East Troy Electric Railroad Museum

The South Shore Line cars: Cars 9, 13, 21, & 30

Built: 1926 (9, 13, 21), 1929 (30), by Pullman and Standard Car Cos., for Chicago, South Shore, & South Bend Railroad
Acquired: 9: leased 1990; 13, 21:  leased 1998; 30: purchased 1985
Motors: Four 210hp; Car 30: two in service
Seats: 9: 52; 13, 21: 80; 30: 48
Length: 9, 30: 61'; 13, 21: 80’
Weight: 9, 30: 67 tons; 11, 13, 21: 80 tons

Photo by Scott Patrick

Among the largest interurbansever built, these are full steamroad size cars that ran at eighty miles per hour on Sam Insull’s super interurban. Car 30 still has its original interior, with its mahogany paneling restored, revolving double-bucket leatherette seats, and the old-fashioned walkaround smoking compartment still in place. Car 13 was one of the units lengthened in the postwar era by the ever-creative Michigan City Shops of the CSS&SB to increase seating, but did not receive the full treatment that included sealed picture windows and air conditioning as did 24 and 25. Car 9 is also original length, with a mostly unmodernized interior.

Cars 13 and 21 were received in 1998 when a proposed museum operation in Michigan City, Indiana ceased planning.  Car 21 is temporarily in use as the "office car" in the East Troy Shop.  Car 13 entered its second life of passenger service on the ETER on May 6th, 2000.

These cars were in South Shore Line daily service until 1982, when the "orange fleet" of the South Shore Line was finally retired. Some of these cars are estimated to have run up over six million miles apiece in service. When the East Troy Electric Railroad began to acquire these units, they were equipped to operate on the 1500 volt dc South Shore, a line that used pantagraphs (as they spelled it).  Conversion included installation of trolley poles, of course, but altering the voltage on the control circuits required considerable work. In order to get the necessary 32vdc for the batteries, 600 volt motor-generators had to be installed, first using aging ex-CTA units, which proved to be near the end of their service lives.   Then, devices using more modern parts were built by WTM.  The first three-car multiple unit train in the East Troy Electric Railroad era ran in fall of 1995, and this long trainset helps provide room for the crowds enjoying the Fall Fun Days event in October and September.

Coach 11 was at East Troy for 11 years, from 1987 until September, 2001, when it was traded to the Michigan Transportation Museum near Detroit for Chicago, North Shore, & Milwaukee RR coach 761.  11 departed on a very special lowboy truck, and part of it's trip was aboard the S.S. Badger, the former Chesapeake & Ohio Lake Michigan carferry.
There's a page about 13 and 21's arrival in late 1998.