Chicago Transport Memories

Welcome to the Chicago Transport Memories web site

Currently on this site, you can order our Chicago Streetcar Memories DVD.

Eventually we would like this to become a community resource for discussions about various Chicago area and Illinois transportation entities both current and historical. This means discussing the North Shore Line, the CA&E, the South Shore Line among others. We may even expand this to new and old lines around the country.

So keep a watch on the site.

You will also find requests for people willing to be interviewed for future documentaries. We currently have 3 documentary projects in development. The following titles are our working titles and are subject to change:

A Streetcar Named New Orleans (New Orleans, LA)
Traction Motors, Barbeque and Blues (Memphis, TN)
North Shore Line Memories (Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad)

Our current plans are to release one of these in 2009 with the other two being in various stages of development.

Chicago Streetcar Memories

The Director’s Cut

Red Car leaving Broadway Car barn on a fan trip Learn the fascinating history of Chicago’s Streetcar System from the horse drawn streetcars of 1859 to the final PCC streetcar in June 1958, and share in the memories of eight Chicago Railfans.

This documentary features historic footage and photographs illustrating the story of the system through the personal stories of the railfans.

Blue Goose PCC on Madison St Relive the thrills of seeing the old Red Cars running through the neighborhoods, Blue Geese flying down Madison, and Green Hornets buzzing down Western.

This Director’s Cut DVD contains additional footage not shown at CERA in June 2008, including expanded footage shot from and of the last Chicago streetcar. The DVD Features include full DVD menus including scene selection and extras menus, stereo sound, and musical underscoring in selected scenes and extras. 131 minutes, NTSC format.

DVD Bonus Features:

Footage of the Roosevelt Road “Museum/Soldier Field” loop adjacent to South Lake Shore Drive.

Selected views of the Clark-Wentworth and Western Avenue car lines in the 1950s.

Chicago Surface Line’s “Safe Highways,” a silent safety film from the 1920s that features many types of streetcars including rare footage of trailer operations along with an original musical score.

3 slides show of detailed car plans and photos of the major series of streetcars operated by CSL, CTA, and their predecessor companies.

$29.95

Illinois residents will be charged sales tax of $3.07 per DVD.

We are currently only shipping to the United States via United States Postal Service.

The shipping and handling is $5.00 for the first DVD and $3.00 for each DVD after that.
The DVDs are shipped First Class with delivery confirmation so we will be able track the orders.

We use PayPal as our credit card processor. You are not required to have a PayPal account to order pay via credit card.