By Ron Smolen
Love the picture of the Queen Mary... I have many memories of seeing it in operation. Its great to see her finally out of the museum barn. The last time I saw her 2 years ago I didn't think she'd even get this far (she's pictured about 2 - 1/2 blocks from the trolley bus barn).
I lived 1/2 block north of Belmont and
had a clear view of Belmont Ave
operations from my parents house. I also had many opportunities
to ride the Queen although I was only 10 when it was retired in
1963. The Queen Mary saw operation
mainly on Belmont during the rush hours although I do remember
a stock CTA photo of it running on Diversey. I recall it comming
from the barn one day. It took Central ave north to Belmont.
Turning from Central onto belmont, I noted how the rear tires
turned opposite the front to manuever the turn.
Then other unique thing about the Queen to me was that it was a trolley bus as Chicago had Twins in revunue operation but all were propanes. It wasn't till later years I saw photos of Twin model trolley buses in Detroit and San Francisco.
Chicago's operation found Brills on Belmont, and several routes daily Monday - Friday. They substituted Marmons on these routes on weekends during the Late 50's thru - late 60s). The brills I think were gone by 1969 or 70.
Chicago had one other unique bus: 9762
which was a larger version of the regular Brills. While the regular
brills had single stream doors, this one had double stream front
doors and passenger windows that opened up instead of sideways.
Bet the experts on the list probably know the model number I'm
refering to.
This page uploaded 2 AU 1999
