312 pale ale, anyone?

Thanks to Lucas McKay, who is maintaining a list of traction car bodies, for pointing out that CTA 2347 - until now included on the PNAERC list - has been heavily modified for use as a Goose Island "beer trailer." The above photo was taken at the recent Chicago Auto Show by Chuck Westerman and posted on Facebook; it shows the hapless CTA car open for business, with its interior seats arranged as beer garden seating no less.

This car was one of only a handful of 1969-vintage Budd 2200-series CTA cars still in existence. The only set that's formally preserved, 2243-2244, is at the Illinois Railway Museum and is operated on a semi-regular basis. There's also 2348, which was gutted and moved to the roof of the Google building in Chicago, and a pair that's still on CTA property in use as a changing room and storage locker. Those aren't on the list because they're not really "preserved" - at least not yet, in the case of the cars still at CTA. The only other one was 2347, which until last year was stored at an RV company in Fairfield, Ohio of all things. It's even visible on Google Street View as recently as June 2018. But as part of its Goose Island rebuilding it had a large portion of one end cut away so it can be hauled behind a semi tractor and the entire car body was narrowed by a foot or so, presumably so that it doesn't need an over-width permit. Yikes! With all this modification it's not close enough to original configuration that it qualifies for PNAERC, so it's off the list. Bottoms up!