The Chicago Streetcar That Gave Birth to 20,000 PCC Trolleys and Rapid Transit Cars!

In 1934, the Chicago Surface Lines contracted with J.G. Brill and Pullman-Standard to design and built two revolutionary new streetcars that would be unlike anything that has been seen before.
In conjunction with the Electric Railway President's Conference Committee, the two Chicago cars would be similar to the two cars being built by the committee, but would only run in Chicago.
Two cars were delivered. No. 7001 from Brill, and No. 4001 from Pullman-Standard. Both cars would be instrumental in the final development of the PCC car, the single most successful streetcar in history.
In this video, we look at the story of No. 4001, a one-of-a-kind streetcar that all 20,000 PCC streetcars and rapid transit cars could trace its lineage to.
Many thanks to the Hicks Car Works Blog and the Illinois Railway Museum for permission to use the research and photographs that are on the Hicks Blog and are part of the IRM's photographic collection.
UPDATE: In the video, I state that CSL 4001 is being stored outdoors at the IRM. I just learned that the car is now inside Barn 13, and is protected from the elements. Several viewers also mentioned this.
#chicagohistory #chicagotransitauthority #transportationhistory #streetcars #trolleys #rapidtransit #railways #1930s #1940s #railwaymuseum #trainmuseum #trains #trolley #illinois #chicago

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

9:52 I believe since then the car has been moved back inside a barn. I recall seeing it inside one of the storage barns last year. So for those worried, it is safely indoors now.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Thank you for the update and current situation! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@roberthuron9160]

Don't forget the Brooklyn Rapid Transit/Brooklyn and Queens Transit contribution to the PCC's,as they provided the laboratory space,and 5200 as the original testbed! Clark Equipment also built an aluminum test car! And as an aside,the Third Avenue Railway in Manhattan,was producing home built aluminum cars,nicknamed Huffliners,operating on major streets in the 1930's,and 40's! Just a bit of fill-in history,that ties into your video! There were 3 volumes of material on PCC's that Interurbans published,and they also cover the Rapid Transit cars,with specifications! Hope this helps! Thank you 😇 😊!

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! Thank you for the information!! Yes, you are right about all of those items you mentioned about the development of the PCC car. Perhaps I will do a future video on the other aspects besides car 4001. I do have two of the three PCC books published years ago. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@CarlGerhardt1]

One thing that is really amazing is how much more modern almost EVERYTHING became between 1930 and 1940...streetcars, automobiles, trains, airplanes, etc.. compare a 1930 Ford with a 1940, a Ford Tri-motor with a B-17, a 1930 diesel locomotive with a GM E-6 unit, etc., etc.. In no other 10 year period did technology leap ahead faster than the 1930's. (Was it the economic despiration of the Great Depression that caused it?....I don't know).

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Yes, I agree, and great comment! It seemed to be a time of great designers - Raymond Lowey, Otto Kuhler, plus Frank Lloyd Wright and Corbu... Also, I think the multiple world's fairs during this decade also had something to do with it. 1933 in Chicago and 1939 in New York...the theme was "the future," so in some way, it was a decade of optimism after the great depression as you allude to. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@Wiencourager]

And from primitive radios that looked like they came from Frankensteins lab and needed a pile of batteries, to television sets.

[@mikedrown2721]

Hi Jeffrey, the PCC will always be my favourite streetcar. Thanks

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello Mike! Yes, it's my favorite, too! I think anyone who has ridden one will know it's their favorite streetcar! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@obelic71]

Fun fact several under license build abroad PCC streetcars were aquired by the National capital troley museum in Colesville Maryland They have an international built collection of PCC cars that did service in Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Sounds like a very interesting collection at the NCTM! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@rodgerp.639]

Hi Jeffrey, much improved presentation style. Inserting relevant photos is a good alternative to reading a script. Providing photo credits is the correct thing to do. I'm a PCC fan so I enjoyed the video. In the late 1970s, I used to ride PCCs in San Francisco for my commute to work. You seem like a super nice guy .

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello Rodger! Thank you for your comment! I very much appreciate the feedback! I'm also a big PCC fan. Thank you very much for watching!!!

[@swanvictor887]

I do hope 4001 gets a full rebuild one day, seems a shame to leave it outside to the elements. Very interesting video, thanks.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Yes, 4001 is deserving of a full restoration. Glad you liked the video! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

It's not outside in the elements. I last saw it at IRM this year inside one of the many storage barns. IRM is taking great care of it!

[@SHKarlson]

Well done, your video illustrates also how the single-ended PCC is an evolution of the Peter Witt car, so named for the street railway superintendent who thought through what passenger flow ought to be. Some days, when Baltimore's museum is operating both a Witt and a PCC, the internal comparisons are right there for children of all ages and visiting ferroequinologists to behold.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! I'm really glad you liked the video! Yes, Peter Witt was a real trend-setter at the time, especially his time managing Cleveland Railways. May be a good idea for a future video. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@713davidh42]

Fine video on one of the origins of the PCC streetcar. I was fortunate enough to ride PCC streetcars when growing up in Kansas City and since have ridden in cities which kept them longer. No bus can match their smooth ride.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! Kansas city had unique PCCs - none had the standee windows, from what I know. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@Gerhardium]

Great video Jeffrey, I love the PCC cars but my city replaced them before i was born. I've been lucky enough to ride them elsewhere but its not the same.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

I'm glad you liked the video! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@713davidh42]

Poignant comment. I was fortunate enough to ride PCC streetcars when growing up in Kansas City and since have ridden in cities which kept them longer. No bus can ever match the smooth ride these vehicles offered.

[@anthonybanchero3072]

In Seattle, the Union wanted a Demo, but the decision had already been made for trolley buses. I read up on Seattle Municipal Railway, it was doomed from the beginning, Municipal ownership without enabling legislation from the State is a bad idea. It was a regulated utility like the private operators, so any track relocation for highway construction, for example, came out of the farebox, which was also needed for paying off the purchase debt, and on paydays, the nickels and dimes went directly to employees pay, as banks sometimes would not honor warrants/IOUs from SMR.

[@JeffFrmJoisey]

Always loved PCC’s. Over the years 😮I’ve ridden them in Newark NJ, Boston, and Philly. I was lucky to get a chance at operating Newark 27 at the Shore Line Trolley Museum one Members’ day. That car even had controls under the center rear seat to operate it in reverse!

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! I also remember riding the PCCs in the Newark City Subway and in Philadelphia when I was a kid. Lucky you that you got to operate one! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@JTA1961]

The 3 door, 2 door, 1 door layout at 6:22 reminds me of how the merican waistline has grown ... not many today would be exiting out the back

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

LOL! That's an interesting observation! Something that would not be designed into a transit vehicle today, obviously! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@DaHitch]

12:58 That's one of the old PCC trams from Ghent, picture taken on the Korenmarkt right in front of the old Post Office! The trams of my childhood. :-)

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Great! Thanks so much for the information!!! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@johndonlon1611]

Super video. This poor car has been languishing at IRM for many years; moved around from here to there occasionally. It needs a cosmetic restoration. Getting it any farther than that would be pipe dream since all the operating parts are one-offs and the car needed consatant maintenance during its service life. It is a very important part in urban rail history.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Thank you - I'm really glad you liked the video! Yes, if only 4001 could get a cosmetic restoration! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@craigrymer9903]

Another excellent video Jeffrey, thank you 😊

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Thanks very much, Craig! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@cruzcontrol1504]

Always on the mark !!!

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Thank you! I appreciate it! And thank you very much for watching!!

[@GlennBrown-il3fx]

Fascinating. Thank you!

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

I'm very happy you liked the video, Glenn! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@ps.montreal5551]

Thank you for a most interesting video.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

I'm really glad you liked it! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@CoffeePot31]

So, the streetcars built by Brill and Pullman Standard, #7001 & #4001, respectively, were the forerunner of Electric Railway President's Conference Committee streetcars... Interesting! 😊😊😊😁😁😁

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Yes, they certainly were the forerunners of the PCC! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@jeffclark2725]

Great video,thumbs up

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

I'm really glad you liked it! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@TheGrimStoic]

4:38 Looks like a Chrysler Airflow!! Man, we don't appreciate Chrysler enough, I tell you...

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Yes, we don't appreciate these old cars that much today...wish today's cars looked like that old Airflow! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@TheGrimStoic]

I'm sure you already know this, but part of the reason why tramways could become so successful in North America has to do with the scales achievable for laying down city networks economically due to the inorganic 'white-slate' or 'greenfield' city planning that enabled grids and blocks, unlike at most other places with the same scale and population base that grew organically (and therefore circularly) in Europe and elsewhere in the old world. This catalyst often doesn't get appreciated enough. This 'greenfield' opportunity is being tapped all across the globe today with nations with 3,4 or 5 thousand year old cities building new cities as twins or even completely new developments - but to have that opportunity for 50ish cities all at once like USA did in the mid-war years was a great impetus, probably only duplicated by the last 25 years of Chinese infra boom, and not likely to happen at that scale elsewhere anytime soon. Of course it needs the kind of vision and political will unencumbered by environmental and populist concerns that USA doesn't seem to be able to muster anymore...

[@JTA1961]

Yup. For the greater good...not for the bubbas in the hood

[@TheGrimStoic]

@@JTA1961 That false binary is where western democracies have got so derailed, mate. You can have greater good AND bubbas in the hood...The magic USA had was that they did greater good while being very free and democratic, without resorting to any dictatorship or involuntary regimentation or socialism. The trouble now is that every unreasonable individualism is pandered to as an inalienable right - lost, the mojo, you have

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Yes! America was the main incubator of the "grid culture" that is the hallmark of modern societies, or will be. The grid is democratic, or more democratic than other forms of planning before it (such as the 'radiant axis' which is what Europe is mostly designed upon). But other ancient societies had the grid as a sub-culture, such as Japan. Which enabled them to industrialize very fast! And also, the grid culture also goes further out into space than the previous cultues. I took a class in architecture school by a professor who had this whole theory of each culture through time and its planning iconograhy and was writing a book on it...but I don't remember all of it as it was almost 40 years ago. But it quite interesting. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@TheGrimStoic]

@@JeffreyOrnstein fun fact: first grid-plan (and possibly pretty egalitarian, for their era) cities founded by Harappan Civilization, pre-cursor to India ~ 3,500 BCE

[@SHKarlson]

@@JeffreyOrnstein Put another way, the section roads of the Northwest Ordinance surveys provided a structure around which to expand the cities that emerged as the settlers went beyond the Appalachians. It didn't hurt that the topography was more like the featureless plain of the regional economics models than the structured by rivers and ridges under which Paris or Moscow or London or Boston took their initial shapes.

[@user-pm6pw1nk7f]

Sehr informatives Video, danke dafür, Grüße aus Deutschland.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Ich freue mich, dass dir das Video gefallen hat! Vielen Dank fürs Zuschauen aus Deutschland und für deinen Kommentar!

[@jeffclark2725]

They were really reaching outside the lines and really had good backing to accomplish what they set out to do

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Yes, the CSL sure did! Without them and the ERPCC, there may not have been a PCC streetcar! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@pabloguillen5915]

You may also want to count the thousands of excellent, albeit unlicensed, copies made by Tatra.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! Yes, you are right about all the non-official PCC cars that were built. Unfortunately, I don't have a total for those. If I get that info, I will add it to the description. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@user-cr3jv8se1u]

I've seen this for years at IRM, though I haven't been there for quite some time. I heard that it would be converted to a restored but stationary display, sad to see little progress has been made.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! Hopefully it will be restored, if only cosmetically! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@mohabatkhanmalak1161]

It has the Art-Deko style of the 1930's.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Yes, it sure does have that style!!! Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@tonymento7460]

The first group of PCC cars were for New York it was 100 cars then 2 more cars were added on 1 for the Boston El Railway car # 3001 which did not have the left side door like the Pullman PCC cars that were built with the Left side doors for the subway the second car was for Pittsburgh when they received more PCC cars the first PCC was rebuilt as a training car it was numbered # 100 all 102 cars were built by the St. Louis Car Company The Boston PCC was called the Queen Mary was stationed at the Arborway on the Boston El Railway in the early 1950’s it was retired all the parts on it was used on the Pullman cars because the Pullman and the St.Louis Cars were the same design the Chicago PCC cars were used to built the first PCC Rapid Transit cars for Chicago

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! Thank you for the additional information on the PCC car! Maybe I will do another video on the general development of the PCC. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@harri2626]

Good video, thank you. Of the quoted 20,000 PCC's built, only 5,000 were built for North America. The rest were unofficial copies/variations built by Tatra (Czechoslovakia) from the 1950s for service throughout Eastern Europe and western USSR. However, this is thanks to the groundbreaking technology of the PCC and 4001 was a pioneer.

[@swanvictor887]

I recently saw a video here on you tube from an enthusiast, in Alexandria, Egypt: there are still many an old tramcar operating there!

[@harri2626]

​@@swanvictor887 Indeed they do, and I rode them last year. Sadly, the former Toronto PCCs have long gone, and the bulk of the fleet are ex Copenhagen trams to a West German design.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! Yes, you are absolutely correct that 5,000 PCCs were built for the USA and Canada. Glad you liked the video. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@arthurbilenker2622]

Car #1001 is at the Branford trolley museum and is fully restored and is running. It is beautiful.

[@jozsefimbrea9473]

Here in Budapest lots of those old Tatras still do perform their yeoman services, but in Bucharest locally produced PCC derivatives built by Electroputere provided satisfactory services from the early '50s to the seventies. I have just one question: did the PCC cars inspire the guys at the Yellow Coach Co. to design that famous transit-type bus, which later became the GMC Old Look?

[@Thunder_6278]

Wasn't #4001 air conditioned? I guess not. Must visit #4001, I would donate to the restoration.

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! Yes, #4001 did have a "forced-air circulation system," perhaps an early or simple form of air-conditioning. I mentioned in the video that the closed windows had to be replaced because the ventilation system did not work most of the time, unfortunately. Thank you for watching and for your comment!

[@villeelomaa7836]

English isn' t my first language. So could someone explain me the word streetcar. To me these are trams, not any cars. I mean why are trams called streetcars?

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Hello! "Streetcar" is an American or North American term that is used instead of tram. Tram is generally not used in the US as a word for a street-running electric vehicle on rails. It is, however, sometimes used as a word to describe an aerial cable car. Such as the Roosevelt Island Tram that travels high above the street between midtown Manhattan and Roosevelt Island, over the East River. There may be an exception here or there, but the US uses streetcar, trolley car, or more recently, "light rail vehicle." We also use the term "car" to describe an individual unit that runs on rails. (example: subway car, trolley car, railroad car, etc). The UK uses the word "carriage" for this. In America, a carriage is something that you put a baby in and push it around. Different parts of the world sometimes call the same things differently. Or maybe someone has a better explanation... And thank you for watching the video!!