(trolley squeals) - This is the way to travel.

- Makes all the right noises.

- Yeah, I love those sounds.

- [Narrator] Chicago's electric streetcars, also called trolleys, didn't travel as far as Kenosha, Wisconsin, but that's where you can go for a trip down memory lane.

- My mom still talks about riding the Madison Street trolley, right?

I mean, is there something kind of magical about them?

- Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

- [Narrator] Author David Sadowski publishes a website called "The Trolley Dodger," devoted to the history of transit.

Even the name is history.

- Were people having to like literally dodge them, like they were in danger of being hit?

- Oh, sure, sure.

Those things did not slow down.

They were the kings of the street.

- [Narrator] In fact, this is how a certain baseball team got its name.

- The Brooklyn Dodgers, later Los Angeles Dodgers, were originally called the Trolley Dodgers 'cause you had to cross busy streets, dodging the trolleys in order to get to Ebbet's Field to watch them play.

- [Narrator] The streetcars in Kenosha, built in the 1950s, were the last generation of the streetcar age.

- They're sort of cool looking, you know, they're like- - Art deco.

Now, these were designed to try to get people outta their cars at a time when everybody was giving up on public transportation.

- [Narrator] Retired streetcar technician Brad Preston says the car's sleek lines were a big improvement over earlier streetcars.

- Rather than just a big box, you know, give it some style, give it some lines.

It looked like they were going 100 miles an hour standing still.

- [Narrator] Brad loves the cars so much that in his retirement, he still volunteers for the Kenosha Streetcar Society.

This car is painted in the colors, or livery as it's called, of the Chicago Surface Lines, a private company that predated the CTA.

These cars were nicknamed Green Hornets because of their sleek style and the buzzing noise they made.

(trolley buzzes) - There were no speed limits.

They weren't required to adhere to the speed limits that automobiles were, and the operators weren't even required to have driver's licenses for cars.

- [Narrator] But even the speedy Green Hornets couldn't catch up with the march of progress.

Chicago's last streetcar made its final run on June 22nd, 1958.

- Why did the trolleys go out of business in Chicago?

- It was part of a national trend.

The streets became more congested after World War II.

It slowed traffic down.

- [Narrator] The city switched to buses, which could weave around traffic, something street cars couldn't do.

And for faster service, there was the L.

- With the L cars, you've got your own right of way.

There isn't a beer truck stopped in the street, making a delivery, that's stopping all your forward progress.

- So when the CTA found that they were able to speed up service on the elevated and increase ridership that way, they decided to put more and more resources into the L and less into the surface system.

(bell chimes) - [Narrator] For many people, the only evidence that Chicago ever had a streetcar system is when road resurfacing crews unearth long-buried rails that their parents and grandparents remember fondly.

(upbeat music)