The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster

Although this crash occurred over 50 years ago, it has become an urban legend in Chicago. Because many visitors to my Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) Model website ask about the crash, I decided to build this special web page to provide some information about it.

In 1945 and 1946, the Chicago Surface Lines placed orders with the St. Louis Car Company and Pullman for a total of 600 new Presidents Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars to replace aging wooden streetcars that were 30 to 40 years old. The Pullman-built cars and the St. Louis-built cars were built to the same specifications, but the Pullmans had flatter fronts, a narrower belt rail, a smaller trolley pole base cover, stronger trucks, and slightly different side windows. To the casual observer, they looked pretty much the same.

The new PCC streetcars were delivered over the next several years and came under the ownership and operation of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which took over control of the Chicago Surface Lines and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company in October, 1947. Once they were all delivered, Chicago had the largest fleet of PCC streetcars in North America, totaling 683. This number included the 83 Blue Goose PCC streetcars that were delivered to the CSL in 1936.

The new PCC cars were numbered in the 4000-series (belonging to the Chicago Railways Co.) and the 7000-series (belonging to the Chicago City Railway Co.). They were very modern-looking, smooth-riding, quiet, and they were designed to accelerate very quickly. They were dubbed "Green Hornets" by the public because of their green and cream paint scheme.

The Green Hornets were designed for two-man operation, where a conductor sat in the back of the car near the three rear entrance doors. The doors were called "blinker doors" because they opened to the sides of the doorway, and resembled a blinking eyelid. Passengers got on in the back, paid their fare, and exited through the single middle door or the two front doors. With this door arrangement, the Green Hornets were highly efficient at loading and unloading... under normal circumstances. The passenger windows were raised with crank handles like those in automobiles. Although the windows could be opened far enough for a slender passenger to crawl through, steel bars were attached in the opening to prevent passengers from sticking their arms and heads out. (The bars can be seen in the wreck picture above.)

Brand new Pullman-built Green Hornet streetcar number 4160 in CSL livery on the 22 Clark-Wentworth Route in 1947.

On the evening of May 25, 1950 Green Hornet number 7078 was assigned to the 36 Broadway-State route which ran from Devon Avenue all the way to 119th Street and Morgan Avenue on the far south side. Apparently, there had been a heavy rain storm and a viaduct became flooded at 63rd and State Street. Because streetcars have electric motors that are only inches above the tracks, they cannot ford deep flood waters. The motorman of a preceding streetcar (see the unburned Green Hornet in the wreck picture above) was directed not to go under the flooded viaduct and to turn back north at a short-turn loop which was located just north of 63rd Street. At the short turn loop, there was a switch track that curved east from the south-bound track and crossed the northbound track to get to the loop track. After the preceding Green Hornet passed through the switch it was left open. No one knows for sure, but the motorman of 7078 seemed to be unaware of the flooding situation ahead. Car 7078 was approaching the viaduct and the open switch track at a high rate of speed. It went through the open switch, and veered into the northbound lane of traffic, hitting a gasoline tank truck that had just passed under the flooded viaduct.

The resulting blast and fire killed 33 passengers (including the motorman) and injured many others. Many of the fatalities burned to death because they couldn't escape through the windows and they piled on top of each other at the rear exit doors. The conductor, who sat in the rear of the car, was apparently able to jump out of the rear window after impact. He ran from the site and went into hiding for several days. Although car 7078 was severely damaged, some of its components were salvaged to repair another Green Hornet that had been involved in a crash a few months prior to this incident.

When the CTA took over transit operations in Chicago in 1947, it began to dismantle many secondary streetcar routes and substitute buses. The CTA management even tried to cancel the order for the new Green Hornet Streetcars, but by then, most of the cars had been delivered. It became apparent that the CTA management intended to significantly downsize Chicago's streetcar system, if not to eliminate it altogether in favor of buses. The 1950 Green Hornet disaster became a tool for city politicians, CTA officials, bus manufacturers, and the Chicago Motor Club to justify an all-bus surface transportation system for Chicago. In a little over 8 years after the crash, there were no more streetcars operating in the city (the last car ran on June 21, 1958).

Chicago's last streetcar backing through the wye at 81st and Halsted Streets in the early morning of June 21, 1958. During the 1950s, the CTA allowed these almost new cars to become very dirty and shabby.

During the dismantling of Chicago's streetcar system, the 600 Green Hornet streetcars (Some less than ten years old!) were no longer needed. The cars had a unique door arrangement and they were wider and longer than similar cars in other cities. Although the cars were nearly new, cities with thriving streetcar systems like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Francisco, Boston, and Toronto did not want them. Because there were no buyers, the CTA sold a lot of the cars for junk. Many of the Pullman-built cars were cannibalized for parts before scrapping. Seats, windows, trucks, motors, and control components were used by St. Louis Car Company to build new rapid transit cars for the CTA. These cars, which were numbered in the 6000-series and the 1-50-series, operated on the CTA elevated and subway system into the early 1990s.

CTA 6000-series elevated cars laying over in Wilmette during the 1980s. Many of the cars in this series were built with salvaged Green Hornet streetcar parts.

Today, Green Hornet 4391 is the sole-survivor out of the fleet of 600 cars. It is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, about 70 miles northwest of Chicago. The car usually carries passengers on the museum's streetcar loop during the summer season. You can see and ride other Chicago streetcars there as well.

St. Louis-built Green Hornet number 4391 continues to operate today at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. It is ironic that the car was in service on the CTA for only 10 years, but at the museum for almost 30 years!

Here's Pullman-built Green Hornet 4160 again, but on my O Scale streetcar layout. Here we see the car on the 36 Broadway-State route heading for 119th and Morgan Streets.

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