By Richard Schauer
"After visiting the ETB website again (after such a long time) I now understand why the Cat is such a big M-H fan.... (Sweet Home Chicago...)" DH.
They are nice buses, aren't they? Efficient, attractive, inexpensive ... definitely the state of the art in the '50s.
"I see that Chicago, like Toronto, also numbered it's trolleys in the 9000 series." DH.
Not originally. CSL (Chicago Surface Lines)
started numbering its coaches
at 51. CTA continued right along when it took over in 1947.
In 1951 some
of the early (1930) coaches were retired (in their original fleet
numbers). By early 1952 the last of the Marmons had arrived (#761).
In late 1952 CTA bought Chicago Motor Coach. In order to avoid
number duplication, CTA re-numbered all of the trolley coaches
by adding 9000 to their numbers. They got away with this because
CSL/CTA motor bus numbers were generally 4 digits, while CMC buses
were all 3 digits. The only two trolley coaches that were didn't
follow the add 9000 rule were the demonstrators #998 and #999,
which became #9762 and #9763.
Richard Schauer
rws@enteract.com
This page last updated 10 MY 99
