Chicago Cars on the P&W

The Chicago cars are back on the storage track at 69th St. Can anyone share some information on when and how and why they were used on the P&W?

Thanks

Them with a handfull of regauged Budd M3 Cars were used to replace the retired Strafford Cars back in '90. They were used until '93 when the N5s started rolling in.

On an aside, I'm surprised that the CTA cars are back. I thought they were hauled off to a museum.

That's a first! A relic coming back to SEPTA? Usually once something leaves, its gone for good. I remember seeing them parked at 69th St about a year ago, then they were gone. Too bad SEPTA doesen't do fan trips.

those chicago cars have been there for at least a year

edit: i heard septa kept them with the intent to convert them to work vehicles

They were there for a while, then gone, now they're back. I was touring the yards yesterday on a class field trip and was told that they belonged to a museum and would be going back when the museum took them back.

Are they still in SEPTA colors? Or have they been returned to their original CTA livery?

I have to confess I don't have a lot of love for the CTA cars from a passenger's viewpoint. I spent too many cold, noisy, darkened trips on those cars. Leaky weatherstripping, 25W bulbs in the globes, and motors that sounded as it they were ready to fly apart at any moment.

I went by there the other day and they are still in the Septa colors.They were old,dark and leaky,but I have to admit I did enjoy riding them.It would be nice if Septa would rehab them and run fan trips,but my chances of getting struck by lightning are better then the odds of Septa doing that.

Septaman113 wrote:It would be nice if Septa would rehab them and run fan trips,but my chances of getting struck by lightning are better then the odds of Septa doing that.

When you have an operations budget deficit in excess of $60M, there are more important things to do...

Went downtown yesterday and saw the Chicago Cars in the yard. I'm not sure if its where they've been, but they're the first cars you see on the right as you enter the yard. Having some free time I walked back to the apartments by the yard and took a peek over the fence. The cars are pretty faded, one of them having a hefty graffiti tag on behing the forward doors. They both had bright blue "Limited" markers on the sides. On my way home, I asked the driver if they were out for a reason. He explained how they came to Septa, and that they were the last 2 left. He said they had previously been on zero-track, behind the maintenance building, but had been moved out to the outside track, though he did not indicate when they had been moved. He pretty much repeated the same story that they had been sold (to a museum iirc), but the funding had fallen through. But if anyone is interested in seeing them you pass right by them going in or out of 69th St. Also, I took some pictures if anyone is still interested

I took a quick trip on the El

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/SEPT ... 4_12_29_03

and the P&W

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/SEPT ... 4_12_29_11

Wednesday morning in an attempt to photograph the CTA cars. I wasn't very successful.

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/SEPT ... 4_12_29_12

I enjoyed the trip, though.

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/SEPT ... 4_12_29_15

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/SEPT ... 4_12_29_16

Bad as they were, those cars are somewhat unique. They are actually PCC cars, some of them ( though I don't know whether the actual P&W Cars are in this category) were constructed from the scrapped bodies of postwar Chicago PCC streetcars, which became surplus when CTA bustituted the entire Chicago streetcar system when the Postwar cars were only five years old. One car was sent to a museum, and most of the others returned to St. Louis Car to re-emerge as rapid transit cars. By the time SEPTA bought the cars it bought, they were 40 plus years old, and were never appropriate for Route 100 anyway.

The CTA's were essentially a purchase of both opportunity and desperation. So many Bullets and Strafford cars had failed that the line was shut down for a while. Without new rolling stock it might have been closed permanently or converted to a paved busway like the Ardmore line (gackkk!). The CTA's could be adapted to the P&W without a lot of extra work. Plus, the price was right - SEPTA essentially paid scrap value for them. Supposedly the haulage costs from Chicago were more than the purchase price.

Yes, they were not appropriate to the line and more than a few of us have no particular fondness for them, but some part of me is willing to acknowledge that they managed to keep some form of service running.

a handfull of regauged Budd M3 Cars

That threw me off until I saw "regauged", and then thought MFL. I do confess, my mind at first jumped to Long Island RR/Metro-North M3s, which are also built by Budd and run off third-rail, but have a wider loading gauge...

JeffK wrote:The CTA's were essentially a purchase of both opportunity and desperation. So many Bullets and Strafford cars had failed that the line was shut down for a while. Without new rolling stock it might have been closed permanently or converted to a paved busway like the Ardmore line (gackkk!). The CTA's could be adapted to the P&W without a lot of extra work. Plus, the price was right - SEPTA essentially paid scrap value for them. Supposedly the haulage costs from Chicago were more than the purchase price.

Yes, they were not appropriate to the line and more than a few of us have no particular fondness for them, but some part of me is willing to acknowledge that they managed to keep some form of service running.

Actually, SEPTA preferred the CTA 5-50 series cars because the cars could be operated with one-man [the doors were at the end of the cars, and they had on-board fare collection]. At the time CTA wasn't willing to part with them as they were used on the Skokie Swift and Evanston lines. If the situation with the Norristown Line wasn't so desperate, SEPTA could have waited another year or two to get the cars.