Public transit's private club

[Lunican]

Here is something Ocklawaha might appreciate.

Public transit's private club
Membership in Metra's Car 553 not as exclusive as it sounds



Tom Mullen isn't a meatpacking mogul or business tycoon. But the attorney has something in common with Philip Armour, Samuel Insull and other Chicago swells from the early 20th Century.

Mullen commutes downtown in a private rail car, a member of a club whose roster was once a litany of Chicago's most prominent and wealthy families.

Now known as Car 553, the nation's last privately owned commuter car is the successor to the famed Deerpath, the coach that Lake Forest's elite purchased 80 years ago to run on the former Chicago & North Western Railroad.

As the Tribune reported in March 1929: "Add one more to the list of millionaires' clubs in Chicago. This one, however, is mounted on wheels. ..."

Full Story:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-metra-private-car-20-jul20,0,7449485.story