CTA 4412 Gets Window Shades

CTA 4412 GETS WINDOW SHADES – A 50TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENT

by Bill Wulfert

But first a bit of history.  IRM was interested in preserving some cars from the 4000 series of Chicago Transit Authority 'L' cars.  First a Baldie was selected. The Baldies were numbered 4001-4250, and were built with steel roofs and only two ventilators, and no trolley poles, hence the nickname of Baldies. Fifteen retired Baldies were in storage at Skokie Shop since their 1964 retirement, as they had been recently overhauled. IRM selected 4215 for preservation.  In addition, 4216 and 4146 were purchased for parts. Even though these three cars were motor cars on the 'L', IRM purchased all three without motors, in order to save precious funds.  The extra cars were purchased for trucks and control equipment.  After a closer inspection at IRM, it was decided that 4146 was in slightly better condition than the 4215, so the 4146 was selected for preservation.

As part of the big purchase from the CTA, IRM also purchased three retired wooden 'L' cars that were being used for locker rooms/offices at the Desplaines Avenue terminal of the Congress Line in Forest Park (today's Blue Line). These cars, 1770, 1775, and 1784 (Pullman 1908) were stripped of seats and motors before they went to Forest Park. The main purpose for buying these cars, was that they had Type M control equipment and Van Dorn couplers which could be used for future restoration efforts.

And finally we get to 4412.  We are not entirely sure why we decided to save a Plushie, series 4251-4455 that no longer had trolley poles or roof boards. Most likely, it was to ship all of these cars at one time.  The Evanston assigned 4000s of course had trolley poles, as the Evanston 'L' had trolley wire from South Blvd. to Linden Ave. in Wilmette.  The Evanston 4000s were running their last days, but most likely no decision had been made on converting the Evanston line to 3rd rail.  The CTA needed cars with trolley poles until the line was cut over to 3rd rail on November 8, 1973.

So 4412 was selected, as it had good wheels on the motor truck, with Westinghouse motors, and still had a grooved wooden floor inside.  The car also had a fairly new canvas roof, and hence no roof boards.  Unfortunately, the roof tack molding was not in good shape.  The car had boards nailed over the bottom of the canvas for many years at IRM until Tim Peters finished a complete roof replacement in November of 2012.

IRM actually purchased the cars in January 1972 (see Rail & Wire issue #70 page 3 and #72 page 5). The cars stayed at Skokie Shop until the CTA found the time to pull the un-purchased motors from the three Baldies.  R&W issue #74 pages 3-4 explains the details of the Tuesday-Saturday trip to IRM on the Chicago & North Western via Weber, 40th, Proviso, West Chicago and Elgin yards! The cars arrived on Saturday, November 4, 1972.

'L' car 4412 was delivered to the Chicago Rapid Transit Company in 1925. The 1922 and 1924 orders for new elevated cars were a vast improvement over the 1914-15 Baldie cars, even though the cars used the same basic car body. These cars had reversible green Mohair plush seats, instead of rattan that was used in all previously purchased cars.  The brass light fixtures had glass lamp shades to diffuse the lighting.  Like all previous cars, they had window shades to block the sun or heat of day.

Car 4412 was operated all over the elevated system, but mostly on lines that required operation from trolley wire, in addition to third rail. Car 4412 had a long assignment on the Lake Street 'L'.  In 1962 the Lake Street line was elevated from street level (west of Laramie Avenue) onto the Chicago & North Western Railway's embankment to Harlem Avenue. Trolley poles were removed shortly thereafter, as they were no longer needed.  When the Lake Street 'L' received the new 2000 series cars beginning in 1964, the Lake Street 4000s were moved over to the Ravenswood 'L', replacing the Baldies.

I do remember window shades on all of the Lake Street Plushies. And in fact they always had green plush seats.  I didn't ride 4000s on Ravenswood until maybe 1966.  I was surprised to see brown vinyl seat covers on all of the cars.  I can't recall if the cars still had window shades, or if they were gone.

When the 4000s arrived at IRM in 1972, I recall a few ratty shades in the three Baldies.  There were no shades in the 4412, or so we thought. Some time later on we reached into the curtain boxes, and lo and behold there were some shades!  It seems that the CTA had not removed the old shades, just stuffed them into the curtain boxes, out of sight.  There was not a full set, as many of them were missing.  After carefully pulling the shades back down and into the window tracks, we saw how horrible the shades looked.

Old, torn shades in the 4412

What to do?  We didn't do anything.  Most of the time the shades were all the way up, and most visitors didn't attempt to pull them down.  The Evanston assigned 4000s that we purchased later on (4290, 4321, and 4410) had window shades right up to the end of service in 1973.  After all, you had to pay an extra 15 cents each way to ride on the Evanston Express trains.  I guess they deserved this luxury for paying extra.

Over the years I thought about putting shades back into 4412. To be accurate, we would have had to install some dark shades that looked like the green Pantasote ones. Most of those looked like they were black in their last days. They were all brittle, and not reusable.  The CTA also attempted to create their own shades out of green vinyl seat covering material. They looked very nice on the inside, and are somewhat flexible.  But the back sides were a white canvas like material that got really dirty, creating an unsightly mess facing the outside. There were a few of this type in 4412.

Front and back of a shade made out of green seat material

So, I decided to reuse some of the fiberglass reinforced green vinyl shades that were salvaged from 4000s that we scrapped at IRM. Those shades look nice in 4290 and 4410.  Most of these shades have the more modern Adlake rollers and brass pinchers with a rubber shoe that slides in the window track area.  At first I thought that the CTA purchased the completed shades from Adlake.  But there are also some shades with the same material on old style Chicago Curtain Supply hardware.  I'm not sure how old these shades are. They have held up well, but suffered from sun, dirt, and probably some brake shoe dust at the bottoms.

A shade that came out in pieces

Each shade required about an hour of scrubbing with powdered cleanser, some liquid soap, and a stiff scrub brush.  John McKelvey sewed new header material to the top of many shades, since the old material was in poor shape.  The shades are not perfect, but they look nice inside.  All of the steel hardware was sandblasted and painted. The brass was polished and clear coated.  I used all of the newer type of shade rollers and hardware from Adlake, saving the older hardware for the wooden 'L' car shade projects. Two of the Adlake shade rollers had dates stamped on them. One from 10 - 54 and another from 11 - 59. They were older than I expected.  The rest have no dates on them.

Shades going back in

All shades installed

"Shorty" shade under the sign box

Closeup - the shades need to stretch out the wrinkles from years of storage

Car 4412 was in service from 1925 until 1969 or 1970, about 45 years.  The car arrived at IRM in November of 1972.  It took a while to install roof boards and trolley poles. I know that the car was run in service at IRM on September 1, 1973, if not earlier.  This coming November 2022 will mark 50 years at IRM.  In honor of this anniversary, I felt that the car should finally get window shades.  Sorry it took 50 years to do it!