At the end of WWII, the CB&Q railroad management addressed the many challenges it would face after fifteen years of depression and war, not the least of which was what to do about its money-losing suburban train service between Chicago and Aurora.
The service was provided with twenty-nine steam locomotives and 129 open platform cars, the newest of which were fifteen to twenty years old. The cars had no air-conditioning; open windows provided ventilation. Passengers, dressed nattily for work, endured soot and cinders as part of their daily commute. Revenues only covered about 70% of operating expenses (not even considering cost of equipment replacement); the operating deficit for 1947 was $731,000.
What to do about it?
The Q had been operating suburban service trains since the 1870s, and had developed a loyal and growing ridership. After all, the suburban service was largely what created the towns along the Q. Discontinuing the money-losing service was not politically feasible.
Furthermore, the company faced difficult operating constraints. Post-WWII suburban growth was bringing more customers to the service, though not enough to close the operating deficit. Running more trains would only increase the deficit and create congestion on the route between Chicago and Aurora, delaying profitable freight trains and inter-city passenger trains. The 14th Street coach yard outside Union Station had no room for expansion. Station platforms, both at Union Station downtown and in the suburbs, could not be lengthened.
Then there was the further issue of the Union Station “wheelage” charge. Union Station in downtown Chicago was owned by three of the four railroads using the facility, namely the Pennsylvania Railroad, the CB&Q, and the CMSt.P&P (the Milwaukee Road). The fourth railroad, the newly formed GM&O, was a tenant. Chicago Union Station Company charged owners and tenants alike a per axle fee for the trains arriving and departing from the station. CB&Q was therefore incented to find a solution that involved carrying more passengers both per linear foot of train length and per axle. That solution came from expanding, not outward, but upward – namely with double-deck train cars. Furthermore, the steam locomotives and their accompanying coal tenders customarily had a combined twenty axles, whereas newly available diesel locomotives with the same pulling capacity had only six axles.
CB&Q worked collaboratively with the Budd Company of Philadelphia to craft a solution, just as the two companies had done in the early 1930s to develop the revolutionary diesel-powered, air-conditioned Pioneer Zephyr. The original Zephyr featured stainless-steel fluted sides, diesel power, and a revolutionized train configuration. Once again, the two companies sought to develop a new train configuration using the same formula. And they did just that.
The result was high-capacity , air-conditioned, double-deck Gallery cars, so named because of the balcony-style upper level. Each car could comfortably seat 148 passengers, 96 on the main floor and 52 on the upper level. Each car was capable of bringing far more commuters per axle into Union Station than the 98 passengers in the older suburban train cars.
The company branded the service using the new cars as Suburbanaire Service, emphasizing the air-conditioning that freed the suburban passengers from the oppressive soot and cinders of previous times.
CB&Q contracted with the Budd Company to supply thirty of the new gallery cars, and supplemented the order by rebuilding and modernizing seventy-nine of the older, single-level cars in the Aurora shops. The modernization project included enclosure of the previously open car-end platforms and installation of new floors, lighting, and air-conditioning. Diesel locomotives were ordered from La Grange’s own Electro-Motive corporation to replace the smoke and cinder belching steam locomotives.
CB&Q president Ralph Budd (no family relation to the Budd Company), announced already underway modernization program at a February 12, 1949, luncheon in Aurora celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the founding of CB&Q predecessor company, the Aurora Branch Rail Road. During 1949, the Aurora shops completed rebuilding the first thirty-nine of the single level cars.
The first Gallery cars entered service on September 6, 1950, and the first of the new Electro-Motive diesel locomotives began hauling the trains. The last of the old, unmodernized cars were retired. Delivery of the gallery cars and modernization of the older cars allowed CB&Q to operate the first totally air-conditioned suburban train fleet in the world.
Deliveries of the new diesel locomotives continued, so that on September 26, 1952, CB&Q operated its last steam powered suburban train. At that time the Downers Grove locomotive turntable and coach yard, in operation since 1872, and all west end storage and servicing was done at Aurora.
The modernization’s impact cannot be understated. Customer satisfaction was great enough that in 1953, the year after modernization was completed, the railroad requested regulatory agency permission to increase suburban fare by 27%. No objections were raised.
Ultimately 138 gallery cars were built for CB&Q or its successors. The original 1951 era cars remained in service for fifty-five years, until 2006.
Other railroads in Chicago, San Francisco and Montreal adopted the nearly identical design. The basic gallery car design was so successful that Metra (the present day operator of former CB&Q and other railroads’ suburban services) ordered new gallery cars as late as 2014, sixty-seven years after the original design was conceived. Another generation or more of riders on the former CB&Q suburban service will continue to enjoy the benefits of CB&Q’s mid-century modernization.