A Traction Photo Album, Part 3

May 31, 2018June 21, 2018David Sadowski 8 Comments

J G Brill Master Unit Car #80 at Scranton, PA. 8-5-09.

Today’s post features more classic traction photographs by guest contributor Kenneth Gear. This is the third installment in a virtual career retrospective, covering 40 years of railfanning.

Ken has long been a friend of this blog. He has contributed greatly to our understanding of the Railroad Record Club of Hawkins, Wisconisn, and it is thanks largely to him that we have been able to share all 40 RRC LPs with you, digitally remastered on CDs and sounding better than ever.

We thank Ken for that, and for sharing these great images with our readers.

Click on these links to see Part 1 and Part 2 in this series.

-David Sadowski

Metra/ICG Highliners

Photo 1. RTA/ ICG Highliner MU trains pass near the Randolph Street Terminal, Chicago, IL. 6-23-82.

RTA/ ICG Highliner #407 near the Randolph Street Terminal, Chicago, IL. 6-23-82.

Metra Electric Highliner #224 at the Vermont Avenue Station, Blue Island IL 3-25-03.

Canadian National Box Cab

CN Box cabs #6714, # 6715, & #6722 at Montreal, Que. 6-14-85.

CN Box cabs 6710 & 6711 at Montreal photographed from the Amtrak MONTREALER approaching Central Station.

EX-NYNH&H 4400 “Washboard” MU

Ex-NH 4400 “Washboard” MUs in the dead line at New Haven, CT on March17, 1984 awaiting scrapping.

National Capitol Trolley Museum

Third Avenue Railway System car 678 still wears her bicentennial paint scheme as she sits outside the car barn at the National Capital Trolley Museum in May of 1989. The car has since been repainted in the TARS color scheme of red and white.

DC Transit PCC #1101, 8-5-89.

Electric City Trolley Museum

J G Brill Master Unit Car #80 at Scranton, PA. 8-5-09.

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

Pittsburgh Railways DE City Low-floor car #4398 at Washington, PA. 9-27-13.

Conrail

Conrail E-33 #4602 leads a long freight through the Metropark station at Iselin, NJ. 8-14-78. From my very first roll of color slide film.

Conrail E-44 #4430 leads a westbound train at the Metropark station, Iselin, NJ. From my very first roll of 35mm slide film.

Conrail sold E-44 #4464 to NJ Transit in 1983 for use as work train power. The locomotive never turned a wheel for NJT and it is shown here at the Ex-CNJ yard at Elizabethport, NJ. 5-25-83.

Odds and Ends: Miscellaneous Traction:

New Orleans Streetcar

In 1982 I was in New Orleans, LA making an overnight connection between Amtrak’s CRESENT and the SUNSET LIMITED. In the general vicinity of the Amtrak station I took several photos of the streetcars. All of the streetcar photos were taken in the vicinity of Lee Circle.

All of these cars were built by Perley Thomas in 1924.

Car #904 New Orleans, LA. 6-1-82.

Car #911.

Car #923.

Car #953.

Car 968.

Car #971.

New York City Transit Authority

R-36

I wanted to include this photo in spite of the fact that the subject is Amtrak SSB-1200 #550 at Q Tower at Sunnyside, Queens, New York. I hope it will be of interest to traction fans because of the IRT subway train of NYCTA R-36 “Redbirds” passing overhead in the background. 6-20-87.

R-42

A “W” train of R-42 cars near the Ditmers Boulevard station in Astoria Queens, New York, 4-19-05.

R-21

The NYCTA Car Repair yard at 207th Street in New York as seen from a boat in the Harlem River in 1986. Visible just behind the fence are two R-21 garbage motors. These cars were tasked with the removal of trash from the subway. The two shown here G7208 and G7206 have both been retired and most likely scrapped.

Apparently retired and not too far from being scrapped is R-21 #7086 at the 207th Street Car Repair yard.

R-38

Retired R-38s #4002 & #4003 at the 207th Street Car Repair yard.

R-32A

Starting in 1988 and continuing to 1990, NYCTA sent most of the R-32 cars to Morrison Knudsen at Hornell, NY for overhaul. Conrail brought the rebuilt cars loaded onto flat cars down the River Line to Greenville yard in Jersey City, New Jersey. From there the New York Cross Harbor Railroad car floated them back to New York City. On February 13, 1990 several of the rebuilt R-32a cars, including #3613 head out, were sitting in Greenville yard awaiting a boat ride home.

Eventually NYCHR Alco S-1s 25 & 22 came across the float bridge and coupled to the flat car containing the subway cars. The immaculate Alcos then loaded the car of R-32As onto the car float for a trip across the bay to Brooklyn.

End of the line: NYCTA R-10 cars face a very bleak future at Greenville yard, Jersey City, NJ.

Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority:

R-44

R-44 cars at Great Kills, NY.

R-44 cars at the terminal in Tottenville, NY.

Staten Island S-1 #821 & R-44 cars at Annadale. The Alco was leading an Electric Railroaders Association “Farewell to the Alcos” fan trip on October 25, 2008.

Staten Island Railway Alco S-2 #821 & S-1 #407 make way for an approaching train of R-44 cars at Tottenville, NY in October of 2008.

R-44 car #421 in the shop at Clifton, NY.

R-33 De-Icer

SIRTOA R-33 De-Icer car #RD344 at Clifton, NY.

SEPTA – City Transit Division

PCC

SEPTA Kawasaki car #9023 & PCC #2129 at the Elmwood Avenue car barn in Philadelphia, PA in January of 1992.

SEPTA PCC car #2129 at the CSX/SEPTA grade crossing at Main Street in Darby, PA.

SEPTA PCC car #2129 at 49th Street & Woodland Avenue in West Philadelphia PA. This car was built by the St Louis Car Company in 1948. It is now preserved by the Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway at Colorado Springs, CO.

SEPTA Kawasaki car #9017, PCC #2129, & GM RTS bus (model T8W603) #8043 at Darby, PA in 1992.

PCC #2129 at the 80th & Eastwick loop in Philadelphia, which is the end of the Route 36. This photo was taken on January 25, 1992, the car was used on a Wilmington Chapter NRHS charter this day.

SEPTA PCC #2054 built by St Louis Car in 1941. Philadelphia, PA. 5-7-95.

SEPTA PCC #2711 at the Elmwood Depot, Philadelphia, PA.

SEPTA PCC #2728 in Philadelphia Transportation Company colors at Philadelphia, PA in 1995.

On May 7, 1995 Wilmington Chapter NRHS chartered SEPTA PCC #2799 in a Red Arrow paint scheme and PCC #2728 in the colors of the Philadelphia Transportation. The two brightly colored cars were posed side by side on Girard Avenue at 63rd Street in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Haddington.

SEPTA motor flat #W-61 & PCC #2054 at Philadelphia, PA.

Work Cars

SEPTA motor flat #W-61 at Philadelphia, PA. 1-25-92.

SEPTA crane #W-56 at Elmwood.

Motor flat # W-62 at Elmwood.

Kawasaki Streetcar

Line up of SEPTA Kawasaki cars at the Elmwood Avenue car barn in Philadelphia, PA. 1-25-92.

SEPTA Kawasaki car #9003 departs the Elmwood depot, 5-7-95.

SEPTA Kawasaki car #9023 at Philadelphia, PA.

SEPTA Kawasaki car at 49th Street & Woodland Avenue in West Philadelphia, PA in 1992.

AEM-7

SEPTA AEM-7 #2304 laying over for the weekend at Trenton, NJ. 2-9-02.

SEPTA AEM-7 #2307 at Conshohocken, PA in 1992.

Interior of the cab of SEPTA AEM-7 #2307.

SEPTA AEM-7 2307 in the yard at West Trenton NJ. It will soon power a fan trip excursion around the Philadelphia area. 3-29-92.

The Philadelphia Chapter NRHS arranged this over & under shot of SEPTA AEM-7 #2307 & P&W N-5 #451 at Norristown, PA on March 29, 1992.

AEM-7 2307 at West Trenton, NJ.

SEPTA Regional Rail:

Blueliner

SEPTA Ex-Reading Blueliner MU train on a Philadelphia Chapter NRHS special during a photo stop at Glenside, PA on June 5,1988.

SEPTA Blueliner #9128 at Wissahickon, PA. Number 9128 has been preserved by the Reading Technical and Historical Society at Hamburg, PA. According to their website this MU, Reading Class EPb was built as an 80 seat steel coach by Harlan & Hollingsworth (subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel) in 1932 and converted into a MU trailer.

SEPTA Ex-Reading class EPb Blueliner MU #9116 in 1988.

The engineer’s Controls of SEPTA Blueliner MU #9119.

Inside Blueliner MU #9114.

SEPTA Blueliners on a fan trip passing the Ex-PRR interlocking tower at Overbrook, PA on the famed Pennsy Mainline. 6-5-88.

SEPTA Blueliner #9129 at Elm Street Station in Norristown, PA in 1989.

Blueliner #9129 departs from the upper level of 30th Street Station Philadelphia, PA.

Silverliners

A train of SEPTA Silverliner IV MUs departs Cornwall Heights, PA. 1-10-10.

SEPTA Silverliner II #9004 (Ex-RDG) at the Philadelphia Airport Station in 1988.

SEPTA Silverliner III #238 on a R-1 Airport line train at the Philadelphia Airport station.

SEPTA Silverliner III #227 at West Trenton NJ. 3-29 -92. This MU was built by St Louis car in 1967.

A 3 car train of SEPTA Siverliners crossing the Delaware River at Morrisville, PA in January of 2010.

SEPTA Silverliner II #263 & Silverliner IV #182 at Lansdale, PA in April of 1993.

Silverliner IV #333 departing the upper level of 30th Street Station Philadelphia, PA in 1988.

SEPTA Silverliner IV #368 on a R-5 train arriving at the Upper Level of 30th Street Station, Philadelphia PA. 4-25-93.

Chicago Trolleys

On the Cover: Car 1747 was built between 1885 and 1893 by the Chicago City Railway, which operated lines on the South Side starting in April 1859. This is a single-truck (one set of wheels) open electric car; most likely a cable car, retrofitted with a trolley and traction motor. The man at right is conductor William Stevely Atchison (1861-1921), and this image came from his granddaughter. (Courtesy of Debbie Becker.)

Check out our new book Chicago Trolleys. Signed copies are available through our Online Store.

This book makes an excellent gift and costs just $17.99 plus shipping. That’s $4.00 off the list price.

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 212th 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 408,000 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.

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Night Beat, Jersey Style

June 24, 2016June 25, 2016David Sadowski 6 Comments

NJT Arrow III MU # 1322 is the lead car, the train is awaiting departure time to head east to Hoboken Terminal on December 15, 1991.

Editor’s Note: Today’s post features photographs taken by Kenneth Gear, a longtime friend and supporter of this blog. Ken was inspired by the nocturnal shots in our post Night Beat (June 21, 2016), and has some great ones of his own. The pictures and comments that follow are all Ken’s, and we thank him as always for his generosity in sharing them with our readers. You can see some of Ken’s daytime shots in our post Remembering Newark’s PCCs (December 19, 2015).

First off I want to thank David for giving me the opportunity to share my photographs on the pages of the Trolley Dodger. I enjoy pulling out a few boxes of slides from time to time and reliving some of the experiences I had taking them.

I try to keep my photography, both day and night, as simple as possible. I carry as little as possible and avoid complicated set-ups. If there was any kind of “philosophy” applied to my night photography it was simply this, I wanted the scene I was photographing to look like it was taken at night. That is to say that I didn’t want to pop off ten flashbulbs along the side of a locomotive. I did not want the picture to look as if I photographed a locomotive in full 3/4 sunshine, cut the locomotive out of the picture, and than pasted it to black construction paper.

I always use as much available light as possible, saving any flashes for fill-in light in the dark areas. There are some places where it would be ill-advised to use any type of flash, such as around electrified railroad tracks. A few flashes, I was told, could bring police thinking it was some sort of electrical malfunction. I would instead use a good flashlight to fill in the dark spots providing there were no moving trains around or railroad employees present. I wouldn’t want my flashlight to be mistaken as a hand signal being given to a train crew.

I’ve never given up my day job to pursue photography and I don’t profess to be an expert. I only intend to explain the way I took the photos shown here. All I can say is that it worked for me.

All of these photos were shot on slide film, mostly Kodachrome 64. Perhaps not the best film for night work because of it’s slow speed, but it was what I usually had on hand. When I got trackside at night the first thing I did was to check out how much light was falling on the equipment I wanted to photograph.

If the train was sitting in a nice bright beam from the yard lights, I would use the built in light meter of my Canon Alan 7 to get a base line exposure. Knowing my light meter usually under exposed such a scene I would begin bracketing my exposures toward being lighter. I would also use the exposure the camera picked and then bracket toward being darker. I would increase/decrease exposures in one stop intervals up to four times. This would yield as many as ten slides depending upon how sure I was of the exposures.

Out of the ten, perhaps half were worth keeping, the rest were thrown away. Twenty years ago film was inexpensive enough that I would gladly sacrifice six frames to get four really nice night shots. I kept records of the exposures I used so I would know which ones made for the best photos. When I went back to that same location I could use those same exposures again. At night with the same lights shining on trains in the same location, the exposures never changed and I could significantly reduce the amount of discarded slides.

If there was no or very little light on the train I would use a base line exposure of 30 seconds at F4 (for asa 64). This long exposure would give me plenty of time to “paint” the nose or side of the locomotive with light from my flashlight. I would bracket these shots sometimes as well. when I saw the resulting slides I could, next time, adjust the exposure times accordingly.

Now with digital I can see what I got in the LED screen immediately and adjust exposures on the spot. I go home knowing I got the shots! I do, however, fondly remember the film days when the excitement would build as I opened that little yellow box of slides. Would my expectations be met… exceeded… or would bitter disappointment await!

The photos included here represent the times when I was very happy with the results. In keeping with the Trolley Dodger‘s traction theme, I only included photos of electric railroad equipment.

There was probably a better and more efferent way to do this sort of night railroad photography with film, but this was the way I did it!

-Kenneth Gear

Here is the first bunch of night photos. All of the photos were taken at Dover, New Jersey on NJ Transit’s Morris & Essex Line. The date was December 15, 1991:

An NJ Transit train of Arrow MU cars wait at the Ex-DL&W station. The station now has high level platforms so this shot cannot be repeated today.

The view from the platform shows signal lights and the Catenary wires.

A train of Arrow MUs about to depart into the night.

Next bunch. All photos were taken at Gladstone, NJ on September 7, 1996:

NJT MU # 1309 at the Gladstone station

NJT MU # 1306 in the Gladstone lay-up yard.

NJT MU 1309 again, from other side.

NJT MU # 1309 in a wide shot of the station area.

More Gladstone photos, taken August 31, 1997:

A wide shot of the station area showing both the passenger station and, on the right, the freight house.

NJT MU 1310 at the Gladstone station.

A NJT ALP-44 electric locomotive.

NJT yard line-up showing Comet coaches, Arrow MUs and a ALP-44 locomotive.

Still more Gladstone photos:

NJT ALP-44 # 4418 & Arrow III MU # 1313 spend the night in the yard 5/15/98

A NJT train of Arrow MUs about to depart the Gladstone station 5/15/98

NJT Arrow MU 1331 5/15/98

A NJT ALP-44 & a ARROW MU in the yard 12/11/98

NJT ALP-44 # 4404 12/11/98

ALP-44 # 4405 12/11/98

The headlight of an approaching train illuminates the sides of a Arrow MU set in the Gladstone yard 12/11/98

More Gladstone photos ( I went there a lot!):

NJT ALP-44 # 4426 3/24/00

A NJT ALP-44 electric under “blue flag” protection 3/24/00

NJT MU # 1520 in the Gladstone yard 3/24/00

Brand new NJT ALP-46 # 4605 under the yard lights at Gladstone. This was the first time I saw one of these locomotives. I was very happy to find it in the yard that night and I think the photo came out quite well. Usually when a locomotive has had a lot of reflective tape applied to it’s side, it is very difficult to photograph at night. This was not the case here, I actually shined a flashlight along the 4605 to light up the tape. 10/12/02

Another shot of brand new ALP-46 4605. 10/12/02

NJT ALP-46 # 4605 in broadside. 10/12/02

A NJT Gladstone branch train is about to depart and make a night time run to Summit, NJ. 10/12/04

Last bunch of Gladstone photos. These are some of my favorites because I had a full moon along with some fast moving clouds playing across the sky. This made for some very interesting effects above the trains! The photos were all taken on the same night; March 6, 2004:

NJT ALP-44 in the yard and under the moon.

NJT Arrow MU # 1512 at the Gladstone station.

NJT MU # 1512 under a cloud cloaked full moon.

NJ Transit Arrow MU cars 1331 & 1308 spend the night in the yard.

NJT MUs 1331 & 1308 in the moonlight.

ALP-44 # 4404 with a coach wrapped with an advertisement for Continental Airlines.

All the trial and error (mostly error) that goes into night film photography becomes worth every lousy slide tossed in the trash when you get just one that turns out like this! NJ Transit Arrow MU cars # 1331 and 1308 pose under a spectacular sky at Gladstone.

NJ Transit Hoboken Terminal 3/30/02

NJ Transit Hoboken Terminal with the World Trade Center Tribute In Light beaming up from the site of the twin towers. The site, when this photo was taken, was still just a big hole in the ground- no Freedom tower yet. 3/30 02

NJ Transit Hoboken Terminal main entrance 3/30/02

A NJ Transit ALP-44 along side the terminal’s Bush train shed.3/30/02

NJT ALP-44 locomotives in the yard at Long Branch NJ 11/7/92

A train of NJT Arrow MU cars at the TRENTON NJ station 2/9/02

On February 9, 2002 I was out riding and photographing trains on Amtrak’s North East Corridor. After riding all day and as as night approached, I arrived at Trenton NJ on a SEPTA train. My intent was to catch a connecting NJ Transit train to continue east and head for home. As luck would have it, a Conrail train snagged and pulled down the catenary wires somewhere close by and just like that, the trains stopped running. I was stranded for a while so I took advantage of the situation and started taking night photos. I had no tripod so I had to make do with what was available, like taking off my shoe and putting the camera in it! This photo shows Amtrak E-60 # 602 with Train # 40 the THREE RIVERS stopped at Trenton. It is illuminated by the headlight of a NJT train.

Amtrak HHP-8 # 650 with Regional Train # 178 sits and waits for catenary repairs at Trenton.

This photo shows Amtrak E-60 # 602 with Train # 40 the THREE RIVERS stopped at Trenton. It is illuminated by the headlight of a NJT train.

This was shot from the end of the passenger platforms looking west. A train with an ALP-44 is sitting in the yard 3/30/02

SEPTA Silverliner # 424 at Trenton, NJ

A train of SEPTA Ex-READING Silverliner MUs waits in the yard at West Trenton NJ. 4/6/01

SEPTA Silverliner MU # 9006 has just led a train into West Trenton and is awaiting it’s departure time to return east 4/6/01

SEPTA Silverliner MUs under the yard lights at West Trenton, NJ 4/6/01

SEPTA Siverliner IV # 332 sits in the yard at West Trenton over the weekend awaiting Monday Morning. 4/6/01

A train of SEPTA Silverliner IV MU cars is sitting in front of “TRENT” tower and will soon pull east to the passenger station to pick up riders for Philadelphia. 4/6/01

This is the same SEPTA train of Silverliners that is seen in the previous photo. I walked around “TRENT” tower and took this photo looking east. The Ex-Reading Company passenger station is just visible past the tower to the right center of the photo. 4/6/01

On November 2, 2002 the Wilmington (Delaware) chapter of the NRHS hosted a PCC night photo trip through the streets of Philadelphia. Members of the NRHS chapter used the open flash photography method to light the car, yielding good results. (” open flash” means that the entire scene was illuminated solely with flashes, avoiding as much light from other sources as possible. Also the flashes were not connected to each other or any of the cameras. They were popped with hand held flash guns or battery operated strobes).

While I have shot my share of flashbulbs over the years, my preferred method is to use flashes very sparingly. I like to use bulbs only for fill-in flash to send some light in to the dark spots that the ambient light doesn’t reach. I’ll include a few of the flashed photos but I prefer the shots I took using the available light with perhaps just one or two flashes popped. The photos taken at the Elmwood car house are more to my liking. They were shot either with only the yard lights or with just a flash or two to light the front of the equipment.

-Kenneth Gear

This slide was made using only the available light at the Mount Moriah Loop.

This photo is more to my liking. Just one flash to light the PCC’s nose. The photo was taken at 39th Street & Filbert Street, west Philadelphia.

SEPTA historic PCC # 2732. Enough light was flashed on the car to nicely show-off the classic green & cream paint scheme of the Philadelphia Transit Company. West Philadelphia, PA

PCC # 2732 is again assaulted by “flashers” as she poses for photos in West Philadelphia.

A line-up of SEPTA Kawasaki LRVs or “K Cars” are under the yard lights waiting for the next call of duty.

The fan trip being over, PCC # 2732 returned to the Elmwood Car house in Southwest Philadelphia and was posed with some work equipment. PCC 2732 is shown here next to PCC work car # 2187

Two SEPTA PCCs street car and work car versions.

Close-up of work car # 2187

SEPTA work car # 2187, PCC # 2732 & motor flat # W61

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

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Tokens of Our Esteem

January 20, 2016February 4, 2024David Sadowski 9 Comments

The North Shore Line Milwaukee terminal in January 1963.

We’ve reached our one-year anniversary, and have successfully renewed our Internet domain for another year, thanks to your generous contributions. Over the past year, many people have made contributions here, and not always financial.

I like to think of The Trolley Dodger as a place where we can all share information, discuss various topics and learn things together. As I’ve said before, I learn a lot from our readers and the things they choose to share with us. Coming here is like taking a stroll through a curiosity shop, and today we have lots of curios to share with you.

With the 53rd anniversary of the abandonment of the North Shore Line coming up on Thursday (the 21st), we have included a few pictures from the final days of that great electric interurban railway that once ran between Chicago and Milwaukee.

If you can shed any light on some of today’s mysteries, we would love to hear from you. You can make a comment on this page or drop us a line directly at:

thetrolleydodger@gmail.com

Thanks.

-David Sadowski

PS- We will continue our birthday celebration with another collection of great images in our next post, so watch this space.

Thanks to the generous donations from our readers, we have renewed our domain for another year. The various photos in today’s post are but tokens of our esteem.

Help Support The Trolley Dodger

This is our 112th 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 114,000 page views from over 32,000 visitors.

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

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

We thank you for your support.

More Off-Street Loops

Andre Kristopans has a few additions to the very comprehensive list of Chicago’s off-street streetcar and bus turnaround loops he shared with us recently:

A few additions:

Roosevelt/Monitor – abandoned 09/28/08 when lease expired and renewal could not be negotiated

Madison/Springfield – 07/16/1890 out 12/13/53 originally for cable cars

118th/Burley – 4/8/45 to 7/1/47 – this was an odd situation. Both 118th and Burley were “dedicated streets”, but only Burley was paved. the “terminal” which had been a passing siding, was thus on open track. In addition, after 10/21/46, when Ewing-Brandon was bussed, only the South Chicago cars ended there, basically in the middle of nowhere, next to a tavern.

Canal between Harrison and Polk – 2/7/72 to 10/1/81 – an exclusive counterflow lane for Taylor/Sedgwick buses after the Polk St bridge was closed.

Cortland/Paulina – 9/1/47 to 4/17/59 – apron of old Noble Carhouse used by Southport buses until it was about to be torn down

Pulaski/21st – 4/26/04 to 6/16/08 – part of rebuilt Pulaski L station, not used after Ogden bus cut back to California

Blue Island/Leavitt 7/27/1893 to 7/20/06 – terminal for Blue Island cable cars adjacent to Blue Island carhouse

Corcoran/Menard – 10/26/27 to 5/19/47 – CMC is said to have had an off-street terminal here for Washington buses, but no good description has survived. 1938 aerial photo shows nothing obvious, so it might have involved wyeing by backing into a driveway.

Another subcategory– Counterflow lanes:

Madison between Desplaines and Michigan, Washington between Michigan and Jefferson 9/13/81 to 9/8/85

Adams between Jefferson and Michigan, Jackson between Michigan and Jefferson 8/31/80 to 4/20/86 (note – one block on Adams between Jefferson and Clinton not put into use until 2/1/81 account construction at the corner of Jefferson and Adams)

Canal between Randolph and Washington (NW Station) 6/22/64, extended to Lake St 7/20/81 to 8/5/87

Canal between Adams and Jackson (Union Station) 5/14/69, moved to NB exclusive lane on east side of Canal 8/31/80, returned to SB on west side of Canal 4/20/86. (note – replaced use of River Drive between Adams and Jackson which had been used since 6/22/64, however River Drive was actually a cab drive and therefore not an “off street terminal” in the strict sense, even though cars were not supposed to use it.

About that previous list, Daniel Joseph writes:

The only addition I can add to this complete list is the terminal on Sherman between Church and Davis inherited from Evanston Bus Company.

Andre replies:

Don’t know much about it. Basically, EBC loaded along regular curb until city of Evanston “streetscaped” the street in late 60’s or so, leaving a short piece of original curb for buses to load while rest of street in the two blocks between Clark and Davis was substantially narrowed and sidewalks widened. Orrington was done at the same time, as were parts of Church and Davis. Last buses that could have used the cut-out would have been the N201. Sort of what was done much later to Benson between Church and Davis. The “bus lane” is the original right lane.

The North Shore Line in January 1963, shortly before the end.

North Shore Line freight loco 459 heads up a train in January 1963.

A Silverliner and an Electroliner at the North Shore Line’s Milwaukee terminal in January 1963.

An Electroliner on the Chicago “L” in July 1962. Not sure of the exact location, but I assume this is Roosevelt Road where the NSL had free reign between 1949 and 1963 (CTA trains ran through the nearby subway then).

CNS&M electric locos 458 and 455 in July 1962.

North Shore Line 712 at Roosevelt Road in July 1962.

Ad touting 349 new trolley coaches ordered for the Chicago Transit Authority, 1951.

An unusual Chicago Surface Lines supervisor’s badge just sold for $80 on eBay. I was not the buyer.

This 1886 trade magazine includes an article detailing how the LaSalle Street cable car tunnel under the Chicago River was being expanded and upgraded.

San Francisco cable car 524 at the Chicago Railroad Fair on June 21, 1949. (Jeff Marinoff Collection) One of our readers notes, “Most of the gentlemen shown in transit uniforms appear to be wearing caps that have the Chicago Surface Lines cap badge on them in spite of the fact that according to the date on the photo the CTA had been in existence for almost two years. The guy with the coin changer might be wearing a CTA cap badge of the period.” Interesting. Guess things didn’t get replaced immediately. “They were also slow to slap the CTA decals on some of the streetcars too.”

A Marion (Indiana) Birney car circa 1940.

South Shore Line #15 in an unusual paint scheme on a 1954 fantrip.

CSS&SB 106 heads up a two-car train going east from the South Shore’s old South Bend terminal. This street running was eliminated in 1970 when the line was cut back to Bendix at the outskirts of town. Since then, it has been extended to the local airport.

George Foelschow: “The latest Trolley Dodger installment, which included a photo of a South Shore Line train on East LaSalle Avenue in South Bend, reminded me of a watercolor painting I acquired before moving from Chicago in 1978. The artist is David Tutwiler and the painting is dated (19)77. It depicts a similar scene. I thought you may want to share it with Trolley Dodger readers.” Thanks, George!

The same location today.

South Shore Line cars 28 and 19 at the Randolph Street station in downtown Chicago in March 1978. By then, these cars were more than 50 years old and had but a few more years to run. That’s the Prudential Building in the background. Since then, this station has been rebuilt and is now underneath Millennium Park.

This is where the Lehigh Valley Transit’s Liberty Bell Limited interurban cars went up a ramp to an elevated connection with the Philadelphia & Western in Norristown. This photo of car 710 is from 1944. The ramp, a few blocks long, was torn down in 1954. The interurban quit in 1951, which made it superfluous.

As you can see from this current photo of Swede Street in Norristown, the elevated section in the previous picture continued a few blocks from the present terminus of the former P&W, running all the way to the domed building at rear. Once the LVT interurban quit in 1951, it was no longer needed and was torn down a few years later.

An interesting and unusual fate for a Philadelphia PCC– being turned into an ice cream stand. This picture was taken in 2002. Jeff Marinoff adds, “The Philadelphia PCC car is still at the Trolley Car Diner on Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy. The car is not a diner, however. The car is an ice cream stand. You don’t sit on the car, you walk up to a window and get your order.”

Gwen Deanne writes: “My mother wearing the most fabulous shoes ever, and my brother exercising his “open carry” rights as a youngster bringing a BB gun on the train. This is 100% Chicago, but which station, I don’t now. Perhaps you can figure it out. They lived on North Talman at the time, but Nana lived in Wicker Park. They could have been going anywhere. Taken by my Dad. The next brother was born, and not pictured. He may be with Nana, or Auntie Olga.” Mike Murray: ” That’s the Ardmore station of the Chicago, Aurora, & Elgin Railroad, facing east in Villa Park. The station is still there, but the railroad quit passenger service on July 3, 1957. Much of the route is now the Prairie Path. The silver water tower in the distance is the Ovaltine Factory.” Here is another picture of the same station:
http://www.greatthirdrail.org/stations/main/ardmore.html (Photo from the Gwen Deanne Collection, used by permission)

This 1955 photo’s a bit of a mystery. Could this be Wheaton? William Barber: “Yes, this is Wheaton at the grade crossing immediately east of the depot.” Bill Shapotkin: “This pic is Cross St, Wheaton. View looks east.”

CA&E freight and passenger trains in Elmhurst in this November 5, 1949 view. (Gordon E. Lloyd Photo) Bill Shapotkin: “This pic is just east of Mannhiem Rd. The frt locos are on the CA&E/IHB interchange. While technically near Butterfield Rd, it is nowhere near Roosevelt Rd.” (Roosevelt and Butterfield was written on the back of the photo, apparently in error. This was not uncommon when the photographer was from out of town.)

The CA&E Wheaton Yard. This photo was dated as the 1950s but looks to be earlier.

The CA&E Elgin terminal.

The same location as the previous photo, early 1950s.

CA&E 405 at Spring Road in Elmhurst. Dig that phone booth.

CA&E 406, in this 1957 picture, is identified as being at Fifth Avenue in Maywood. Perhaps one of our keen-eyed readers can confirm this. Bill Shapotkin: “This pic NOT anywhere near Maywood. It is WEST of Hill Ave (aka Glen Oak Rd) in Glen Ellyn. Beyond the bridge is the Glen Oak station. View looks east.”

A CA&E pocket map made by Roy G. Benedict in 1958, when the “Roarin’ Elgin” had already abandoned passenger service (except for charters) but was still running freight. Roy mimeographed these and sold them to aspiring railfans. He has made many additional maps since, and has had a successful career in the publishing industry. The Forest Park loop shown at the bottom of this page is where the next picture in this post was taken.

CA&E 409 and 414 on the turnback loop in Forest Park in 1957.

Kenosha Streetcar Day

September 13, 2015September 14, 2015David Sadowski 11 Comments

Streetcars have become a tourist attraction in Kenosha, and bring many visitors there who also visit the museums, restaurants, the lake shore, and many other attractions. Yesterday was their annual Streetcar Day, and Kenosha Area Transit introduced newly refurbished PCC 4617 into service, in 1950s-era San Francisco colors, replete with “wings.”

The car, which looks beautiful both inside and out, took a long road to get there, starting in Toronto in 1951, with a stint at the East Troy Electric Railroad. Being a single-ended car, it was not a good fit for the museum, which lacks turning loops at its ends. To operate 4617 on that line would involve backing up the car 50% of the time. We can be thankful that it has found a good home elsewhere in Wisconsin.

We got there just in time for the ceremonial breaking of a banner as the car backed out of the barn. They put the car on display for a while and then began running it on the two mile long trolley loop that goes between the local Metra station and the lakefront.

The San Francisco car joins a fleet that already pays tribute to such cities as Chicago, Pittsburgh, Johnstown PA, Philadelphia, Toronto and Cincinnati. All of these (except for the Philadelphia car) were built in Canada and originally ran in Toronto.

After stopping for lunch at the historic Franks Diner, where they serve up a kind of organized chaos along with their signature “garbage plate” of eggs, cheese, meats, onions, green peppers and hash browns, we rode the 4617 and took many pictures and videos of it and the other cars that were being shuffled in and out of service.

With the wind and all the clouds out over Lake Michigan, we could have had some foggy San Francisco weather, but the day was mostly sunny instead. Besides the streetcars, we also spotted a couple of classic autos– a rare 1929-32 Cord L-29, the first production car in the US with front-wheel drive, and a 1927-31 Ford Model A.

If you have not yet visited Kenosha’s streetcar loop, it is well worth a trip. And while plans to expand the system have been shelved for the moment, they run a first-class operation, in large part due to the hard work of streetcar technician Brad Preston.

-Ye Olde Editor

PS- Today’s photos and videos are by David Sadowski and Diana Koester.

You can read another article about the SF tribute car on the Market Street Railway blog.