Two preserved CTA 1959 vintage 5-50 rapid transit cars. The IllinoisRailway Museum. Union Illinois. August 2006.

Two preserved CTA 1959 vintage 5-50 rapid transit cars. The Illinois Railway Museum. Union Illinois. August 2006.


I took this photo on a somewhat overcast August 2006 visit to the Illinois Railway Museum, located in the town of Union Illinois. The Chicago Transit Authority decided to phase out electric streetcar operations on Chicago city streets during the 1950's, and focus on upgrading their Rapid Transit system. Several newer PCC electric streetcars with not many years of service in Chicago, and good electrical gear were scrapped and the components were reused. The CTA had two types of "Recycled" light weight rapid transit cars manufactured with PCC streetcar components. There was the 6000 series cars with their doors closer to the center of the car and coupled into permanent 2 car single unit married pair configuration, wich is todays current CTA standard. The other type was the 5-50 series double ended "Single Unit" cars. It was pretty much like a large electric double ended streetcar, that could operate alone as a single unit, or in multiple unit pairs as seen here. These cars were originally used on what is todays CTA Purple line, but also later served the Skokie Swift and other rapid tansit lines. These cars served the CTA well for many years, and were finally retired in the mid 1990's. Several have found new homes at many operating railroad museums such as the Illinois Railway Museum, The Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin Illinois, The East Troy Electric Railroad Museum in East Troy Wisconsin, and even across the border at the Halton County Radial Railway in Milton Ontario Canada.