Well, they are from different predecessor companies, and built by different builders...
SSRT 1 is actually older, built by Jackson & Sharp in 1892 as a trailer for the South Side Rapid Transit Railroad, which was steam powered at the time.
CRT 1024 at IRM was built by Pullman in 1898 for the Northwestern Elevated Railroad as car 24. It was built as a motor car in pre-MU days when the Northwestern was a motor-trailer operation.
Both cars were upgraded over the years to MU control. As I recall, the 1024 still retains it's rather large cabs, which were on the left side behind that large "picture window."
Both cars are the same size and similar architecture; SSRT 1 has panel and batten sides, while CRT 1024 is car siding. The seating arrangement in SSRT 1 is a mix of longitudinal seats at the ends, and cross seating mid-car. CRT 1024 is a "bowling alley" with longitudinal seats the length of the car. Great for packing in lots of standees, but not very comfortable seating.
I can't say offhand if the two ever ran together in a train; after the five original "L" companies were consolidated into the Chicago Rapid Transit, the cars were used system wide, but similar cars tended to stay on the same line for maintenance reasons.
It's nice to see one of the "L" cars going back to represent the early days; IRM has several slightly newer wood cars restored to represent the CRT years, and one that had the interior modernized by the Chicago Transit Authority in the fifties to put an end point on their story,
For more info on the operation and it's cars, I suggest you poke around on this web site: http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/
|
