Early Chicago Streetcars from the Bill Wulfert Collection

Thanks to Bill Wulfert for providing these fascinating images from the early days of Chicago streetcars. These photos are copyright Bill Wulfert and may not be copied or reproduced.

North Chicago Street Railroad 402 was one of Chicago's large, double-truck, semi-enclosed grip cars. Unfortunately, I'm not sure who built it or when. The rooftop sign reads "Clark St / Lincoln Park and City Limits" and the sign over the end window reads "Limits."

Passengers jam every flat surface on a Chicago City Railway cable train bound for the Columbian Exposition in 1893.

Chicago City Railway 1896 was a single-trucker built by Pullman in 1895 on order #836 (for comparison, IRM's ex-Chicago Union Traction single-trucker was built at almost the exact same time on Pullman order #840). In 1908 it was renumbered CCRy 2297 and the following year it was sold for scrap.

It's 1906 on Clark Street in the Loop and Chicago City Railways double-truckers 2762 (St. Louis, 1903) and 2609 (St. Louis, 1902) are passing each other. Both of these cars lasted well into the CSL era and were retired in the late 1940s.

Chicago Union Traction (CUT) 4264 was an ex-West Chicago Street Railroad car built by Brownell in 1890 and motorized in 1896. It was scrapped before CSL took over. The rooftop sign reads "Grand Central Station / Harrison St - State St - Kedzie Av."

CUT 4392 was one of a large group of cars built by American in 1892 for West Chicago Street Railroad. This was one of a large batch of single-truckers retired in the late 1910s, but retained by the CSL for a quarter century as an "emergency reserve" and not scrapped until 1933-1934. IRM's 1895 single-trucker was, of course, also part of this reserve fleet.

IRM's "Bowling Alley" car, CSL 1467, looked like this when it was new. Car 4527 was one of 80 large double-truck cars built just after CUT was created, and was one of the first cars built at the then-new West Shops complex. This particular car was never modernized like 1467 was, with longer platforms, newer trucks and motors, and PAYE fare collection. Instead, it was sold in 1916 to Gary Railways, where it became that company's number 603. It was scrapped in 1927.

If this car looks familiar, it should - this is what the "Matchbox" looked like when new. Differences include spoked wheels and different truck side frames; the type shown was too weak and the truck was redesigned with a horizontal reinforcing rib. CUT 4626 was built by St. Louis in 1903, renumbered 4726 in 1910, and later became CSL 1197. It was retired in 1937.

This is really a fascinating builder's photo - CUT 4724 was one of five cars built by Brill in 1903 and originally numbered 4724-4728. They were later renumbered 4625-4629 and then ended up as CSL 1424-1428. Pretty early on, they were rebuilt with longer platforms and given ends identical to the St. Louis-built "Matchboxes," so in later years they looked much more like "Matchboxes" with narrower side windows. This is the only photo I can recall seeing that shows one of these cars with its original "rubber stamp" Brill ends. This car, as CSL 1424, was retired in 1937.