Chicago’s Postwar PCCs

June 9, 2015June 10, 2015David Sadowski 8 Comments

CSL 4062 in “Pre-View” service, westbound on Harrison at Holden Court on September 17, 1946. (Thomas H. Desnoyers Photo)

Following up on our previous post about Chicago’s prewar PCC streetcars, here are some classic views of the 600 postwar PCCs delivered to Chicago Surface Lines and the Chicago Transit Authority between 1946 and 1948.

The design of these cars was derived from, and improved upon, those of the 83 prewar PCCs Chicago put into service in 1936-37. CSL experimented with various door arrangements on car 4051, which was tested in service on route 56 – Milwaukee Avenue in 1941.

The City of Chicago developed a transit modernization plan in the late 1930s, calling for the purchase of 1000 modern streetcars to replace CSL’s aging fleet. However, these plans would have to wait until the end of World War II to become a reality. Construction of new streetcars was put off “for the duration” as materials were needed for the war effort.

The Chicago Transit Authority was created by act of the Illinois legislature and approved by voters in Cook County in 1945. CTA took over both CSL and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company on October 1, 1947. However, the Chicago Transit Board, the CTA’s governing body, felt it had a mandate to make improvements even before the takeover.

CSL had a substantial fund set aside for equipment purchases that had been building up for years. The Surface Lines had been under the control of the courts for many years, as it was technically bankrupt. The fledgling CTA had no difficulty in persuading the CSL and the courts to order 600 new PCC streetcars for Chicago in 1945. Due to the size of this order, it was split between Pullman (310 cars) and St. Louis Car Company (290).

The September 12, 1946 Chicago Tribune reported:

First of 600 New Street Cars Arrives in City

The first of the city’s new green and cream colored 1946 streamlined streetcars, which will be in use by the end of the month on the Clark-Wentworth line, was inspected yesterday by management officers of the Chicago Surface lines.

The management group of four trustees and Federal Judge Michael L. Igoe, who has jurisdiction over the reorganization proceedings of the Surface lines company, were taken for a ride in the streamliner, the first of 600 cars on order.

Several new features captured the fancy of the inspectors. Coming in for the most praise were the crank operated windows. For tall persons, windows have been placed above the regular side windows.

Aisles are three inches wider. Another innovation is a no glare windshield which eliminates need for the curtain behind the motorman.

In addition to the Clark-Wentworth line, the cars will also be in use on Broadway-State, Western av. and 63d street lines.

Eventually, the postwar PCCs also ran on the Cottage Grove, Halsted, and Madison lines. Prior to being introduced on Clark-Wentworth, car 4062, the first one delivered, was run in “Pre-View” service in a downtown loop.

The September 16, 1946 Tribune reported:

NEWEST STREET CAR WILL BE IN SERVICE IN LOOP FOR 2 DAYS

Loop visitors will have an opportunity today and tomorrow to inspect Chicago’s first post-war street car which the Chicago Surface Lines has received out of 600 ordered. The new car will operate during the two days in an area bounded by Wabash av. and State, Lake, and Harrison sts.

The public has been invited by surface lines officials to make short trips free of charge to get firsthand information on the new car. It will operate from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m.

The new car, which will be placed on the Madison st. run soon, seats 58 persons and operation is all-electric. The heating system uses only the high temperatures generated by braking.

While the new PCCS were very popular with the public, a “sea change” in management philosophy was already in the offing, even before the Chicago Transit Authority took over the Surface Lines on October 1, 1947, as this Tribune editorial from November 20, 1946 shows:

THE STREET CAR IS DEAD

About all that has happened to the straphangers of this city in the last year is that the Chicago Motor Coach drivers went out on a strike nearly two months ago and are still out. The bus riders, who are a small minority of local transportation passengers, seem to be getting to and from work, tho not without greater inconvenience than they suffered on the buses. Instead of sardining themselves into buses, they sardine themselves into street cars or the “L.”

If the latter systems were offering anything like acceptable service to the public, the strike might prove fatal to the bus company. Its patrons would learn that they could get to work for 8 cents on the street car instead of a dime on the bus. As it is, they undoubtedly will be back on their old corners the first morning they read that the bus strike has been settled.

There isn’t a single form of local transportation in Chicago whose service today isn’t disgraceful. The street car service is the worst altho some elevated patrons might dispute this. The surface lines are, insofar as service to the public is concerned, leaderless. They remain in their second decade of federal court receivership. The court evidently thinks the management is running the company, and the management seems to think the court is. The physical properties are run down, and, still worse, are obsolete.

The street car is dead. With the exception of a few long haul, heavy traffic routes, street cars, which came in before paved streets, are obsolete. They should be replaced by buses. The surface lines themselves recognize this in their extensions of lines. They put in buses because property owners will no longer consent to have street cars run past their doors.

Street cars depreciate property values on every street on which they run. Buses improve them. That has been the almost universal experience in New York, where the street car has virtually disappeared from Manhattan. The deteriorating effect of the street car has been demonstrated in Chicago. The beneficial effect of buses has not been so well proved here for lack of substitution.

street cars, experts assert, can carry more people over a given route than can buses. Very well, then, keep the street cars on perhaps a half dozen heavily traveled routes. The new, high speed, relatively quiet cars that the company is now buying can serve those routes and the thousands of old rattletraps that it is using elsewhere can be junked and replaced with buses. Trolley buses can be justified if they are cheaper than gasoline buses. Their use on certain streets might be permitted, but they, too, are a detriment to adjoining property, altho not as great a one as the rail cars.

This is a good summation of the prevailing philosophy that both CSL and CTA had in 1946. Soon, however, the Chicago Transit Board hired Walter J. McCarter as the first CTA general manager, and even before the 1947 takeover, he had made public his anti-streetcar sentiments.

The last Chicago streetcar ran in the early hours of June 21, 1958. Today, the last surviving postwar Chicago streetcar, #4391, survives in operating condition at the Illinois Railway Museum.

As streetcars undergo a renaissance in many cities throughout the country, there is much more that can be said about Chicago’s PCCs. Please consider purchasing a copy of our new publication Chicago’s PCC Streetcars: The Rest of the Story from our Trolley Dodger Online Store.

This new electronic book will be released on June 21, 2015, the 57th anniversary of when the last Chicago streetcar ran.

-David Sadowski

CTA 4087 at Madison and Franklin on October 1, 1949. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CTA 4380 at Harrison and Dearborn on June 3, 1958. (Thomas H. Desnoyers Photo)

CTA 7073 eastbound at 115th and Cottage Grove on June 6, 1952. (Thomas H. Desnoyers Photo)

CTA 4106 at Madison and Franklin on October 1, 1949.

CSL 7065 at South Shops in 1947. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CTA 7196 in Wentworth service, circa 1957-58.

CTA 4076 at Madison and Franklin in July 1953. (Thomas H. Desnoyers Photo)

CSL 4062 in “Pre-View” service, northbound on State near Monroe in September 1946. (CSL Photo)

CSL 4083 at Clark and Roosevelt on May 11, 1947. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CSL 4137 at Clark and Roosevelt on May 11, 1947. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CTA 4363 on Schreiber at Paulina in July, 1948. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CTA 4345 on August 1, 1953.

CTA 4073 at the Madison and Austin loop in July 1951.

CTA 7258 passes an older car on the State Street bridge. The Chicago Sun-Times building had not yet been built.

CTA 7269 at 63rd Place and Narragansett on November 23, 1952. (Thomas H. Desnoyers Photo)

CTA 7225 on Clark at Polk on August 26, 1954. (Harold A. Smith Photo)

CTA 4159 on Schreiber near Clark on August 1, 1953.

CTA 4066 at Madison and Franklin on October 24, 1948.

CTA 7106 at State and Roosevelt on August 6, 1954. (Harold A. Smith Photo)

CTA 4374 on Dearborn at Congress on June 10, 1958. (Thomas H. Desnoyers Photo)

CSL 4062 eastbound on Madison near Central Park. (CSL Photo)

CSL 4120 eastbound on 5th Avenue at Independence Boulevard. (Edward Frank Jr. Photo)

CSL 4065 eastbound on Harrison at 5th. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

CTA 4065 southbound on route 36 Broadway-State, then the longest streetcar line in North America.

CTA 7171 passes the Devon Station (car house) on its way to 81st and Halsted. This picture was taken circa 1955-57.

Lost and Found: Chicago Streetcar #1137

June 5, 2015November 16, 2015David Sadowski 8 Comments

The full length of CSL interurban car, No. 1137, can be seen. The rear of the car is in the foreground. Rail experts say the car was built by the St. Louis Car Company between 1905 and 1906 for what would become the Chicago Transit Authority.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

Shared from http://fox11online.com/2015/06/04/weyauwega-couple-uncovers-piece-of-history-in-backyard/

Editor’s Note: This is, of course, a Chicago Surface Lines streetcar, not an interurban. According to Don’s Rail Photos, #1137 is part of a batch of Small St. Louis Cars, series #1101-1425. “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. A number of these cars were converted to sand and salt service and as flangers.”

According to Andre Kristopans, car 1137 was disposed of by Chicago Surface Lines in April 1946. There was a housing shortage at the time, and people were actually living in old streetcars. Some were bought by GIs, returning from World War II. All the undergear would have been removed for salvage as scrap.

We certainly hope that this newly discovered Chicago streetcar can be preserved. It would be a real shame if it has survived for more than a century, just to be reduced to kindling now.

Weyauwega is located in the middle of Wisconsin.

Weyauwega couple uncovers piece of Chicago transit history in backyard

WEYAUWEGA – A Weyauwega couple knew they had some work to do on their retirement home when they purchased it a year ago.

But what Bill and Sharon Krapil found in their backyard took them somewhat by surprise.

“I heard stories from people in my family too,” said Sharon. “They said a man lived in here, for a while, and they said, I think it’s a train car, they actually never said a trolley car.”

Krapil found that out earlier this week when construction crews began to carefully peel away the sides of the old building, with the knowledge that something was underneath.

“It’s like history stepping out of time, into my backyard,” she said of the car, now fully revealed.

Turns out sisters who grew up in the small, sleepy city, Mary Jane Baehman and Rita Kraus, know it fairly well. The two came over as word spread about the house, er, trolley’s unveiling.

“What did you call it?” FOX 11’s Bill Miston asked Baehman of the home she knew growing up.

“The trolley,” said Baehman. “But (the owners) were Bill and Florence Haberkamp, they were the people that resided here and owned it at that time.”

That was more than 60 years ago.

Baehman says her family would regularly visit the small home to watch the Friday night boxing fights, as the Haberkamps had a television. She remembers her father smoking cigars with Bill Haberkamp.

What was the front of the car was even converted into a small bathroom, complete with a bathtub and toilet, which Baehman says – not surprisingly – wasn’t used often.

“That, of course, was the kitchen,” said Baehman, as we toured the cleared out interior of the car. “There was a sitting room here and the TV sat on a little stand right here, and a couple chairs and then, right where you’re standing was the bunk beds.”

Propped up on stones and cinder blocks, the trolley still had Krapil wondering, how did the red No. 1137 wooden car get here?

That question led us to the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon.

“So just looking at it here, I would probably place it in the early 1900s, maybe the teens,” said Bob Lettenberger, the museum’s education director.

Lettenberger is the guy you want to talk to when you need to know too much about all things trains – or in this case, an interurban street car.

“There was a time when you could get on an interurban here in Green Bay and get all the way out to Albany, New York,” he said, adding that the ride would probably be far worse than if you were to take a bus today.

Lettenberger says railroad maps don’t show an interurban system running in Weyauwega during the first half of the 20th century, when the systems were still in operation.

“They were very popular for the time and while they were popular, there were a good deal of them running around the U.S., when the service stopped, it became surplus.”

And quite easy for someone to pick up – either for free or a small price.

There aren’t many markings left on the trolley to give Lettenberger an idea of where it originated from, save for the car’s number and what’s left of a partial logo on the side with and overlapping ‘S’ and ‘L’ surrounded by – what appears to be an ‘O’.

“Based on pure conjecture,” said Lettenberger, “I see red paint, I see S & L, I think St. Louis?”

Turns out, we were on the right track, but wrong stop. After some more digging, we later found out the ‘O’ is actually a ‘C’ – part of the logo for the Chicago Surface Lines company.

Built in 1905 or 1906 by the St. Louis Car Company, car 1137 was purchased and operated by CSL – the predecessor to the Chicago Transit Authority, or CTA.

In fact, the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Ill. has two cars that are restored and in operation today.

Lettenberger says there are likely many more across the state – just not on the rails.

“They make great hunting cabins, they were playhouses for kids, as you see, with this one, it was somebody’s actual residence,” he said. “They’ve cropped up all over the place.”

Like on Krapil’s property. The thing is, she doesn’t want it. Now, she’s trying to figure out who, if anyone would be interested in taking it off her hands – and soon. She’s already paid for the site demolition and needs to get a plan in place by Monday at the latest.

“We can’t afford to put money into it, I really would like to see it preserved,” said Krapil. “If someone is interested and taking it out and restoring it, I would be very happy, because it’s like a piece of Americana.”

Update

As of October 2015, the future of 1137 is still in doubt. You can read more about it here.

Sharon Krapil says there were long-held rumors a train car was behind the walls of the wooden structure in her back yard.
Credit: Sharon Krapil

Construction crews began to carefully peel away the exterior of the home, as there were suspicions about what was actually behind them.
Credit: Sharon Krapil

The rear of the trolley car was converted into a kitchen, closet and back porch. Here the three-fold doors are seen on the trolley’s right, rear side.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

Not much of the original markings are seen on the trolley. Here, stencils rail experts date to the 1930s or 40s, warn riders to not get on or off moving cars.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

The rear of the trolley car was converted into a kitchen, closet and back porch. Here, the back door can be seen on the left of the photo.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

The bright red, wooden car has few markings detailing who made it, or what rail company used it. Here a logo is seen with what appears to be an overlapping S and L, surrounded by an O. It is actually a C, the symbol for the Chicago Surface Lines company. The predecessor to the Chicago Transit Authority, or CTA. Rail experts say the car was made by the St. Louis Car Company between 1905 and 1906 for the CSL.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

The front of the trolley car is boarded up, as it was turned into a small bathroom, complete with a bathtub and toilet.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

The original wooden and rattan seats were likely removed when the car was converted into a living space. A view looking through the living area towards the kitchen is pictured.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

The original wooden and rattan seats were likely removed when the car was converted into a living space. A view looking through the bedroom, towards the bathroom is seen. Longtime Weyauwega residents say the couple who lived in the home had bunk beds to conserve space.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

The original wooden and rattan seats were likely removed when the car was converted into a living space. A view looking towards the bathroom is seen.
Credit: Sharon Krapil

The front of the trolley car is boarded up, as it was turned into a small bathroom, complete with a bathtub and toilet.
Credit: Sharon Krapil

The rear of the trolley car was converted into a kitchen, closet and back porch. Here, the back door can be seen in the center of the photo.
Credit: WLUK/Bill Miston

A view of the house is seen, looking at the front of the former trolley.
Credit: Sharon Krapil

As construction crews removed more walls of the old home, more of the building’s substructure – built on an old trolley car cabin – could be seen.
Credit: Sharon Krapil

Chicago’s PCC Streetcars: The Rest of the Story

June 2, 2015July 1, 2015David Sadowski 16 Comments

Trolley Dodger Press is proud to announce the publication of Chicago’s PCC Streetcars: The Rest of the Story, an E-book on data disc.

At its peak, the Chicago Surface Lines operated 3100 streetcars over the largest such system in the world. This included 683 modern PCC streetcars, which ran between 1936 and 1958.

The publication this month of Chicago Streetcar Pictorial: the PCC Era, 1936-1958 by Central Electric Railfans’ Association is an important addition to the historical record. This lavishly illustrated 448-page book includes hundreds of great pictures of Chicago’s PCC streetcars and is a must-have for all serious railfans. If you have not already done so, we urge you to purchase a copy directly from CERA, before it is completely sold out.*

Besides being a picture book, CERA Bulletin 146 includes a detailed history of the rise and fall of the modern streetcar in Chicago. However, as comprehensive as this book is, Chicago streetcars are such a vast subject that it is likely impossible for anyone to have the “last word.” Even in a book as large as this, there were many things that inevitably had to be left out.

With this in mind, David Sadowski, co-author of B-146, has put together a companion volume, an unofficial supplement that helps tell the “rest of the story” about Chicago’s PCC cars. This is an E-Book on a DVD data disc that can be be read on a computer, using Acrobat Reader.

Chicago’s PCC Streetcars: The Rest of the Story includes more than 448 pages of information, including informative essays, hundreds of great photographs, detailed track maps, and a variety of supporting documents. These include the Chicago Transit Authority‘s 1947 modernization program, various CTA annual reports, the 1951 consultant report that recommended Chicago keep its PCCs, and a 1954 Transit Research Study by Werner W. Schroeder, member and vice chairman of the Chicago Transit Board.

The essays examine, among other things, the PCC conversion plan, through which the CTA “recycled” parts from 570 of 600 postwar PCC cars for use on a like number of new rapid transit cars. The author also looks into the circumstances under which Chicago could have retained some sort of streetcar system, the failed effort to build a streetcar subway, CTA’s 1952 takeover of the Chicago Motor Coach Co. bus routes, plans to use the PCCs on the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, and how transit unification brought about the demise of the streetcar system we did have.

Read this book, and you too will have the “rest of the story!”

For release on June 21, 2015, the 57th anniversary of when the last Chicago streetcar ran.

This title can be pre-ordered now in our Online Store.

A pair of CTA “curved door” PCC rapid transit cars being delivered via the North Shore Line in the 1950s. These used parts salvaged from scrapped Chicago PCC streetcars.

*Trolley Dodger Press is not affiliated with Central Electric Railfans’ Association.

Electroliner Restoration Update

May 31, 2015June 1, 2015David Sadowski 3 Comments

This shows the Liner (car 801A) at IRM in 2013 when the campaign began. We held an open house, arranged for special air conditioning, and gave tours/explanations of the planned restoration project. It was towed to and from the barn and displayed at the 50th Ave Platform.

Today’s post is by guest contributor Tom Sharratt, who gives an update on the ongoing project to restore the Electroliner at the Illinois Railway Museum. All photos are by Tom, unless otherwise indicated.

ELECTROLINER UPDATE

Progress continued during the cold and snowy winter months, a lot of it in preparation for removing the trucks from the train. In service, this was accomplished by the North Shore Line at Milwaukee’s Harrison Street Shop which built a transfer table specifically to allow removing the articulate trucks from the Liner. IRM does not have a transfer table, although there is a drop pit in the steam shop. A drop pit is not designed to do the same job as a transfer table. Removal of the trucks will mark the first of the “heavy” work projects that need to be done: repair of all motors, as required; inspection and turning or replacement of wheels, as necessary; and inspection and repairs to the trucks themselves.

As reported earlier, the pit in barn 4 has been modified with the addition of makeshift gas heating. After some fine tuning of the heating components to maximize the heat produced and developing a means of keeping the heat in the area where the work is done, volunteers succeeded in removing all electrical leads to the motors, uncoupling all air leads to the brakes, and all ground straps. The trucks are now ready to be removed from the train.

But how to remove them from the articulated train? That has been a question that has caused a lot of brainstorming over the past six months. Several options have been considered. One proposal is to “de-articulate” the cars by replacing each of the three trucks that are between cars with two individual shop trucks thereby allowing each individual car to move independently. The two end trucks would also be replaced with shop trucks. This option would have several advantages, a big one being to open the pit track for other cars that need to be worked on using the pit. The Liner is so long that if it is on the pit track, there is insufficient room for effective work on other equipment. This option, if selected, would allow one or two Liner cars to remain on the stub end of the pit track while interior work is being done, and the other cars would be moved to another barn.

It would also allow some very unique pictures of the Electroliner! When the train was moved from Pennsylvania, it had to be moved several miles over the highway on flatbeds to the nearest active rail line where the cars were mounted in pairs on two TTX cars and shipped to IRM where the train was “reassembled.” We’re not aware of any other time that the cars were separated – if anyone knows of such a case, please let us know.

Because of the difficulty and expected expense of accomplishing this work, the Museum Board decided to get three bids on how to best proceed and the estimated cost. The process of contacting possible contractors is ongoing, and it is hoped that by the end of July a decision can be made and a contract signed. Of course, we have no way of knowing at this time how soon the work may begin or how long it might take, but the process of selecting a contractor has begun.

We are able to move forward with the “heavy” work only because of our success in raising funds – we have the money to do what has been described above. There will be more expensive, specialized work to be done, in particular restoration or replacement of the air conditioning system. Donations continue to come in to support the restoration, and in the first four months of 2015 alone just over $45,000 has been received. The Electroliner campaign has raised over $550,000 since fund raising began just under two years ago!

Your continued help is needed, and you can get a nice authentic piece of the Liner by “Buying a Seat” for a donation of $300! To donate via credit card, call Jan Nunez (she works daily except Thurs/Fri) and talk to her ONLY. The number is: 815-923-4391 #2. Otherwise, use the address below.

Your donation can be made online by visiting the IRM online store.

You can also send a check to:

Campaign for the Electroliner
Illinois Railway Museum
PO BOX 427
Union, IL
60180

Thanks!

-Tom Sharratt

PS- The Electroliner fundraiser also has a Facebook page you can check out.

Editor’s Note: You can contact Tom directly at: tssharratt@mwt.net

Here is a very early picture. Not sure who took the original – not me. The color of the fabric is redder than what we are finding under the seats as we reupholster. Of course, what we are finding is AT LEAST 52 years old, more like at least 60.

This shows some of the work we are doing on the windows. Each is being opened and cleaned, metal repaired as necessary, and the “seal” or gasket replaced. This is probably the first time this work has ever been done – my guess only. The gaskets are all in need of replacement. PROBLEM: It is a non standard seal, therefore we will have to have a die made specially which will be the biggest cost. We’ll then order enough to do all our windows with a 50% overrun to cover mistakes in installation, etc. We have talked with Rockhill Trolley Museum about sharing some of this cost as they will want to do the same thing at some point – but they are a lot further from this stage than we are. Estimated cost: $12 – 15K. We have asked for grants to pay for this work, but none have been approved yet.

This shows the motorman’s seat. Only a few swatches can be made from these – two have been sold already. If anyone is interested, get your order in soon.

This shows the motorman’s cabin gauge.

Another shot of the liner on display in 2013.

This shows the animal illustrations in the lounge car. The Red Arrow lines left these, but replaced the ones in the coaches with Liberty Bells.

This one shows a seat that will be reupholstered. You can see the material (cut) that Red Arrow installed; beneath it is the NSL fabric (I believe it was reupholstered once by the NSL.) A swatch of the red material is what will be given to those who “Buy a Seat” for $300. (Rod Turner Photo)

This is one of a number of slides that I bought from Chuck Westerman. I have no idea who took the picture.
It shows combine 253 outside the Harrison Street shops. Of special interest are the planks shown in the foreground between the nearest two tracks. These are the southern most of four tracks that went into the shop, and just outside the doors. They cover the transfer table that was built especially for removing the Liners’ trucks.

(Rod Turner Photo)

An Electroliner at the Milwaukee terminal in 1949. (Trolley Dodger Collection – Photographer Unknown)

Chicago’s Prewar PCCs

May 22, 2015June 9, 2015David Sadowski 16 Comments

CSL 4040 is eastbound at Madison and Laramie on October 23, 1938. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

Continuing on from our recent article Chicago’s Pre-PCCs (May 5), by 1936 the Presidents’ Conference Committee, by then renamed the Electric Railway Presidents’ Conference Committee (ERPCC), had developed a streamlined modern streetcar.

Chicago was very much involved in this, and ordered 83 PCC cars in 1936. These were built by St. Louis Car Co. and were numbered 4002-4051 (owned by Chicago Railways) and 7002-7034 (for Chicago City Railway). The split numbering was due to the Chicago Surface Lines being a unified operating association made up of constituent companies.

To give you some background information on Chicago’s first batch of PCCs, here is an interesting article from the December 1936 issue of Armour Engineer and Alumnus. The Armour Institute is now the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Author Ralph H. Rice was Principal Assistant Engineer in charge of the work of the Board of Supervising Engineers, a partnership between the City of Chicago and the Chicago Surface Lines.

According to the Wikipedia page on the Chicago Surface Lines:

The Settlement Ordinance of 1907 imposed various operating requirements on two of the underlying companies, the Chicago City Railway Company and Chicago Railways, and established a new bureau, the Board of Supervising Engineers (Chicago Traction), a board of engineers and accountants with responsibilities for assuring compliance with the ordinances, and setting standards for equipment and construction.

It is important to note the role played by the City of Chicago, working in partnership with the Chicago Surface Lines through the Board of Supervising Engineers, in developing the specifications for Chicago’s prewar and postwar PCC streetcars.

The Chicago cars were unique in that they were longer and wider than the standard single-ended PCCs used in other cities. They were designed for two-man operation, and had three sets of doors.

They were initially put into service on CSL route 20 – Madison, which was considered representative and offered a wide variety of operating conditions. It ran downtown and through the neighborhoods to the city limits, and also had a branch line (Madison-Fifth). Even so, the 83 PCCs put into service in 1936-37 were not enough to handle the entire schedule on Madison, which to some extent actually competed with the nearby Garfield Park “L” rapid transit line.

The prewar PCCs were popular with the riding public, and as a result, ridership increased, and the cars ran faster than those they replaced. By 1939, the City of Chicago, anticipating transit unification of the Surface Lines with the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, developed a modernization plan that called for a total of 1000 modern streetcars.

Over many years, Chicago’s trolley riders paid into a modernization fund, and by the start of World War II, millions of dollars were available for purchasing new streetcars. However, wartime shortages made this impossible until 1945.

In anticipation of placing new orders for postwar PCCs, CSL experimented with different paint schemes, door arrangements, and with forced-air ventilation, before deciding on the specifications of the 600 new cars delivered in 1946-48. (We will delve further into the postwar cars in our next installment in this series.)

With the delivery of more PCCs, the original 83 cars were shifted to other lines, ultimately running on Cottage Grove, 63rd, and Western, before being retired after nearly 20 years of service in 1956.

Could they have lasted longer? A 1951 CTA (successor to the CSL) consultant’s report stated that the cost of maintaining these cars was increasing. By the standards of the time, the CTA considered streetcars to be fully depreciated after 20 years’ use.

Although the 83 cars from 1936 had seen a lot of use, there is no doubt they could have continued in service if not for the fact that the CTA wanted to phase out streetcars as soon as possible. Similar considerations were at work when the 100 CSL Sedans (aka “Peter Witts”) were retired and scrapped in the early 1950s, after little more than two decades of service.

Other cities such as Toronto managed to keep their streetcars running for a lot longer than 20 years, under hard use.

The only other possible use that CTA had for the prewar cars in 1956 would have been to put them in use between Forest Park and Wheaton, as a “light rail” replacement for a portion of the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban. Unfortunately, no funding to operate such a service was forthcoming (see our article The CTA, the CA&E, and “Political Influence”, February 18) and the CA&E was abandoned without replacement. This plan, while stillborn, may have helped influence the Skokie Swift, which began service in 1964 over five miles of abandoned North Shore Line interurban trackage.

Only one of the 83 prewar cars has been preserved. 4021 is now on static display at the Illinois Railway Museum. For many years, it was stored as part of the CTA’s Historical Collection, but the body was damaged when it was improperly handled while being moved from one location to another. Since arriving at IRM in the mid-1980s the car has been repainted and made to look a lot more presentable from the outside.

El Paso has put out a request for proposals to rebuild several prewar PCCs of about the same vintage as Chicago’s. These have been stored in the desert for 40 years.

This may present a unique opportunity to help restore the last remaining prewar Chicago PCC. Since it is likely that the El Paso cars will receive all new mechanical parts, it is hoped that some of the original parts, rather than simply being discarded, could be used to help bring CSL 4021 back to operating condition in the future. Or, at least, that is my hope.

Meanwhile, I hope that you will enjoy seeing these classic pictures of Chicago’s prewar PCCs in action.

-David Sadowski

CSL 4002 and crew at Madison and Austin on July 16, 1938. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CSL 4005 at Fifth Avenue and Jackson Boulevard and Christiana in August, 1946. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CTA 4015 at Central Park and 63rd. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

According to Bob Lalich, CTA 4013 is “under the Grand Trunk Western overpass at 63rd and Central Park.” (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

CTA 4026 is eastbound at 115th and Cottage Grove on June 6, 1952. (Thomas H. Desnoyers Photo)

CSL 4009, in “tiger stripes,” at West Shops. These were meant to alert motorists that the streetcars were wider than they might think. (CSL Photo)

CSL 4022, with “handlebar mustache,” at Madison and Austin on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1945. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

CSL 4035, in experimental colors, at Madison and Austin on November 2, 1946.

CSL 4020, in experimental decor, at Madison and Austin. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

CSL 4018, in experimental paint, at Kedzie Station (carhouse) on February 9, 1946. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

CSL 4028 on the Madison-Fifth branch line, here at Fifth Avenue and Harrison, with a Harrison car at right. (Edward Frank Jr. Photo)

CSL 4022 at Kedzie and Van Buren. (CSL Photo)

CSL 4027, eastbound on Madison near Canal, on May 6, 1937. (George Krambles Photo)

CSL 4051 at Madison and Austin, sporting an experimental door arrangement . (Robert W. Gibson Photo)

CSL 7011 at Madison and Austin on July 16, 1938. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CSL 7017 at Madison and Austin in 1938.

CSL 4003 at Madison and Lavergne. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

CSL 4022 in experimental colors at Madison and Austin.

CTA 4010 at 63rd and Central Park. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

Circa 1945, we see CSL 7026 fitted with experimental forced-air ventilation of the type used in some Boston PCCs. It was not used on the postwar Chicago cars.

CSL 4020 in experimental colors at Madison and Austin in February 1946. (James J. Buckley Photo)

CSL 4028 and 4010 pass at Madison and Hamlin in early 1937, shortly after entering service. We are at the west end of Garfield Park.

CSL 4009 at West Shops. (CSL Photo)

CSL 4007 at Madison and Austin in 1939. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CSL 7016 and a line truck at the Madison and Austin loop. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

CSL 4008 eastbound on 63rd Street in 1947.

The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster

May 19, 2015March 20, 2016David Sadowski 37 Comments

This Friday’s (May 23rd) Central Electric Railfans’ Association program features author Craig Allen Cleve, who will discuss his book The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster. The following Monday is the 65th anniversary of that tragic accident, where a Chicago Transit Authority PCC car derailed and ran headlong into a gasoline truck.

Cleve’s book is described as follows:

As rush hour came to a close on the evening of May 25, 1950, one of Chicago’s new fast, colorful, streamlined streetcars—known as a Green Hornet—slammed into a gas truck at State Street and 62nd Place. The Hornet’s motorman allegedly failed to heed the warnings of a flagger attempting to route it around a flooded underpass, and the trolley, packed with commuters on their way home, barreled into eight thousand gallons of gasoline. The gas erupted into flames, poured onto State Street, and quickly engulfed the Hornet, shooting flames two hundred and fifty feet into the air. More than half of the passengers escaped the inferno through the rear window, but thirty-three others perished, trapped in front of the streetcar’s back door, which failed to stay open in the ensuing panic. It was Chicago’s worst traffic accident ever—and the worst two-vehicle traffic accident in U.S. history.

Unearthing a forgotten chapter in Chicago lore, The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster tells the riveting tale of this calamity. Combing through newspaper accounts as well as the Chicago Transit Authority’s official archives, Craig Cleve vividly brings to life this horrific catastrophe. Going beyond the historical record, he tracks down individuals who were present on that fateful day on State and 62nd: eyewitnesses, journalists, even survivors whose lives were forever changed by the accident. Weaving these sources together, Cleve reveals the remarkable combination of natural events, human error, and mechanical failure that led to the disaster, and this moving history recounts them—as well as the conflagration’s human drama—in gripping detail.

You can read more about the accident here.

I realize that discussion of crashes and wrecks is always going to be controversial and not to everyone’s liking.

Ultimately, at least some good did come this horrific accident. Now, emergency exit doors that open outward are installed on transit vehicles all across the country.

In that sense, the 1950 disaster was every bit as important and historic as the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire, which resulted in numerous safety improvements in theaters– but not in transit vehicles.

However, it seems that not all lessons from 1950 were learned right away. When the CTA began converting some of their PCC streetcars to one-man operation in 1951, their initial design did not include a rear door. It was only when the City of Chicago insisted on a rear door for emergency exit that one was added.

It does not appear as though the 1950 accident had any effect on CTA’s decision to eliminate streetcars and replace them with buses. That change in policy had already been put into effect with the hiring of general manager Walter J. McCarter in 1947.

I commend CERA for courageously scheduling this program. After all, they say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

-David Sadowski

PS- We will follow up this post with two more this week featuring many classic photos of Chicago’s PCC streetcars in action.

The grand jury announces their findings after holding an inquest into the 1950 streetcar disaster.

Several nearby buildings burned to the ground in the aftermath to the accident.

CTA 7080 at State and 62nd in June 1950, near the site of the tragic collision between car 7078 and a gasoline truck, which took place on May 25.

Chicago’s Pre-PCCs

May 5, 2015February 24, 2026David Sadowski 9 Comments

CSL 7001 at Clark and Ridge in 1938. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

The PCC (short for Presidents’ Conference Committee) streetcar has been in continuous use since 1936, a remarkable 79 years. It literally saved the North American streetcar from extinction, but its development took several years and it did not appear in a vacuum. The presidents of several transit companies banded together in 1929 to develop a new, modern streetcar that could compete with buses and automobiles. The first production PCCs were made in 1936, the last in 1952.

The Chicago Surface Lines played an important part in the PCC’s development. Chicago ultimately had 683 PCCs, the largest fleet purchased new by any city, but in actuality CSL had 785 modern cars in all. There were 100 Peter Witt streetcars built in 1929 by a combination of CSL, Brill, and Cummings Car Co., and two experimental pre-PCCs, 4001 (built by Pullman-Standard) and 7001 (Brill), which dated to 1934.

The Peter Witt car was developed by its namesake in Cleveland around 1914 and set the standard for streetcars for the next 20 years. (Chicago’s batch were also referred to as “sedans.”) During the late 1920s and early 1930s, there was a similar type of car known as the “Master Unit*” made by Brill (Pullman-owned Osgood-Bradley made a similar model called the “Electromobile.”)

In conjunction with the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as A Century of Progress, CSL commissioned two experimental streetcars, the 4001 and 7001, with advanced features. (You can read an excellent and very comprehensive history of those cars on the Hicks Car Works blog.)

Of the two cars, the 4001 was more radical in both design and construction, with a streamlined all-aluminum body, but probably the less successful of the two. Both were taken out of service in 1944. The 4001 is the only pre-PCC car to survive, and is now preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum. The 7001 was scrapped by CTA in 1959.

Ironically, the 7001, made by J. G. Brill, was closer to the eventual design of the PCC car, although ultimately Brill did not build any true PCCs. The company had a policy not to pay patent royalties to other companies, and refused to do so with PCC technology owned by the Transit Research Corp. (TRC).

In 1935, Capital Transit ordered 20 pre-PCC cars for Washington D. C. based on the design of car 7001, but shorter. The order was split between Brill and St. Louis Car Company. This was an important step, since these were more than simply experimental units. Car 1053 managed to survive the end of streetcar service in Washington DC in 1962, until September 28, 2003 when it was destroyed in a fire at the National Capital Trolley Museum in Maryland.

There were also two additional 1934 experimental cars, the PCC Model A and B, which were used for field testing. The Model A was built in 1929 by Twin Coach and purchased second-hand to test new components. It was tested in Brooklyn circa 1934-35 and was scrapped in 1939.

The streamlined Model B incorporated all the latest PCC developments and was tested in Chicago, arguably the first PCC car operated here. While in use in Brooklyn, the PCC Model B dewired and was involved in an accident with a truck after its brakes failed. This led to the brake systems being redesigned for the first PCCs. The Model B was kept in storage for some time, and although the front end was repaired, it was never again used in service and was scrapped in the early 1950s.

By 1936, the first production PCCs were ready to go and the first one was delivered to Brooklyn and Queens Transit on May 28, 1936. However, Pittsburgh Railways put the first PCC into scheduled public service in August.

Brill’s decision not to build true PCCs ultimately proved fatal. Their 1938-41 “Brilliner” was considered somewhat inferior to the PCC car and few were built. 30 single-ended cars went to Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Cincinnati, while 10 double-ended cars were built for Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co., where they continued in service into the early 1980s.

These were the last streetcars made by Brill, who had once dominated the industry. Most PCCs were built by the St. Louis Car Company, with a smaller share from Pullman-Standard.

We hope that you will enjoy these pictures of these pre-PCC cars, the ones that laid the groundwork for the “car that fought back,” which continues to serve faithfully and well in a number of North American cities, and hopefully will continue to do so for a long time to come.

-David Sadowski

*According to History of the J. G. Brill Company by Debra Brill, page 173, the Master Unit model was officially introduced in January 1929:

“The idea was to produce standardized cars. Both ends of the car were to be identical in construction. Height and width of the car, size and number of windows, seat width and therefore aisle width were to be the same for every unit of a specific type. The cars were offered in single-or double-truck, and single-or double-end style, with doors located at the ends or with a combination end door and center door. Master Units could be constructed with steel or aluminum, the difference in weight being about 5,000 pounds. Interestingly, the cars had curved lower sides very much like the curve used on the lower panels of the Kuhlman and Brill-built cars of a few years previously. There was nothing patentable about the Master Unit: it was merely a standardized design.

To Brill’s disappointment, buyers did not appear in large numbers. Only seventy-eight Master Units were built in all, with just two constructed exactly to Brill’s specifications.”

Here is an article about Scranton car 505, one of the last surviving Osgood-Bradley Safety Cars, also known as “Electromobiles,” now in the process of being restored at the Electric City Trolley Museum. An Electromobile was also the last trolley to run in New York City.

Here is an interesting blog post about the effort to restore the 505.

Here is a video discussing the effort to restore Scranton Electromobile #505:

As an added bonus, as streetcars prepare to return to service in Washington D. C., here are some vintage films showing a variety of streetcars in action, including both PCCs, the 1935 pre-PCCs, and even some older types:

Frank Hicks, of the excellent Hicks Car Works blog, writes:

Very nice job on the Pre-PCC post on your blog! It’s a great post with some outstanding photos, and of course I appreciate the “plug” as well.

Several of the photos you posted I had never seen before. The photo of the 4001 in service is really nice; shots of the car in regular use are really pretty rare. It was quite the “hangar queen” when it was on the CSL. And the Model B interior shot is fascinating! I think I saw that rear-end shot somewhere once but I don’t know that I’d ever seen a photo of the car’s interior. What I found most fascinating is that it appears the car was designed to have left-hand doors fitted in the middle, Boston style (and likely so that it could be used or tested out in Boston, as I think Boston is the only city that had PCCs with this feature). Close examination of the interior shot shows an inset panel across from the center doors and I bet it was designed for doors to be put there if desired. It would be interesting to know more about the Model B. I’m not even sure whether it was set up for one-man or two-man service; the photo makes it clear that there was no conductor’s station forward of the center doors, like the CSL cars had, but it’s possible there was a conductor behind the motorman (I think this was how Brooklyn set up its PCC cars). Or it could have just been a one-man car.

Anyway, thank you for posting these photos and for posting such large scans of them – fascinating stuff!

CTA Peter Witt 3330 on route 4. These cars were shifted to Cottage Grove from Clark-Wentworth in 1947 after postwar PCCs took over that line.

CTA 6282 unloads passengers in the early 1950s. Note the postwar Pullman PCC at rear.

CSL 6300 on route 4 – Cottage Grove in the early CTA era.

CSL “Sedan” 6299 on route 4 – Cottage Grove.

A unique lineup at the 1934 American Transit Association convention in Cleveland. From left, we have the PCC Model A; CSL 4001; CSL 7001, and the PCC Model B. (Krambles-Peterson Archive)

The PCC Model B at Navy Pier. (Chicago Architectural Photographing Co.)

The PCC Model B being demonstrated at Navy Pier. (CSL Photo)

The PCC Model B interior. (Chicago Architectural Photographing Co.)

CSL 7001 under construction at the Brill plant in 1934.

CSL 7001 on route 36 Broadway-State in 1934.

CSL 7001 at State and Van Buren in 1934.

CSL 7001 at State and Chicago, in World’s Fair service, at 9 am on August 29, 1934. (George Krambles Photo)

CSL 4001 at South Shops on October 23, 1938. (George Krambles Photo)

CSL 4001, signed for route 4 Cottage Grove, at South Shops on October 23, 1938. (M. D. McCarter Collection)

CSL 4001 in service, probably around 1934.

CSL 4001 on route 22, Clark-Wentworth, probably in the late 1930s.

CSL 4001, sporting a good sized dent, at South Shops. (CSL Photo)

CSL 4001 at Kedzie and Van Buren on May 13, 1946. By this time, the car had been out of service for two years. (Joe L. Diaz Photo)

Capital Transit 1056, a product of the St. Louis Car Co., as it looked in 1935 when new.

Car 7501, the only Baltimore “Brilliner,” in August 1941. Note the so-called “tavern” doors. This car was a sample in anticipation of a larger order that never came. It ran in service from 1939 to 1956. (Jeffrey Winslow Photo)

A modern Baltimore “Peter Witt” streetcar, built by Brill in 1930, alongside a PCC, made in 1936 by St. Louis Car Company.

DC Transit pre-PCC streamlined streetcar at the National Capital Trolley Museum in 1993. Part of a 20-car order in 1935, split between Brill and St Louis Car Company. This is a St. Louis Car Company product. Sadly this car was lost to a carbarn fire at the museum in 2003. (John Smatlak Photo)

1053 interior. (John Smatlak Photo)

Scranton Transit 508, an “Electromobile,” was built by Osgood-Bradley Co in 1929. It was another attempt at a modern standardized streetcar in the pre-PCC era.

Baltimore Peter Witt 6146. Don’s Rail Photos says it was “built by Brill in 1930 and retired in 1955.” Sister car 6119 is at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, while 6144 is at Seashore. These were some of the most modern cars around, prior to the PCCs.

Baltimore Transit Company car 6105, shown here on route 15 – Ostend St., is one of the last modern streetcars built before PCCs took over the market. The sign on front says that September 7 will be the last day for 6 hour local rides. Perhaps that can help date the picture.

Indianapolis Railways 146, shown here on a special run in 1949, was a Brill “Master Unit” but appears very similar to the Baltimore Peter Witts. This car was built in 1933, one of the last streetcars built before the PCC era. Brill tried to sell street railways on standardized cars (hence the name “Master Units”) but as you might expect, no two orders were identical.

Chicago Streetcars in Color, Part 3

March 20, 2015February 1, 2017David Sadowski 29 Comments

CTA 662 in the historic Pullman neighborhood, northbound at St. Lawrence and 111th Place, on route 4. Thanks to George Foelschow for providing the correct location.

This is the third installment in our ongoing series featuring color pictures of Chicago streetcars. (You can read our first post here, and our second one here.)

As always, half the fun is trying to guess some of the locations where we do not have the information. I am always impressed at how knowledgeable and clever some of our readers are.

If you can help us out with some of the missing facts, please let us know. When referring to individual pictures, you can either use the car numbers or the image numbers. As always, you can bring up a larger version of each picture in your browser by clicking on it.

Unfortunately, we don’t know the names of the shutterbugs who took most of these pictures. One is by the great Truman Hefner, a legendary photographer who I had the pleasure of talking to last year. As far as I know, he is still going strong in his late 80s.

When we do know who pushed the button, rest assured we will always give proper credit to the photographers who took these great pictures.

Enjoy.

-David Sadowski

CTA 350 at the east end of route 66 – Chicago Avenue.

CTA 556 is southbound at Milwaukee/Desplaines/Kinzie, on route 56, according to Andre Kristopans.

CTA 556 southbound at Milwaukee/Desplaines/Kinzie, on route 56, according to Andre Kristopans.

CTA 521 is northbound at Milwaukee/Desplaines/Kinzie, on route 56, according to Andre Kristopans. This photo looks almost like a painting.

CTA 521 is northbound southbound at Milwaukee/Desplaines/Kinzie, on route 56, according to Andre Kristopans. This photo looks almost like a painting.

CTA 547, signed for route 56 – Milwaukee, on a shoofly going around Lower Wacker Drive construction, circa 1951. According to George Foelschow, the car “is on Madison Street with the Madison and Wells “L” station in the background.”

CTA 553 on route 56 – Milwaukee.

According to Bill Shapotkin, CTA 277 “is at State/Wacker. Car is S/B. View looks N/W.”

CTA 563, advertising WBBM-TV. Chuck Amstein adds, “also at 94th and Ashland, looking northeast. Same details looking through and around the car as img671 and img666 (chimney, red neon restaurant sign, Beverly Motors sign).”

CTA 414. Tony Waller writes, “Image 665 is probably at California & Roscoe – the actual north end of Route #52.” Bill Shapotkin: “No doubt about it — this IS at California and Roscoe — view looks north.”

CTA 532 at the Imlay loop on route 56 – Milwaukee.

CTA 201, signed to terminate at Pulaski and Cermak.

CTA 550 on Madison, going by the Chicago Daily News building, just east of North Western Station.

CTA 585 on the north end of route 56 – Milwaukee, where the street is wider.

CTA 529 at North Western Station.

CTA 458.

CTA 225 is westbound on Belmont at Clark, on the short-turn loop via Halsted-Belmont-Clark, according to Andre Kristopans. Len Marcus adds, “turning southbound onto Clark Street.” This car is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine.

CTA 578 at the Imlay loop on route 56 – Milwaukee.

CTA 578 heads south on route 56 – Milwaukee, crossing both Damen and North.

Two Pullmans at the end of the line at Ashland and 95th, according to Andre Kristopans. Chuck Amstein adds, “the large building to the left of the streetcars is Beverly Bowling lanes (I practically grew up in there).”

CTA 230 at Chicago and Wells.

CTA 585 heads south on route 56 – Milwaukee. The landmark Montgomery Wards complex on Chicago Avenue is just barely visible at rear.

CTA 271 at North and Narragansett in November 1948. This was the west end of route 72, and streetcars turned back right in the middle of the street, as they did on many other lines.

CTA 629 on that section of route 4 – Cottage Grove that parallels the Illinois Central electric.

CTA 532 at the Imlay loop on route 56 – Milwaukee.

Red cars pass each other on a drawbridge on route 9 – Ashland. According to Andre Kristopans, this is the Sanitary and Ship Canal at 29th Street or so.

Car 501 heads southbound at 4700 North Milwaukee on route 56. The building at rear is still standing as of 2015.

CTA 5527 in route 9 – Ashland. Chuck Amstein adds, “75% sure img671 is at 94th and Ashland, looking northeast. The red neon restaurant sign at the left of the car can be seen through the car in img666. Also, the smokestack above the cars in both 666 and 671 appears the same.”

CTA 1725 is westbound on Randolph just east of Halsted on route 58 – Ogden. This is the approximate location of where the Kennedy expressway crosses Randolph today.

CTA 1010, signed for through route 3 – Lincoln-Indiana, is outbound on Lincoln Avenue at Catalpa, at the infamous Lincoln Avenue bend, according to Len Marcus.

CTA 585 on the north end of route 56 – Milwaukee, where the street is wider.

CSL 5377 at Southport and Clark, the north end of route 9 – Ashland.

CTA 566 stopped at a safety island. Chuck Amstein says 566 “is at 94th & Ashland, looking northeast. The blue and red sign at left matches that on the right side of img680 (at 95th & Ashland).”

CTA 540, northbound at Desplaines and Milwaukee, is on route 56, according to Andre Kristopans.

CTA 1746 on route 58, passes People’s Pontiac, then located at 3120-58 W. Ogden. The dealership later moved to 6060 N. Western, the same address as “Z” Frank Chevrolet.

CTA 3182 and 660 at the south terminal of route 4 – Cottage Grove.

CTA 460, eastbound at about 4600 W. 63rd Street, crossing the Belt Railway circa 1952-53 after PCCs were taken off this route. This car is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.

CTA 330 at Kedzie Station (car barn) in March 1951.

CTA 1046 is at Southport and Clark on route 9 – Ashland, according to Andre Kristopans.

Chicago Streetcars in Color, Part 2

March 9, 2015April 11, 2015David Sadowski 24 Comments

CTA 7216 on route 22 – Clark-Wentworth. Andre Kristopans says, “PCC 7216 SB just south of Irving Park. Wunder’s Cemetery in background.”

This is the second installment in our ongoing series featuring color pictures of Chicago streetcars. (You can read our earlier post here.)

As always, half the fun is trying to guess some of the locations where we do not have the information. I am always surprised at how knowledgeable and clever some of our readers are.

If you can help us out with some of the missing facts, please let us know. Each picture has an image number (for example, the first picture is #585) so please refer to the image numbers when discussing individual photographs. As always, you can bring up a larger version of each picture in your browser by clicking on it.

Unfortunately, we don’t know the names of the shutterbugs who took these pictures. When we do know who pushed the button, rest assured we will always give proper attribution to the photographer.

Enjoy.

-David Sadowski

Prewar PCCs 7019 and 4035 at 63rd and Damen on June 30, 1951.

CTA 3194 signed for Cottage Grove. According to Andre Kristopans, this car is “turning north off 115th onto St. Lawrence down in Pullman.”

CTA 302 at Chicago Avenue and Lake Shore Drive.

CTA 4014 on 63rd, having just crossed under the B&O, on February 17, 1951.

CTA 4408 on route 22.

Red cars 652 and 678 pass on Halsted near 74th.

CTA 144, now at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, is shown on one of those later fantrips after the end of red car service. The follower is a PCC, also part of the fantrip.

CTA 4047, on route 63, is on Central, making a jog from 63rd Street to 63rd Place, before heading west on private right of way.

The date is September 17, 1949. CTA 4047, on route 63, is on Central, making a jog from 63rd Street to 63rd Place, before heading west on private right of way.

CTA 4168, on diversion trackage, heads west on Chicago Avenue, near the landmark Montgomery Wards Company Complex.

CTA 692 is on the Museum Loop near the Field Museum and Soldier Field.

CTA 6150 is signed for route 42 – Halsted Downtown.

CTA 6118, signed for route 42 – Halsted Downtown, heads north at Halsted and 75th.

CTA 6142 still wears a CSL logo, so this must be in the early CTA era, looking at some of the automobiles.

CTA 5320.

CTA 225, now preserved at seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, is shown on one of those 1954-58 fantrips held after the end of red car service.

CTA 661 on Blue Island. Andre Kristopans says, “661 – WB just west of Blue island/Cermak/Ashland intersection. Note that “Jerry’s Grill” in the background was once a bank according to Stone above corner door!”

CTA 143, sister car to the 144 at IRM, is southbound on Halsted.

CTA 900 is signed for route 28 – Stony Island. Bob Lalich notes that the car “looks to be just south of 93rd St in the Stony Island median. You can see the pole line for the 93rd St line in the right background.”

According to Andre Kristopans, “CTA 697 is on Waveland between Broadway and Halsted, facing west.”

CTA 6142 still wears a CSL logo, so this must be in the early CTA era, looking at some of the automobiles.

CTA 637 heads west on private right of way on route 63. Looks like the second track has just ended.

Andre Kristopans says, “CTA 527 is in the Milwaukee/Imlay loop.”

A woman prepares to board CTA 229 at the Museum Loop on June 24, 1951.

CTA 581 on route 56 – Milwaukee Avenue. Andre Kristopans adds, “CTA 581 is about 200 feet south of Imlay loop, heading south.”

Andre Kristopans says, “558 NB Ashland at Roosevelt. Note Roosevelt tracks are spread very wide as west of here was boulevard with car tracks in the service drives. Note also the church in background – still there. In distance is Burlington and CNW underpasses at 15th St.”

CTA 518 is southbound on route 9 – Ashland, “just past the BRC and Wabash RR viaduct at 75th St,” according to Bob Lalich.

According to Andre Kristopans, “CTA 491 is coming into 63 Pl/Narragansett loop. The driveway to the right of the car is how the 65A-63rd/65th extension buses exited. Later this whole area was paved over for bus use, and recently over half of the property became the site of a branch library, leaving only a very small bus loop.”

CTA 248 at 63rd and Peoria in 1952.

Red cars 278 and 129 pass at Paulina and Van Buren on route 9 – Ashland. The old Marshfield “L” station is at rear.

CTA 248 at 63rd and Ashland in May 1953. Note the safety island.

Cars 269 and 1736 pass. One car is signed for route 52 – Kedzie; however, the slide says this is 2800 W. Chicago Avenue. The date is May 4, 1952. Andre Kristopans writes, “CTA 269 and 1736 are indeed at 2800 W Chicago Av. 52 cars used four blocks of Chicago to go between California and Kedzie. The left-hand turnoff to go north on California is right in front of 1736.”

Car 522, signed for route 56 – Milwaukee, passes 585. Andre Kristopans says, “The gas holder is the one at Augusta and Grand. This would make the most likely spot Milwaukee and Carpenter.”

CTA 229 on the Museum Loop at the east end of the Roosevelt Road car line.

Car 227 at Chicago and Michigan, passing by the historic Water Tower and pumping station.

CTA 282 at Belmont and Lavergne in 1949, passing Foreman High School.

The Trolley Dodger

Musings on transit, past, present, and future

St. Louis Car Co.

Chicago’s Postwar PCCs

Lost and Found: Chicago Streetcar #1137

Chicago’s PCC Streetcars: The Rest of the Story

Electroliner Restoration Update

Chicago’s Prewar PCCs

The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster

Chicago’s Pre-PCCs

Chicago Streetcars in Color, Part 3

Chicago Streetcars in Color, Part 2