when we make a direct fundraising appeal for help defraying the annual fees and expenses it takes to keep this blog going. As in the past, we have a goal of just $400, which represents only a bit more than $1 per day for the year.

We hope that you will consider helping us with a financial contribution, however small. When you consider that each year, we receive over 100,000 page views, it’s a bargain. If you want to help, there are links towards the end of this post.

With your assistance, we can assure that the Trolley Dodger will keep on running for another year.

I thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

-David Sadowski

Recent Finds

On July 26, 1955, a high pressure jet of water is used during cleaning of the CTA State Street Subway tube walls at the Roosevelt Road station. Virgil Gunlock (left) and H. L. Howell are inspecting the work.

This line art drawing of the CTA’s Congress rapid transit line, aka the “West Side Subway,” appeared on a June 1958 track map.

$April 29, 1954: Anna Daltin, 69, of Chicago, shortly after being hit in the face by the edge of a Chicago streetcar, receives aid from police stretcher crew. she was taken to (the) hospital with a possible fractured nose and facial abrasions.$

April 29, 1954: Anna Daltin, 69, of Chicago, shortly after being hit in the face by the edge of a Chicago streetcar, receives aid from police stretcher crew. she was taken to (the) hospital with a possible fractured nose and facial abrasions.

May 25, 1950: Firemen shoot (a) stream of water over burned-out streetcar into blazing building set afire by flaming gasoline, after the streetcar and tank truck (between streetcar and building) collided here.

By April 11, 1954, when this picture was taken by the late Bill Hoffman, the LaSalle Street streetcar tunnel had already been closed for about 15 years. It fell victim to subway construction in 1939. But as you can see, the north approach had not yet been filled in. In the background, you can see a different ramp, a block south, which leads to Carroll Avenue. That had been built in 1928 and is often mistaken for the streetcar tunnel entrance. You can find a picture similar to this, taken in 1953 by the late Bob Selle, in my book Building Chicago’s Subways. (Wien-Criss Archive)

From the Collections of William Shapotkin:

CTA bus 5262 is at the end of Route 91 – Austin Boulevard. (William Shapotkin Collection)

Chicago Surface Lines bus 3502 is on 59th at Wentworth on 1946. (William Shapotkin Collection)

CTA 9431, working a westbound trip on Route 74 – Fullerton, crosses Milwaukee Avenue on May 11, 1968. The view looks east. (William Shapotkin Collection)

CTA 9440, working an eastbound on Route 74 – Fullerton, is crossing Milwaukee Avenue on November 12, 1967. (William Shapotkin Collection)

CTA trolley bus 9444 is eastbound on Fullerton at Milwaukee on August 19, 1972. (William Shapotkin Collection)

CTA trolley bus 9553, on an Omnibus Society of america fantrip, is eastbound on Fullerton, crossing the Milwaukee Road at Lakewood Avenue on April 1, 1973, final day of TB service in Chicago. The view looks southwest. (Robert Barth Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

CTA bus 5483 at the DesPlaines Avenue Terminal in Forest Park in August 1963. This has since been completely rebuilt, and is now the terminus of the Blue Line (formerly called the Congress). (William Shapotkin Collection)

Chicago & North Western commuter trains at Clinton Street Tower in September 1978. (Robert Janz Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

South Shore Line car 108 (train 11) approaches Cook Road at speed, a mile east of the Shops, on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

South Shore car 111 (train 11) is 24 miles from South Bend, between Lalumiere and Bishop on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

Car 100 (train 18) is 22 miles from South Bend at Smith on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

South Shore car 197 (train 15) has just gone through the underpass at Emery Road at Hicks, which had once been a flag stop, on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

South Shore car 109 (train 26) heads west at Lydick at Quince Road, on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shpotkin Collection)

A westbound two-car South Shore Line train is on the 130th Street curve, two miles east of Kensington, in October 1966. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

Here, an SSL conductor is hand-throwing a switch to put a railfan train onto a siding at Shops in April 1975. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL car 109, running east, enters 11th Street in Michigan City. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

A two-car SSL train heads west at 130th Street in October 1966. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL car 111 (eastbound train 7) takes the Ford City curve at Chicago’s Torrence Avenue on June 13, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL cars 111 and 106, making up train 16, at Midwest, a new stop for a steel plant, on June 13, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL train 16 (cars 111 and 106) departs Wilson siding and enters single-track territory as it heads west towards Chicago on June 13, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL car 110 (train 15) is on the bridge at Burns Ditch on June 13, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL cars 111, 353, 7, and 9 (train 8) at Miller at dawn on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

Train 8 approaching Miller, where it won’t stop, on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL cars 24 and 39 (train 204) at Ogden Dunes on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horacheck Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL train 10, made up of cars 17, 12, 202, and 22, at speed on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL car 100 (train 9) is eastbound at the Lake Park Avenue crossing in the Lake Shore community just west of Michigan City on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL train 9 is near the county line between Porter and La Porte at US 12 just west of Michigan City on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL cars 107 and 40 (train 12) near Lake Shore at speed on December 26, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

SSL baggage car 504 is in the coach yard on the north side of Shops on December 26, 1963. Don’s Rail Photos: “377 was built by St Louis Car Co in 1926 as ISC 377. It was assigned to IRR as 377 in 1932 and rebuilt as a combine in 1935. It was sold to CSS&SB as 504 in 1941 and used in 1942 as a straight baggage car. It was rebuilt in 1955 with windows removed and doors changed.” (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 802, with Electroliner 803-804, goes onto private right-of-way at 5th and Harrison Streets in Milwaukee on December 31, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL 181, 180, 704, 727, and 167 are lined up at the Milwaukee Terminal on March 4, 1962. Car 251 is at left. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 409 with cars 775 and 757 on 5th Street at Becher Street in Milwaukee on December 31, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

In January 1963, NSL train 420, comprising cars 775, 737, and 750, heads south on 5th near Lincoln in Milwaukee. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 417, with cars 720, 738, and 759, heads north approaching Dempster Street on January 19, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 216, with cars 731, 703, 733, and 700 at Edison Court on January 19, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

In January 1962, NSL car 252 is on track 2 at the Milwaukee Terminal. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

On February 2, 1962, NSL train 417, made up of cars 250 and 763, is northbound at College Avenue in Milwuakee. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 216, with cars 731, 703, 733, and 700 at 22nd Street in North Chicago on January 19, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

On January 19, 1963, two days before abandonment, NSL train 216, made up of cars 731, 703, 733, and 700, are shown at Edison Court in Waukegan. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 414 (car 746), is southbound at Piper’s Road, the county line between Racine and Kenosha on February 10, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 414 leaves Dempster station in Skokie on a snowy January 19, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL cars 172, 163, 415, and 763 are parked on the pit track at Waukegan on January 19, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 410, made up of cars 750, 741, and 757 head uphill towards the Skokie Valley Route on December 9, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 410 leaves North Chicago Junction, where the tracks at right, which were formerly part of the Shore Line Route, but were only used for the Highwood Shops when this picture was taken on December 9, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

On a snowy December 31, 1962, train 409, with cars 775 and 757, prepares to climb the 5th Street hill from Becher Street. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

On the left at the NSL Milwaukee Terminal, train 422, with cars 755, 753, 726, and 252, is departing. The train at right, with cars 762 and 409, will remain for about an hour, before leaving as train 424. Meanwhile, one of the two Electroliners is scheduled to go out between them, but has not yet arrived. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 404, with cars 764, 775, 768, and 761 approaches North Chicago Junction on October 6, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

October 6, 1962 was one foggy morning on the NSL, as train 404 prepares to take a switch off Commonwealth Avenue at Valley junction in North Chicago. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

A freight loco meets a southbound passenger train at Green Bay Junction. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL 776 (train 409) passes train 409 at speed north of Racine on January 16, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

Here, we see NSL 165 through the rear door of 703 at Edison Court in Waukegan on January 16, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

The view from the rear end of southbound train 420 at North Chicago Junction, where we see northbound train 421 and its rear car 151, in August 1959. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

The crossing gates are down on August 18, 1959, as eastbound NSL train 220, made up of cars 725 and 719, prepares to cross East Prairie Road in Skokie (while passing a former rapid transit station). (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

The same location today, as part of the CTA Yellow Line.

NSL merchandise dispatch cars 237 and 218 at Pettibone Yard on June 21, 1963, post-abandonment. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL cars 412, 154, and 767 at Roosevelt Roard on Chicago’s “L” system on October 24, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL train 6 (car 726), has just left the Milwaukee terminal on January 16, 1963. Howard Odinius is at the controls. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL car 761 (train 6) prepares to depart the Milwaukee Terminal from track 3 on January 15, 1963. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

NSL cars 703 and 725 at Edison Court in Waukegan on August 16, 1962. (John D. Horachek Photo, William Shapotkin Collection)

Recent Correspondence

Kenneth Gear writes:

Mike Konopka, who did the restoration work on much of the Steventon tape collection, wrote a blog entry about it. Here is the link should you like to read it.

Over the last five years, Ken and I have worked together to digitize, restore, and make available once again the entire output of the former Railroad Record Club, which totaled about 42 LPs. During that time, through good fortune and Ken’s generosity, he was able to purchase the original master tapes and many other items relating to the RRC.

I count this as one of our most significant accomplishments to date. These classic recordings, and much more, are available in our Online Store.

-David Sadowski

Now Available On Compact Disc
CDLayout33p85
RRCNSLR
Railroad Record Club – North Shore Line Rarities 1955-1963
# of Discs – 1
Price: $15.99
Railroad Record Club – North Shore Line Rarities 1955-1963
Newly rediscovered and digitized after 60 years, most of these audio recordings of Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee interurban trains are previously unheard, and include on-train recordings, run-bys, and switching. Includes both Electroliners, standard cars, and locomotives. Recorded between 1955 and 1963 on the Skokie Valley Route and Mundelein branch. We are donating $5 from the sale of each disc to Kenneth Gear, who saved these and many other original Railroad Record Club master tapes from oblivion.
Total time – 73:14
[/caption]

Tape 4 switching at Roudout + Mundeline pic 3 Tape 3 Mundeline Run pic 2 Tape 3 Mundeline Run pic 1 Tape 2 Mundeline pic 3 Tape 2 Mundeline pic 2 Tape 2 Mundeline pic 1 Tape 1 Electroliner Tape 1 Electroliner pic 3 Tape 1 Electroliner pic 2 Notes from tape 4 Note from tape 2

RRC-OMTT
Railroad Record Club Traction Rarities – 1951-58
From the Original Master Tapes
# of Discs- 3
Price: $24.99

Railroad Record Club Traction Rarities – 1951-58
From the Original Master Tapes
Our friend Kenneth Gear recently acquired the original Railroad Record Club master tapes. These have been digitized, and we are now offering over three hours of 1950s traction audio recordings that have not been heard in 60 years.
Properties covered include:
Potomac Edison (Hagerstown & Frederick), Capital Transit, Altoona & Logan Valley, Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, Pennsylvania Railroad, Illinois Terminal, Baltimore Transit, Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto, St. Louis Public Transit, Queensboro Bridge, Third Avenue El, Southern Iowa Railway, IND Subway (NYC), Johnstown Traction, Cincinnati Street Railway, and the Toledo & Eastern
$5 from the sale of each set will go to Kenneth Gear, who has invested thousands of dollars to purchase all the remaining artifacts relating to William A. Steventon’s Railroad Record Club of Hawkins, WI. It is very unlikely that he will ever be able to recoup his investment, but we support his efforts at preserving this important history, and sharing it with railfans everywhere.
Disc One
Potomac Edison (Hagerstown & Frederick):
01. 3:45 Box motor #5
02. 3:32 Box motor #5, May 24, 1953
03. 4:53 Engine whistle signals, loco #12, January 17, 1954
04. 4:13 Loco #12
Capital Transit:
05. 0:56 PCC car 1557, Route 20 – Cabin John line, July 19, 1953
06. 1:43
Altoona & Logan Valley:
07. 4:00 Master Unit car #74, August 8, 1953
Shaker Heights Rapid Transit:
08. 4:17 Car 306 (ex-AE&FRE), September 27, 1953
09. 4:04
10. 1:39
Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1s:
11. 4:35 August 27, 1954
12. 4:51
Illinois Terminal:
13. 5:02 Streamliner #300, northward from Edwardsville, February 14, 1955
14. 12:40 Car #202 (ex-1202), between Springfield and Decatur, February 1955
Baltimore Transit:
15. 4:56 Car 5706, January 16, 1954
16. 4:45 Car 5727, January 16, 1954
Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto:
17. 4:19 Interurbans #83 and #80, October 1954
18. 5:20 #80, October 1954
Total time: 79:30
Disc Two
St. Louis Public Service:
01. 4:34 PCCs #1708, 1752, 1727, 1739, December 6, 1953
Queensboro Bridge Company (New York City):
02. 5:37 Cars #606, 605, and 601, December 31, 1954
03. 5:17
Third Avenue El (New York City):
04. 5:07 December 31. 1954
05. 4:47 Cars #1797, 1759, and 1784 at 59th Street, December 31, 1954
Southern Iowa Railway:
06. 4:46 Loco #400, August 17, 1955
07. 5:09 Passenger interurban #9
IND Subway (New York City):
08. 8:40 Queens Plaza station, December 31, 1954
Last Run of the Hagerstown & Frederick:
09. 17:34 Car #172, February 20, 1954 – as broadcast on WJEJ, February 21, 1954, with host Carroll James, Sr.
Total time: 61:31
Disc Three
Altoona & Logan Valley/Johnstown Traction:
01. 29:34 (Johnstown Traction recordings were made August 9, 1953)
Cincinnati Street Railway:
02. 17:25 (Car 187, Brighton Car House, December 13, 1951– regular service abandoned April 29, 1951)
Toledo & Eastern:
03. 10:36 (recorded May 3-7, 1958– line abandoned July 1958)
Capital Transit:
04. 16:26 sounds recorded on board a PCC (early 1950s)
Total time: 74:02
Total time (3 discs) – 215:03

The Trolley Dodger On the Air
We appeared on WGN radio in Chicago in November 2018, discussing our book Building Chicago’s Subways on the Dave Plier Show. You can hear our 19-minute conversation here.
Chicago, Illinois, December 17, 1938– Secretary Harold Ickes, left, and Mayor Edward J. Kelly turn the first spadeful of earth to start the new $40,000,000 subway project. Many thousands gathered to celebrate the starting of work on the subway.
Order Our New Book Building Chicago’s Subways

There were three subway anniversaries in 2018 in Chicago:
60 years since the West Side Subway opened (June 22, 1958)
75 years since the State Street Subway opened (October 17, 1943)
80 years since subway construction started (December 17, 1938)
To commemorate these anniversaries, we have written a new book, Building Chicago’s Subways.

While the elevated Chicago Loop is justly famous as a symbol of the city, the fascinating history of its subways is less well known. The City of Chicago broke ground on what would become the “Initial System of Subways” during the Great Depression and finished 20 years later. This gigantic construction project, a part of the New Deal, would overcome many obstacles while tunneling through Chicago’s soft blue clay, under congested downtown streets, and even beneath the mighty Chicago River. Chicago’s first rapid transit subway opened in 1943 after decades of wrangling over routes, financing, and logistics. It grew to encompass the State Street, Dearborn-Milwaukee, and West Side Subways, with the latter modernizing the old Garfield Park “L” into the median of Chicago’s first expressway. Take a trip underground and see how Chicago’s “I Will” spirit overcame challenges and persevered to help with the successful building of the subways that move millions. Building Chicago’s subways was national news and a matter of considerable civic pride–making it a “Second City” no more!

Bibliographic information:
Title Building Chicago’s Subways
Images of America
Author David Sadowski
Edition illustrated
Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2018
ISBN 1467129380, 9781467129381
Length 128 pages
Chapter Titles:
01. The River Tunnels
02. The Freight Tunnels
03. Make No Little Plans
04. The State Street Subway
05. The Dearborn-Milwaukee Subway
06. Displaced
07. Death of an Interurban
08. The Last Street Railway
09. Subways and Superhighways
10. Subways Since 1960
Building Chicago’s Subways is in stock and now available for immediate shipment. Order your copy today! All copies purchased through The Trolley Dodger will be signed by the author.
The price of $23.99 includes shipping within the United States.
For Shipping to US Addresses:

For Shipping to Canada:

For Shipping Elsewhere:

Redone tile at the Monroe and Dearborn CTA Blue Line subway station, showing how an original sign was incorporated into a newer design, May 25, 2018. (David Sadowski Photo)

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 245th post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 581,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store.

As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

DONATIONS

In order to continue giving you the kinds of historic railroad images that you have come to expect from The Trolley Dodger, we need your help and support. It costs money to maintain this website, and to do the sort of historic research that is our specialty.

Your financial contributions help make this web site better, and are greatly appreciated.

Sweet Home Chicago

August 20, 2019August 23, 2019David Sadowski 16 Comments

In 1938, a visitor to Chicago from the Soviet Union snapped this picture of Chicago PCC 4032 running on route 20 – Madison downtown, and brought it home. Now, more than 80 years later, it has returned to Chicago.

They say you can never go home again. But no matter how far we may wander from home, there is something, almost like an unseen force, that calls us back to the places we lived in, grew up in, or love the most. And while we often feature transit photos from other cities, Chicago remains our home and will always be our favorite. So today, we are featuring Chicago-area streetcars, rapid transit, interurbans, and buses.

We do have a couple examples of things that, improbably, did find their way home. First, a picture of a Chicago PCC streetcar that has come back “from Russia with love.” Second, prints and negatives of Chicago transit, taken in 1952, that have been reunited after who knows how many years.

We also have some recent photo finds of our own, including a news report from Miles Beitler on the new Pulse bus rapid transit operation in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, and more classic photos shared by Bill Shapotkin and Jeff Wien of the Wien-Criss Archive. Finally, there is some correspondence with Andre Kristopans.

We thank all our contributors.

Enjoy!

-David Sadowski

PS- If you have comments on individual photos, and I am sure you will, please refer to them by their image number, which you can find by hovering your mouse over the photo (for example, the picture at the top of this post is img882). That is more helpful to me than just saying something was the seventh photo down, etc. We always appreciate hearing from you if you have useful information to contribute regarding locations and other details. Thanks in advance.

We also should not let the opportunity pass to wish Raymond DeGroote, Jr. a happy belated 89th birthday. Ray is a world traveler, a raconteur, and the Dean of Chicago railfans.

Recent Finds

CSL “Matchbox” 1412 is on the Morgan-Racine-Sangamon route in this photo by Edward Frank, Jr. Don’s Rail Photos adds, “1412 was built by St Louis Car Co in 1906 as CUT 4641. It was renumbered 1412 in 1913 and became CSL 1412 in 1914. It was retired on March 30, 1948… These cars were built by St. Louis Car in 1903 and 1906 for Chicago Union Traction Co. They are similar to the Robertson design without the small windows. Cars of this series were converted to one man operation in later years and have a wide horizontal stripe on the front to denote this. Two were used for an experimental articulated train. A number of these cars were converted to sand and salt service and as flangers.” Car 1374 in this series has been lovingly restored to operating condition, at the Illinois Railway Museum.

A two-car Chicago Aurora & Elgin train, headed up by 433, is just west of the Canal Street station on the Metropolitan four-track main line in August 1953, a month before CA&E service was cut back to Forest Park. (John Szwajkart Photo)

CTA 4060 is at the front of a two-car Ravenswood “L” train approaching Kimball and Lawrence in this undated photo (1950s-60s).

CTA Pullman 460 is on either Route 8 – Halsted or 9 – Ashland in the early 1950s, you can’t quite make it out on the roll sign. However, I am leaning towards Halsted, as Ashland got bussed in 1951, and the auto at left looks more like 1953 vintage. This streetcar was saved by the CTA, and is now at the Illinois Railway Museum. It is one of only three red Pullmans saved, the others being 144 (also at IRM) and 225 (at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine). Charles F. Amstein adds that 460 is “on Ashland, just north of 95th Street, looking north-northwet. I grew up in this area and spent much of my time at Beverly Bowling Lanes, seen in the distance at right.”

CTA 4374 is southbound on Clark Street, just south of Diversey, on September 6, 1957, the last day for the north half of Route 22 – Clark-Wentworth. Ricketts (no relation to the current Cubs ownership) was a popular restaurant. At left, down the street, you can just make out the marquee of the Parkway Theater. Autos visible include several Chevys, a Studebaker, and (at left) a 1957 Ford. (Charles H. Thorpe Photo) The tracks curving off to the left went into the CTA’s Limits car barn (station), which was located at 2684 N. Clark. It got its name because, a long time earlier, this had been the city limits. There were facilities for cable cars at this location dating back to 1888. Limits car house opened in 1909, and was last used by streetcars in 1954 (the end of the Red Car era). It was used by buses until 1994, and the building was torn down in 1998.

CTA Met car 2907 is at Indiana Avenue, running the Kenwood shuttle on the last day of service, November 30, 1957 (also the last day for regular passenger service for wooden “L” cars).

CTA one-man car 1769 (here painted green, not red) is at Lake and Austin, west end of Route 16. The date of this Bob Selle photo is December 19, 1953, one year to the day before I was born. The Park Theater at right appears to already be closed.

CTA one-man car 1732, in red, heads southwest on Fifth Avenue at Harrison on July 5, 1953. Madison-Fifth was part of Route 20, but as of May 11, 1952, buses were substituted for streetcars on weekends– except for the Fifth Avenue branch, which used streetcars. That must be a Harrison bus in the background. (Robert Selle Photo)

On June 19, 1953 CTA PCC 7070 heads south on Roue 8 – Halsted, passing by the Congress Expressway construction site. PCCs were soon taken off Halsted, which ended streetcar service the following year using older equipment. This photo was taken from the nearby Halsted “L” station, which was not in the expressway footprint. (Robert Selle Photo)

On May 12, 1954, Bob Selle took this picture of CTA Pullman 600, southbound on Route 8 – Halsted. This was less than three weeks before the end of streetcar service on this line. We are just south of the Metropolitan “L” station at Halsted, and crossing over the Congress Expressway construction. That looks like a Studebaker at left.

In this undated (probably late 1960s) photo taken on the Red Arrow Lines in suburban Philadelphia, Brilliner 10 appears to be changing ends. It is signed for the Media route, although this is not the end of that line. Perhaps there was track work going on. Matthew Nawn adds, “The photo of Red Arrow Lines #10 was taken at the Penn Street stop in Clifton Heights, PA. This is a stop on the Sharon Hill Line.”

This is how the interior of Chicago Aurora & Elgin car 301 looked on August 8, 1954, the date of a fantrip for the Central Electric Railfans’ Association. Don’s Rail Photos: “301 was built by Niles Car & Mfg Co in 1906. It was modernized in December 1940.” (Robert Selle Photo)

CA&E car 434 at an unidentified terminal. possibly Elgin.

Once CA&E service stopped running to downtown Chicago, less equipment was needed. Here, wooden cars 137 and 141 are on the scrap track at the Wheaton Shops. Bob Selle took this picture on August 8, 1954. These cars were purchased from the North Shore Line in 1946.

CA&E car 701, ex-Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis. Don’s Rail Photos: “701 was built by Cincinnati Car Co in 1913 as WB&A 81. It was sold as CA&E 701 in 1938.”
Don also notes, “In 1937, the CA&E needed additional equipment. Much was available, but most of the cars suffered from extended lack of maintenance. Finally, 5 coaches were found on the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis which were just the ticket. 35 thru 39, built by Cincinnati Car in 1913, were purchased and remodeled for service as 600 thru 604. The ends were narrowed for service on the El. They had been motors, but came out as control trailers. Other modifications included drawbars, control, etc. A new paint scheme was devised. Blue and grey with red trim and tan roof was adopted from several selections. They entered service between July and October in 1937.”

CA&E 401 at the end of the line in Elgin.

CA&E 452 at either Elgin or Aurora.

CA&E 457 at the front of a two-car train near the end of either the Aurora or Elgin terminals, as it is operating with overhead wire instead of third rail.

CA&E 429 at the head of a two-car train.

CA&E 451 heads up a two-car limited heading towards Chicago.

Speedrail (Milwaukee) car 63, a curved-sided product of Cincinnati Car Company, is operating as a local on the turnback track in Waukesha, on June 28 1951, two days before abandonment. (Photo by R. H. Adams, Jr.)

Six years ago, I purchased a couple strips of 35mm Super-XX black-and-white negatives and ran the photos on the blog I had at that time. There was no way to tell the exact date the pictures were taken, but they did contain various clues that helped narrow down the date. I posted the images, and several people guessed as to when they were shot. The consensus that eventually emerged was they were taken between Fall 1952 and Spring 1953. Well, in an act of serendipity, Jeff Wien (by way of Mr. Edward Springer) donated a set of snapshots to me that were made from these same negatives. They are dated December 1952, which is a better answer than we had before. You can see the rest of the photos here.

Pulse Bus Rapid Transit Celebration

Pace launched its Pulse bus rapid transit this week with the Pulse Milwaukee line which runs between Golf Mill in Niles and the Jefferson Park transit center in Chicago. Pace held a celebration event earlier today (August 15th) at Milwaukee and Touhy in Niles featuring speeches by various politicians, agency bureaucrats, and public transit advocates. A new Pulse bus was parked at the event and was available for public inspection, as well as a Pulse bus station with its passenger amenities.
Since you include bus photos on your blog, I have attached several photos of the event. Feel free to post any or all of them. The Pace website has detailed information about the Pulse service.
Ironically, Richmond (VA) has operated a bus rapid transit line for over a year which is very similar, and it’s also called “Pulse”. I don’t know if this is just a coincidence or if there is some connection between them. However, the Richmond line has dedicated bus-only lanes for part of its length, while our line runs in mixed traffic along Milwaukee Avenue.
-Miles Beitler

From the Collections of William Shapotkin:

On June 21, 1958 an eastbound CTA train is in the station at Pulaski Road on the new Congress rapid transit line, then also known as the West Side Subway. Notice how little fencing there was separating the right-of-way from the highway. Eventually, this was replaced by concrete Jersey barriers after numerous vehicle crashes that impacted the “L”. That way, when something hits the fence, it can take a “Jersey bounce.”

On June 21, 1958 a woman enters the new CTA rapid transit station at Pulaski Road on the Congress line, which replaced the Garfield Park “L” the following day. On this day, free rides were given out between Halsted and Cicero Avenues. The fiberglass panels on the sides of the entrance ramp were eventually cut down to allow for better visibility from outside.

A North Shore Line Electroliner on December 28, 1962, less than a month before the end of the line for this interurban.

A new 2000-series CTA train at (I am guessing) the Douglas Park yards at 54th Avenue in Cicero on October 25, 1964.

What I presume is the Douglas Park yard on October 25, 1964.

CTA articulated car set 51 (formerly 5001) found new life on the Skokie Swift after being oddball equipment on other lines, along with its three mates. Here, they are seen on the Swift on October 25, 1964, where they helped provide much-needed capacity in the face of unexpectedly large ridership several months after the new branch line began service.

The date stamped on this slide is April 18, 1964, when demonstration rides were given out on the new CTA Skokie Swift branch line. However, that date may be incorrect, as my understanding is on that day, single car units 1-4 were coupled together and operated as a unit to provide demonstration rides, Regular service began on April 20, 1964. So either the units were uncoupled, or the date is wrong. Here, one of the high-speed cars is lowering its pan trolley, at the point where the line changed from overhead wire to third rail “on the fly.”

On October 25, 1964 a pair of 4000-series “L” cars are seen at the Dempster terminal on the Skokie Swift, presumably on a fantrip.

This picture of the Dempster terminal is dated April 18, 1964, which would have been the very first day people could ride the Skokie Swift.

Line car S-606 at the Dempster terminal on October 25, 1964. Don’s Rail Photos adds, “S-606 was built by Cincinnati in January 1923, #2620, as Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee 606. In 1963 it became CTA S-606 and burned in 1978. The remains were sold to the Indiana Transportation Museum.” Since the museum was evicted from its home, whatever portion of the car that survives has been taken on by another preservation group, in hopes that it can eventually be rebuilt or restored.

The following South Shore Line photos, again courtesy of William Shapotkin, are all dated October 1965 and are from a fantrip.

Here are some classic postcard views, again from the collections of William Shapotkin:

From Jeff Wien and the Wien-Criss Archive:

These pictures of the Illinois Terminal Railroad were taken on July 4, 1950:

Don’s Rail Photos: “1565, Class B, was built at Decatur in 1910. It was sold to Illinois Power & Light Co at Campaign on April 10, 1955. It was acquired by Illinois Railway Museum in 1960.”

IT 270.

IT 273.

Don’s Rail Photos: “276 was built by St Louis Car in 1913. It was air conditioned and the arch windows were covered. It was sold for scrap to Compressed Steel Co on March 13, 1956.”

IT 281.

IT 284.

Don’s Rail Photos: “1201 was built by McGuire-Cummings in 1910 as an express motor with 20 seats at the rear. In 1919 it was rebuilt with a small baggage section at the front and the trucks were changed from Curtis to Baldwin.”

IT 052. This looks like a sleeping car or bunk car and is unpowered.

Again from the Wien-Criss Archive, here are a series of photos taken at the Chicago Aurora & Elgin’s Wheaton Yards, in August 1959 after the line had stopped running even freight service. Several cars were sold to museum interests and moved off the property in early 1962. Everything else was scrapped. It’s possible that these pictures may have been taken by the late Joseph Saitta of New York.

Looking somewhat worse for wear, here is CA&E car 321 as it looked at the Illinois Electric Railway Museum in North Chicago on June 9, 1962. This and the other cars that were saved from the line had been stored outdoors for a few years, and exposure to the elements took their toll. The museum, now just IRM, moved to Union in 1964. (Wien-Criss Archive Photo)

The following pictures, also from the Wien-Criss Archive, are not very sharp, but do show Chicago transit vehicles in September 1953 and May 1954. There are several shots of the temporary ground-level trackage used from 1953 to 1958 by the Garfield Park “L”, during construction of the Congress Expressway. Those pictures were taken at Van Buren and Western. Some of the PCC photos were snapped in the vicinity of Roosevelt Road, which is also where the Greyhound bus picture was probably taken.

Recent Correspondence

We recently asked Andre Kristopans about which Chicago streetcars, including PCCs, were converted to one-man operation in the CTA era. Here’s what he reports:

In 1951, all 83 prewar PCCs to OMC on AFE S14000. At same time, 21 Sedans to OMC (3325,3347-3349,3351-3352,3354-3355,3357,3360-3363,3368,3372,3378-3379,6303,6305,6310,6319) on AFE S14001

However almost immediately 20 postwars 4052-4061,7035-7044 to OMC on S14011

155 older cars 1721-1785,3119-3178,6155-6198 to convertible OMC 1948 on S11381

Some additional info. Of the 169 cars in the three groups listed for one-manning, the following were already gone when the plan was announced:

6 under CSL 1945-47 1738,1754,1770,3133,3170,3176
8 under CTA 1948 1727,1763,3130,3150,3152,3155,3159,6197

169 minus above 14 leaves 155 for conversion in 1949

Me: Thanks… and none of the Peter Witts were used in one-man service, right?

Andre: Redone then scrapped replaced by postwars?

Me: Didn’t this have to do with the decision not to one-man 63rd Street? Or was it simply that mixing the Sedans with PCCs would have slowed things down?

Andre: Supposedly one of the aldermen along 63rd pitched a bitch about the sedans after he saw one. Thought they would be “unsafe”. Not sure on what grounds, suspect had to do with center door arrangement. But plan was dropped and sedans scrapped.

Me: Thanks!

Now Available On Compact Disc

RRCNSLR
Railroad Record Club – North Shore Line Rarities 1955-1963
# of Discs – 1
Price: $15.99
Railroad Record Club – North Shore Line Rarities 1955-1963
Newly rediscovered and digitized after 60 years, most of these audio recordings of Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee interurban trains are previously unheard, and include on-train recordings, run-bys, and switching. Includes both Electroliners, standard cars, and locomotives. Recorded between 1955 and 1963 on the Skokie Valley Route and Mundelein branch. We are donating $5 from the sale of each disc to Kenneth Gear, who saved these and many other original Railroad Record Club master tapes from oblivion.
Total time – 73:14
[/caption]

RRC-OMTT
Railroad Record Club Traction Rarities – 1951-58
From the Original Master Tapes
# of Discs- 3
Price: $24.99

Railroad Record Club Traction Rarities – 1951-58
From the Original Master Tapes
Our friend Kenneth Gear recently acquired the original Railroad Record Club master tapes. These have been digitized, and we are now offering over three hours of 1950s traction audio recordings that have not been heard in 60 years.
Properties covered include:
Potomac Edison (Hagerstown & Frederick), Capital Transit, Altoona & Logan Valley, Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, Pennsylvania Railroad, Illinois Terminal, Baltimore Transit, Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto, St. Louis Public Transit, Queensboro Bridge, Third Avenue El, Southern Iowa Railway, IND Subway (NYC), Johnstown Traction, Cincinnati Street Railway, and the Toledo & Eastern
$5 from the sale of each set will go to Kenneth Gear, who has invested thousands of dollars to purchase all the remaining artifacts relating to William A. Steventon’s Railroad Record Club of Hawkins, WI. It is very unlikely that he will ever be able to recoup his investment, but we support his efforts at preserving this important history, and sharing it with railfans everywhere.
Disc One
Potomac Edison (Hagerstown & Frederick):
01. 3:45 Box motor #5
02. 3:32 Box motor #5, May 24, 1953
03. 4:53 Engine whistle signals, loco #12, January 17, 1954
04. 4:13 Loco #12
Capital Transit:
05. 0:56 PCC car 1557, Route 20 – Cabin John line, July 19, 1953
06. 1:43
Altoona & Logan Valley:
07. 4:00 Master Unit car #74, August 8, 1953
Shaker Heights Rapid Transit:
08. 4:17 Car 306 (ex-AE&FRE), September 27, 1953
09. 4:04
10. 1:39
Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1s:
11. 4:35 August 27, 1954
12. 4:51
Illinois Terminal:
13. 5:02 Streamliner #300, northward from Edwardsville, February 14, 1955
14. 12:40 Car #202 (ex-1202), between Springfield and Decatur, February 1955
Baltimore Transit:
15. 4:56 Car 5706, January 16, 1954
16. 4:45 Car 5727, January 16, 1954
Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto:
17. 4:19 Interurbans #83 and #80, October 1954
18. 5:20 #80, October 1954
Total time: 79:30
Disc Two
St. Louis Public Service:
01. 4:34 PCCs #1708, 1752, 1727, 1739, December 6, 1953
Queensboro Bridge Company (New York City):
02. 5:37 Cars #606, 605, and 601, December 31, 1954
03. 5:17
Third Avenue El (New York City):
04. 5:07 December 31. 1954
05. 4:47 Cars #1797, 1759, and 1784 at 59th Street, December 31, 1954
Southern Iowa Railway:
06. 4:46 Loco #400, August 17, 1955
07. 5:09 Passenger interurban #9
IND Subway (New York City):
08. 8:40 Queens Plaza station, December 31, 1954
Last Run of the Hagerstown & Frederick:
09. 17:34 Car #172, February 20, 1954 – as broadcast on WJEJ, February 21, 1954, with host Carroll James, Sr.
Total time: 61:31
Disc Three
Altoona & Logan Valley/Johnstown Traction:
01. 29:34 (Johnstown Traction recordings were made August 9, 1953)
Cincinnati Street Railway:
02. 17:25 (Car 187, Brighton Car House, December 13, 1951– regular service abandoned April 29, 1951)
Toledo & Eastern:
03. 10:36 (recorded May 3-7, 1958– line abandoned July 1958)
Capital Transit:
04. 16:26 sounds recorded on board a PCC (early 1950s)
Total time: 74:02
Total time (3 discs) – 215:03

The Trolley Dodger On the Air
We appeared on WGN radio in Chicago last November, discussing our book Building Chicago’s Subways on the Dave Plier Show. You can hear our 19-minute conversation here.
Chicago, Illinois, December 17, 1938– Secretary Harold Ickes, left, and Mayor Edward J. Kelly turn the first spadeful of earth to start the new $40,000,000 subway project. Many thousands gathered to celebrate the starting of work on the subway.
Order Our New Book Building Chicago’s Subways

There were three subway anniversaries in 2018 in Chicago:
60 years since the West Side Subway opened (June 22, 1958)
75 years since the State Street Subway opened (October 17, 1943)
80 years since subway construction started (December 17, 1938)
To commemorate these anniversaries, we have written a new book, Building Chicago’s Subways.

While the elevated Chicago Loop is justly famous as a symbol of the city, the fascinating history of its subways is less well known. The City of Chicago broke ground on what would become the “Initial System of Subways” during the Great Depression and finished 20 years later. This gigantic construction project, a part of the New Deal, would overcome many obstacles while tunneling through Chicago’s soft blue clay, under congested downtown streets, and even beneath the mighty Chicago River. Chicago’s first rapid transit subway opened in 1943 after decades of wrangling over routes, financing, and logistics. It grew to encompass the State Street, Dearborn-Milwaukee, and West Side Subways, with the latter modernizing the old Garfield Park “L” into the median of Chicago’s first expressway. Take a trip underground and see how Chicago’s “I Will” spirit overcame challenges and persevered to help with the successful building of the subways that move millions. Building Chicago’s subways was national news and a matter of considerable civic pride–making it a “Second City” no more!

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 236th post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 539,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store.

As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

DONATIONS

Your financial contributions help make this web site better, and are greatly appreciated.

An Interurban Legacy

March 24, 2017March 25, 2017David Sadowski 8 Comments

A modern EMU carries passengers on the CSS&SB while a vintage steeple cab hauls freight on the Iowa Traction.

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is by guest contributor Kenneth Gear, long a friend of this blog.)

The demise of America’s electric railways, its interurban and trolley lines, was swift and merciless. What the financial hardships of the Great Depression didn’t destroy, the automobile finished off by the end of the 1960s.

All that remains of some of these railways, if anything remains, is a bike trail on the right of way, some preserved equipment, photographs, or sound recordings on record albums.

In some cases, however, rail service managed to continue, where a few freight customers remained the railroad could survive on a starvation diet. Abandoning all but a few miles of track, deactivation of the electric traction system, and the use of diesel locomotives kept the railroad from completely disappearing.

This, with the exception of the South Shore Line for passengers and Iowa Traction for freight, is how most of the common carrier remnants of the age of electric railways look today.

In my railfan travels I have made an effort to seek out and photograph these survivors. While I haven’t gotten every one on my list I did visit a few and I’d like to share to the photos. In some cases I was only able to get a few locomotive roster shots but other times, I was lucky enough to find a moving train and follow to various places along the line. I also photographed railroads that were never part of an electric railway but, coincidentally or not, share their corporate title with some long gone traction company. I included these photos as well.

I have cobbled together (mostly from Wikipedia) a brief history of each the railways.

THE RAILROADS I’VE PHOTOGRAPHED:

Baltimore & Annapolis

Cedar Rapids & Iowa City

Chicago South Shore & South Bend

Greenville & Western

Piedmont & Northern

South Brooklyn

Southern Indiana

Tulsa Sapulpa Union

IN NAME ONLY

Western New York & Pennsylvania

Indiana Rail Road

Shore Fast Line

The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad ran between Annapolis and Clifford Maryland.

B&A electric passenger operation between the two cities continued until 1950, at which time the rail line became solely a freight carrier, operating buses for passenger service. Freight service to Annapolis continued until June 1968 when the Severn River Trestle was declared unsafe. In the 1980s the line was completely shut down. The right of way now serves as part of the Baltimore light rail system and as the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail.

I happened to stumble upon Baltimore & Annapolis SW-9 87 while railfanning the Carolina Southern RR at Chadbourn, NC. This locomotive was built by EMD in 1953. June 22, 1998.

The Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway is also known as the Crandic. The Crandic began operations in 1904, providing interurban service between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa. While freight was important to the Crandic in the early years, it was better known for its passenger interurban operations. After passenger operations were discontinued in 1953, freight became the primary source of traffic for the Crandic. At the same time, the electric-powered locomotives were replaced with diesel models.

In August of 2006 while on my way to Mason City, IA to photograph Iowa Traction, I stopped off to see what I could find in Cedar Rapids. Near 8th Avenue SW I spotted Cedar Rapids & Iowa City SW-900 #99 switching the ADM plant.

Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, America’s last interurban, began in 1901 as the Chicago & Indiana airline railroad, a streetcar route between East Chicago and Indiana Harbor. By 1908 its route had reached South Bend via Michigan City. The company leased the Kensington & Eastern Railroad (an Illinois Central subsidiary) to gain access to Chicago. Passenger service between South Bend and Chicago began in 1909. The Lake Shore added freight service in 1916. It was renamed the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad in 1925 when Samuel Insull acquired it. The post-World War II decline in traffic hurt the company, and it was bought by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1967. In 1977 the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) began subsidizing the passenger operations and in 1984 the Venango River Corporation (VRC) purchased the South Shore from the C&O. Venango declared bankruptcy in 1989. In 1990 Anacostia & Pacific Company acquired the South Shore. The NICTD purchased the passenger assets.

Because the freight and passenger operations of this railroad are conducted (pun intended) by different entities, I think it is not off topic to include it on my list of former electric railway. after all, the freight trains are diesel powered.

CSS&SB South Shore Freight GP-38-2s 2004/2009 & 2003 at the Carroll Avenue shops in Michigan City IN. (10-15-09)

South Shore Freight GP38-2s 2002/2007 running lite on 11th Street in Michigan City IN on a rainy October 15, 2009.

The Piedmont & Northern Railway was a heavy electric interurban company operating over two disconnected divisions in North and South Carolina. Unlike similar interurban systems the Piedmont & Northern survived the great depression and was later absorbed into the Seaboard Coast line in 1969 and eventually absorbed by CSX. The North Carolina Department of Transportation bought 12 miles of the railroad from Mt. Holly, NC to Gastonia, NC in May 2010 and awarded a contract to Patriot Rail Corporation to restore the track and operate trains. Iowa Pacific took over operation of the line on August 1, 2015.

By the time I visited the P&N, Patriot Rail had already given up on the railroad and nothing was running. I found Piedmont & Northern GP-15-1s # 1434 & 1451 at Renlo, NC. The locomotives had no work to do but at least they were sitting in good sunlight in a wide open area and I was able to get good roster shots. Knowing the engines weren’t going anywhere anytime soon, I ventured back at nightfall with my night photo kit and popped off a few flashbulbs. (October 5, 2014)

Another short line operating on Ex-P&N tracks is the Greenville & Western.

The Greenville & Western Railroad operates on twelve miles of the former Southern division of the Piedmont & Northern Railway between Pelzer and Belton, SC. In 1910 the Greenville Spartanburg & Anderson Railway was formed to build an interurban railroad between its namesake cities. The Pelzer-Belton segment was built as part of its mainline from Greenwood to Greenville between 1910-1912. This line became part of the P&N in 1914, SCL in 1968 and CSX in 1986. CSX sought to abandon the line from Belton to Pelzer but the abandonment was rejected by the Surface Transportation Board. Effective October 21, 2006 GRLW assumed ownership and operation of the line.

Photo Captions (numbered in upper left corner):

1. Greenville & Western GP-9s # 3751 & 3752 about to depart the ethanol plant at Cheddar and head to the CSX interchange at Pelzer, SC.

2, 3, & 4. Greenville & Western GP-9s # 3751 & 3752 power an ethanol train at Williamston, SC. October 8, 2014.

5. Not much of the Ex-P&N’s interurban past is evident today but at Belton, SC there is some side of the road running that harkens to the past. GRLW GP-9s are in the yard waiting for the next trip out.

6 & 7. Greenville & Western GP-9s # 3751 & 3752 at Belton. Both units are ex-B&O and look grand in GRLW’s classy paint scheme.

8. The Greenville & Western interchanges with the Pickens RR in the Belton yard. Here Pickens U18B # 9504 delivers a cut of cars late in the afternoon of October 8, 2014.

9. Greenville & Western GP-9 # 3752 was built by EMD in July of 1957 and is Ex-B&O # 6554.

10. Greenville & Western GP-9 # 3751 takes three cars to Cheddar as it passes through Belton.

11. Greenville & Western GP-9 # 3751 at Cheddar, SC This locomotive was built by EMD in May of 1957 and is Ex-B&O # 6513. (October 8, 2014)

12. On another day, Greenville & Western GP-9 # 3751 again passes through Belton on it’s way to Cheddar, SC. (October 9, 2014)

The South Brooklyn Railway started as The South Brooklyn Railroad and Terminal Company and was incorporated September 30, 1887 to build from the end of the Brooklyn Bath & West End Railroad (West End Line) at 38th Street and 9th Avenue northwest to the foot of 38th Street, and was leased to the BB&WE, allowing BB&WE trains to run to the 39th Street Ferry. Then the Prospect Park and South Brooklyn Railroad connected the Culver Line to the South Brooklyn Railroad in 1890, and the latter was bought by the Long Island Rail Road in 1893. The LIRR obtained the South Brooklyn Railway & Terminal Company lease on the land in 1897 and used steam powered locomotives. As these locomotives could not be used for freight operations, the line was electrified in 1899. After foreclosure of the South Brooklyn Railroad & Terminal Company in December 1899, the company was reorganized as the South Brooklyn Railway on January 13, 1900.

The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company acquired the railway on August 31, 1902, but the LIRR still ran the trains until 1903 or 1905. After the cessation of LIRR operations, the BRT started passenger service and transferred freight service to a subsidiary, Brooklyn Heights Railroad, which provided freight service with three locomotives, with a fourth delivered in 1907. It carried mail for the United States Postal Service, as well as lumber, cement, sand, stone, ashes, pipe, marble for headstones, and granite for curbstones. On February 28, 1907, the South Brooklyn Railway and the Brooklyn Heights Railroad were split from each other, but both were still owned by the BRT. The South Brooklyn Railway was a separate subsidiary company that carried both passengers and freight. In 1913, all of the BRT’s lines were reorganized, and all ownership of freight operations was transferred to the South Brooklyn Railway. The railway, along with the other non-rapid transit properties were transferred to the New York City Board of Transportation on June 1, 1940. In 1946 the railway purchased two Whitcomb ex-US Army diesel locomotives. Operations were transferred to the New York City Transit Authority on June 15, 1953. Passenger service ended on October 31, 1958, and thereafter the South Brooklyn Railway started using the surface trackage solely for freight. In 1960, two more diesel electric locomotives were bought. On December 27, 1961, the line was de-electrified, due to the high cost of refurbishing the overhead trolley wire. Electric locomotives #4, 5, 6, and 7, which had third rail conduction shoes, were given to the NYCTA for subway and elevated operation. In 1994, the last non-NYCTA customer on the line closed; the South Brooklyn Railway was then used almost exclusively for subway connections to the LIRR.

Photo Captions (numbered in upper left corner):

1, 2, & 3 When I took these photos of the South Brooklyn Railway they still had on line freight customers that needed service. GE 50T locomotives # N2 & N1 deliver one car to the Bush interchange yard for pick up by the New York Cross Harbor RR.

4. N2 has cut away from N1 while the NYCH crew, with Alco S-1 # 22, is in the background coupling up to the lone car that SBK delivered.

5, 6, & 7. SBK GE 50T N1 and NYCH Alco S-1 # 22 are side by side at the Bush interchange yard, Bush Junction, Brooklyn, NY in May of 1992.

8. SBK GE 50T # N1 at Bush Junction in Brooklyn, NY. Note the interesting array of trackage in the pavement of 2nd Avenue. The street trackage is used by the NYCH RR to return to Bush Terminal a few blocks away.

9. On June 5, 1993 the New York Cross Harbor RR held an open house and yard tour at Bush Terminal. South Brooklyn 50T N1 was on hand that day and was posed with freight cars (box cars for recycling materials) at the entrance of the yard.

10. SBK 50T # N1 takes the box cars a short distance and drops them at the recycling plant.

11. SBK N1 and N2 travel lite along the street trackage heading back to home rails. On the way the tracks cut through the corner of the Bush terminal building at 41st Street & 2nd Avenue. NYCH follows behind.

12. SBK 50Ts # N2 and N1 with a cut of NYCTA R30 subway cars heading for scrap. Bush interchange yard, Brooklyn NY 6-5-93.

13. SBK 50T N1 with scrap NYCTA R30 subway cars.

14. South Brooklyn 50Ts N2 & N1 at Bush interchange yard with the Manhattan skyline in the distance. Brooklyn NY.

15. SBK GE 50Ts N2 & N1 and NYCH S-1 22 at the Bush interchange yard Brooklyn NY. (6-5-93)

The Southern Indiana Railroad was once part of the Indiana Railroad. It started as the Indianapolis and Louisville Traction Company organized to build track between Seymour and Sellersburg as part of the Interstate Public Service Company interurban line which extended from Indianapolis to Louisville. The track was completed in 1907. It was the first railway in the country to operate on a 1200 volt high tension, direct current system. The Indiana Railroad abandoned operations and the last train operated on October 31, 1939. The Southern Indiana RR began operations the same year on the six miles of track between Speed and Watson, IN where an interchange is made with CSX. The Railroad is now owned by Essroc Cement Company. (From Lake Iola Interurban Site historic marker and THE AMERICAN SHORTLINE RAILWAY GUIDE)

Photo Captions (numbered in upper left corner):

1, 2, 3, & 4. When I arrived in Speed, Indiana early on the morning of October 7, 2015 the Southern Indiana Railroad was already hard at work switching the ESSROC Cement plant. SIND S-2M # 103 (Ex-Pickens RR # 7 and was repowered by GE with a Cummins engine) is looking great in it’s traction orange paint. The tracks being embedded in the pavement of the cement plant’s driveway almost gives the appearance of street tracks, another nod to this railroad’s interurban past.

5. On the road…SIND S-2M # 103 is crossing Utica Street in Sellersburg. The road’s enginehouse is located here a short distance away.

6. S-2M 103 is on the move near Jeffersonville, IN

7. Southern Indiana S-2M 103 travels through the back yards of Watson on it’s way to the CSX interchange.

8. Another view of Southern Indiana S-2M 103 at Watson.

9. To me this photo has a very strong traction “feel” to it. With the traction orange locomotive, pole line, and side of the street running all that is missing is over head wire and a trolley pole. S-2M 103 is arriving at the CSX interchange at Watson.

10. Southern Indiana S-2M 103 at Watson, IN 10-7-15.

11. Southern Indiana S-2M # 103 crossing Watson Depot Road in Watson, IN.

12. with the Interchange work is finished number 103 heads back to speed lite.

The Tulsa-Sapulpa Union Railway got it’s start in 1907 with the incorporation of the Sapulpa and Interurban Railway. The line operated as an interurban streetcar line using trolley cars around Sapulpa, Oklahoma. By 1917 the line underwent bankruptcy and reorganization, being incorporated as the Sapulpa Electric Interurban Railway. This same year the line was extended north to connect with the Oklahoma Union Railway out of Tulsa. In 1933 the railway once again hit upon tough times and was in receivership and operated under the name Oklahoma Union Salvage Company. The company was purchased in 1934 by George F. Collins who owned and operated a Sapulpa glass plant known as the Liberty Glass Company. The line has remained in the Collins family’s control since that time forward. It was at this time the line became a freight railroad operation only with the glass plant being one of its principal customers. The line continued to be powered by electric overhead wire using freight box motors for motive power. In 1934 the name was changed to the Sapulpa Union Railway Company and to the Tulsa-Sapulpa Union Railway in 1943. The electric overhead wires came down in 1960 with the purchase of diesel electric locomotives. The line continues to operate serving industry between Sapulpa and Tulsa, Oklahoma. (condensed from the TSU Rwy. website)

Photo Captions (numbered in upper left corner):

1. Tulsa Sapulpa Union Railway sign at the enginehouse in Sapulpa, OK.

2. Tulsa Sapulpa Union SW-1200 # 108 switching the Sinclair refinery in Tulsa OK on September 26, 2008.

3 & 4. Tulsa Sapulpa Union SW-1200 # 108 is crossing 37th Street SW in Tulsa, OK.

5 & 6. A couple more shots of Tulsa Sapulpa Union SW-1200 # 108 switching the Sinclair Refinery.

7. Number 108 with the City of Tulsa in the background.

8, 9, & 10. Tulsa Sapulpa Union SW-7 1905 (formerly #107) at the engine house in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. (9-26-08)

Western New York & Pennsylvania

Although this ALCO powered railroad operates on former Erie and Pennsylvania railroad trackage, it bears the name of a former interurban line that once operated in the same area. The Western New York & Pennsylvania Traction Company began operations in 1894 and connected Olean, NY and Allegany, PA. The line ceased operation in 1921.

1. WNY&P M-630 # 631 at the Olean, NY locomotive facility.

2. WNY&P C-430 # 430 at Olean, NY

3. WNY&P C-630 # 630 Olean NY 10-3-09

Indiana Railroad

This railroad operates tracks once belonging to the Illinois Central and Milwaukee Road. Nonetheless its locomotives carry the name of that famous Midwest Interurban– the Indiana Railroad. IR hung on for a few years after the depression but in 1941 a wreck with fatalities south of Indianapolis put an abrupt end to the last operation of interurbans in Indiana (other than the South Shore Line).

1. Indiana Rail Road SD40-2 # 42 leads train HWPAT at Jasonville, IN. (6-7-09)

2. There is no missing the Indiana Rail Road name in logo on Indiana SD40-2 # 42.

3. An SD-9043MAC on a unit coal train is not what immediately springs to most railfan’s mind when interurban railways are mentioned. However, with the name of a former traction company emblazoned on the locomotive, that was exactly what I was thinking about while watching this train. Indiana Rail Road # 9005 and 9006 power a coal train at Switz City IN.

Shore Fast Line Railroad

This New Jersey short line started running trains on former Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks owned by NJ Transit and Conrail in 1983. Interestingly, the management decided to name the railroad for, and paint the locomotives in the paint scheme of, the Atlantic City & Shore Railway known as the Shore Fast Line. The Shore Fast Line was an electric interurban railroad running from Atlantic City to Ocean City, NJ, by way of the mainland communities of Pleasantville, Northfield, Linwood and Somers Point. The line ran from 1907 until 1948. The Shore Fast Line short line railroad changed ownership and its corporate name in 1991 becoming the Southern Railroad of New Jersey.

1. Shore Fast Line SW-1200 # 1145 at Winslow Junction, NJ. (5-30-90)

2, 3, & 4. Shore Fast Line U30B # 2884 at Winslow Junction, NJ. 5-15-91 The triangles on the nose of the 2884 are the same as the ones that were painted on the ends of the AC&S Railways streetcars!

Bob Reuter adds:

The B&A engine shown (#87) was only used for a very short time, the number of the unit is actually the year it was acquired. Attached is a photo of unit #50 which was used for almost the entire time the B&A used diesel. This photo was taken in 1977 as it rolled out of the shop in its brand new paint scheme. (This engine is currently at the B&O railroad museum.)

Photo credit: Bob Reuter

Former employee of the B&A RR

Recent Correspondence

Dan Bosque writes:

I am researching a family group that lived at the intersection of Larretta Ct (aka Loretta Ct) and Tilden Street (later renamed Carpenter) in Chicago. This area was surrounded by Aberdeen, Van Buren, Morgan and Congress (now the Eisenhower Expressway).

The time period of interest is 1900 to 1940 during which the Garfield Park branch of the L train ran along Tilden, perhaps along properties on the south of Tilden Street.

Would someone have photos of the tracks in this area that might show buildings in the background?

Beside an image, I’m trying to get a sense of living along narrow streets with lots of residents and a train going through the neighborhood repeatedly.

I did find a photo showing the end to Tilden at Racine with a streetcar on Rancine going under the elevated tracks. It showed a Tilden street sign but not anything for Tilden street. If the Google car was there, I’d move it’s position ahead and point it left.

We have (in previous posts) run various pictures of the Metropolitan “L” on the near west side. If you type “Garfield” in the search window at the top of this page, these should come up. Otherwise, we’ll see if our readers have more pictures to share, thanks.

Miles Beitler writes:

I just found these 1950s railfan videos. They include action shots of CTA 6000s, 4000s, wood cars, PCC streetcars, Red Rocket streetcars, buses, North Shore Line and CA&E trains, Diesel and Steam locomotives, Illinois Central and South Shore trains. Also you can see the CTA yards at Laramie, Logan Square, and Wilson.

Thanks very much. These videos should be of particular interest to our readers.

Some of these films were made circa 1952-54, since red Chicago streetcars are seen running in service. The CA&E portions were taken prior to September 20, 1953, when service was cut back to Forest Park. There are also shots of Milwaukee streetcars.

The South Shore Line video includes film of East Chicago street running, which was relocated adjacent to the Indiana Toll Road in 1956. You can tell this is East Chicago, because it’s double-tracked. The South Shore’s other street running in Michigan City and South Bend was almost entirely single-track.

Alan R. writes:

I was wondering if you had any information or photos concerning the Grand Trunk Western Railroad that ran commuter service within Chicago up until at least 1935. My main interest is the Main Line-Illinois, which ran on what has been freight rail lines since then I believe, with limited commuter service until 1971. Here’s a link to where I found out about these trains. These were probably not trolleys but I’m not sure. There is one station building remaining at Chicago Lawn which I’ve seen along with the steps of the station at 59th St. Further along that line there are probably more station buildings standing. Any photos from anywhere on this line would be incredible imo.

http://www.chicagorailfan.com/msgtw.html

I am not an expert on the Grand Trunk Western, which was never electrified, always being either steam or diesel, so I asked a couple friends for their thoughts.

Andre Kristopans:

Well, I don’t know a heck of a lot about GTW commuter service, but I do know a little. Service ran until the 1950’s apparently with a couple of trains each way between Dearborn Station and Harvey. There was a station at 63rd/Central Park that was in use for thru trains until 1971 as far as I know. There were other stations that still existed into the 1970’s such as the one in Harvey (at Racine?) and one at Central Park and 82nd or so. But now the only ones are remnants at 59th and 63rd. By the way, that was a very late elevation, after WW2.

Bill Shapotkin:

As for the GTW suburban service, here is what I have/know:

Operated until 1934 (to Harvey). Until circa 1917, it operated all the way to Valparaiso, IN. Indeed, the stairs to the 59th St station are still standing (as per a Google Earth view a few days ago), as is the depot (which has served as a home for at least two unsuccessful restaurants over the years at 63rd).

There were numerous other stops as well. There are signs (evidence) of the Ashland station (platform railings). A trip along the line about 6 years ago revealed little other evidence of stations, except that the depot at Griffith remains (it has been moved and is part of the museum there). The depot at Sedley, IN (now a private home) remains, as does the depot at Valparaiso (which I understand has been recently removed).

I have pix of the depot at Eldson (51st St). Have a photocopy of a timetable (back when service ran to Valpo).

Have been at virtually all the station locations along the line…with pix at each (as they exist today). For whatever reason, the station at Harvey (which I understand stood until the early 1970s) managed to be very camera-shy (interestingly, pix of the nearby B&OCT station is Harvey do exist).

The GTW intercity trains (which made their last trips on Friday, April 30, 1971 (Amtrak eve) did serve both the stations at 63rd (known as “Chicago Lawn”) and Valparaiso.

We thank both Andre and Bill for sharing this.

One of our regular readers writes:

Here is a four minute clip of an action sequence from the 1953 film “City That Never Sleeps” which was mostly filmed on location in Chicago. I thought you might be interested since the action takes place on the L tracks with two 4000-series trains traveling in opposite directions.

In this scene, gangster Hayes Stewart — who has just murdered Chicago Police detective John Kelly — is pursued by officer John Kelly, Jr., the victim’s son. The part of Hayes Stewart was played by actor William Talman. He started his career playing criminal types, but is best known for his portrayal of district attorney Hamilton Burger in the “Perry Mason” TV series. The part of patrolman John Kelly, Jr. was played by Gig Young, a charismatic actor who unfortunately never achieved his true potential.

In the film, the dispatcher gives the location as “between Kinzie and the river just east of Wells” which would indicate the old North Water Street terminal or possibly the Merchandise Mart. However, that was artistic license; the actual spot where this was filmed was between Grand and Division on the “Evergreen Connector” portion of the Logan Square line. With the opening of the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway in 1951, this portion of the L was no longer used in revenue service, but it was retained for equipment transfers since it was the only connection between the Logan Square route and the rest of the L system.

I continue to enjoy your website. Keep it up.

I assume that when this was filmed, the third rail was turned off. When actor Bill Talman fell onto the third rail, it looks like he was holding some sort of prop in his hands which made it look like an electric spark. Perhaps if he had given up smoking sooner, he might have been able to outrun the policeman.

Thanks… and thanks also to Kenneth Gear for another great post! Keep those cards and letters coming in.

-David Sadowski

PS- Work continues on our upcoming book Chicago Trolleys, which is now in the layout and proofreading stage. Lots of work has been done on the text, and the final selection of photos has been made. We will keep you advised as things progress.

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Guy Wicksall and His Films

October 11, 2016October 11, 2016David Sadowski 7 Comments

South Shore Line car 102 in downtown Chicago.

You probably have not ever heard of Guy J. Wicksall before, but he has been shooting movies of trains for a long time now. He recently had some of his rare 16mm color films converted to video. By special arrangement with the photographer, we are now able to offer our readers The Guy Wicksall Traction Collection (1963-1975) on DVD (details below, at the end of this post).

All the photos in this post are screen grabs from the Wicksall Collection. We figured the best way to introduce these films to you would be to go to the source, and discuss them with Guy himself.

Here is an edited transcript of my conversation with the man behind the movies from October 10, 2016. Mr. Wicksall is now 81 years old and lives in the Finger Lakes area in upstate New York.

-David Sadowski

How long have you been making movies?

I started making movies in 1960. I have right now, some 59 DVDs. If I could ever get the money together, I have enough material for another 30 or 40.

That’s pretty incredible. What subject matter would most of them be?

Most of it is anything that ran on steel rails (laughs), there are a few exceptions, I have a few of the aerial cable ways in Switzerland. I have a real short piece, a 15-minute piece, on the Minnesota Transportation Museum trolleys.

And what percentage of your film footage would you say is devoted to electric traction?

Oh, probably 5 percent, maybe as much as 10 when you count in the European stuff.

And was it all 16mm that you shot?

Not all of it. The first few years I was shooting 8mm. When Kodak came out with their Super 8, my local photo shop loaned me a sample of Kodak Super 8 film, and I looked at that, and compared it with the 8mm, and decided that the 8mm wasn’t suitable, and the Super 8 wasn’t any better, so I changed at that time to 16mm.

(Editor’s note: Kodak introduced Super 8 in 1965, but some of Mr. Wicksall’s 16mm films date back to 1963. You can read more about these film formats here.)

And how much larger is the 16mm film area that the 8mm?

Oh, well, it’s at least four times the area.

That makes a tremendous difference as far as the quality is concerned. I’m very pleased with the excellent quality of the films that you made, because I am used to seeing videos made up from 8mm, where the picture is so fuzzy that if you made a screen shot of it, you’d hardly know what it was a picture of.

Right. I know what you mean. And, talking with people, it seems that the Super 8 got worse as the years went by. They tried to push the speed, it hurt the quality of the image.

Was it Kodachrome or Ektachrome, or both?

Kodachrome.

What was the film speed back then?

Well, I started out with 25 ASA, and I think I got to 64 at some point.

And what kind of film was available for 16mm? Was it also Kodachrome?

Yes. I always shot Kodachrome on the 16mm.

And then, at some point, did you switch over to using video?

Yes, I got pushed into it by the cost, when I started shooting 16 it was about $9 for a 50-foot reel, and it went to $70, and I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to go to something that was a little more reasonable. Unfortunately, I lost a little quality on the early Hi8 camera I used.

Sure. But now they keep coming up with new formats for the video, they’ve got this new one called 4k, which is the best one yet.

Well, the big problem is they keep changing formats so quickly. Now I’ve had three different video cameras with three different setups. A couple used Hi8, and the last one is digital video on SD cards, and things keep changing.

Regarding some of the film on the two traction discs, I could ask you a few questions. You made some business trips to Chicago, is that how you ended up making some films around Chicago?

Some of it was business trips to Chicago, and some of it was just plain vacation. I didn’t get a lot of business trips. The stuff shot in New York was on business trips, and some of the stuff shot in Chicago was on business trips, but not all of it.

In ’63 or so, you took some film on the “L”. It looked like you were at what they now call Adams and Wabash station, watching some trains come around into the station, and you’ve got some footage where you rode out on the Lake Street “L” to Oak Park.

Right.

That was the year after they had elevated that one section, the outer end of the Lake Street “L”, it ran on the ground for 2 ½ miles on the west end, and I saw that you had a glimpse there showing the track was still in place, even though you were up on the embankment. But it looks like they had paved over the grade crossings.

I was wondering a little bit what that track was.

Until October 28, 1962, the west end of the Lake Street “L” ran on the ground, west of the Laramie station. There was a ramp that went down to ground level and it ran parallel to the Chicago and North Western embankment there, using overhead wire. They had trolley poles on the trains, and clearances were very tight. There were something like 22 grade crossings, blind crossings, where you could easily have an accident where a vehicle would run under that viaduct and run right into a train. It was kind of dangerous. These were manually operated gates, so there was a lot of manpower involved.

The CTA wanted to reduce expenses, improve the running time, and safety, so they made a deal with the Chicago and North Western in the 1950s to relocate the tracks onto the embankment, which had probably been put up sometime around 1910. It was a big project which involved a variety of different government bodies, the Village of Oak Park, the City of Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority, the State of Illinois, and it was a “win-win” situation, because everybody benefited from the relocation of the tracks. When they got rid of those tracks, that made the street wider, and it allowed for more parking, and of course there were a lot of improvements based on the quicker running time for the trains, and since it was grade separated, there weren’t going to be any more accidents with pedestrians and vehicles.

I grew up in the area around Oak Park, so we rode those trains many times when they ran on the ground. The clearances were so tight that they couldn’t run the 6000-series “L” cars, which had curved sides, and just that little bit of extra room was enough that they couldn’t run those cars on that part of the line. I noticed also that you had taken some film showing trains going up the ramp out of the old Hamlin Yard, which was near Lake and Pulaski.

You remind me of what was in that video. A lot of it, I’ve forgotten. Of course, it’s been a few years, I’ve had some time to forget stuff.

Yeah, for car storage then, they really didn’t have a proper yard as such at the end of the line, which was in Forest Park, just west of Harlem Avenue. For car storage, they had this Hamlin Yard, across the street from West Shops, used by the Surface Lines. They had streetcar trackage running in and out of there, where they had overhead wire. They also had a third track on the Lake Street “L” where they stored some cars. You had some great shots of all of that.

And then you had shots of the South Shore Line and the Illinois Central Electric, showing the old IC cars from 1926, plus the Highliners, the bi-levels that were replacing them back in the ’70s.

Yes, yes.

All great stuff. Those first generation Highliners have now been retired, just within the last year or so, and they’ve been replaced by something very similar, but more modern.

That’s the thing about a lot of this railfanning. I’ve been at it long enough that sometimes, the things have been replaced, and sometimes the replacements have been replaced.

Right. And on the South Shore Line, all those old cars have been replaced. I think that many of them have been saved, by many railway museums, and there are a few of them that actually operate some, like the Illinois Railway Museum, and the East Troy Electric Railroad in Wisconsin. I did ride those cars a few times in their twilight years. Those cars were replaced by some Japanese-made vehicles around 1981, and now they even have some bi-levels of their own. They piggybacked on an order of cars for the Metra Electric, which runs the service now that used to be the Illinois Central suburban. They just use them during weekday rush hours. There is even now some talk of double-tracking the rest of the line out to South Bend.

It’s been a lot of changes.

Your first shots there of the South Shore Line were taken in 1971 or so. Up until the summer of 1970, they ran all the way into downtown South Bend. They had some street running there, which they cut back to the outskirts of town. Since that time, they built some new track to a nearby airport. There’s always been talk about grade separating the track that runs on the streets through Michigan City, but they haven’t done that yet. They keep arguing over which route they would use. So, at the moment, all those South Shore trains run right down the street through Michigan City, like they have for many, many decades.

You had some great footage in other places too, like in San Francisco, amazing shots of all that wonderful old equipment. Fortunately, they still have some old equipment running, on those historic lines they’ve come up with, and then Red Arrow, some great footage there of the Red Arrow Lines. Do you have some memories of those visits?

Oh yes. I have some memories, but I don’t have the details. I have to watch the videos to see what I saw.

There’s a lot out east, New York and New Jersey.

I’ve got a lot of, oh dear, Conrail. I was looking here, I’ve got Minnesota Transportation Museum, September ’74, that’s 11 minutes. There’s another one that’s about 15 minutes, that shows the same stuff years later.

Some of the east coast stuff would be interesting to many people. There’s a friend of mine who lives in New Jersey. I’m sure he would love to see your footage of the Gladstone Branch, the Erie Lackawanna. Some of that reminds me of, the old cars there, reminds me a lot of the ones that were used on the Illinois Central.

Trains have changed so much in the last 50 years.

Sure, those lines are running too, but they’re all NJ Transit.

Now, the Como-Harriet trolley (Minneapolis-St. Paul), I have the one reel from 1974, and another one that shows the same thing in 1998, with expansion and so on. Anyway, I’ve got these two, which add up to another oh, 26 minutes. They might be of some small interest too.

Oh, sure.

I used to show my movies to the Syracuse chapter of the NRHS. I wore out a projector doing that. Now I’ve gotta get off the phone. My wife is calling me for supper.

I have no objection to your making copies of these DVDs, and to sell them. I am quite happy with it. My thought is, it does no good sitting on my shelf. I would rather have it spread as widely as possible, and you look like you might be a good person to do that.

It’s been so nice talking to you. We’ll be in touch. Thanks so much. Take care.

You’re welcome.

The original Illinois Central Electric trains, which were built in 1926.

4000s pass the old Tower 12 at Wabash and Van Buren in Chicago’s Loop.

A Lake train of 4000s approaches Adams and Wabash in 1963, when the Loop was single-directional.

A two-car CTA Ravenswood train approaches Adams and Wabash in 1963.

In 1963, the old Lake Street Transfer station had not yet been torn down. It was removed the following year. Logan Square and Humboldt Park trains stopped running on the other level here in 1951.

A quick glimpse of CTA trolley bus 9649.

A Milwaukee Road train in the early 1960s. Not sure if this is inter-city or commuter service. Bi-levels were being phased in on the MR commuter lines. David Vartanoff adds: “The Milw Road train is a commuter run. By the time he was filming, intercity cars had been repainted to UP as the E-7 was.”

The photographer was on a northbound Evanston train that was pacing a Howard train of 6000s.

4000s pass the old Tower 18 in Chicago’s Loop. It was torn down and relocated in 1969 so that Lake Street trains could go directly east at this point, when that line was paired with the new Dan Ryan service.

CTA single-car units under wire in Evanston in 1963.

A Pennsy GG1.

A New Haven train emerges from a tunnel in Manhattan.

A New York rapid transit train on the 7 line in 1964.

The New York Central in Manhattan.

To this day, San Francisco operates trolley buses as well as PCCs.

SF Muni PCC 1021 and a 1955-57 two-seater Thunderbird roadster.

SF Muni double-end PCC 1015.

A San Francisco cable car in the late 1960s.

Red Arrow Strafford car 163 on a curve.

Red Arrow Strafford car 164.

A Strafford car with a Liberty Liner (ex-North Shore Line Electroliner) behind it at 69th Street.

A Bullet car on the Norristown High-Speed Line.

A train of Philadelphia “Almond Joys” at 69th Street Terminal.

St. Louis-built double-end car 16 (not an official PCC, although it certainly looks like one) on the Red Arrow.

Red Arrow Brilliner #1 at 69th Street.

David Vartanoff: “PRR never had RDCs. That is an NYC (New York Central) car.”

David Vartanoff: “The PRR EMU you show is NYC (New York Central). The under running third rail is the clue.”

Erie Lackawanna.

A Penn Central train.

An Erie Lackawanna train in New Jersey.

700-series electric freight locos.

The South Shore Line shops in Michigan City.

The South Shore Line in Indiana.

South Shore Line car 108 in Chicago.

An Illinois Central bi-level whose end has not yet been repainted in brighter colors.

IC Highliners downtown.

Illinois Central bi-levels in Chicago, with the old Central Station in the background.

Recent Correspondence

Father Thomas Nagle writes:

Hello…hope you can point me in the right direction. I remember seeing CTA wreck wagons as a kid and was always fascinated by them. They looked like CFD rigs to me with Mars lights, gongs and sirens and even red and green headlights. Are there any photos of them available anywhere? I’ve googled them and come up empty. Thank you.

Fr Thomas Nangle
CPD chaplain retired

Perhaps our readers may have some pictures, thanks!

One of our regular readers writes:

Why didn’t the CSL/CTA ever install Post War PCC cars on Ashland Avenue? The street was as wide as Western Avenue from the north end to the south end. All that would have been necessary would have been the construction of an off street loop (such as Western and Berwyn) at 95th Street and a connecting track off of northbound Clark to southbound Southport at the north terminal.

PS: Is it possible that Ashland and Milwaukee might have been slated for PCCs if they had ordered 1,000 as had been originally thought?

In 1937, when the “Green Book” plan was issued, the City of Chicago envisioned replacing half the existing streetcar fleet with PCCs, and the other half with buses (some of which would have been trolley buses). But the report noted that at some future date, buses might be able to handle all the traffic.

Half the fleet, at that time, would have been something more like 1,500 PCC cars. That the number was soon reduced to 1,000 probably reflects the continuing trend toward buses.

Milwaukee would have to be a candidate for PCCs, since one PCC (4051) was operated there in 1940-41, on a test basis with the altered door configuration that CSL adopted for the postwar cars.

On the other hand, arguing against that is the plan, formulated in 1939, for the Dearborn-Milwaukee subway. Only the outer portion of Milwaukee truly made sense to run PCCs if you were going to have a greatly improved, more direct rapid transit service running in a subway on Milwaukee. PCCs would have done well in feeder service between the Imlay Loop at the city limits and the Logan Square terminal.

Offhand, I don’t know where Ashland would stack up in a list of the heaviest lines. But certainly the prevailing wisdom at CSL in the 1930s and 40s was to use streetcars for the heaviest lines, trolley buses for the medium ones, and gas or diesel buses for the rest. I assume that Ashland had plenty enough ridership to be considered for PCCs, though, and it would have been an excellent choice.

Ridership in the WWII era was heavy enough that CSL and the City planned to assign the 600 postwar PCCs to just four major lines. But by the time the deliveries were complete, this had been expanded to six lines, since ridership was declining.

What we don’t know is how strategic these assignments were, with the thought of creating an ongoing streetcar system for Chicago that could have continued into the future. One thought is that perhaps the CTA and the City felt that they had to spread the new cars around, so that more neighborhoods would benefit from the new service.

If that was a consideration, it would argue against Ashland, since it ran parallel to Western and went to many of the same parts of town. It would argue in favor of choosing a street like 63rd, which ran east-west on the south side and therefore served different neighborhoods.

In any event, by 1947 the CTA, even as it was still taking deliveries on the postwar order, seems to have planned for the gradual phasing out of streetcars, even the PCC ones. The 1947 CTA modernization plan (which you can read in my E-book Chicago’s PCC Streetcars: The Rest of the Story), which covered the years 1946-1955, anticipated having only three streetcar lines left by 1955, which is pretty much what actually did happen. Presumably, they would have phased those out in the years following 1955, if another such plan had been published.

Furthermore, it was not always possible for CTA to put turnback loops where they wanted them. The area around 95th and Ashland was built up and who knows what locations would have been available.

There were plans to build a loop for the 36-Broadway at 115th that never materialized, due to neighborhood opposition. And the Grand-Nordica trolley bus loop for route 65 – Grand could only be put a couple blocks away from Harlem, which would have been much the preferred location.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks. You can always reach us at:

thetrolleydodger@gmail.com

New From Trolley Dodger Press

VIDEOS ON DVD:

South Shore Line car 102 in downtown Chicago.

The Guy Wicksall Traction Collection (1963-1975)

Our latest release, by special arrangement with Guy Wicksall, features video transfers of rare, high quality 16mm color films of electric railroads taken across the country between 1963 and 1975. These are much better quality than the more typical 8mm films railfans used back then. If you like classic railfan videos, you are sure to enjoy this collection, which features narration by the photographer. Mr. Wicksall receives a royalty on each disc sold.

Disc 1: 38 Chicago and New York Commuter Trains, 1963-1964 (18:24)
Includes Illinois Central Electric, South Shore Line, Chicago Transit Authority “L” trains in the Loop, on Lake Street, Howard, and Evanston lines, Chicago & North Western and Milwaukee Road commuters, Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central, Long Island Rail Road, New Haven, and New York elevated trains.

Disc 2: 48 Commuter Trains, 1968-1975 (57:22)
Includes San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) PCCs (some double-ended), trolley buses, and cable cars, Philadelphia Suburban (Red Arrow Lines), including Straffords and Bullets), Penn Central, New Haven, Erie Lackawanna, South Shore Line, Illinois Central Electric, and more.

Total time – 75:46

# of Discs – 2
Price: $24.95

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 161st post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 206,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store. You can make a contribution there as well.

As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

Spring Cleaning

May 16, 2016May 16, 2016David Sadowski 12 Comments

A couple of CA&E woods (including 308) head east, approaching the Des Plaines Avenue terminal in April 1957, a few months before abandonment of passenger service. Another CA&E train is in the terminal, while a train of CTA 4000s, including a “baldy” with the blocked-off center door, turns around on a wooden trestle. This arrangement began when the CA&E stopped running downtown in September 1953.

April showers have given way to May flowers, and it is high time here at Trolley Dodger HQ for a little spring cleaning.

A long time ago, railfans would put together dossiers on various subjects. Our own method, we confess, is to do something similar. We collect photographs and artifacts on various subjects, and after we have collected a sufficiency, that provides enough material for a blog post.

Inevitably, however, there are some odds and ends left over. So, this weekend we have cleaned out our closets, so to speak, and have rounded up some interesting classic images that we are adding to previous posts. People do look at our older posts, and when we can improve them, we do so. After all, we want this site to be an online resource for information that people will use as much in the future as they do today.

To this, we have added some recent correspondence and even a few interesting eBay items for your enjoyment. Add a few “mystery photos” to the mix, and you’ll have a complete feast for the eyes to rival anything put on a plate by the old Holloway House cafeteria.

Enjoy!

-David Sadowski

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 137th post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. To date, we have received over 157,000 page views, for which we are very grateful.

You can help us continue our original transit research by checking out the fine products in our Online Store.

As we have said before, “If you buy here, we will be here.”

We thank you for your support.

The eBay Beat

This old metal sign dates to the 1940s or early 50s and was used on Douglas Park “L” trains prior to the introduction of A/B “skip stop” service, which started in December 1951. It’s remarkable that this sign, obsolete for more than 64 years, still exists. It was recently offered for sale on eBay, but the seller was asking about $500 for it and it did not sell.

You can see pictures of similar signs in use in our earlier post Chicago Rapid Transit Photos, Part Three (March 23, 2016). In practice, a train that was not an express would simply flip the sign over and become a local, unless it was a “short turn” going to Lawndale only, to be put into storage, which involved a different sign.

The seller says:

The sign is made by the Chicago Veribrite sign company that was very well know in sign making and went out of business in 1965. Sign measures about 19.5 x 11 in size.

I found a list of sign manufacturers online that says the Veribrite Sign Company was in business from 1915 to 1965.

There were other signs used that were not metal. Some paper signs were used to identify Garfield Park trains in the 1950s, and a few of these have also survived.

Mystery Photos

The three photos below are listed for sale on eBay as being from Chicago, but this is obviously in error. Perhaps some of our keen-eyed readers can tell us where they actually do come from. If we can determine the real locations, we will contact the seller so they can update their listings accordingly. (See the Comments section for the answers.)

Englewood “L” Extension

Prior to the construction of the CTA Orange Line, which opened in 1993, the City of Chicago and CTA seemed more interested in tearing down elevated lines than in building them. However, the 1969 two-block extension of the Englewood branch of the South Side “L” (part of today’s Green Line) was an exception to this. It was even thought there might be further extensions of this branch all the way to Midway airport, but that is now served by the Orange Line. There was only a brief period of time when these construction pictures could have been taken. According to Graham Garfield’s excellent web site, the extension opened on May 6, 1969. At this time the new Ashland station, with more convenient interchange with buses, replaced the old Loomis terminal.

FYI, we posted another photo of the Englewood extension construction in our previous post Chicago Rapid Transit Photos, Part Three (March 23, 2016).

Farewell to Red Cars Fantrip

This picture has been added to our post Chicago Surface Lines Photos, Part Five (December 11, 2015), which featured another photo taken at the same location, on the same fantrip:

CTA regular service car 3167, painted green, is at Cermak and Kenton, west end of route 21. Red cars 479 and 473, at the rear, are on the famous CERA “farewell to red cars” fantrip. The date is May 16, 1954, two weeks before the end of red car service in Chicago.

LVT on the P&W

We’ve added another photo showing Lehigh Valley Transit freight operations on the Philadelphia and Western after (passenger service there was abandoned) to our post Alphabet Soup (March 15, 2016), which already had a similar picture:

LVT freight motor C-17 approaches Norristown terminal ion the Philadelphia and Western in January 1951. Although the Liberty Bell Limited cars stopped running on the P&W in 1949, freight operations continued right up to the time of the September 1951 abandonment.

More CA&E Action

The Chicago, Aurora & Elgin picture at the top of this page, plus these two others, have been added to our previous post More CA&E Jewels (February 9, 2016).

This undated 1950s photo shows a westbound Chicago, Aurora & Elgin train (cars 406 and 41x) at the Villa Park station. According to the Great Third Rail web site, “The station was rebuilt again in 1929. During this reconstruction, the eastbound platform was moved to the west side of Villa Avenue with the construction of an expansive Tudor Revival station designed by Samuel Insull’s staff architect, Arthur U. Gerber. The westbound platform remained in place and was outfitted with a flat roofed wooden passenger shelter. Villa Park was one of a few stations to survive the demise of the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin. Both it and Ardmore (the next station west) were purchased by the village of Villa Park and refurbished with an official dedication by the Villa Park Bicentennial Commission on July 5, 1976. It is now home to the Villa Park Historical Society which hosts an annual ice cream social on July 3, the anniversary of the day the CA&E ended passenger service.”

I believe this photo shows CA&E freight loco 4006 on the Mt. Carmel branch.

Here is Lackawana & Wyoming Valley 31 as it appeared on August 3, 1952. Passenger service ended on this third-rail line at the end of that year. Some have wondered if the LL rolling stock could have benefited the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, but the general consensus is these cars would have been too long to navigate the tight curves on the Loop “L”, although perhaps they could have been used west of Forest Park. As it was, there were no takers and all were scrapped. Ironically, some thought was later given by a museum of adapting a CA&E curved-side car into an ersatz Laurel Line replica, but this idea was dropped.

The next photo has been added to our post The Mass Transit Special (February 4, 2016):

North Shore Line Action

These Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee photos have been added to our post