Chicago & Southern Traction

There were five interurban lines that ran into Chicago: the three Insull lines that ran into the Loop; the Chicago & Joliet Electric, which ran to Archer and Cicero on the southwest side; and Chicago & Southern Traction (later Chicago & Interurban Traction), which ran to 63rd Street on the south side.

Many thanks to Art Peterson, who has sent a terrific collection of photos of C&ST from the Krambles-Peterson Archive. Caption information mostly comes from the Stephen Scalzo history of the line.

Chicago Electric Traction, or CET, was a predecessor of C&ST. Here we see CET open car 63, a 1900-vintage American Car Company product, at the CET terminal at 63rd and South Park (today Martin Luther King Jr Drive). This terminal was no longer used after 1912. The car in the foreground is Calumet Electric Street Railway 124, built in 1904 by Kuhlman and later to become Chicago Surface Lines 2829. Note the stairs up to the South Side Rapid Transit elevated line to Jackson Park.

CET 66 was built in 1900 as part of the same order as car 63 shown above. It's signed for Blue Island and includes a board advertising Calumet Grove, an "electric park" amusement park owned by CET and located in Blue Island.

Car 73 was also part of that same 1900 American Car Company order. It's pictured in 1907, location uncertain but possibly 63rd Street judging from what appears to be an elevated railway in the background.

When CET started operations, it wasn't a traditional electric railway, it was a storage battery line. Car 4 was one of the original storage battery cars built in 1896 by Pullman. By the time this photo was taken, sometime after 1901, it had been converted to 600V overhead wire operation. Surviving rosters suggest this car also got a Brill 21E truck, but here it still has the DuPont truck from its storage battery car days.

From 1907 to 1913, a common sight on short-turn runs from Chicago to intermediate points on the C&ST like Blue Island, Harvey, Chicago Heights, and Crete were the cars of the 126-140 series. They were built in 1907 by Kuhlman and had an odd roof with a faired-in "railroad roof" monitor at the front that was chopped off "deck roof style" at the back. The location is uncertain.

This photo is at 79th and Halsted; the building on the right is still there. In the distance on the southbound track is Chicago City Railway 5187, a "Little Brill" built in 1905, while on the northbound track can be seen what appears to be a sprinkler car.

This builder's photo of C&ST 134 clearly shows the odd roof arrangement. These cars were conveyed to Chicago City Railway in 1913 and rebuilt for double-end operation with pay-as-you-enter (PAYE) fare collection and normal deck roofs. They became Chicago Surface Lines 5651-5665 and were nicknamed "Crete suburban cars" in recognition of their C&ST heritage.

This builder's photo shows the interior of car 134 in 1907. Features like the separate smoking compartment and coal-fired hot-water heat were removed during the CCR rebuilding.

It's 1910 and car 134, plastered with advertisements for the Kankakee Fair, is on the bridge at Matteson that took the Joliet & Southern directly over the diamonds where the Illinois Central and Michigan Central crossed. It's likely that car 134 was on the J&S for advertising purposes.

Through service from Chicago to Kankakee was mostly held down by the big 200-series heavy interurban cars. Handsome car 206 was built by St. Louis in 1907 and is shown here at 79th and Halsted.

This rare image, though heavily retouched, shows one of the 301-304 series interurban trailers. These cars were built in 1909 by Niles, but only lasted about a year in this configuration before they were motorized. The Baldwin trailer trucks shown were replaced by Brill MCB2X trucks when they were motorized.

This line car was built in 1911 by C&ST as 500 and was renumbered two years later to 50. It was destroyed in a fire in 1924. It's pictured at the company's carbarn at 88th and Vincennes.

The two photos above were taken on July 8, 1921, the day a portable substation parked on a siding at an unknown location caught fire and burned. Judging from the surroundings, this is closer to the south end of the line than the north end. Line car 50 appears to be in the background of the second photo.

The barn at 88th and Vincennes dated to the line's storage battery days and included both indoor and covered outdoor storage. This photo, taken on July 12, 1923, is looking north toward 88th. The car on the left may be part of the 35-37 (originally 215-217) series built by Jewett in 1911.

This photo was taken the same day but is looking southwest from the corner of 88th and Vincennes. In the foreground is the office, with storage and machine shop facilities also located at the east end of the building; behind it are several indoor storage tracks in the shop, and the covered car storage shed west of that. This complex was owned by Chicago City Railway or Chicago Surface Lines after 1912 and leased to the C&ST until it quit in the late 1920s, after which CSL used it for a while for car storage.