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The art of the North Shore Line
Sure wish there was a catalog. The few shots really make me want one. It’s a bit rough for me to get there from West Chester PA!
I rode the North Shore Line while at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in 1945 and 1946. It was a shame to tear up a working suburban commuter line in 1961. Today, the Chicago commuters wish they had the North Shore Line again to make their commuting easier to and from the North Shore to downtown Chicago.
In 1963 I lived in Oak Park, IL and had never ridden the North Shore Line. However, I often rode the CTA 4000 series cars to the loop and saw CNS&M equipment and occasionally an Electroliner at the loop platforms. I was 16 years old and, with friends, rode the North Shore Line to Milwaukee, and also the Mundelein branch, while we could. Photos are great, but they don’t have the feel and smells of the real thing. I always enjoyed hearing the thump-thump-thump of the air compressor under the floor which sounded like life itself in those old cars. After closure, went to Highwood in early 1963 and took many photos of the now dormant equipment in the snow. It was eerie to see the Electroliners side by side. There was quite a distance between them, but still side by side. There is a lot of interesting CNS&M history such a being the pioneer of putting truck trailers on flat cars. Or that the railroad built Ravinia Park as a destination generate ridership.
The North Shore was the one line my father wanted to ride but never got the chance, he did build several O gauge North Shore cars and ran them on his layout. I some what follow in his footsteps, and enjoy video & photos of the N.S.L. I did ride one of the cars at I.R.M. in Ill. It is sad to think what a great commuter system America could have had if we would have kept all of the Interurban lines going.Many cites are working on light rail again, after covering the old streetcar tracks. I have the love for a steel wheel on a steel rail anytime. Good job on this topic. I need to ride the R.T.A. to downtown Cleveland , and by the way my father retired from R.T.A in 1973 so he did ride the STEEL.
I will always remember the Shore Line route of the North Shore. As a young child I can remember my mother taking my sister and I to Wilmette on the Shore Line. Out of Evanston, going north, we would sometime race steam driven commuter trains of the Northwestern. Needless to say we always won.
James Strohecker wrote: “Today, the Chicago commuters wish they had the North Shore Line again to make their commuting easier to and from the North Shore to downtown Chicago.”
Actually, Chicago commuters along the North Shore of L. Michigan have been very well served for several decades by the terrific Metra Union Pacific North Line which runs between Chicago and Kenosha, WI, back and forth, with the trains pulled North out of Ogilve Transportation Center and pushed South from Kenosha. The tracks run in some places right next to where the old N. Shore Line ran and you can see the remnants of the concrete supports for the towers that supported its electric power lines.
Riding the North Shore was a life-changing experience, especially the Electroliner. The CNS&M played a large role in the life of my family. We lived in Waukegan and had relatives in Milwaukee and Wilmette and used the North Shore to visit them.
Sounds terrific! Is there any chance that it will travel to other museums around the country, maybe to include Fort Worth, TX?
When I was in the Navy at Great Lakes we used to ride the NS Electroliners to Chi. & Milwaukee 1957/8 on Liberty. The cars were pretty decrepit but boy was that baby fast. I’ll remember those rides to my dying day…
I remember When >… we lived in Milwaukee then and there was a lot of street running at the time . We lived on South 5Th, St. then . I remember the diamond being replaced with NSL and TMERL at Mitchell st and 5th. That was the first THERMITE Welding process i witnessed,
I was only 2 years old when the North Shore disappeared, so I never got to exspetiance seeing or ridding on any of the equipment. I’m a fan of these electrified beauties after the fact. I enjoy seeing pictures and hearing stories about this once popular and well traveled railroad. Wish I had been born a bit sooner so that I could have enjoyed the experience as well.
I grew up in Winnetka, IL and rode the shore a line a lot from home to the Chicago loop. It was a way of life. I loved how we rode right on Greenleaf Ave in Wilmette - very cool! And of course I loved the Electroliner and the Skokie valley Route, and rode it several times to Milwaukee and back to Chicago and then up the Shore line to home. One of my hobbies is water color painting and I am looking at one that I made of the Electroliner on its way up to Milwaukee.
In the early 1950s, my folks allowed me to take the North Shore from Howard Street to Milwaukee in order that I might ride the remaining streetcar lines of the TMERT ("the Transport Co.) I once talked my father into driving
me up to the Waukegan area so that I could ride one of the “local” cars that made all the intermediate stops to Milwaukee–and did not always appear on the general timetables. In his remarks on the video John Gruber expresses regret at not paying more photographic heed to the North Shore’s architecture. In fact, I think that the distinctive style of stations along the Skokie Valley line were mirrored to a degree in some stations along the other Insull interurbans, particularly the South Shore. My last North Shore trip was in the summer of 1962 when I was attending a summer session at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I caught one of the “Silver liner” trains from Adams and Wabash on the Loop and went to Milwaukee, then walked over to catch a Badger Bus to Madison. I was pretty sure that I would not have another chance to ride, but–to my regret–had left my camera at home. Still, I can recreate many North Shore memories–crowded trains from Great Lakes on the weekends, New Trier High School students tormenting each other on a Shore Line local–that must have been around 1951.
Another aspect of the North Shore that is usually overlooked is that in the 1920s, the company introduced a series of bus operations from NS stations west into the various lake resorts and towns of Northern Illinois and Southeastern Wisconsin.
If I am not mistaken, a pair of the Electroliners found their way to the Philadelphia area and, after some rehabilitation, saw service on the Philadelphia and Western RR, a high speed Interurban running between 69th Terminal, Upper Darby/Philadelphia and Norristown, PA. They were re-christened ‘Liberty Liners’, and for several years during the late 1960s - early 1970s enjoyed a measure of success during rush hour runs on that 10-mile route. They featured a bar section which served alcoholic beverages which no doubt contributed to their popularity, after a hard days work. The route is very curvaceous; if patrons weren’t tipsy from the ride, they may surely have been after a brew or two.
Despite a mostly suburban setting, the route today has a surprisingly pleasant, almost rustic character along some sections. The P&W [Red Arrow] is today SEPTA Route 100 [Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority].