Following up on my beginning work yesterday....
Found these wonderful drawings in Delaware Public Archives...
Jackson and Sharp were train car builders.
The wiki article on Chicago South Side Transit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Side_Elevated_Railroad
states that it began with 180 46' wooden passenger cars.
This kind of jibes...The drawings I found spec'ed 45'11 1/4" with didn't make sense with anything else in the drawing. This kind of thing always happens.
This is wonderful. Jackson and Sharp's car #1 is on exhibit at the Chicago History Museum
This is Chicago L org's archive page.
http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/gallery/car1.html
From this document..
"Car 1, Chicago's first rapid transit passenger car, was part of an
order for 180 cars purchased by the Chicago & South Side Rapid
Transit Railroad Company. Ordered on February 15, 1892 from the
Jackson & Sharp company, the cars were trailers built to be
hauled behind steam locomotives.
The cars were of wood construction and had center end doors with
open platforms at each end of the car and railroad-style roofs with
stained glass clerestories. The cars, as delivered, were painted dark
Pullman green and had intricate stripping and gold leaf decoration on
the exterior. The railroad's name was spelled out in gold lettering
along the letterboard -- the long, thin, horizontal space on the
carside between the tops of the windows and the roof -- with a unique
peculiarity: a period at the end of the name.
The interiors were luxurious and typically Victorian, with
varnished woodwork, ornate light fixtures, decorative ceiling trim,
slatted window shades, cork floor mats, rattan seats, and leather
straps hung from the ceiling for standees. Originally, the cars were
heated by steam from the locomotives, circulated in the cars through
pipes, and were lit by gas lights supplied from tanks under the car
floor. The cars weighed 42,500 pounds; were 46 feet long, 8 feet 9.75
inches wide, and 12 feet 10 inches high; and seated 46 people."
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