This St Louis Car built multiple unit is the No. 801-802 Electroliner, one of two sets built for the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad in 1941. These unique turquoise and salmon painted sets cemented the the North Shore's reputation as the fastest interurban in the USA. Their 86 mile run from The Loop in downtown Chicago to downtown Milwaukee took a scheduled one hour and 58 minutes to complete. While that comes to an average of 45 MPH, the trains ran near 90MPH to keep the schedule. This was particularly true on the magnificently built Skokie Valley portion of the run.
The front left side of each end had the famed "railfan seat" with the picture window allowing a motorman's view of the track. Quite the thrill at 90MPH!
This set is currently in the middle of a $500,000 restoration to operation for it's 75th anniversary in 2016. To donate please visit the IRM web store.
To see the sister set, 803-804 in 1963 click here.
