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Cars 6101-6102 Return Home

We’re pleased to welcome back some old friends!

 

We’ve received two vintage 6000-series rail cars from the Fox River Trolley Museum. The cars are now part of CTA’s Heritage Fleet, established in 2016 to preserve and celebrate the history of CTA and its predecessor companies.

 

Cars 6101-02, built in 1950 by the St. Louis Car Company, were among a fleet of more than 700 6000-series cars ordered by the CTA between 1950 and 1959—-at the time the largest series of railcars ever built for CTA with 720 cars.

The first 6000s were the beginning of a modernization process undertaken by the nascent CTA intended to remove from service the remaining turn-of-the century wooden ‘L’ cars still in use at the time.

 

The 6000s represented a total departure in rapid transit car design for Chicago—older and heavier wood or steel car designs of the 1890s-1920s gave way to these lightweight cars with all-electric propulsion and braking.

 

Cars 6101-6102, were among the first set of 6000s to be put into service by CTA, were used by two generations of CTA riders, ran in service until their retirement in 1992, among the last 6000’s to run.

 

Over the years the 6000s featured a variety of paint schemes: from the original Mercury Green, Croyden Cream, and Swamp Holly Orange they were delivered in (featured on cars 6101-6102), to the Mint Green and Alpine White they wore in the 1970s, to a Bicentennial scheme, and then to a “Spirit of Chicago” livery.

 

The 6000s ran for more than 40 years, and at their widest usage comprised approximately two-thirds of the entire ‘L’ fleet, making them the quintessential ‘L’ car for many Chicagoans.

 

We’re extremely grateful to the leadership of the Fox River Trolley Museum, whose dedicated staff and volunteers have lovingly preserved these cars for the last 23 years and have kept them on display for visitors since, and for working with us to bring these cars back to their home rails!

We’re also grateful to the Illinois Railway Museum, which provided us access to vintage car card advertisements, which we’ve carefully reproduced for these cars’ interiors.

 

Though these cars are currently not operable, we’re is working on plans to display the 6000-series to the public and Heritage Fleet staff and volunteers will soon begin rehab work to restore them to working order.

We look forward to showcasing this wonderful piece of CTA and Chicago history!

 

For more info on the Heritage Fleet, visit transitchicago.com/heritagefleet

 

For more info on the Fox River Trolley Museum, from whom we received these cars, visit foxtrolley.org

 

For more info on the Illinois Railway Museum, visit irm.org

 

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Uploaded on August 24, 2017
Taken on August 10, 2017