Gary Railways 19 is the only surviving streetcar from Gary, Indiana. It is a lightweight car designed for one-man operation. Retired when Gary streetcar service ended in 1946, the car body was made into a house and was acquired by the museum in 1989. Components to restore the car are

The only single-truck open car at IRM is Cooperativa de Transportes Urbanos y Sub-Urbanos 19, a car from Veracruz, Mexico. Open cars like 19 were extremely popular in the United States in the 1890s and early 1900s but they fell out of favor around World War I because street railways

Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority 63 is a typical postwar PCC streamlined streetcar. It was originally built for Twin City Rapid Transit and operated in Minneapolis and St. Paul until that streetcar system was closed in 1953. Car 63 was sold to Cleveland, where it went into suburban operation to

North Kankakee 116 is a rare example of a pre-Birney single-truck car. After World War I the Birney single-truck safety car became ubiquitous, but before that it was common for streetcar builders to sell homegrown designs for single-truck streetcars. Car 116 is one such example. It ran between Kankakee and

The only preserved streetcar from the Chicago & West Towns is car 141. The West Towns operated streetcar lines in the near western suburbs of Chicago including a line which famously ran right past the south entrance to Brookfield Zoo. Car 141 was originally built with the capability to operate

Chicago Surface Lines 144 is the archetype of the classic Chicago streetcar. It is an “Old Pullman,” one of 600 identical cars built for Chicago in 1908. For decades this type served as the stereotypical Chicago streetcar. It was designed for Pay As You Enter (PAYE) fare collection, with passengers

Illinois Terminal 170 is the only Birney streetcar at IRM. The Birney was a single-truck, one-man, lightweight streetcar developed after the First World War to help smaller streetcar systems that were trying to control spiraling costs in labor and electricity. Though popular with streetcar lines, Birneys were unpopular with the

Indiana Railroad 205 is a suburban car that originally ran between Louisville, Kentucky and Jeffersonville, Indiana on the Interstate Public Service system. When that operation ended in the early 1930s, the Indiana Railroad rebuilt the car for one-man operation and moved it to Terre Haute, Indiana for use on the

Chicago & Milwaukee Electric 354 is the last surviving streetcar operated by the North Shore Line. The North Shore was known primarily as an interurban, or inter-city, railway, but it also operated local streetcar service in Milwaukee, WI, and Waukegan, IL. Car 354 operated in Milwaukee until about 1942, when

Knoxville Power & Light 419 is a “Cincinnati curve-sider,” a type of streetcar built with curved sides to maintain strength while reducing weight, a design patented by the Cincinnati Car Company. It’s an unusual single-truck (four-wheel) version of the type and has the dubious distinction of being the only streetcar