Chicago Trolley

Indeed the tracks exist. In many places the paving of the street clearly shows the outline of the rails or the trackbed. I came across a city work crew excavating a hole in the street for whatever reason. Insert joke about Chicago city workers here. They were replacing the pieces of rail that they had to cut up and tackwelded them in place. I asked about that fact that it was not a smooth and usable joint and besides, it was 3 inches below the asphalt. The answer was that the old plans showed it there and they were not authorized to remove them.

OK, now part of your question, when street cartracks cross or even turn into railroad tracks, there are no electrical problems. Both sets of tracks are grounded, so the same electrical potential. The street car collects power through the trolly riding on the wire, passes through the motor , and returns it through ground, to the power station.

Another question for you, try to find out how streetcars ran over fire hoses at fire scenes. Surprisingly, ramps wer laid on the rails to take the wheel sets up and over.

There were also spots on the Lake St El where the CSL crossed the CRT....Theres a photo of one over at the CERA blog.

Love the photo!

The answer to when the last Chicago street car ran is June 21,1958 on Clark street.  It was a PCC "Green Hornet", #7213.  As a young boy I remember traveling down Clark street one day, and then PCC no more, but I'm glad we still can take a ride at Union Il. now and then. Bruce

The picture you have is a Detroit Peter Witt trolley. 

During the heyday of Chicago trolleys the operator was Chicago Surface Lines. You find many photos here. The CERA blog also has material on Chicago street railways. Some CSL quick facts from the Shore Line Interurban Historical Society.

Williams By Bachmann offers a CSL Peter Witt. Chicago generally ran double ended cars but did have 100 Peter Witts built in 1929 known as Sedans.  CSL colors were scarlet and cream.

For track I use Williams By Bachmann EZ Streets track. No switches but there are straights, curves (D21 is best) and crossovers. You can do back and forth, a dogbone or a figure 8.

best Italian roast beef sandwich in God's creation can be had on Clark street, at least used to be,  long long ago

now I did it, ****! am hungry for one of those, you know the wet kind where you have to lean over to eat it

this would be so cool  i can still remember them left chicago to join marines over fifty years ago

I can remember the tracks, but never never did i see a 'TIE" only the tracks  with enough room for the wheel to sit on them and they were "in the concrete"

how in the world would this effect work, or how does one do it?  I have a habit of sometimes making things harder than they are,  but it would not look right for a set of atlas tracks on top of the road,  no cars could travel on it.  so how is this done for say this area on my layout that i basically am abandoning to build a new one and the new one WILL have a trolley line

You could either rip off the rails and secure directly onto material that simulates their "roadbed" or you could use thin balsa wood and go through the painful process of fitting it between the rails and outside to accomplish the same thing.

My vote would be on finding the similar material, ripping the rails from the ties, getting a track gauge, and securing the rails.  With patience and a little practice this would be a layout highlight because it certainly would be unique.

By the way that photo of the Peter Witt on the Oakland route is in Detroit.

Lew Schneider

what was the turning radius of these things? 

Pretty darned tight...some 4 axle trolleys could turn around on a 35-40' radius curve.

Jeff C

Only an issue if a high load on the train tracks touched the trolley wire.

Sharpest legacy systems are Philadelphia at 35 feet and Toronto and Lisbon at 36 feet.  Modern Streetcar Vehicles

I always thought that the trolleys just ran in either direction with no turning.  I never realized any had turnback loops.  Interesting.

i remember one corner, can not for the life of me remember the actual names, but it had curves and also a crossing "T" in the middle, and there of course were switches on all four legs, it was wierd

It probably depends on the city you lived in.  Some cities like Los Angeles were 100% double ended cars until PCC cars arrived and then loops were built. Chicago was 100% double ended until it got its Peter Witt and then PCC cars.

Interesting...the few "real" ones I had ever seen didn't "reverse."

if you are going to do the MTH ones, the PCC units run well on the superstreets.  you can get Brill ones also and bump and go ones.  I almost had one of the Chicago ones MTH makes.  I am going to have my streets have the line down the middle. Bachmann now makes the streets.  you can get the crosses to each other. I know the lionel fastrack pieces that you can get that convert over to superstreets. you could use these to cross your train over the trolley tracks with the cross intersection pieces.  But not sure how well the engine and cars will run on the superstreets. it will work, but the depth of the wheels and track......   hmmm

Here's a good website that has Chicago Clearing area photo's which include streetcars.

Clearing area is where Chicago's Midway airport is located.

http://clearridgehistory.weebl...storical-photos.html

These streetcars riders got a good view of a airplane accident at Chicago Midway at 63rd.st.

 franktrain

i lived due west of this, other side of harlem, i remember this aircraft ran off end of runway