Don's Rail Photos
Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Ry.
350 series city cars
The last city cars purchased new by the North Shore were cars 351 thru 360. They came from St. Louis Car in 1927 and 1928 and were designed to operate as one or two man cars. 351 thru 358 went to Milwaukee, and 359 and 360 went to Waukegan. In 1942, 353 thru 358 were sent to Waukegan for wartime service. It is said that 351 and 352 were also sent to Waukegan, but if so, their stay was short. In 1947, with the abandonment of the Waukegan lines, the entire group was sent to Milwaukee to replace the Birneys. They ran until abandonment on August 12, 1951.
I look back at the many evenings that Joe Chesen and I rode these cars. There were 4 in operation, and Joe and I had two friendly motormen who were on opposite cars. We would ride the south end of the line, get off at Mitchell Street, and then board the southbound car. We took over the controls from Lincoln Avenue to the end of the line. There were several times that we got up to balancing speed, and then a little faster and the line switch blew.
Here are the cars.
A week after abandonment, I caught a picture of car 354, and then a few weeks later some photos of the cars being lined up and hauled out of Milwaukee.
After abandonment, the cars were sent to North Chicago for scrapping. 354 was purchased by the president of the Chicago Hardware Foundry. It was painted into the green and red of CHF, but the motors were removed. The car was acquired by the Illinois Electric Railway Museum (now IRM). Restoration began in 1958 (I put many hours on the car), and it is now in operation in Union. When I visited the car in 1989, it brought back many happy memories.
There was one additional car which almost fits into this series. Car 361 was built by St. Louis Car in 1927, just like the 350s, but it had different motors, control, and braking equipment. It was built as 500 for the Chicago Aurora & Elgin. It was used to replace standard interurban cars on the Batavia branch, but it quickly proved to be unsatisfactory. It was retired and placed in storage until June 1942, when it was leased to the North Shore. It was repainted and renumbered and put into Waukegan service. After the war, it was purchased by the North Shore in March 1947. It was quickly retired and scrapped in 1948.
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