The Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad or as it was more popularly called, the North Shore Line is considered by most to be one of the finest examples of an electric interurban railroad ever constructed in North America. Starting from a side of the road trolley line, the North Shore went on to become one of the fastest railways ever built, whether electric or steam powered. Passenger service of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee was without equal with service other could not hope to match. When autos sputtered along at 35 mph, the North Shore had billboards asking “Did you ever traveled 80 miles an hour?”. Their two Electroliners were considered to be the zenith of streamlined  interurbans and to the very end of its service on a bitter cold January night in 1963, the North Shore Line operated its “Every Hour on the Hour” service as far more that just another advertising slogan. DVD Order No. CNSMP/D - Approx. 70 minutes Includes chapters and selectable audio tracks $24.95 Plus Shipping & Handling

Freight service was never a big money maker for the North Shore Line but to their customers, it really was the “Road of Personalized Service” as the NSL counted their service in hours when other railroads counted their time in days. While the North Shore never had the success of its Insull sister, the South Shore Line, they did earn nearly $1 million a year in good times. Even though they started out handling packages, the North Shore Line was soon a pioneer in intermodal service. They started operating piggyback trains between Chicago and Milwaukee in the 1920s and, at the peak, handled 18,000 trailers a year. They also developed mechanically refrigerated and heated cars before many other railroads did. In the days of government regulation of railroad rates and routes, the North Shore would receive cars from one of their connecting railroads, haul them a few miles and give them back to the same railroad which explained coal moves received from the C&NW in Skokie and turned the cars back to them in Waukegan. Unfortunately, the North Shore was never able to locate more than 100 shippers and many were  lumber and coal yards. Two of their locomotive, four truck behemoths, each produced nearly the horsepower of GP-7 and they had two battery electric engines which allowed them to switch industries without having to string overhead trolley wire. Even though the freight business was only modestly successful, the revenue earned helped keep the North Shore going much longer than many of its contemporaries and provided a fascinating  counterpoint to the passenger operation. DVD Order No. CNSMF/D - Approx. 70 minutes Includes chapters and selectable audio tracks $24.95 Plus Shipping & Handling