Chicago Streetcar & Elevated Lines - 1952 to 1956

[@jeffreycollier1059]

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!!!

[@diogenes34]

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

[@corneiliusvardaman8693]

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

[@fleurmartin]

I was already grown in 91 and it is strange to see.

[@davidrasch3082]

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

[@ricardolozano5356]

I'm from the 80s

[@phyllisdiller1996]

Your the same age as I am. Sneakin up on 70! Aren't you gals you were young, way back then, insteada being young in this shitty day and age. Al SHARPTON ends up in BUFFALO of all places. I guess they threw him out of every place else. To think that little black turd was primarily responsible for all this murder and destruction. He looks like.. something I shit in the toilet, without drinking my prune juice the night before. His skull could be on a UNICEF FAMINE RELIEF POSTER! he professes to be a Minister of JESUS CHRIST yet deliberately violates EXODUS 20:16 I pray for the sole of that heel! There's a HOT PLACE IN HELL for "phony" so called " ministers or priests or tabbies. I'm not Jewish so I mis spelled Rabi. However I can't hate him because, the way I lived my life? I'm WORSE! at least he didn't go round eating DRUG STORES like I used to do. To SHARPTON: REPENT TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! GOD'S ONLY BEGOTTEN SON! REPENT LIKE CRAZY because, as things stand now, THERE IS NO REASONABLE FUTURE! just blood and death THEY CAN TAKE THE 21ST CENTURY AND JAM IT UP THEIR ASS!

[@davidrasch3082]

@@ricardolozano5356 I graduated hihh school in 1968-height of the Vietnam war.

[@ricardolozano5356]

@@davidrasch3082 you were drafted by the military?

[@davidrasch3082]

@@ricardolozano5356 Enlisted. Field Artillery.

[@steveandrade3477]

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.

[@billgordon2232]

I thoroughly enjoy these old videos. 👍

[@Telcom100]

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

[@luislaplume8261]

We call it fender skirts some of the streamlined steam locomotives and some cars from that era had them.

[@latinalover2715]

I didn't like the skirting

[@bobzwol]

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!

[@8avexp]

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

[@russelldraper5205]

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 👍🏾👍🏾

[@WitchKing-Of-Angmar]

Actually some were operated from 1908 and 1904.

[@trainsupporter9088]

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.

[@dariomendoza191]

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

[@Dagot1948]

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!

[@서울유감]

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.

[@HighHolyOne]

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.

[@arleanvasquez8718]

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

[@noblehillministerprophet8689]

Thank you , great to see the city in color!

[@barryobrien7935]

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.

[@infantinofan]

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.

[@fleurmartin]

Sadly? You better be glad you haven't been on the train. It's a zoo. It's still ok during morning or early evening rush on the brown line. But red and blue are a sometimes unsafe and always with alot of smoke. With cops doing nothing about it.

[@eugeneking1462]

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

[@misterkefir]

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

[@rsi4561]

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

[@latinalover2715]

Moved from our farm outside of Gretna, Nebraska near Omaha in June of 1970 to the Sauganash Community in Chicago in June of 1970. Buses were the mainstay which I rode along with the "L"

[@RGC198]

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.

[@brushcreek42]

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

[@akeem2752]

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

[@POUNCEMAN1]

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

[@luislaplume8261]

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.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

And as late as the 1970s the old Boston PCC trolleys were not all repainted from the old Boston Elevated Railway / MTA colors of orange, Indian red, cream and silver.

[@jackvelut1427]

This was awesome thank you for sharing

[@badguy5554]

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?

[@douglasemerson9017]

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

[@concorde2003]

Thaks for uploading.

[@paulakpacente]

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.

[@robdenny553]

Lots of great history here.

[@Robbi496]

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

[@theyuha]

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.

[@trainrover]

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

[@DOLRED]

I remember riding the Archer Ave Streetcar with my dad during the 1950s. I asked him why is that guy ringing the bell so often?

[@jamesharrington4752]

Thank you very much for a most informative video.

[@salaamallahalternatechannel]

EXCELLENT VIDEOS !! GOOD HISTORY

[@user-is6de8pp7k]

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

[@giarc888]

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.

[@rolandvanags5141]

Lake and Pine video clip gives me childhood memories.

[@mikerafone4736]

Nice work good job

[@tincanboat]

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.

[@markbleick852]

And the flys

[@Salem-TC]

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

[@BaileyArf-n2q]

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.

[@jamesvetromila6068]

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

[@lylecosmopolite]

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.

[@trainliker100]

Regarding item 4. Of course, for many years after there was still "redlining" done behind the scenes such as denying mortgages to minorities. I grew up in Oak Park (first suburb straight west of Chicago) in the 1950's and 60's. As in many areas, Oak Park was all white. Although for a period it did have one black household. (And that was Dr. Percy Julian and his family. He would eventually be on a U.S. postage stamp, but I digress.) A man who happened to be my Boy Scout scoutmaster (and a friend of our family), and who was an attorney, was very opposed to these redlining segregation tactics and worked with a minister to make a straw purchase of a home in Oak Park for a black family. While this was not legal, the minister felt that permitting denial of purchasing a house due to redlining was a greater evil. This attorney/scoutmaster family friend went on to help Oak Park be a leader in the U.S. to embrace integration. He was even Village Manager for awhile. Today, Oak Park is over 18% black. Quite a change from 0% just 50 years ago.

[@lylecosmopolite]

@@trainliker100 Oak Park is mostly single family detached housing. I had in mind the vast amount of 3 story walkups that make up much Chicago's housing stock. The 1948 SCOTUS decision made it easier for Chicago's walkups to tip from all white to all black.

[@trainliker100]

@@lylecosmopolite Well, I grew up in one of those 3 story walk ups in Oak Park and, when it was converted to condos and they needed a name for it, they used the name of the tenant who had been there the longest. That was my mother and it is now called "Kinzer Court". There are a great many of those old three story apartment buildings along Washington Blvd and some other streets (mostly converted to condos). And many houses have been replaced with apartment buildings of various sizes (typically converted to condos now.) And in the Lake/Marion area there are some very tall and large condos. According to the U.S. Census "Quick Facts", there were 21,603 households in Oak Park. 59.5% being owner occupied 2015-2019. That leaves a lot of rentals but I don't know how many are in apartment buildings versus how many in various two story houses converted into two flats and such. And I think most of the old apartments have been converted to condos, and the newly built ones are mostly condos so quite a bit of that 59.5% of owners won't be in single family homes. I'm guessing that the majority of Oak Park residents do not live in single family homes. So I think you are correct if counting structures, but regarding population, maybe not.

[@lylecosmopolite]

@@trainliker100 Before 1948, most Chicago housing could not be purchased by AAs, and most apartments could not be rented to AAs. The same was probably also true of Oak Park. The era 1946-60 saw a vast move of whites to suburbs, and of Miss Delta AAs into Chicago walkups vacated by whites. Latinos began settling in Chicago, and the Union Stockyards began to close. Chicago underwent major changes.

[@trainliker100]

​@@lylecosmopolite I am quite familiar with that history in Chicago and especially Oak Park. By the 1960's, the west side of Chicago, right up to Austin Blvd (the eastern border of Oak Park) had turned into a pretty bad area. It was one of the areas characterized by "white flight". Oak Park might have been next had it not been for some very creative leadership. They implemented integration in a manner that involved middle class blacks and professionals. Countless times I traveled down Washington Blvd to downtown Chicago and upon crossing Austin Blvd it was like two different worlds, that's for sure.

[@jerometurner8759]

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!

[@NovaVortex193]

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

[@joefranks4235]

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.

[@fleurmartin]

Lol! You make it seem like that's a tough ride. Before the orange line, there were buses only that took you to the same places. I think mostly archer bus and pulaski and blue island bus. I used to get on at midway or kedzie. And it's still one of the more safe train lines.

[@charlesandrews2360]

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

[@noblehillministerprophet8689]

Thank you

[@jerometurner8759]

Look at that! Even Skokie made it!

[@evemarie1605]

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!

[@trainliker100]

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.

[@albertcarello7328]

Charles Kinzer: You are 100% correct!

[@carolmiles2351]

It's finished!

[@hep2jive]

Music credits? ?

[@trainliker100]

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.

[@albertcarello7328]

Charles Kinzer: You're certainly correct. Today it's the CSX and now there's only one freight customer they serve: FARARAH PAN CANDY COMPANY. The former SOO Line was taken over by Canadian National Railway and no longer operates on the CSX there.

[@albertcarello7328]

The horn on the 6000 SERIES L Cars and the Skokie Swift Cars here is identical to the horn on the San Diego Trolleys operating today.

[@HenryLuster-o2y]

Djdon movie 😢😢😢❤❤❤

[@Bargoth60]

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

[@WitchKing-Of-Angmar]

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

[@TheOldTeddy]

Well Done

[@fleurmartin]

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.

[@EmilyTienne]

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

[@jaynareynolds3684]

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

[@yixnorb5971]

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

[@JolliAllGenGamer]

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

[@Clerkenwell]

anybody know what the black truck at 19:22 is?

[@hep2jive]

Anyone know the name of the songs?

[@imanonattorneyspokesperson]

Kenwood line???

[@lylecosmopolite]

A small east-west bit of the Kenwood line still operates as part of the old north-south line, around 43rd and Indiana. The rest of the Kenwood line was doomed by the gradual closing of the Union Stockyards.

[@danilorainone406]

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

[@richmerowitz5610]

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

[@thanoscube8573]

cool

[@EbuBax]

It’s never coming back

[@Oliver-kv2mm]

51:38, crime in Chicago?

[@cubsmike]

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

[@bilburns1313]

Narrator does that with Manheim, too - pronounces it "Man-A-heim...

[@arturogarcia9271]

Yes that annoyed me so much as I listened to it. You can tell that the narrator is not native to Chicago. 😢

[@jamesanonymous2343]

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

[@arturogarcia9271]

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

[@ЬмпгльтДшпммча]

это непросто там работать...)

[@ЬмпгльтДшпммча]

это фильм ужасов?)

[@jameshitselberger5845]

нет

[@georgen9755]

Busy street vendors Busy ......trams Busy ......... Busy ...... Busy ....... Busy ....... Traffic signals ......on the left .........towards the north ...........and .........................shop malls .......on the south ............ Transit is always busy like a railway ........with several tracks ......... Tracks running along the entire length ...........parallel to the traffic ......signal ......... Now you dont see horse carts .......in 2024 .... Electric ...lamps ......along the length of the road .... 1895 ... Street cable cars ... Trolley wires are .....above ....as you will see wires ......electric wires Double truck buses ........chicago ..... Loop lines Trolley expansion has reached its peak ....... Motor coach company threaten .....the chicago ..... Northwestern railroads ...criss cross the entire ....length ..... Motorman to operate the buses ...... Record.... Shoe string ...budget ... 1908 ... Downtown ..... Chicago railways Fare collections Fair collections ..........?? Route 26 Chevette ..cars Minneapolis Conductor was not needed to .......???? Why ????????? All buses have conductors everwhere ....... Conductors .................wake up .........

[@ЬмпгльтДшпммча]

пост апокалипсис между домами сараи ездят...)

[@markmason2970]

So what is a "regular citizen"? Pisses me off when these so called officials refer to us that way...this assistant chief is a idiot

[@60SecondSpot]

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

[@dickiegreenleaf750]

Most of these places in Chicago mentioned back then are now trashy dangerous ghettos. Sad. FACT

[@notpublic7149]

Thank you