Photo loaned to KenRail by Norman Siler
Classic PCC streetcar, in "Green Hornet" color scheme used by Chicago Transit Authority during the 1950s and late 1940s, fills with its last several riders early on the festive afternoon celebrating Indpendence Day, 2000. By dinner hour, waiting riders clustered at several locations and mingled with eager spectators prior to the evening's fireworks in Harbopark, the 66 acres of former industrial property now ready for public use and private development. A Kenosha Transit official estimated several thousand riders circled the two-mile circuit on that special occasion. Daily use averaged above 500 during the initial weeks of operation.
Six days after Kenosha started streetcar operatons, the Cincinnati car carries more than twenty riders at mid-afternon on a Friday as Sheridan Road traffic waits at the traffic light. Each of the Presidents Conference Committee streetcars, designed by a panel appointed by streetcar company presidents to implement the latest 1930s technologies in a single vehicle, now operating in Kenosha typifies the elegance of that design, while displaying the color scheme of a major metropolitan operator.
Four Kenosha PCC streetcars carry colors used by Cincinnati, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Toronto, the original owner of all five Kenosha cars. Each car has bodywork refurbished in 2000 and thorough electrical and mechanical renovation in 1991.
A fifth PCC car displays the Johnstown, Pa. color scheme, almost a match to the traditional colors of Kenosha Transit, which traces its electric heritage to electric-powered "trolley" buses and to streetcars of older design.
Photo loaned to KenRail by Norman Siler
The above scene on June 23, 2000, is about one block west and one block north of the former terminus for the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha Electric Railway, which ceased operation to Kenosha in 1947.
The electric interurban railway once among the fastest in the world, Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee RR, also passed through Kenosha, more than one mile west of this location, which is two blocks from the Metra station, former route of Chicago & Northwestern Rwy. 400 Streamliners between Chicago and Milwaukee.
Just
as interesting on that Friday afternoon in June, Kenosha Transit's
third car arrived on the bed of a low-boy flatbed truck. Its cream
and green colors are as vivid as the Cincinati car, which readies
for another trip beside the Kenosha Transit Center. In the distance,
the more reserved Toronto colors of the first PCC streetcar to
operate in Kenosha are visible.
Kenosha Transit Center collects all city buses for rider transfers during bus operatings hours, arriving first at 6:20 AM and leaving last at 7:05 PM, Monday-Friday. On Saturday, the last buses leave at 5:35 PM.
Local buses do not operate on Sunday.
Refer to KenRail home page for a link to Metra schedules of trains between Kenosha and Chicago.
Photo loaned to KenRail by Norman Siler
Electric traction enthusiasts in SE Wisconsin can be found online at the website for the East Troy Electric Railroad, located north of Lake Geneva along State Hwy 120 and west of Racine along State Hwy 20.
Lakeshore cities Racine and Kenosha once enjoyed electrifying speeds for train travel between Milwaukee and Chicago aboard "interurban" trains, though somewhat less swift than Hiawathas and 400s of nearby Milwaukee Road and Northwestern railroads. A wide-ranging reprise of North Shore Line trains, tracks and history can be found at a website composed by one avid fan of Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad. Its legacy persists 37 years after its demise, sometimes even at KenRail meetings.
Kenosha Transit mechanic Dennis has posted a fine assortment of photos featuring the five color schemes. Click on this link to leave KenRail website and view them at his website.
