Illinois Railway Museum Acquires Historic CB&Q Gallery Car Train

The Illinois Railway Museum acquired a second complete and operational train of bi-level gallery cars on Wednesday.

This acquisition brings three stainless-steel Chicago Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) cars to the museum’s collection, according to the Illinois Railway Museum. The set includes two coaches and one cab car, expanding the museum's ability to showcase the evolution of Chicago-area commuter transit.

The arrival of these specific vehicles preserves a lineage of transit technology that fundamentally changed how millions of people moved through the Midwest. By securing these cars as a complete, functional unit, the museum ensures that the mechanical synergy of the push-pull era remains intact for historical demonstration.

The history of these cars reflects a massive leap in passenger comfort and railroad efficiency. Two of the cars, numbered 702 and 709, were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia in 1950. These vehicles were among the very first gallery cars ever constructed.

When the CB&Q placed its initial order for gallery cars in 1950, the design was considered revolutionary for the era. At that time, the majority of Chicago commuters relied on decades-old wood and steel coaches, often hauled by steam locomotives.

The 700-series gallery cars introduced several key advancements that became industry standards:

Air conditioning and sealed windows for climate control.
A two-level design that increased seating capacity.
An open “gallery” layout that allowed conductors to collect fares from both levels simultaneously.

This specific architectural layout proved so effective that nearly every Chicago commuter car built since 1950, including those used on the Metra Electric and South Shore lines, has utilized a similar configuration.

While the original 1950 gallery cars were hauled by steam or diesel locomotives and required separate passenger cars with large generators for power, they lacked the flexibility of modern operations. The railroad could not easily reverse direction without complex switching or turning the entire train.

That operational constraint changed in 1965 when the Burlington followed the lead of the Chicago & North Western by ordering its first bi-level cab cars. The cab car in this new museum acquisition, car 791, was built in 1965 as part of that original order. This technology enabled the inauguration of push-pull commuter service, allowing trains to operate in either direction without the need to switch the engine at the end of a line.

The lifecycle of these specific cars spanned several decades of service and transition. In 1973, all Burlington gallery cars were rebuilt with electric heat to work with head-end-power-equipped locomotives. Following their retirement by Metra in the early 2000s, cars 702, 709, and 791 were sold to MiTrain, a planned commuter operation in eastern Michigan.

During their time with MiTrain, the cars underwent overhauls to adapt them for wheelchair accessibility. However, after the Michigan commuter service was canceled, the cars were put up for sale, eventually finding their way to the Illinois Railway Museum in 2026.

The museum now possesses two complete trains of first-generation bi-level commuter cars from Chicago railroads, as these new CB&Q acquisitions join a set of 1950s smooth-sided bi-level cars from the Chicago & North Western.

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