Equipment Information

During the first half of the 20th century, a network of narrow-gauge, freight-only subways connected most of the buildings in downtown Chicago. The Chicago Tunnel Company, whose tunnels lay 40 feet below the city’s streets, carried coal, ash, building supplies, and general merchandise between many of the large buildings in the Loop. CTC 508 is the only locomotive from this system to have been preserved and restored. It is typical of the diminutive electric locomotives that hauled freight trains through narrow tunnels beneath the city’s streets.

FUN FACT: On the morning of April 13, 1992, basements in buildings in downtown Chicago suddenly began filling with water. Much of downtown lost power and tremendous damage was done by all of the flooding. The cause of the bizarre event was traced to the old Chicago Tunnel Company freight tunnels, abandoned since the 1950s but left abandoned in place. Workers driving piles in the Chicago River had inadvertently caved in the roof of one tunnel, allowing the river to flood large portions of the old tunnel system with more than 250 million gallons of water.

Builder: Baldwin-Westinghouse
Year Built: 1908
Length: 10ft 11in
Width: 3ft 7in
Height: 5ft 2in
Weight: 15000 lbs
Brakes: Hand
Motors: 2 WH 155
Control: K-11
Trucks: Cast Frame 4 Wheel
Description: Single Truck / 250-volt / Electric Tunnel Locomotive
Arrived: 1996
Condition: Complete / cosmetically restored / not operational

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