Chicago Streetcar & Elevated Lines - 1952 to 1956 

I'm in absolute awe! This film shows the area a few blocks from my 50's home and high school with steam locomotives and the Rock Island RR in perfect clarity! This is astounding to me seeing something like this for the first time at 70 years old. Thanks so much!!!

I thoroughly enjoy these old videos. 👍

This brings back a lot of memories of my childhood in Chicago.👍👍🤩🤩

I grew up in Chicago in the fifties and sixties. I appreciate seeing 'old Chicago', the city I remember from my youth.

Growing up starting from 91 and it’s crazy looking back on this

The Chicago PCCs look extra cool because of the skirts on the wheels.

i live there as a Kid for about 20 yeras !!THank you Chicago you will always be in my HEART!!!

Thanks for the upload! I remember being a kid in the 80s riding downtown with my aunt and my cousin every weekend on those green and white El cars with the windows that could roll down and how ear piercingly loud they were when they entered the subway. Good memories. Thank you for bringing those back. I remember my grandmother telling me about the street cars and I can remember personally seeing streets where the asphalt had partially come up, exposing the brick and rails from the old streetcar lines in places.

I was born in '56, so I'm too young to remember streetcars in the Windy City. Still fascinating to see footage of them.

Great video. It brought back memories of El rides as a kid. Who knew as a kid in the 60s going on Lake St El rides that I was riding on cars that were historical. From the this videos those train cars built in the 20s & 30s operated way into the late 60s early 70s 👍🏾👍🏾

Thank you so much for the memories.....

I remember the L cars with wicker seats. This was in the 1950's, and I believe on the Ravenswood line. Those cars had a particular odor which was quite wonderful, that my uncle described as Juicy Fruit Gum and peanuts. I never heard a mention of the wicker seat cars, and wonder what group they were in.

This is some awesome footage very well explained. Great video! Thanks & cheers.

Thank you so much for putting this together! A wonderful and historic video! I grew up in Chicago from 1955 through 1979 and loved every second of this video. I rode the 4000's on the Lake St line, followed by the 2000's. After the Logan Square Line was extended to Jefferson Park, I then enjoyed the 6000's followed by the 2200's. Then I moved to Los Angeles in 1979 where there was absolutely nothing. Thank you so much once again for all of the work you put into this historic treasure!

Rode the CTA many times as a youth in Park Ridge when I used to take the bus from Ozark in Edison Park to Berwyn or Bryn Mawr and then take the "L" South to a Cubs game in the '60s (even though I was a White Sox fan) or the Loop. From 1968-1969 I rode the NW Hwy bus from Ozark to Foster and transferred to the Milwaukee Ave. bus down to almost Addison by Schurz HS. when I worked at Mallory Plastics. I remember that in the Winter at the Foster/Milwaukee transfer point there would always be a CTA employee boarding people via the back door and when done would bang on the door with his ticket puncher to tell the driver it was OK to go. After college at NIU I rode the "L" from Rogers Park, Oak Park and lastly Forest Park to my new job at 600 W. Madison from 1978 to 2011 when I retired. Still in Forest Park and sadly have not been on the "L" since 2011.

Horses pulled streetcars in some sections of the city till 1906, also the last year of cable car operation.

Lots of great history here.

My man's cave here in 54 she always tells us about the journey getting on the train with her and her sisters and they all had lots of luggage and had to walk a few miles. She says back then not many people had cars. Now it's common for everyone in the house to have at least one vehicle. I wish public transportation was a bit more secure

Thank you , great to see the city in color!

This is a fantastic video - gives me a glimpse of what like was like before my time. I wish I could have experienced it in person, but I can here! Thank you.

EXCELLENT VIDEOS !! GOOD HISTORY

This was awesome thank you for sharing

Great video! Now I know why the door motors of PCCs in SF and Kenosha sound like that of CTA cars.😊

Very thorough and well done. I wish Los Angeles citizens had made as many films of neighborhood streetcar service. I’ve seen the various Pacific Electric and some LATL material on YT but not nearly as extensive as this Chicago footage.

Thaks for uploading.

My grandfather (an immigrant) worked for the Chicago Surface Lines from the 1920's to the 1950's. He designed this logo before he retired: The CTA Metropolitan Transit. I couldn't drag or copy and paste it here, but it's available on Google Images.

can you imagine what it smelled like in those days of horse transportation. I guess the city provided pickup horse waste, but what about the pee? I guess they hoped for regular rain.

A very enjoyable and informative video. I can't imaging how much work was involved in creating it, but you did a wonderful job! Thank you so much!

Wonderful, , Being a PCC and Brill Buff ,, I live in Ontario near Halton Museum were I'm going to visit this May , Again Wonderful Video ,,, Thanks for sharing

As far as I know Boston had PCC trolleys almost as large as Chicago but the last ones were built in 1951 with Picture windows and small standee oval windows above and with only one motor man.

Excellent video. From 81-85, I rode the L almost daily to Gordon Tech H.S.

THANK YOU for posting this.. the memories are priceless.

I almost forgot the name of colleagues but miss my old days working for Leo Burnett Chicago and living there in 1992... 35 West Wacker Drive 200 North Dearborn Street.

wow...those els make for fantastic cowboy trains, plus surely their toy-like features must've helped at thrilling youngsters

Thank you very much for a most informative video.

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing. Like Chicago, here in Melbourne Australia, we also had horse, cable and electric street tramways. The electric trams continue to operate today as modern light rail vehicles. Also, like Chicago, Melbourne has had many level crossings, which have only recently started to be replaced with under and over passes. On some rail lines, they have put the trains on viaducts (Skyrail), which is somewhat similar to Chicago's elevated lines.

I don't remember riding on those old street cars in the 1940's. But I DO remember the new, green, CTA cars (the PCC's) running on Irving Park Road, in the 1950's. I don't remember when those new cars were phased out in favor of electric busses (1955?). I DO remember the old CTA sub-way cars in the 1960's. They were usually run during rush hour. Those cars were probably around from the 1920's?

My grandpa used to take these all the time. I on the other hand live in a suburban hellscape. Thanks mid-20th century urban planners

Riding an old streetcar occasionally in a rail museum barely catches the workaday flavor of the real thing:- you cannot fully understand this technology and the whole way-of-life and urban society it supported unless you have regularly ridden in an old streetcar on a hot sticky languid mid-summer day with all the windows open and the car crowded with people constantly boarding and disboarding and the driver chanting out the stops while the busy world slips by outside:- my favorite spot was always in back on the inside next to the "devil strip". Likewise in the winter it would be cold and clammy inside with a lot of fog and condensation and even frost inside and the "fug" of wet boots and woolen overcoats but in the winter I would ride in a seat close to the exit door to make it easier to thankfully escape once I reached my stop:- I have very, very mixed memories about streetcars!

My grandfather worked on trolly in Chicago, and when the buses came out, he crashed the bus parked bus at cta and quit and went work for the Chicago school system where he retired.

Nice work good job

Lake and Pine video clip gives me childhood memories.

Look at all those big factory buildings back in the old days.

Look at that! Even Skokie made it!

I used to ride a lot of Chicago trains, the conductor let me take movies from the front car once, a year of so later 9-11 happened and no photos or movies were allowed any more.

It's nice to see footage of transportation systems all the way back to horse and buggy, I wonder what it will be like in a 100 years.

Thank you

1. Trolleys were slow, and passengers had to cross traffic to get from sidewalks to platforms. 2. The 1950s and early 1960s saw the construction of an enormously expensive interstate highway system in the city and its suburbs. Thereafter, ridership was sufficient for profitable operation only during rush hour on weekdays. 3. 1954-71, the largest single private employer in Chicago, the Union Stock Yards, gradually closed. 4. It was once legal for the title of a house or apartment building to include a clause declaring that the owner would not rent or sell the property to "persons of the Negro race." In 1948, the SCOTUS declared such clauses unenforceable, and the black slums of Chicago increased hugely during the 1950s and 60s. 5. Chicago sidewalks and platforms were covered with snow and ice for at least 3 months out of the year. 6. Abandoned bits of the elevated system can be seen in the film "Divergent." 7. Over the past 40 years, additional elevated and subway tracks have been built.

Wow! I enjoyed watching this video. Very enlightening and awesome.

I MAY be wrong, but i understand that the A, E & C built the first Wells Street Terminal, while the Metropolitan Trains had an 'S' Curve which took them onto the loop via Van Buren Street

It's finished!

I use to ride the Orange Line, and got on at Pulaski. I totally hated working downtown. So glad I no longer live in Chicago, or Illinois for that matter.

Imagine what stories that One Trolly can tell, the Trolly that's now running the Canadian' lines, wow...

Excellent! A little too much detail for my interests but I enjoyed this trip down memory lane

At 51:18, I believe the railroad adjacent to the Congress Expressway was not the Chicago & Northwestern, but the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal railroad.

Well Done

Any videos from the Metropolitan Line leading in and out of Halsted or stopped at the Halsted, or views of the station house or views of the streets from that station? Or video from the trolleys going up and down Halsted? Maybe video showing the Hull House? That would be awesome! Thanks!

when ma was 12 14 years old she and 15 gal pals would travel these guys from kedzie 50s st east then south to rainbow beach,, conductors recognized them as regulars calling them ;the streetcar bunch;' mugger pickpocketers? drunks? no such thing,,,,rowdies were rare, and tossed out on their butts of they caused problems

The sequence starting at 12:06 is not really "Lake Street" although the Lake Street trolley line is correct. Lake street is one block north in the area where this was filmed. (Filming is looking east.) This is South Blvd running parallel to the embankment and I believe the camera is at Central Ave. where I believe the trolley turned north for one block, and then west onto Lake Street. For the "L" trains, at Laramie which would be the next stop looking east, there was a grade that took it up to the elevated structure. The elevated cars running at grade are the "Lake Street L". The embankment with the stream train is the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. In the opposite direction of the camera, the Lake Street L continues into Oak Park to Harlem Ave and just into Forest Park where L cars were stored. And the C&NW embankment continues through Oak Park and even somewhat further (and is part of the Union Pacific today). In 1962, the Lake Street L was moved up onto the C&NW embankment to eliminate the street level running and all the many street crossings that were manned 24 hours a day to operate the crossing gates. The same sequence is shown again at 40:48 titled "Lake Street" which is the name of the "L" line shown, but the street is actually South Blvd.

I know vaguely from old pictures Chicago had the streetcars that had the electric cord on top. But it seemed dangerous the way people had to get on in the middle of the street like that. And just assume the cars behind and on the side saw them and was going to stop in time. I wouldn't want to get on the bus in the middle of the street like that. But despite all the disclaimers, film is nice.

Music credits? ?

17:24 this is footage from 1939. Didn't think I'd be able to see footage in Chicago from 1939 in Kodachrome color. Might even be 1937

At 11:10, you mention the "93rd/95th street line"---was the area called Burnside?

If I wanted this much text I'd read a book.

cool

The legal crap at the beginning of this vid is probably the work of a shyster lawyer who told the sucker it was necessary. LOL

It’s never coming back

Never driven with a Streetcar in front of me. Were streetcars eliminated because the bus was faster and didn't take as much space?

это непросто там работать...)

Anyone know the name of the songs?

>>>>>>>>>>> HO HUMM ,,,,,,, TIME FOR A COLD ONE ,,,,,,,,,,,,,BYE !

51:38, crime in Chicago?

Kenwood line???

Music is too loud. Your voice without the music is perfect!

The public transportation system in Chicago just went downhill from here.

The street is pronounced de-VON, not DE-von!!!

это фильм ужасов?)

пост апокалипсис между домами сараи ездят...)

WARNING!!! Property of CANADA!! ..... As they show a film in Chicago LOL

Very annoyed to hear Devon mispronounced. You can tell that the narrator is not native to Chicago. 😢 (Dee-voghn)

Thank you