The Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Ill., announced Thursday that it acquired three Chicago, Burlington & Quincy gallery commuter coaches, which arrived at the museum Wednesday. This is the museum’s second operational set of gallery coaches.

Cars 702 and 709, built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia in 1950, were among the very first gallery cars ever constructed. Cab car 791, built in 1965, was part of the CB&Q’s original order that enabled push-pull commuter service.

The 700-series cars helped revolutionize Chicago commuter service in the 1950s, replacing decades-old wood and steel coaches pulled by steam locomotives. The Burlington’s cars offered air conditioning, sealed windows and a two-level design that doubled seating capacity, while the open gallery let conductors collect fares from both levels at once. The design proved so successful that nearly every Chicago commuter car built since, including those on Metra Electric and the South Shore Line, adopted a similar layout.

Push-pull operation arrived in 1965, letting trains run in either direction without turning the locomotive. In 1973, the cars were rebuilt with electric heat for locomotives equipped with head-end power.

The cars later served Metra until the early 2000s, when the cars were sold to Michigan’s canceled MiTrain project before IRM purchased them in 2026. Together with a set of 1950s Chicago & North Western cars, the museum now owns two complete first-generation bi-level commuter trains.

— Nick Stewart