Visions of CTA past

[BusHunter]

I came across a pretty good site that cronicals the subway stations in the Dearborn and State street subways. Here it is There are alot of fascinating facts in there if your interested in architecture or just some history on the stations themselves. One thing I found interesting was that most of the downtown stations had public restrooms. They seem like really nice stations in there time all being uniformly constructed, something that is sort of lost with today's scattering of rehab projects. If your into former CTA bus turnarounds there's also a piece on that hereSome of the info is really interesting and has links of it's own to take you further into the selected item.

[Busjack]

This was interesting, but lightly documented.

The Irving Park Neenah loop probably went out of service when 80A was combined with 80, and essentially 80 was extended to Cumberland, which Bill V. says was 1989.

The other loops mentioned (such as on either end of Montrose) were probably only for trolley buses, as conventional street cars were double ended, and Lind has pictures of them on Montrose swapping ends.

Since they claim that that the turnaround on King Drive (actually Burnside, not Burnham) is still serviceable, I wonder if our south side people have any explanation why that wasn't reinstated (like the Cottage Grove-94 one) when CSU kicked CTA off the campus, instead of the roundabout loop via 99th and State.

[BusHunter]

This was interesting, but lightly documented.

The Irving Park Neenah loop probably went out of service when 80A was combined with 80, and essentially 80 was extended to Cumberland, which Bill V. says was 1989.

I think the #86 continued to run to Neenah/irving Pk. for a limited time after the #80 stopped terminating there. Shortly after Wright College expanded and built there new campus at Montrose/Narr. the #86 started going there somewhere in the early 90's. Bill V. doesn't document that change in the #86. As far as the Foster/Pulaski loop it always was used to short turn #53's until also about 1990.

[Chicago13]

I think the #86 continued to run to Neenah/irving Pk. for a limited time after the #80 stopped terminating there. Shortly after Wright College expanded and built there new campus at Montrose/Narr. the #86 started going there somewhere in the early 90's. Bill V. doesn't document that change in the #86. As far as the Foster/Pulaski loop it always was used to short turn #53's until also about 1990.

I seem to recall Irivng/Neenah was still being used for some short turns on #80 for a time after it was extended west. I think that ended when the #86 was extended to Wright College.

The #78 Montrose was extended to Naragansett even before the end of the trolley buses on that route, so I think it's possible the Montrose/Milwaukee one may have been abandoned since the early 70's.

[BusHunter]

I seem to recall Irivng/Neenah was still being used for some short turns on #80 for a time after it was extended west. I think that ended when the #86 was extended to Wright College.

The #78 Montrose was extended to Naragansett even before the end of the trolley buses on that route, so I think it's possible the Montrose/Milwaukee one may have been abandoned since the early 70's.

There's a picture of the Narr./Montrose loop in the CTA's 2008 historical calender for the month of March,that dates to 1959 showing an all 78 route. According to Bill V. the Montrose/milwaukee loop started on 11/16/30, with a #78a introduced 1/25/31 I'm able to trace CTA maps dating as far back as 1954 with the #78 being a full length route to Narr back then with no #78a. So unless this was used for short turns it had no functionality since the 1950's.

[geneking7320]

This was interesting, but lightly documented.

The Irving Park Neenah loop probably went out of service when 80A was combined with 80, and essentially 80 was extended to Cumberland, which Bill V. says was 1989.

The other loops mentioned (such as on either end of Montrose) were probably only for trolley buses, as conventional street cars were double ended, and Lind has pictures of them on Montrose swapping ends.

Since they claim that that the turnaround on King Drive (actually Burnside, not Burnham) is still serviceable, I wonder if our south side people have any explanation why that wasn't reinstated (like the Cottage Grove-94 one) when CSU kicked CTA off the campus, instead of the roundabout loop via 99th and State.

Even though I haven't lived on the south side since 1978 I'll take a shot at the King Drive question.

CTA probably didn't want the riders to walk 2.5 blocks to get to 95th Street (at King Drive).

My question about this remains - why can't route 3 King Dr buses service passengers on 95th street?

Gene King

[Busjack]

Even though I haven't lived on the south side since 1978 I'll take a shot at the King Drive question.

CTA probably didn't want the riders to walk 2.5 blocks to get to 95th Street (at King Drive).

...

For some reason, 94th and Cottage didn't bother CTA, although it did some students.

[BUSANGEL#1]

This was interesting, but lightly documented.

The Irving Park Neenah loop probably went out of service when 80A was combined with 80, and essentially 80 was extended to Cumberland, which Bill V. says was 1989.

The other loops mentioned (such as on either end of Montrose) were probably only for trolley buses, as conventional street cars were double ended, and Lind has pictures of them on Montrose swapping ends.

Since they claim that that the turnaround on King Drive (actually Burnside, not Burnham) is still serviceable, I wonder if our south side people have any explanation why that wasn't reinstated (like the Cottage Grove-94 one) when CSU kicked CTA off the campus, instead of the roundabout loop via 99th and State.

The burnside (9200) terminal on King Drive is a almost a half a mile away from 95th street. This is the main reason why #3 buses do the 99th loop, another is because there is no more room at 95th/Redline and plus there is too much service on 95th, therefore it is no need for #3 buses to make stops on 95th. The Burnside terminal on Cottage Grove is at 94th which is closer to 95th than the terminal at King Drive.

[New Flyer]

When King Dr. buses originally went to Chicago State they did make stops on 95th, after the college stopped the buses from coming in there CTA dead headed them to 95th/State. Knowing CTA they probably didn't add any extra running time.

[sht6131]

Not sure if this question belongs here but, some time ago I was told that Rapid Transit/CTA  personal operated North Shore trains south of Howard. Was this a fact?

[Busjack]

13 minutes ago, sht6131 said:

Not sure if this question belongs here but, some time ago I was told that Rapid Transit/CTA  personal operated North Shore trains south of Howard. Was this a fact?

I don't have anything on that, but essentially since the interurbans and CRT were all under Insull control, they had mutual trackage rights, but that's it. Just as the South Shore does not turn over the train crew to Metra at the state line, there is no reason to suspect that crews were interchanged anywhere else, i,e. that North Shore crews ran the CRT Niles Center service or CA&E crews ran CRT trains west of Laramie.

[sht6131]

 

Thanks Busjack. My logic was the same especially regarding the CA&E as they operated to the loop on CRT/CTA tracks also.

 

[sht6131]

Thanks chicagopcclcar. I frequent that site and I blew it.

[sht6131]

 

 

I looked it up in the Tribune archives and there it was. Its remarkable that the car in the upper left did not fall to the ground.

Thanks again for the info.