Chicago's Weird Electric Gallery Cars

Gallery cars are a relic of the American passenger rail scene, but they're still alive and well in Chicago. They even have a line featuring electric gallery cars, which we ride in this video.

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[ClassyWhale]

Really enjoyed this trip report! Very well-written and edited :)

[PavelThePilot]

As a chicago suburb resident I tell you that metra is like a Honda Civic, not a lot of amenities but it gets the job done .

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

The reason Millennium Station is "underground" (it's not) is because Millennium Park was built above it! Because the park sits atop parking garages, Millennium Station and its rail lines, the park is considered the world's largest rooftop garden! Originally the station wasn't like that! It used to be called Randolph Street Terminal and was once home to Great Central Station. As Great Central Station (opened in 1856 and demolished in 1893), Randolph Street Terminal, along with Van Buren Street, was the Illinois Central's primary downtown Chicago terminal until the completion of Central Station (closed in 1972) in 1893 just south of Grant Park. It still received many trains thereafter but was of secondary importance. Its importance increased dramatically in 1926 with the electrification of commuter services on IC's main line and its Blue Island and South Chicago branches. Commuter trains from all three branches were now routed into the Randolph Street terminal, while intercity traffic continued to terminate at Central Station. The park opened in 2004, and the station's redesign was completed in 2005, which was when its current name was adopted.

The South Shore Line has also used Gallery Car EMUs! Glad you also mentioned the South Shore Line, it's a cool interurban, and it's getting better. Weekday frequencies have gotten better, and trips have been sped up, both thanks to a double-tracking project between Gary and Michigan City completed in May 2024 which eliminated street-running in Michigan City as well as eliminating 20 at-grade crossings! I know people will miss the unique street-running segment, but with it now being double-tracked as well as it being grade-separated, it will lead to efficient, frequent, accessible, and safe operations. Not to mention leading to TOD! In addition, there's the West Lake/Monon Corridor, using the former right-of-way of the Monon Railroad, a railroad that operated almost entirely within Indiana but also served Louisville and Chicago as well (the name came from the convergence of its main routes in Monon), to connect Munster and Dyer with Hammond and thus Chicago. An infill station in downtown Hammond for the new branch will be elevated! And not only can you go to places like Gary, East Chicago, Michigan City, and South Bend on the South Shore Line, but you can also visit Indiana Dunes National Park as Portage/Ogden Dunes station is within the national park!

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Wait until you find out the LIRR basically designed a Gallery Car that were EMUs before Gallery Cars were even a thing! The PRR MP70! Basically between 1900 and 1949, the LIRR was under Pennsylvania RR ownership, and the LIRR was always looking to improve their service through new locomotives or increasing their passenger capacity. In 1926, it was the first US railroad to begin using diesel locomotives, and in 1927, it was the first Class I railroad to replace all its wood passenger cars with steel! In 1932, the PRR built the MP70 as a joint project with the Aluminum Company of America, making it the world’s first all-aluminum double decker passenger car. The MP70 was an early attempt to increase the capacity of commuter trains without lengthening the train. Like Gallery Cars, they weren't true bilevels, it featured a single level with a centerline aisle, and two levels of seats, with the second staggered above the first. Passengers stepped up or down to reach the seats, which were in a facing 2×2 arrangement. The original 1932 prototype, MP70 No. 200, was designed to fit 120 passengers in one car, while all others could fit 132! Two more prototypes were built in 1937.

In total, there were 63 PRR MP70s, with sixty of them acquired after WWII as due to a scarcity of aluminum, further MP70s weren't built until after the war. So most of these entered service between 1947-1949, while Gallery Cars in the Midwest were first built in 1950. These MP70s were very much unsuccessful and unpopular. An early indicator was the LIRR's order in 1953 for twenty single-level multiple units from Pullman-Standard. These seated five across in a 3×2 configuration, for a maximum capacity of 128, nearly that of the MP70, but in a more conventional design. The split-level seating slowed boarding at stations and made ticket collection cumbersome. Cleaning the cars took longer than with single-level units because of the odd angles. On rainy days, water could run down into the lower seats from the center aisle. And the facing seats earned the cars the nickname "knee-knockers", while women complained about the lack of modesty when seated in the upper level. The LIRR withdrew their last MP70 in 1972. 62 of them were scrapped, the only one that was spared was the 1932 prototype, which is on display at the Railroad Museum of Long Island in Riverhead. The LIRR wouldn't consider running double-deckers again until the 1990s with the arrival of the experimental C1s on the diesel branches in 1991, the precursor to the C3s in 1998.

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Fun fact: Van Buren Street station has had a Parisian Guimard-style entrance, but the entrances at the station are being replaced with weather-protected ADA-accessible entrances, with the Guimard entrance being relocated elsewhere. As Chicago is a sister city of Paris, the entrance was given to Chicago as a gift by the city of Paris in 2001 and was installed in 2003! The Parisian transit authority, the RATP, created this reproduction from Guimard’s original molds. They also created reproductions for two of Paris’s other sister cities, Lisbon and Mexico City. The National Gallery of Art in DC has a Guimard entrance in its sculpture garden, first shown at the gallery in a 2000–2001 exhibition on Art Nouveau and permanently installed in the garden in 2003. Square-Victoria-OACI station on the Montreal Metro in Canada has a genuine Guimard entrance made from parts of demolished Paris entrances (with map holder and "Métropolitain" sign and holder reproduced from the original molds). It was installed in 1967. During restoration in the early 2000s, it was found to have the last examples of the original glass light globes, which in Paris had been replaced with plastic for safety; one was returned to the RATP and the other placed on display in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Here's the story behind why they're that way: In the years leading up to the Exposition Universelle in 1900, Paris was busy building their Métro, but many Parisians were against building said Metro because they thought it would look industrial. In order to make the entrances look aesthetically pleasing, the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris, or Paris Metropolitan Railway Company, held a contest with 21 participants but chose none of them and instead commissioned Hector Guimard to design entryways that were as elegant as possible. Guimard opted to craft his entrances out of cast-iron set in concrete and painted a shade of green evocative of oxidized brass. The use of cast iron allowed him to construct the curved forms characteristic of his style, and concrete enabled him to incorporate sculpted details throughout each design, whether rendered as a roofed édicule structure or an open entourage model. In the years following their installation, Guimard's entryways were met with mixed reviews, and many were removed. However of course, the ones that remained were later realized for the Parisian icons that they are!

[dominicwroblewski]

As a life long resident of the South Side of Chicago I can only say one thing, "If you don't like our trains, too bad."

[NozomuYume]

Suit yourself, I absolutely *love* gallery cars because I can sit upstairs in the back and sleep in relative isolation, and as long as I keep my laptop strap wrapped in my arm there's no chance of someone easily snatching it and dodging out a door as it closes. They're an absolute godsend when you're really tired.

[dasoffendor]

amusingly, the EMU gallery cars are actually the newest ones on the Metra system, oldest are only 19 years with newest only being 8 years old. They will still be in service for a long time.

[Dodener]

I love gallery cars, i like going upstairs and its nice becuase i dont have to sit next to another person

[tyhik]

Chicago is the home of the gallery cars

[whophd]

Hi from Sydney!! Are we that famous? Our newest interurban (longest distance electric) double deckers will have 2x2 fixed seats with tray tables (and the aspiration for a cafeteria was dropped before manufacture). The new single-deck interstate EMU/DMU bimodal stock will have 2x2 and 2x1 seating but the seats will swivel to change direction, probably requiring staff to do so, as with the older stock being replaced.

Meanwhile at the transport expo just finished, some of our 1964 stock (our very earliest suburban electric trains, but only trailers not EMUs) were on heritage display, and YouTubers posted videos today showing how easily the seats flipped. The preservation has been immaculate — so, as the YouTuber said, the effort was really easy, much better than he remembers it when they were in service up to 1993.

[ronmcc]

I love all of the complaints made about our trains! For example, the narrator whines about the green tint of the windows. I wonder if he has ever sweltered next to one when the air wasn't working in the summer sun? No. They're not to pretty. No the access to them can be difficult. But they're OUR trains and have been working as hard as they can for decades getting us simple working class people to and from our jobs.

[KyrilPG]

It's "an experience", I would say.
The electrical socket and Sydney style reversing seats are a nice touch, though.
I never really understood why these cars have that "mezzanine" opening. If you use double-decker cars, it's for the capacity, so why reduce capacity with this mezzanine layout?
Them being electric surely is a progress.

I'll share this video with friends of mine who constantly complain about the RER here in Paris, so that they get a reminder of the harsh reality elsewhere.

Some of them were recently complaining about the new "RER NG" double-decker trains (aka Z 58000 & Z 58500) on RER line E for being too smooth, too bright, and too silent inside, and having only 2 USB-A sockets per 3 seats instead of one A and C for every seat (yeah... spoiled kids? Nah... 😂).

This was an interesting bit about the quirks of Chicago.
Greetings from Paris!

[JoeyLovesTrains]

The only ADA accessible Gallery cars. The only gallery cars that can access high level platforms…

[joshuafajardo]

Actually, u got off @ 59th Street/UChicago, not 55th-56th-57th Street

[BrennanZeigler]

As a Chicagoan, I personally don’t mind the gallery cars, but at the same time, they’re out of date and need to be upgraded. Recently Metra did put in an order for Alstom Corradia bi-level cars to replace their oldest cars, but given Alstom’s recent track record in the US, I’m looking at you Avelia Liberty, I don’t think it was wise for Metra to go with Alstom. They should’ve gone with a manufacturer like Siemens, Hitachi, or Stadler, you know companies that have established themselves better in the US

[joshuafajardo]

⬇️ Shore Line also has Highliners with the newest inherited from Metra

[superbrownsheep]

Metra actually has plans to purchase Stadler Flirts in the future

[MayRoseOwO]

I like the lower seating in the Metra cars, I can't be too picky choosy on my way to work though. I still think it's a great way to commute, but It's schedule is horrible on the weekends. Overall Commuting is 8/10 and weekend trips are a 5/10.

[raakone]

I think the South Shore line ALSO has some gallery EMUs (they likely "piggybacked" onto a Metra-Electric order), I wonder if they too have those seats and tinting?

The Metra Electric line is raising the speed, certain 65 MPH limits there actually date back to the (19)20s and were due to limitations of Pullman stock braking, since no Pullman cars run there it's irrelevant.

The Metra Electric is at times the most cared about line, but until 2003 it used a magnetic paper ticket faregate system dating back to Illinois Central days, it made many people miss trains, and if they were using anything other than standard tickets or passes, they had to use courtesy phones to unlock the gate. Also had to be used by anyone riding on the South Shore line for Illinois stations other than Millenium (originally Randolph Street Station) and Hegewisch (which is on the South Shore line, but it's technically owned by Metra, and fares are set by Metra)

Metra's upcoming NEW trains will FINALLY ditch the gallery design. It's outdated. The Electric line will have FLIRTs, and the others will have Corradia bilevels.