I took this photo on a recent family visit to the Illinois Railway Museum, located in the small town of Union Illinois. Chicago like many other citties in North America, once operated a large electric streetcar system.
Chicago streetcar service under the 1947 formed Chicago Transit Authority, was gradually being phased out during the late 1940's throughout the 1950's. The CTA last operated streetcars on June 21st , 1958. The older red cars to the left, were originally operated by the pre CTA predecessor company Chicago Surface Lines. The red cars were in service until May of 1954. The Mercury green car with the orange stripe to the right, was built in 1948, and was from Chicago Transit Authority's last order for new electric streetcars. It ran until the end of service in 1958.
The newer cars with little mileage on them, were taken out of service one by one, scrapped, and the electrical components were recycled in to the new 6000 series lightweight CTA rapid transit cars. Car # 4391 to the left, is the only survivor and is operated here at the museum. Even though most of Chicago's electric streetcars were cut up for scrap, the Illinois Railway Museum has a small but sizeable collection of the surviving older cars from the early 1900's to the 1920's era.
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