Equipment Information

Chicago Transit Authority 4391 is the last surviving postwar PCC from Chicago. Nicknamed “Green Hornets,” the 600 largely identical PCC cars ordered by Chicago Surface Lines after World War II were intended to modernize the city’s more heavily-trafficked streetcar lines while more lightly-traveled lines would be abandoned or replaced by buses. Instead, the newly-created CTA took over the streetcar system and decided to replace all streetcars with buses. Car 4391 was retired when only ten years old. It has operated at IRM since the mid-1970s.

FUN FACT: Chicago had the longest and widest PCC cars built for any American streetcar system. Car 4391 is so wide, in fact, that it’s not centered over the rails – it is actually offset a couple of inches to the right so that it could pass PCC cars going in the other direction on adjacent tracks. The tracks were too close together for streetcars this wide to pass otherwise.

Chicago Transit Authority 4391 Details

Builder: St. Louis Car Company
Year Built: 1948
Seats: 57
Length: 50ft
Width: 9ft
Height: 10ft 3in
Weight: 38800 lbs
Brakes: All Electric
Motors: 4 GE 1223E1
Control: WH XD473
Trucks: StL B3
Description: Single End / Double Truck / Arch Roof / Two Man / Electric PCC
Arrived: 1973
Condition: Complete / cosmetically restored / operational

Photo gallery

CTA 4391 Ownership History

1948-1959 – Chicago Transit Authority
1959-1973 – Electric Railway Historical Society, Downers Grove, IL
1973-present – Illinois Railway Museum, Union, IL

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