North Shore Line 755

The Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee (commonly called the “North Shore Line”) operated between Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI. Between Chicago’s downtown Loop and the city’s northern boundary, North Shore trains ran over the Chicago Rapid Transit’s elevated line. Utilities magnate, Samuel Insull, acquired control of the North Shore in 1916 and made substantial improvements to the interurban’s track and rolling stock. Insull’s key improvement was construction of the high speed “Skokie Valley” line in 1926 which by-passed the slow route through suburbs close to Lake Michigan. Between 1915 and 1930, the North Shore renewed its fleet with 133 new cars. In 1930, the North Shore concluded this program when it purchased 25 coaches (numbers 752-776) from Standard Steel Car. This was the railroad’s last passenger car purchase other than the two Electroliner streamliners in 1941. When built, No. 755 carried an orange and maroon paint scheme which was changed to deep green in 1939. The North Shore modernized No. 755 in 1940 and again in 1950. During the 1950s, the North Shore improved its image by giving some of its cars a streamlined appearance. This was done with a clever paint scheme, which simulated fluted siding on the bottom half of the car with alternating stripes of light and dark gray, butted against each other at one boundary and feathered into each other at the other. The top half of the car was red. The cars looked very attractive and were dubbed Silverliners. No. 755 was one of the first cars painted into the scheme in 1950. In 1962, the car was also one of the last cars to get fresh paint at the railroad’s Highwood, IL shop prior to the North Shore’s abandonment in 1963. After the North Shore ended service in 1963, former North Shore employee John Horachek acquired coaches 420 and 755 as agent for Seashore. Since No. 420 was an oddball in the North Shore fleet (a former observation car), Seashore also purchased standard car, No. 755. Car 755 joined 420 and several other cars in a rail move east. Seashore’s cars were set out at Kennebunk Station, and Seashore’s now-experienced car movers took over for the last three miles. All three North Shore cars at Seashore can operate around both loops since they were designed to fit on the Chicago Elevated’s tight turns. In 2015, the museum received a $10,000 matching grant from the Emery Rail Heritage Trust for restoration of No. 755.