The Electroliner

[Kali]

So, I stumbled across this page, and found this crazy construction.




Appears to be a 100mph tram?. While it's not quite as bonkers as the jet-powered Budd railcar, it does seem to be the rail equivalent of a Land Rover or a Jeep or something. I see what; standard heavy rail, elevated rail - where is the power coming from there?, on-street ... trolley wires ( 100mph with trolley wires, brr ) rather than full catenary, and semaphore signals!

The whole thing fascinates me, does anyone know much about the line?

Edit: ok, just noticed the shoes, so it has 3rd rail too! I notice the bottom pic is a museum, so now I don't know about the signals.

[Chessie8638]

Second picture is at the IRM (Illinois Railway Museum) ranks in the top 3 of best RR museums for me. They have a section of track, don't know the miles maybe 4 or so that they run their collection on it's fully dispatched with signals and everything! They have over 375 locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, etc. and 90% of it runs. They are always moving things around so it's never the same. If you are ever in the Chicago area. Visit. It's worth it.

Electroliner Gallery: http://www.irm.org/gallery/album116

IRM main site: http://www.irm.org/

My video of the trolley ride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqwKld2BeXE&hd=1

Best of all they do this multiple times a year. And fyi, that AC4400CW (2nd closest to camera) in the picture UP is donating 2 of them to the museum once they are retired.

http://www.irm.org/cgi-bin/image.pl?con ... .sized.jpg

Ninja Edit: They ran on the "North Shore Line" (Chicago, North Shore, and Milwaukee) an interurban that ran from Chicago to Milwaukee. And west to Elgin, Geneva, St. Charles, and Aurora.

Clicky: http://northshoreline.com/