I took this photo in Chicago's Marquette Park neighborhood one afternoon, in January of 1987. Chicago was hit with a heavy snowstorm that had lasted all morning that day, and the snow had stopped faling approximately one hour before I had taken this photograph on West 67th Street near South Lawndale Avenue. The 1970's era CTA GMC TDH Series fishbowl buses like the example shown here, were in their last decade of service. They would be retired from the CTA roster in the year of 1996.Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Westbound Chicago Transit Authority Route # 67 / West 67th Street bus near South Lawndale Avenue. Chicago Illinois USA. January 1987.
I took this photo in Chicago's Marquette Park neighborhood one afternoon, in January of 1987. Chicago was hit with a heavy snowstorm that had lasted all morning that day, and the snow had stopped faling approximately one hour before I had taken this photograph on West 67th Street near South Lawndale Avenue. The 1970's era CTA GMC TDH Series fishbowl buses like the example shown here, were in their last decade of service. They would be retired from the CTA roster in the year of 1996.
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5 comments:
The 67 Marquette route had an extremely strange western terminus, at Kostner Avenue, a ordinary side street exactly halfway between Pulaski and Cicero.
Upon reaching Kostner, the bus would turn south for one block to 68th Street, east on 68th a half block to Kolin, and then north to Marquette Road where it would turn again to return east.
Why it did not continue westbound the last few blocks to Cicero to connect with other bus lines is a total mystery. As a teenager in the '70s I once asked a bus driver about the sense of this and he just smiled and shrugged.
Especially weird was a bus stop sign on 68th Street and Kostner where the bus would sometimes idle away the time. This bus stop was literally alongside a house on a quiet residential block.
Alas, the 67 Marquette route is no more, but it made it well into the 1990s. I now live less than a block from that unusual turnaround and wish I had snapped a photo of the bus at the bus stop alongside my neighbor's house.
Hi Anthony!
Gee, I didn't realize that I was actually that "Out of Touch" in regards to the West 67th Street bus route. I never knew that it was discontinued.
Thank You for the update and that all too important input about it.
Eddie.
This shot could be used for CTA publicity. Great shot!
Hi Tom!
Thank You for that nice compliment!
I had fun taking this photo.
Thank You.
Eddie.
Eddie,
perhaps my previous comments about this route were not entirely correct.
My friend Tom in Halifax, Nova Scotia, used to live for many years on Marquette Road and Spaulding Ave. and he reminds me that the Marquette bus route used to be called the 110. He also recalls that during rush hours, a limited number of 110 buses DID go past the odd turnaround at Kostner Avenue that I described in my previous post and went as far west as approximately Lavergne and 65th Street in the Clearing Industrial District.
So, I'm actually a little confused about your photo. Are you sure you were not standing on 71st Street, which also had bus service at one time? Or, perhaps the old 110 was renamed the 67 at some point, but I cannot figure what it had to do with 69th and 71st as visible on the bus stop sign in your photo if you look closely.
Some old documentation from the CTA would be helpful.
As for my friend Tom in Canada, he has checked out your blog in the past when I've sent him a link and while in Chicago this past weekend he was mentioning something about the CTA's "fishbowl" buses. I told him to look up this blog when he gets back home. "If you've got a question about CTA buses, Eddie's your MAN!"
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