THE GS TRAM SITE

CHICAGO

ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES

flag.us

30 May 1954

The Chicago system on the last day of operation of the Cermak, Halsted, Kedzie, Lake and California lines.


Chicago 
    streetcar Chicago loop junction Chicago elevated train

Chicago tram map – 1954

FIRST INSET: DOWNTOWN CHICAGO

Chicago downtown tram map – 1954

SECOND INSET: INTERURBAN NETWORK AROUND CHICAGO

Chicago interurban tram map – 1954



I created the above maps by overlaying OpenStreetMap (OSM) maps with my own data. Copyright on the OSM maps is © OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under a CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence).

Please note that the OSM maps used as templates for these maps correspond to the situation at the time the maps were downloaded and may show features that did not exist at the time the GS Tram Site is supposed to show. In particular, they may show bridges and highways that were built later.

ABBREVIATIONS ON THE MAPS

BM Belmont Station MF Marshfield Station

ROUTES

STREETCAR ROUTES

Operator: Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

  4 Cottage Grove W Randolph St. & N Wabash Av. - Wabash Av. - Indiana Av. - Cottage Grove Av. - 115th St.
  8 Halsted Grace St. & Broadway - Halsted St. - W 79th St.
16 Lake Austin Bvd. (City limits) - Lake St. - State St. - Downtown (Van Buren St.)1
21 Cermak Kenton Av. (City limits) - Cermak Rd. - Burnham Park
22 Clark Howard St. (City limits) - Clark St. - S Wentworth Av. - Vincennes Av. - W 81st St. & S Halsted St.
36 Broadway N Clark St. - Devon Av. - Broadway - N Clark St. - N State St. - S State St. - Indiana Av. - S Michigan Av. - 119th St. - S Morgan St.
42 Halsted Downtown Lake St. - [State St.] [back: Polk St. - Dearborn St.] - State St. - Archer Av. - S Halsted St. - W 79th St.
49 Western Berwyn Av. - Western Av. - W 79th St.
52 Kedzie - California Roscoe St. - N California Av. - W Chicago Av. - Kedzie Av. - Marquette Park (W 67th St.)

1 Putting the downtown terminus of line 16 (State) at the intersection of Van Buren St. and State St. is pure guess - but it must have been somewhere!

Service discontinuation dates between 26 Feb. 1951 and 30 May 1954 (corresponding route numbers in brackets):

RAPID TRANSIT ROUTES (ELEVATED RAILROADS AND SUBWAYS)

Operator: Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

Note: The one and two-character codes used to identify routes below and in the maps are for convenience only, and were not used by the operating company.

  1 State Street Subway Roosevelt Rd. - State St. - Division St. - Clybourn Av. - North Av.
  2 Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway La Salle Stn - Dearborn St. - Lake St. - Milwaukee Av. - Damen Stn. - Logan Square
DP Douglas Park Line Loop - (Lake Street Line) - Marshfield - Douglas Park - 54th Av.
EH Englewood - Howard Englewood - Pershing Rd. Station - Roosevelt Rd. - State Street Subway - Belmont - Howard St.
EL Evanston - Loop Linden (Evanston) - Howard St. - Belmont - Pershing Rd. Station - Loop [Rush-hour express service]
EW Evanston-Wilmette Branch Howard Street - Linden (Evanston) [Shuttle]
GP Garfield Park Line Loop - Marshfield - Garfield Park - Columbus Park (Austin) - Forest Park (Des Plaines Av.)
JH Jackson Park - Howard Jackson Park - Pershing Rd. Station - Roosevelt Rd. - State Street Subway - Belmont - Howard Street
KI Kenwood - Indiana Av. Kenwood - Indiana Av. [Shuttle]
L Lake Street Line Loop - Lake Street - Forest Park
RL Ravenswood - Loop Kimball Stn. - Belmont - Loop
SI Stock Yards - Indiana Av. Stock Yards - Indiana Av. [Shuttle]

INTERURBAN ROUTES

Operator: Chicago Aurora & Elgin Railroad (CA&E)

   AE&C Line Forest Park (Des Plaines Av.) - Bellwood - Wheaton - (Elgin) / (Batavia Jnctn. - Batavia) / (Batavia Jnctn. - Aurora)

Operator: Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway

   Skokie Valley - Mundelein Route Chicago - Dempster (Skokie) - Lake Bluff - Libertyville - Mundelein
   Shore Line Route Chicago - Linden (Evanston) - Lake Bluff - North Chicago - Waukegan
   Skokie Valley - Milwaukee Route Chicago - Dempster (Skokie) - Lake Bluff - North Chicago - Kenosha - Racine - Milwaukee

Operator: Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad

   South Shore Line Randolph Street Terminal - Roosevelt Rd. Station - 63rd St. Station - Kensington 115th St. - East Chicago - Gary - South Bend

ELECTRIC COMMUTER ROUTES (IC ELECTRIC)

Operator: Illinois Central Railroad

   Blue Island Branch Randolph Street Terminal - Roosevelt Rd. Station - 63rd St. Station - Kensington 115th St. - Blue Island
   Main Line Randolph Street Terminal - Roosevelt Rd. Station - 63rd St. Station - Kensington 115th St. - Riverdale - Harvey - Richton Park
   South Chicago Branch Randolph Street Terminal - Roosevelt Rd. Station - 63rd St. Station - South Chicago (E 93rd Street)


CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYSTEM

NETWORK LENGTH



HISTORY

GAUGE


TRAM PRESERVATION

The Illinois Rail Museum, in Rockford, IL, about 100 km. NW from Chicago, has about 10 preserved Chicago streetcars, and a large number of preserved interurban and rapid transit vehicles that used to run in the Chicago area. Many of them run regularly on the museum tracks.


SOURCES

PRINT

WIKIS

WEB SITES


Also, thanks to Emmert Clevenstine of Ferney-Voltaire, France, for relevant documents he has given me over the years, as well as to Russell Powers from Denver CO and Peter Zondag from the Netherlands for their kind suggestions sent over the Internet.


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Disclaimer: Everything on this site was written and/or prepared at the author's discretion. The author has tried to be accurate where facts are presented, but this does not mean that these facts are necessarily accurate. People needing more reliable information should refer to appropriate sources presented, on the Internet or elsewhere, by authoritative professional or academic bodies.

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