The Chicago Tunnel Company Railroad

Freight Cars

     A typical car on the Chicago Tunnel Company was about twelve feet long and four feet wide. All of the cars had steel frames, MCB (Master Car Builder) knuckle couplers, and two miniature four-wheel trucks.   All trucks had friction bearings with extremely large journal boxes.  Truck designs varied widely, even in the same car classes, and included archbar types and cast steel types made by the Bettendorf Axle Company.   A few car classes had trucks with inboard bearings and spoked wheels.   All cars were designed to operate around fifteen foot radius curves.  Unbelievably, none of the freight cars had brakes, and because they weighed as much as 5000 pounds empty, they could be quite dangerous to work around.    

     The Chicago Tunnel Company operated basically three classes of freight cars:  mechandise cars, coal cars, and ash cars.  These three types are described as follows:

Merchandise Cars

     These could be classifed further into three types: flat cars, steel gondolas, and wooden gondolas.

Flat Cars

     Each car frame was covered with 1/4-inch thick steel plate to form a floor.  The sides of the car frame had stake pockets fitted with steel stakes to prevent merchandise from falling out. Earlier the stakes were joined with chains, but later they were joined by steel straps.  Stakes were omitted from the center of the cars to allow access to the interior.  Chains were placed across the center opening after the cars were loaded.  As merchandise business started to dry up in the late 1940's, some of the flat cars were converted to ash cars by removing the stakes and adding removable wooden boxes.  Others were converted to non-revenue service as pump cars and tool cars.

Left:  This photo shows a typical merchandise flat car (minus the stakes).  This car is now at the Illinois Railway Museum.   Right:  The MCB knuckle coupler can be clearly seen in its radial coupler pocket.

Steel Gondolas

     These cars were built by Bettendorf, and were basically the same as the flat cars described above, except that they had corrugated steel sides.  The sides were hinged about half way up to allow the lower panel to be opened to facilitate rapid unloading of small parcels and mail. Some cars had a roof added which could be locked for security.  These cars seem to have been mostly fitted with inboard bearing trucks and spoked wheels. Oddly enough, cars of this same design were used to carry coal.

The drawing above shows a steel gondola merchandise car, complete with a wire mesh roof for securing packages and mail inside.  These cars were fitted with inboard bearing trucks, spoked wheels, and truck mounted couplers.  The hinged side can be clearly seen in this drawing.  These cars were all steel.

Wooden Gondolas

     Wooden gondolas were built to the same configuration as the steel versions described above, except that they seem to have been fitted mostly with conventional outboard bearing trucks.

Coal Cars

     These cars were built just like the steel gondola merchandise cars described above.  Coal cars had a capacity of 3.5 tons, and weighed 4700 pounds.  The big switch to natural gas for heating fuel caused these cars to be mostly surplus by the late 1940's.

Ash Cars

     Ash cars consisted of a flat car with a removable wooden box.  The bottom of the box was hinged to allow the contents to be dumped with a derrick on the surface.  Each of these cars weighed 5,200 pounds and could carry 3.5 cubic yards of material.  Ash cars were the last cars to operate in the tunnels, and many were left abandoned throughout the system.

Passenger Cars

     Yes, the Chicago Tunnel Company did have five passenger cars built to take visitors on tours of the tunnel system.  They were flat cars fitted with longitudinal wooden benches which formed a narrow aisle down the center of the car.  Some cars had steel sides and some had wire mesh sides.  For safety, passenger trains carried red kerosene railroad lanterns on the rear car.  In later years, this was changed to small electric markers.  Since the ceiling and trolley wire was so close to the passengers' heads, employees stressed the importance of not standing up in the cars when they were in motion.  Although fewer passengers were hauled by the late 1930's, the cars were used periodically for special promotional tours at least until the late 1940's.  A visitor to my website told me how he went on a 1948 excursion from near Union Station to the Palmer House on these cars. 

This early view shows a locomotive and two passenger cars (No. 30 and No. 31) in the basement of a building. Number 30 has pressed steel sides with hinged panels and it may have been built from a mail car.  Car 31 has sides of wire mesh.  The floor of the basement has not yet been put in and it is rather muddy down there.

 

The picture to the right shows one of the passenger cars with a nifty headlight and single school room seats on either side of a small aisle.  The passenger is hunched over to avoid contacting the 250 volt trolley wire just inches over his head!

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This page was built, and is maintained by Phil O'Keefe

Photographs are from the collections of Phil O'Keefe and Bruce Moffat

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You can e-mail Phil O'Keefe at:  chicagotunnel@ameritech.net