Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway (CS&IR) Streetcar No. 48
El Paso County
The Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway (CS&IR) Streetcar No. 48 is the only surviving streetcar from the first batch of streetcars purchased for the Colorado Springs & Suburban Railway by Winfield Scott Stratton, the first millionaire in Cripple Creek after his strike at the Independence Mine in 1901. In terms of engineering, CS&IR No. 48 used the Brill convertible design, which provided six inches of additional passenger space and addressed worries about potential health hazards with the use of retractable windows, an improvement for streetcars as it made opening and closing windows a task that riders could accomplish in transit.
The Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway (CS&IR) Streetcar No. 48
The Brill convertibles use of the Narragansett steps - which featured two steps where one was retractable, thus enabling the steps to reach closer to the ground than the original one-step system - also represented the early beginning of the transition from wood-framed streetcars to steel frames. Purchased as a kit and assembled in Colorado Springs, the car originally contained a bulkhead separating the passenger compartment into two sections; one was used for smokers and one for non-smokers, a rarity on streetcars at that time. The CS&IR No. 48 was also the last streetcar to be used as a legal residence in the city of Colorado Springs, from 1932 or 1933 until 1998.