I am happy to announce that Chicago Elevated Car 4439 was delivered safely to our maintenance facility last night. Our museum purchased the car in the late summer, from the Toledo Lake Erie & Western Railway and Museum, but it took some time to arrange for the shipping to East Troy. The car will join Chicago Elevated Cars 4420 and 4453 on our operating roster as soon as we can perform a thorough maintenance review and do some needed repairs.

Looks in decent shape at first glance. So what vintage is this? Bopped around Chicago in early 1980s and saw different types of cars but don't recall paying much attention to them. Was to busy ducking under low bridges. Would be curious to see how these were built? They sure took a lot of abuse or at least they looked like they did to me.

Thanks in advance, John.

Fortunately there is an excellent website that provides a good overview of L history: https://www.chicago-l.org/ - with a specific page on this series of cars: https://www.chicago-l.org/trains/roster/4000.html

This site has more information about the journeys of this particular car since leaving the CTA: http://pnaerc.blogspot.com/2020/08/cars-on-move.html

CTA 4000's scattered far and wide as they felt old, but had operated recently. Many have since been scrapped or have deteriorated past the point where restoration is feasible. Some variants may have been lost. For example, I don't think a single 4000 in its maintenance configuration is considered preserved (as being accessioned into a museum collection and actively maintained) nor has one been preserved with sealed upper windows. I'd be happy to be corrected on these points.

IRM made a parody film about reselling 4000s in 1979 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3-YtfUB0IE

John:

The information Thomas provided matches what I understand about Car 4439, as well as the museum's two other 4000-series Chicago Elevated cars (4420 and 4453). They were built in 1924 by the Cincinnati Car Company. They were workhorses for nearly 50 years and must have been well-built and well-maintained. Car 4439 appears to be in excellent condition, though one set of traction motors may be bad. There is very little exterior rust and the interior appears to be in excellent condition with all the seats still in place. The wheels will have to be machined to return them to an FRA-compliant profile. The car will go through a thorough maintenance checklist in our comfortable indoor facility before being added to our operating fleet.

Steve