In the vanguard of the interurban era in 1893, the Sandusky, Milan &
Norwalk Electric Railway opened service on the Ohio shore of
Lake Erie. Rolling through pre-1900 Sandusky, the little white
combine was headed toward Thomas Edison's birthplace, Milan.
This company was later absorbed by the Lake Shore Electric Railway.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
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Detroit United Railway's parlor car Genesee ran to Toledo in the 1920's. O. F. Lee Collection.
THE
INTERURBAN
BY WILLIAM D. MIDDLETON
A KALMBACH R PUBLICATION
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:
61-10728
First printing, 1961. Second printing, 1961. Third printing, 1965. Fourth printing, 1968.
© 1961, by William D. Middleton. All rights reserved. This book may not
be reproduced in part or in whole without written permission from the pub-
lisher, except in the case of brief quotations used in reviews. Published by
Kalmbach Publishing Co., Milwaukee 3, Wisconsin. Printed in U.S.A.
38-
To Dorothy,
who was courted with the occasional assistance of the
North Shore Line, and who has traveled a good many
interurban miles since then with remarkable forbearance.
1* OR the great assistance of many individuals in
the preparation of this volume the author extends
his most sincere appreciation. The magnificent selec-
tion of pictorial material within its covers would
have been impossible without the generosity of
dozens of photographers and collectors, whose con-
tributions are individually credited at the end of
each caption. Much of the historical material,
which would otherwise have been all but unobtain-
able, was drawn from the painstaking publications
of the numerous railroad enthusiast groups. Of par-
ticular help were those of the Electric Railroaders'
Association, the Electric Railway Historical Society,
the Central Electric Railfans' Association, Interur-
bans, and individual chapters of the National Rail-
way Historical Society. For their kind help in locat-
ing scarce material, suggestions and advice of every
description, and assistance in compiling the listings
contained in the appendix, special thanks are due
J. D. Alrich of the General Electric Company, John
Baxter, Morris Cafky, E. Harper Charlton, William
J. Clouser, H. T. Crittenden, O. R. Cummings,
Everett L. DeGolyer Jr., Frank P. Donovan Jr., Hall
E. Downey of General Railway Signal Company,
Donald Duke, Charles Goethe, William R. Gordon,
Ross B. Grenard Jr., Herbert H. Harwood Jr., LeRoy
O. King Sr., LeRoy O. King Jr., Randolph L. Kulp,
Edward S. Miller, Louis C. Mueller, Foster M. Palm-
er, Frank B. Putnam of the Security First National
Bank, Los Angeles, Robert J. Sandusky, Martin
Schmitt of the University of Oregon Library, Robert
A. Selle, Donald K. Slick, John Stern, Paul String-
ham, Stan F. Styles, Elmer G. Sulzer, Ira L. Swett,
Francis B. Tosh, James W. Walker Jr., Robert S.
Wilson, and Jeffrey K. Winslow. Particular thanks
go to Freeman H. Hubbard, editor of Railroad
Magazine, for making available valuable material
in the magazine's files, and to Stephen D. Maguire,
editor of Railroad Magazine's Electric Lines De-
partment, whose extensive personal collection was
made available to the author and who furnished
many excellent suggestions. Special thanks are also
due Bill Krueger and John Hogan of Campus
Camera Inc., Madison, Wis., for their careful proc-
essing of many of the photographs appearing in
this volume, and to Bert Misek for his equally skill-
ful handling of negatives from the George Krambles
collection.
The Coming of the Interurban
The Interurban Era
The Interurban Car
Roadside and Rural
The New England Trolley
Through Eastern Hills and Valleys
The Middle Atlantic States -
Trolley Sparks in Dixieland
The South Atlantic States
The Interurban's Midwest Empire
The North Central States
The McKinley Lines
Illinois Traction System
Insull's Interurbans
The Great Chicago Systems -
Way Down South
The South Central States
To Far and Lonely Places
The Mountain States
In the Far West
The Pacific States
Red Cars in the Southland
Pacific Electric Railway
Maple Leaf Traction
Canada's Interurbans
Traction in the Tropics
Wrecks and Other Mishaps
Trolley Freight -
Exit the Interurban
Interurban and Rural Railways in the
United States, Canada, and Mexico
Principal Interurban Carbuilders -
Principal Types of Rolling Stock,
Important Components, and Accessories
Electrification and Current Collection
Electric Railway Museums in the
United States and Canada
Bibliography
10
30
72
90
138
190
206
246
270
302
326
354
368
380
394
414
418
421
4*5
4*7
429
IN the long history of transportation development
in North America the interurban era is little more
than a recent incident. In business terms the elec-
tric interurbans must be considered a notable failure,
and even in terms of public utility their span of
useful service was exceedingly brief. Few of them
operated much more than two decades before their
role of local passenger carrier and light freight haul-
er had largely been usurped by rubber-tired trans-
port. Yet there was a time when they seemed to hold
unlimited promise for the future, and a good num-
ber of persons considered the age of universal elec-
tric transportation to be just around the corner.
To many adult Americans, now as much slave
as they are master of their automobiles, the inter-
urban railways linger among pleasant memories of
an unhurried, less sophisticated time in the recent
past. My father still recalls the arrival of the first
"Crandic" interurbans in Iowa City during his un-
dergraduate years at the University of Iowa. My
mother, raised in Framingham, Mass., remembers
with pleasure frequent girlhood excursions to Bos-
ton on the fast cars of the Boston & Worcester "Trol-
ley Air Line" ( the closed cars made her queasy, but
the big open trolleys were wonderful ) . And when
Great-Aunt Viola joined the family in Maine for
the summer, she invariably arrived from Boston
aboard the Shore Line trolley. One of my own
earliest memories is of the big red interurbans of
the Clinton, Davenport & Muscatine, which raced
along the west bank of the Mississippi past my
uncle's home in Le Claire with what seemed, to a
small boy's eyes, blinding speed.
In attempting to record something of the color-
ful era of the interurbans I have been confronted
with the problem of deciding just what was an in-
terurban, for the intercity electric railway existed
in almost infinite gradations between what were lit-
tle more than long streetcar lines and systems that
were virtually identical to electrified steam trunk
lines. E. D. Durand, while he was Director of the
Census, defined an interurban as "a railway having
less than half its track within municipal limits."
Many electric railway enthusiasts have limited the
term interurban to systems meeting rigid standards
of high-speed, intercity operation over private
right of way, and some refuse to grant interurban
status unless the company transported mail and ex-
press on the cars. One railroad fan considered a
line an interurban only if the cars had railroad
roofs and lavatories. None of these definitions have
been adhered to slavishly here, and the occasional
appearance within this volume of electric rail-
ways meeting none of these criteria represents no
more than personal preference. It is hoped that
these lapses will be excused by those with more rigid
definitions.
Wherever possible I have chosen illustrative ma-
terial that is previously unpublished or has been
but little seen, but where completeness of coverage
has occasionally required the use of illustrations
that have been widely published in other works on
the subject, they have been used without hesitation.
William D. Middleton
Gblciik, Turkey
August I960
10
The Coming of the Interurban
Splendid in its newness, this Union Traction Company in-
terurban sped through rural Indiana on a Fort Wayne
Limited schedule. General Railway Signal Company.
••:•#
6
>*> *t
#;
*
The Coming of the Interurban
A. HISSING SOUND from the copper wire draped
overhead, the urgent clatter of whirling steel wheels
on rail joints, and a wailing air horn that com-
manded respect and attention signaled its coming.
Shoving a massive arc headlight and a wooden cow-
catcher of imposing dimensions before it, the in-
terurban came racing across the countryside, faster,
it seemed, than anything else of man's invention.
Trackside vegetation bent aside suddenly at its
passing; there was the brief odor of ozone and hot
grease from the spinning traction motors; and pas-
sengers, reclining in plush-upholstered ease within,
looked down idly from the Gothic windows of their
varnished vehicle. And then it was gone, leaving
behind only a dust cloud and a gently swaying
trolley wire.
The interurban was an American transportation
phenomenon. Evolved from the urban streetcar, the
interurban appeared shortly before the dawn of the
20th century, grew to a vast network of over 18,000
miles in two decades of exuberant growth, and then
all but vanished after barely three decades of use-
fulness. But within its brief life span the interurban
bridged the gap between a horse and buggy nation
and a modern America that rides on rubber over
endless lanes of concrete and asphalt. It changed
the ways of rural life forever, and frequently set a
pattern for metropolitan growth that continues even
today.
The practical electric railway was not the in-
vention of one man, or even of a few men. The
period of experimentation that ultimately led to
electric transportation began about 1830. In 1834
Thomas Davenport, a Brandon (Vt. ) blacksmith,
built over a hundred model electric railway motor
cars which operated by battery power. Eight years
later a man named Davidson constructed for the
Edinburgh-Glasgow Railway a 7-ton electric car
which attained a speed of 4 miles per hour with
power from an iron-zinc sulphuric acid battery. In
1851 Prof. Charles G. Page, with $30,000 appro-
priated by Congress, constructed a battery-powered
locomotive that reached speeds as high as 19 miles
per hour between Washington and nearby Bladens-
burg, Md. The contraption was far from practical,
however, and some called it the "electromagnetic
humbug."
The development of the dynamo, or generator,
after 1860 and the discovery that a dynamo could
drive a motor proved to be the key to the practical
electric railway. Moses G. Farmer operated one of
the first cars with a motor and dynamo in 1867, and
the subsequent experimentation of such men as Leo
Daft and Charles Van Depoele, as well as many
others, brought America to the threshold of the age
of electric traction by the late 1880's. The construc-
tion of the first really successful electric railway at
Richmond in 1887 by a young Naval Academy
graduate, Frank Julian Sprague, was followed by
wholesale electrification of America's animal- and
cable-powered street railways.
The interurban, a logical development from the
electric street railway, soon followed. What was
perhaps the first interurban — although it eventually
became no more than a long streetcar line — began
operating between the Twin Cities of Minneapolis
and St. Paul in 1891 and soon forced severe curtail-
ment of passenger service on the competing steam
railroads. What is most frequently regarded as the
first true interurban, the 15-mile East Side Railway,
began operating between Portland and Oregon City
in February 1893. Another of the earliest interur-
bans, the 20-mile Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk in
Ohio, began operation later the same year.
A principal obstacle to the development of long
interurban lines was the impracticality of transmit-
ting over long distances the low-voltage direct cur-
rent used for electric car operation. The introduc-
tion in 1896 of distribution systems which employed
high-voltage alternating-current transmission lines
and substations which converted the power to the
necessary low- voltage direct current solved this
particular problem, and during the last few years
of the 19th century the great interurban railway
boom began to gather momentum. The perfection
of a multiple-unit control system by Sprague in
12
Operating over what is generally regarded as the first true interurban line, this big Oregon Water Power &
Railroad Company car, with two open trailers in tow, paused at Golf Junction on the Portland-Oregon
City line early in the century. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
1898 which permitted the operation of a train of
electric cars under the control of a single motorman
in the lead car was another important aid to the
development of interurban lines.
The origin of the term "interurban" (from the
Latin for "between cities" ) is usually credited to
Charles L. Henry, an Indiana state senator and later
a U.S. congressman, who is said to have developed
the word to describe the intercity electric railways
he was then planning after seeing the "intramural"
electric railway at the 1893 Chicago World's Colum-
bian Exposition. Henry, sometimes called the
"father of the interurban," was a pioneer in Indiana
interurban development and completed the state's
first 11-mile line in 1897, which he later built into
the 400-mile Union Traction Company, serving
much of central Indiana.
The interurbans seemed to fill a travel void for
much of America. Aside from what slow, infrequent,
and grimy local passenger service might be avail-
able from the steam railroads, rural America was
pretty well restricted to whatever lay within horse
and buggy range. The interurbans were bright and
clean, stopped almost anywhere, and ran far more
frequently than the steam trains, for one car made
a train. Once in town the cars usually operated
through the streets and went right downtown. They
were almost always cheaper than steam trains, too.
Small-towners and farm folk alike swarmed
aboard the new electric cars to spend a day in the
city, shopping or just seeing the sights. Equally im-
portant, the fast package and light freight service
opened up new markets for farmers and made big
city merchandise quickly available to the local shop-
keeper. The commercial traveler, or "drummer,"
took to the interurbans with enthusiasm for they
carried him to the heart of the business district,
often right to his hotel tloor, and the frequent
schedules made it possible to cover more cities and
towns in a day than he could on the steam trains.
13
Among the earliest interurbans was the Sandusky, Mi-
lan & Norwalk, which opened in 1893. This photo-
graph was taken in Norwalk, O., in 1900. JOHN A.
Rehor Collection.
Indiana lawyer, state senator, and U. S. congressman Charles L. Henry
was credited with originating and popularizing the word "interurban" and
became known as the "father of the interurban." The first section of his
Union Traction Company, opened in 1898, was Indiana's first interurban.
Until his death in 1927 Henry remained an indefatigable advocate of in-
terurban railways. Harris & Ewing, from Indiana Historical Society.
14
X
Motorized construction equipment was still in the future even during the last years of interurban de-
velopment, when the Salt Lake & Utah constructed its line into Payson, Utah, on the eve of World
War I. Fred Fellow Collection.
A Milwaukee Northern Railway track gang pushed north into the village of ( edai burg. Wis..
in the winter of 1906-1907. The Milwaukee Northern builders. Comstock. Haigh c II 'alker
Company beat Milwaukee Electric' s John I. Beggs to the routes north of Milwaukee. A planned
Fond du Lac branch, which would have left the Shebo\gan line here, was never built.
David A. Strassman Collection.
15
Payson, Utah, devoted itself to hilarity in 1916 upon completion of the Salt Lake & Utah in-
terurban into town from Salt Lake City. Shortly after arrival of a special train bringing 300
guests from Salt Lake, SL&U President W . C. Orem and other dignitaries addressed the crowd
from a flag-bedecked flat car, and Gladys Orem, daughter of President Orem, and Payson carni-
val queen Mrs. George Done drove a golden spike. A parade of 200 automobiles and a two-
day carnival followed. FRED FELLOW COLLECTION.
A 1906 Street Railway Journal editorial observed
the "marked improvement" in the appearance of
properties along an interurban. "These great ar-
teries of commerce are stimulating and benefiting to
those sections of the country through which they
pass," concluded the Journal.
John R. Graham, president of the Bangor Rail-
way & Electric Company, orating on electric rail-
ways and the farmer at a 1914 convention, noted that
"social conditions on the farm have been greatly
improved as a result of the electric railway" since
the advantages of the city were easily available. The
problem of keeping the young people down on the
farm was solved, he declared.
There was, indeed, much truth in these pompous
statements, for the fast, frequent, and inexpensive
electric transportation did stimulate local trade,
and helped to break down the 19th century pro-
vincialism of many small towns by opening up the
world around them.
Frequently the interurban had equally significant
effects on American urban centers. Just as streetcar
lines set the pattern for growth within the city, the
interurban lines that radiated from the cities often
established the direction of suburban growth. In the
older Eastern cities the pattern was already defined
by the steam railroad commuting lines, and the in-
terurbans did little more than supplement it; but in
the newer cities of the Midwest and West, popula-
tion frequently followed the electric cars. Probably
no urban area's growth was more greatly influenced
by interurban development than that of Los Angeles
and the Southern California communities around it,
which fused from separate small towns into one
great metropolitan area, largely along the lines of
the 1000-mile Pacific Electric Railway.
Indianapolis was America's greatest traction cen-
ter, and interurbans extended in a dozen directions
from the city, making it a great commercial center
for all of Indiana. During the first decade after the
turn of the century the city's population growth of
38 per cent was largely attributed to the interurban.
Comparing during the same period the 19 per cent
growth of St. Louis, less well-endowed with interur-
bans, the St. Louis Republic observed rather petu-
lantly, "A city without great wealth, without large
industry, without a university, without navigable
water, without coal, without natural beauty of site
has grown because it made it easy for its neighbors
for 100 miles around to drop in before dinner, per
16
trolley car, and leaving after an early supper, to
get home by bedtime."
Rooted in real need, the electric railway boom
was nurtured to phenomenal growth by its enthusi-
astic advocates. By 1917 over 18,000 miles of interur-
ban lines and nearly 10,000 cars were being operated
in virtually every state of the Union. The network
reached its fullest growth in the five central states
of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin
where better than 40 per cent of the nation's inter-
urban mileage was concentrated. Indiana and Ohio
in particular had virtually complete systems.
The spectacular growth of the interurban's golden
years of expansion was not without its price. Sparked
by overzealous local boosters or glib promoters more
interested in fast money than in soundly conceived
electric railways, many a line hopefully went into
business with little more in outlook to sustain it
than local pride, and many more never even got
beyond the prospectus stage. In 1910 the financial
editor of World's Work estimated that 9 out of 10
projected electric railways were stillborn, and Brill
Magazine described the mortality of projected elec-
tric railways as "something frightful." Even in 1909,
one of the interurban's most prosperous years, 22
electric railway properties went into receivership.
Typically, the interurban was built largely with
local capital and was quickly and cheaply con-
A gay crowd at Santa Monica on April 1, 1896, attended the arrival of the first Pasadena & Pa-
cific interurban, which carried local officials and prominent citizens, and was followed shortly
by a car loaded with Minnesota tourists. The schools were dismissed at noon, guns were fired,
bands played, and Gen. Moses H. Sherman, one of the line's promoters, and Mayor Pratt
of Minneapolis were decorated with flowers. The usual refreshments and oratory fol-
lowed. Historical Collections, Security First National Bank, Los Angeles.
r
This hat-waving crowd of "Glendale Boosters" had just arrived aboard the first train into Pacific
Electric's new Subway Terminal at Los Angeles in 1925. Historical Collections, Security
First National Bank, Los Angeles.
Milwaukee Northern Railway's
big Niles cars reached Cedar
Grove, Wis., August 31, 1908,
and citizens found out what the
humming rotary converter in
the brick depot had brought to
their hamlet. That all were not
awed by the first-day speeches is
evidenced by the determined
contingent exiting left, no
doubt heading uptown to discuss
the event over steins of some
potent local lager. David A.
Strassman Collection.
18
mm
'ivy'
Indianapolis was among North America's greatest traction centers, and after 1904 electric cars from
the 12 routes entering the city used the new Indianapolis I taction Terminal. The adjacent nine-storj
office building and the great traiushed cost over a million dollars. In 1 9/ 4. one of the Indiana interur-
bans' peak years, 7 million passengers passed through the terminal and a dail\ average of 520 passenger
cars and nearly 100 freight cars were accommodated. George Krambles Collection.
19
Occasionally interurban promoters,
too strapped for cash to string trolley
wire or to build power plants, went
into business with gasoline motor
cars as a temporary expedient until
they could round up the necessary
funds. One such line was the 21-mile
Woodstock & Sycamore Traction
Company in Illinois, which started
operation in 1911 with three of these
fearsome-looking knife-nosed McKeen
gasoline cars. Among the least suc-
cessful of interurban ventures, the
Woodstock & Sycamore was aban-
doned in 1918, before its owners
ever did get around to electrification.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
The roadside development often characteristic of
interurbans is illustrated here by the West Chester
line of the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation
Company. The 1914 Jewett interurban shown was
funked a few months ajter this 1949 photograph
was made, but the line itself continued to operate
for another five years with streamlined equip-
ment. Charles A. Brown.
structed with expectations of immediate and sub-
stantial profits. Within cities the interurbans usually
followed the tracks already used by street railway-
systems, and intermediate towns were often traversed
in a similar manner. Once out of town the inter-
urban usually took to its own private right of way,
sometimes paralleling the rural roads and sometimes
striking off across the open countryside, but almost
always following the ups and downs of the natural
topography to avoid the expensive cuts and fills of
steam railroad practice. An extreme example was the
Syracuse & Suburban Railway, whose builders de-
cided to follow the existing highway for their 12-
mile line to Edward Falls. This decision resulted in
what Brill Magazine aptly termed an "arduous align-
ment and profile." Grades as steep as 1 1 per cent
were frequently encountered.
Interurban rail sections were light, and ballast, if
it was used at all, was skimpy. The trolley wire was
Los Angeles, too, was among the great traction
centers. Pacific Electric Railway's Henry F.. Hun-
tington constructed the magnificent .Wain Street
Terminal, Los Angeles' first "skyscraper," in 1904
to accommodate the interurbans of the rapidly
growing PE. Even at the time of this 1950 photo-
graph, the terminal was still the center of intense
interurban activity, WILLIAM D. MlDDLETON.
21
usually simply suspended from wooden poles. Oc-
casionally the interurban builders adopted construc-
tion standards that were equivalent to those for high-
class steam railroads, but such lines were in a minor-
ity. All of the construction short cuts of the early
years, though they helped the interurbans begin
operation in a hurry at low cost, proved to be
fatal liabilities in later years, when high speeds and
the operation of long freight trains became the keys
to survival.
Sometimes communities along the projected route
of an interurban were so eager for the stimulating
effects of electric transportation that substantial
grants or subsidies were offered as inducements to
the promoters. One Indiana line, the Winona Rail-
way, had to build the last section of its line between
Warsaw and Peru in a headlong rush in order to be-
gin operation by the February 1, 1910, deadline date
required to collect the subsidy money proffered by
counties along the route.
Because the interurbans were almost always small,
locally backed ventures, they were usually sensitive
to local aspirations and wants, and as a rule, electric
railwaymen refrained from the sort of "public be
damned" shenanigans practiced by the steam rail-
road barons of earlier years. There were occasional
lapses, however, one of which occurred in 1924 on
the Dayton & Western Traction Company. Valentine
Winters, the D&W manager, became involved in a
squabble with the city officials of New Lebanon, O.,
over paving between the rails of the electric line,
which traversed city streets. Unable to reach a
satisfactory agreement, Winters grandly ripped up
his rails and built a new line around New Lebanon,
on private right of way outside the corporate limits.
"New Lebanon Says Winters Is Bluffing" headlined
a Dayton newspaper at the height of the controversy,
which may have had something to do with the name
"Valley Bluff" which Winters gave the new D&W
station just outside town. Tempers cooled, and a few
years later the station was quietly renamed New
Lebanon.
Stung by the competition of the electric cars,
which quickly siphoned off their local passenger
and package freight business, the steam railroads
often retaliated in heavy-handed fashion. Their
hostility was manifested in many ways. Some tried
to match the frequent service and low fares of the
electrics, which proved to be a costly business. Soon
after the new interurban line was opened between
Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, la., in 1904, the com-
peting Rock Island line began offering an hourly
steam train service at low fares, with extra trains on
Sunday. Similar measures were taken against an-
other new interurban operating between Des Moines
and Colfax. So enamored was the public of the new
trolleys, though, that the steam trains were ignored,
and after only a few months Rock Island retired
Thrusting a rakish wooden pilot ahead of it, a Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima inter urban moved
through the Lima Public Square about 1906, a year after the 62-mile interstate line opened for
business. John H. Keller Collection, from Stephen D. Maguire.
from the scene, unhappily licking its fiscal wounds.
Other steam lines attemped to freeze out the new
competition. In 1906 the West and Central Pas-
senger Association, a steam road group, resolved
that it would not recognize its electric competi-
tion either by issuing joint tariffs or by making
traffic agreements. One Midwest steam road, the
Clover Leaf system (now part of the Nickel Plate),
decided to buck the majority trend and issued inter-
line tariffs with interurban lines, realizing a lucra-
tive source of new business in the process.
When the interurbans ventured into carload
freight business, a similar hostility was usually the
rule. In 1915 the Michigan Central Railroad fought
all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court before it
finally bowed to a decision of the Railroad Commis-
sion of Michigan ordering it to make a physical con-
nection for carload freight traffic with the Detroit
United Railway, an interurban, at Oxford, Mich.
Sometimes the steam road measures were more
subtle. In 1914 former Utah Gov. Simon Bam-
berger hinted darkly that the "keen antagonisms
of the Gould and Harriman interests" had made it
impossible for him to get outside financial aid for
the construction of his Salt Lake City-Ogden inter-
urban. Bamberger managed to raise enough local
capital for the project and built his electric line
anyway.
Steam roads usually placed every possible obstacle
in the way of electric line construction, and often the
These two interurbans, typical of the distinguished wooden cars constructed
by the Niles Car Works, met in the street at the Lake Shore Electric Railu,n'\
Nor walk (O.) depot in 1908. O. F. Lee Collection.
23
En route to Fort Benjamin Harrison, a Union Traction Company of Indiana interurban trundled past
the U.S. Court House and Post Office in Indianapolis sometime around World War I. William D.
Middleton Collection.
The fierce steam railroad-interurban rivalry of earlier years is typified by this view of a Lehigh
Valley Transit interurban and a Reading train racing down parallel track near Souderton, Pa.
B\ the time this photograph was taken in 1 950, however, there was little traffic left to squabble
over, and in the decade since, electric car, steam locomotive, and this particular passenger train
itself have vanished from the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside. Lester WlSMER.
24
interurbans, unable to obtain a grade-level crossing
with a steam line, were forced to build a costly
overpass or underpass. Sometimes such conflicts were
resolved in a more direct manner. One celebrated
incident of such a nature occurred in California
when rival construction forces of the Northern
Electric Railway and George Gould's Western Pacif-
ic, both pushing toward Sacramento, arrived in
Marysville about the same time. The two routes
crossed at a point adjacent to an apiary just south
of the Yuba River. Gould's men got their track in
first, but the Northern Electric's track gang arrived
soon after and on January 12, 1907, the great "Battle
of the Bee Farm" took place when a hundred inter-
urban men tore out all of the newly laid Western
Pacific rail and put down their own track.
A similar and even more violent skirmish had
taken place two years earlier when a Petaluma &
Santa Rosa Railroad track gang attempted to install
a crossing with the California Northwestern in Santa
Rosa, Calif. On March 1, 1905, after several months
of legal maneuvering, a P&SR construction crew
advanced on the crossing prepared to cut the steam
road rails and install the electric line crossing, only
to find CNW forces ready and waiting to repel
them. Two steam locomotives, specially fitted with
pipes to douse the P&SR men with steam and hot
water, moved relentlessly back and forth across the
intersection. As rapidly as the P&SR men dug be-
neath the CNW rails, CNW men filled the excava-
tion with sand and gravel from waiting cars. The
electric men then drove two double-teamed wagons
onto the rails in an attempt to blockade the steam
men, only to have the wagons demolished by the
charging locomotives, which played live steam on
the panic-stricken horses.
As the locomotives again bore down on the trolley
men P&SR Director Frank A. Brush stopped them
by flinging himself prostrate on the rails in their
path. The two crews then came to grips in a bloody
fist fight. Santa Rosa police arrested several of the
steam road leaders, but the battle continued until
CNW President A. W. Foster arrived from the south
aboard a special train bearing 160 hired toughs and
two Marin County deputy sheriffs. Before Foster
could carry out threats to have Santa Rosa police
arrested for not protecting his property, or fail-
ing that to carry the day by brute force, P&SR ob-
tained a Superior Court order commanding the
CNW to cease its opposition, and the steam men
reluctantly withdrew to San Francisco. A few hours
later the electric men completed the crossing to the
cheers of the crowd that had gathered to witness
the excitement, and shortly before midnight the
first interurban rolled into Santa Rosa under its
own power.
Speeding westward over a freshly built roadbed,
a Sheboygan Light, Power & Railway Company
car traveled to Plymouth, Wis., shortly before 1910.
The trim interurban was built by the Cincinnati
Car Company in 1908.
25
Southbound to Oakland, the Sacramento North-
ern's Bay Cities Limited stopped in the street op-
posite the company's Sacramento depot shortly
after World War I. The remainder of the trip
would be made over the rails of the connecting
Oakland, Antioch & Eastern, later merged with
SN. In 1921 the electric cars began using the ornate
interurban Union Station at Sacramento. The din-
ing-parlor-observation car Bidwell was built by the
company's Chico shops in 1914 for through service
to the Bay Area. David L. Joslyn Collection.
Some steam railroads, notably in New England
and the Far West, recognized the electrics as poten-
tially valuable feeder lines and developed extensive
subsidiary interurban systems. "I will make con-
nections even though the motive power be only an
ox team," declared the Chicago Great Western's
outspoken president, A. B. Stickney, who promptly
went out and cornered a good share of Iowa's in-
terurban mileage. Exorbitant prices paid for traction
properties in an effort to develop a New England
transportation monopoly accelerated a trip to the
bankruptcy courts for the New Haven. On the West
Coast the Southern Pacific Company had better luck
with its interurban interests, and even today the SP-
controlled Pacific Electric is a major originator of
freight traffic.
Horse and buggy traffic was plentiful but the motor
car had not yet made an appearance when this Rock
Island Southern Railroad interurban, dignified in
Pullman green and gold lettering, circled the
square in Galesburg, III. The car operated over
a 19-mile line to Monmouth. Paul Stringham
Collection.
Most of the early interurbans were projects of
rather limited objectives, befitting the modest means
of their principally local backers. Later on, men of
greater vision and working capital appeared on the
scene to weld the profusion of small properties into
great traction systems of truly impressive size, often
covering entire states in trolley networks.
An Illinois congressman, William B. McKinley,
assembled a collection of smaller interurbans, along
with the necessary new construction, into the 550-
mile Illinois Traction System, the largest Midwest
interurban. The West's great Pacific Electric system
represented the combination of four major interur-
bans, each itself the product of previous mergers.
During the '20's Midwest utilities tycoon Samuel
Insull assembled a chain of interurban systems that
stretched from Milwaukee to Louisville. In the early
years of the depression, Insull's Indiana holdings
were consolidated into the Indiana Railroad System,
which briefly operated a total of nearly 800 miles of
track before piecemeal abandonments whittled down
its size.
Among the most intriguing of all electric railway
projects, perhaps, were some of the bold schemes —
unrivaled for sheer audacity — which never materi-
26
alized. Consider the earliest of them all, an 1893
proposal to build a 252-mile air line electric road be-
tween Chicago and St. Louis. Dr. Wellington Adams,
the line's promoter, proposed to use a multiphase
electrification system, and let it be known that
General Electric was prepared to furnish equip-
ment guaranteed to travel 100 miles per hour in
perfect safety. The line, to be completed within a
year at a cost of 5.5 million dollars, was to be double
tracked, with provision for two more tracks at a
later date! In publishing reports that surveys were
completed, right of way secured, and construction
actually under way, the Street Railway Review
cautiously advised its readers, "Just how much is
true is hard to say."
The editors of the steam railroad industry's
Railroad Gazette were less restrained in their criti-
cism, and worked themselves into a lather over the
absurdities of the "electric chicken coops" of the
proposed "through by lightning" railroad. After a
three column editorial tirade against the project and
its promoters, the Gazette refrained from belaboring
the subject further "out of consideration for the
reader."
In view of the state of development of the then
infant electric railway industry, the St. Louis-Chica-
go project was nothing short of fantastic, but prob-
ably served well its real purpose of extracting money
from the pockets of the gullible.
The Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Rail-
road, whose plans were unveiled to prospective in-
vestors in a series of full-page newspaper ads in
July 1906, was even more ambitious. To be straight
as an arrow, with maximum grades of Yl of 1 per
cent, and free of grade crossings, the projected Air
Line would have reduced the mileage between Amer-
ica's two greatest cities to 750 miles of double track
"super railroad," fully 160 miles shorter than any
steam railroad. Running times between the two
cities would be reduced to 10 hours ("10 hours
quicker than the quickest") by electric locomotives
capable of 100-mile-per-hour speeds, and fares would
be "S10 cheaper than the cheapest." Captivated by
the enthusiasm of the Air Line's persuasive founder
and president, Alexander C. Miller, and by promises
of "profits almost beyond calculation," thousands
rushed to buy Air Line stock.
If economically unrealistic, the Air Line project
was .tt least within the bounds of technical practi-
cality, and in fairness to its promoters it should be
r
stated that they were men of considerable railroad-
ing experience and appeared to be honestly con-
vinced of their project's feasibility.
The first 100-mile division of the 150-million-
dollar Air Line, from Chicago to Goshen, Ind., was
to be completed within a year; but after seven years
of effort, less than 30 miles of arrow-straight track
had been finished when the project finally fizzled
out, and the Air Line became part of just another
minor interurban system. The Air Line's impossibly
high construction standards created prohibitive
costs, and stock sales lagged during the severe de-
pression of 1907-1908. Many who had contracted
to buy stock on the instalment plan were unable to
keep up their payments. Miller's construction crews
spent four years erecting a tremendous 2-mile fill
across Coffey Creek Bottoms, east of Gary, Ind. Forty
acres of standing timber went into a temporary
trestle across the valley, and the fill that replaced it
measured 180 feet wide at the base and contained a
million cubic feet of earth. The job was eventually
completed, but it helped to empty the Air Line
Soon after the cars began to operate between Seattle and Tacoma over the high-speed,
third-rail Puget Sound Electric Railway in 1902, a train of Brill inter urbans rolled past
the big totem pole in Seattle's Pioneer Square. Washington State Historical
Society, from Robert S. Wilson.
28
NDAY TRIBUNE
jttv 8. mor,.
in 1 0 Hours — Fare $ 1 (
One of the Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Electric Entines That W 111 Take a Train to JVeW Yor% in 10 Hours.
•team roa
a. it will
ialculatlnn
tied" with
U*f length
Sly built
d of the
- on this
CHIS-hed
and uw
tty BTflet* a
pari and
■harg. J
ery part
.co that
the run-
Port.' Soutl Elkhart, Oosru
many others, it serves a population of lPn.iKlu
It has been shi « n Ui it eh eti Ic
through n re irlon ot this .1, trader 1 IcM a
gross i mill, ;: r from J] tlT.nup •
he lowci
esUmati ol *i'i I- r 1 iplta, th< grm profits
flK'ir, up to one 1 thi u
eahd dollars O111 operating expense* will
not exceed GO p< r <■< nt •>!" the gross receipts,
and this would leave t,t ... .
hundred and fifty thousand dollars cii:.o i«»n
on a section of mad ,»r.l\ one hundrel
loraj. This_w"nid enable the road to pay
k .ft- 1
Xothln
a tnrh 1. ui wr. ck Its
1 m tne n ment th< road begins v
ire of str.ik will be Just
t 1 «« n n«-yi ft ur> tinxs «« gio.l if
nought atacrestr.l prices. It will be easy to
turti I: Into instant cath if you don'i wart
'• nsportatlon, because any ticket broker
•1 It at a small <Us<-< unt ror brokerage,
even In one year from date. vf\ 1. n the first
humlrtilmilf cctlon of the rood is In actual
. peratlon between Chicago and Goshen.
THE EABHIMOS OT TUT IOU) WOL
. 'In
securltle
value of the stoek n'nd bond __
railroads In the United States umounti
about fourteen billion dollira. whloh la a
ope-clghth of all the weakh c f the cuur
TKM mtl TO IITMT IB WOW. IT
AOAJB WIXL TO rUCIl
■■ SO LOW.
Railroad forturxeare th» greatest fbrrt
on earth. The awn th«t piled up uotcld
llonn by raUrowd Investments «m iwn
Electric locomotives such as these, claimed promoters of the Chicago-New York Electric Air
Line Railroad, would travel between the two cities in 10 hours at speeds up to 100 miles per
hour. The Air Line, which proved to be anything but the "proposition nith every element of
risk absolutely done away with" claimed in an early prospectus, was the greatest fiasco of the
inter urban era.
treasury and to exhaust the stockholders' patience.
Throughout the life of the Air Line project, stock-
holder interest was sustained and additional con-
tributions solicited by means of such booster organ-
izations as the "Kankakee Air Line Stockholders'
Association of the World," and the monthly Air Line
News, which dramatized every development in the
construction work {e.g., "A huge Vulcan steam
shovel is already on the job, taking big bites out of
hills that stand in the path of the straight and level
speedway that is to be the Air Line" ) .
Despite occasional flops of the magnitude of the
Air Line fiasco and the far more frequent failures
of lesser schemes, which normally expired with con-
siderably less notice, the interurbans grew prodi-
giously, and seemed destined for a future of unlim-
ited promise when all America would be laced to-
gether by a splendid electric network. During those
golden years of growth and triumph no one could
have taken seriously the suggestion that many of the
very same people, and perhaps even the same train
crews, who attended the gala opening celebrations
would one day be present for the melancholy de-
parture of the last car. i
29
The Interurban Era
Bound for a summer outing, a capacity crowd rode this Sheboygan
Light, Power & Railway Company open car on the company's inter-
urban line to Elkhart Lake, Wis., about 1909. Trains Collection.
Am
The Interurban Era
AN infinitely more impressive and elegant vehicle
than the urban trolleys from which it evolved, the
interurban car was an imposing sight as it rumbled
and worried its way through the traffic of city streets,
bound for the countryside and the freedom of its
own private rails. Once free of the city the big cars
hurried along at exhilarating speeds, swaying and
"nosing" from side to side on the often uneven
track. Windows flung open against the warmth of a
summer's day scooped up the rich odors of the
countryside, sometimes mingled with the ozone
smell generated by the electric traction motors or the
pungent odor of grinding brake shoes as the car
slowed for a stop. A high-pitched screaming came
from the traction motors and gears, and the steady
thump and hiss of the trolley wheel overhead
was faintly heard. The wheels beat a measured
rhythm over staggered rail joints, and now and then,
to the clank of loose fitting switch points and frogs,
the car lurched through turnouts that led to spurs
or sidings. Occasionally the air compressor beneath
the car cut in with its characteristic lung-a-lung-a-
lutig. The conductor's signal cord, suspended from
the ceiling, flip-flopped back and forth, and there
was a muffled creaking from the car's ornate wood-
work.
At night the powerful headlight knifed through
the darkness ahead, and when the trolley wire was
coated with sleet, the countryside was fleetingly
illuminated with great blue-white flashes every time
the racing trolley wheel, or "shoe," momentarily
lost contact with the wire.
Sealed off in his special compartment at the front,
the motorman, clad in the cap and pin-striped cover-
alls of real railroading, busied himself with con-
troller, brakes, bell, and air horn. The blue-uni-
formed, brass-buttoned conductor collected the fares,
chatted amiably with the passengers, and in the
wintertime, if the car wasn't equipped with electric
heaters, stoked coal into the hot water heater that
kept the car comfortably overheated. There was an
easy informality to interurban travel. Most of the
train crews knew their regular clientele on a first-
name basis, and they were not above such homely
tasks as running a few errands for a housewife along
the line, or seeing to the safe arrival of an unescorted
child at his destination.
The interurban was everyone's conveyance in the
days before the family car, and it provided far more
than just the transportation necessities of farmer,
small-towner, or commercial traveler. Whether for
business, a family picnic outing, a Sunday excursion
to town, or simply the thrilling experience of high-
speed trolleying, almost everyone rode the cars.
Resourceful interurban entrepreneurs were rarely
content just to accommodate those who had to travel,
and many were the ideas employed to lure the public
aboard. Few lines of importance were without an
"Electric Park" or its equivalent, located far enough
from town, of course, to require a trip on the inter-
urban to get there. Typical was the elaborate park
that was an integral part of construction plans for
the Stark Electric Railway, built in northern Ohio
soon after the turn of the century. A pond that was
dammed for the line's powerhouse was also stocked
with fish, and a fleet of rowboats was purchased for
rental. Playground equipment and a picnic pavilion
were installed on the edge of the pond, and a dance
hall was erected in a nearby wood. Provision for ice
skating on the pond made the park a year-round
traffic builder for the interurban.
Any interurban such as the Chicago, Ottawa &
Peoria, which was fortunate enough to have a
Chautauqua Park along its route, could count on
heavy traffic when great crowds thronged to the
annual camp meeting, which was the occasion for
addresses by noted orators and lecturers. Other
lines offered such attractions as beaches, salt water
plunges, or auto race tracks.
Another form of traffic development, and per-
haps the first "park and ride" plan, was tried in
1910 by the Iowa & Illinois Railway, which operated
32
-; \' 71
/!» amusement park was a sure-fire traffic builder for interurban lines. This was the Lackawan-
na & Wyoming Valley Railroad's Rocky Glen Park at Moosic, Pa. Edward S. Miller.
between Clinton and Davenport, la. As a means of
encouraging farmers to use I&I service, the company
erected wooden sheds at highway crossings into
which prospective rural passengers could put their
horses without charge while taking a trip to one of
the terminal cities aboard the electric cars. To pro-
tect against horse thieves, each farmer was expected
to bring his own padlock.
Hardly any interurban of consequence failed to
have one or more handsome parlor cars available for
charter service, for as an early text on the operation
of electric railways commented, "The chartered car
appeals to the feelings of exclusiveness, sense of
ownership and comfort beloved of most humans."
The trolley car funeral, said to be "vastly superior
to a horse-drawn hearse" service, was commonplace
too in the early years of the century. Special cars,
equipped to handle caskets and designed to provide
privacy for the mourners, were usually employed.
For large funerals a charter car followed along be-
hind the funeral car with the overflow of mourners.
Sunday visitors were another source of revenue that
made a suburban cemetery along the line an asset to
any interurban.
Excursion and sight-seeing traffic was intensive-
ly promoted by the interurbans. The Lake Shore
Electric Railway in Ohio regularly operated "theater
specials" into Toledo and Cleveland shortly after
the turn of the century. A caterer was usually hired
to serve coffee and a light luncheon aboard the cars
on the return trip, and on other occasions entertain-
ment, perhaps by a mandolin club or an "orchestra
gramophone," was provided. During the '20's the
Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee operated "Grand
33
Opera Specials" during the season, and served a
light supper to opera-goers on the way home. For
those with less cultured tastes Michigan United
Railways agents sold round-trip tickets with coupons
good for cut-rate admission to a circuit of 25-cent
vaudeville theaters, and the Fort Wayne & Wabash
Valley did a good business in dancing party specials.
An Ohio line, the Toledo, Fostoria & Findlay,
built up its week-end traffic with "Sunday Dinner
Excursions," offering a free dinner ticket to any
one of several Findlay restaurants with excursion
tickets from points 20 or more miles away.
A number of Midwestern interurbans constructed
baseball parks to stimulate traffic, and several Ohio
lines organized leagues among on-line communities.
The Cleveland & Southwestern Baseball Trolley
League included six towns reached by the inter-
urban, and the railway donated a silver cup to the
winning team, assisted in advertising, and offered
free rides to the players. One of the line's officers
even acted as the league president.
Southern California's Pacific Electric system oper-
ated what was easily the most extensive excursion
and sight-seeing business of all. Every attraction of
consequence was reached by a PE excursion, and for
the first 20 years or so of the century there just wasn't
any other way to see Southern California. The
"Balloon Route Trolley Trip" (a "$10 trip for a
dollar" ) took tourists out Sunset Boulevard to Hol-
lywood and the beach cities west of Los Angeles.
^vVVW
Ik **€,"$ - - .#
v>r
^TP
The attractions of
/Monarch Park, midway
between Franklin and
Oil City, Pa., stimu-
lated traffic aboard the
electric cars of the Citi-
zens Traction Com-
pany. Twice a day the
Monarch Park Concert
Band performed at
the pagoda, and three
nights a week the Goss-
Green dance orches-
tra played under Japa-
nese lanterns and fake
palm trees in the dance
hall. Both Photos:
Donald K. Slick
Collection.
A principal source of income for Utah's Salt Lake, Garfield & Western interurban was excursion
travel to the company's Saltair resort on Great Salt Lake, where salt-water bathing, boating,
picnicking, one of the world's largest dance pavilions, and all manner of other diversions
drew great throngs of pleasure seekers. Both Photos: Fred Fellow Collection.
<
fi
<*
rr -v
■a: i
- r*tK *
am
Pre-eminent among electric car attractions was Prof. Tbaddeus S. C. Loive's Mount Lowe Rail-
way, which transported tourists by incline and narrow gauge trolleys close to the summit of Mount
Lowe, north of Pasadena. This group of early tourists was photographed aboard an "opera seat" car
near the top of the Great Cable Incline. Echo Mountain House, risible in the background, was one
of four hotels operated by the railway. Historical Collections, Security First National Bank,
Los Angeles.
Ohio's Lake Shore Electric Railway did an extensive pleasure travel
business to the many Lake Erie resorts along its line between Cleve-
land and Toledo. This line-up of interurbans transported a -i-H Club group
to Sandusky, where the excursionists transferred to steamers for the offshore
Cedar Point resort. The company offered reduced party and special car rates for
"lodges, secret societies, or any other group." Richard Cook Collection.
/
YStMS
With its smartly uniformed
motorman, conductor, and porter
lined up at attention, the North-
ern Ohio Traction & Light Com-
pany's magnificent parlor-ob-
servation car Northern ivas all
set for official duties or special
charter service. Stephen D.
Maguire Collection.
These three carloads of
Southern California tourists
visited the Hollywood resi-
dence and art gallery of
painter Paul de Longpre in
1905, on the Los Angeles
Pacific's famous "Balloon
Route Trolley Trip." Head-
ing the line was No. 400 —
the flagship of LAP's excur-
sion car fleet — which was ap-
propriately finished in royal
blue and fitted with electric
outline lighting. Historical
Collections, Security First
National Bank, Los Angeles.
Among the many attractions were a visit to the
Hollywood studio of world-famous painter Paul de
Longpre, a stop at Santa Monica's Camera Obscura,
and a visit to Venice, which then boasted genuine
canals and gondolas.
The "Orange Empire Trolley Trip" carried trolley
excursionists on a 150-mile tour of the San Ber-
nardino County citrus areas, and the "Triangle
Trolley Trip" offered a look at the beach cities south
of Los Angeles. The "Catalina Special" provided
boat train service to the docks at Wilmington, where
a connection was made with the Avalon steamer
service. In earlier years excursions were operated
to the Ostrich Farm, near San Gabriel, and to E. J.
"Lucky" Baldwin's ranch.
The greatest of all PE's attractions was the famed
Mount Lowe line, the "Greatest Mountain Trolley
Trip in the World," which carried tourists, by
means of the Great Cable Incline and the narrow-
gauge Alpine Division, to Alpine Tavern, 1100
feet below the summit of the mountain. Three other
hotels, hiking trails and bridle paths, a zoo, a
Holiday-bound for the neighboring Bamberger
Railroad's Lagoon amusement park, a mid-' 20' s em-
ployees' excursion from a Utah packing plant rode
eight well-filled interurban cars behind a Salt Lake &
Utah freight locomotive. Fred Fellow Collection.
38
■p — > '
■ " it=iSHS
i ■ffiiilj jtm f-Xl-
»^^K
Varied indeed was the entertainment
and recreation available to Redondo
Beach (Calif.) excursionists, most of
whom arrived aboard the electric cars
of Henry E. Huntington's Los Ange-
les & Redondo Railway, which became
part of the Pacific Electric Railway
in the Great Merger of 1911. Visi-
tors to the Redondo Pavilion were
treated to such distinguished artists
as famed contralto Mme. Ernestine
Schumann-Heink, seen here playing
the trumpet, accompanied by the
Redondo Band, during a 1909 visit.
Ira L. Swett — Magna Collection.
museum, and an observatory were numbered among
the Mount Lowe line's attractions.
Pacific Electric left no stone unturned in its ex-
cursion business promotion. A general agent was
located in New York, and traveling passenger agents
met special trains as far east as Salt Lake City and
Albuquerque. Around 1910 PE was dispatching as
many as 80 excursion cars hourly from its Los
Angeles terminal, and the popular Balloon Route
trip alone was hauling anywhere from 60,000 to
75,000 passengers a year.
The Washington-Virginia Railway, which oper-
ated to Alexandria and Mount Vernon, was an-
other line that enjoyed an extensive excursion busi-
ness. National magazine and newspaper advertising
was employed, and the line's agents actively solicited
40
Redondo attractions included beaches, fishing piers, a casino,
and a skating rink. Well-heeled visitors stopped at the Hotel
Redondo (far left), a rambling and ornate resort hostelry
typical of the leisurely pre-motel era. Along with the
shore-hugging railway, the better part of Redondo Beach
resort facilities and much of the town itself were the property
of Mr. Huntington. Ira L. Swett — Magna Collection.
In 1909 Huntington completed the huge Redondo Plunge, which boasted three
heated salt water pools. The main pool, shown here, was the largest indoor salt
water pool in the world. Ira L. Swett — Magna Collection.
tour traffic from high schools and other groups.
Package tours to the nation's capital were offered,
which included, naturally, a special interurban out-
ing to Mount Vernon, complete with a guide and
lecturer. Such intensive promotion increased the
line's tour business from 5000 a year in 1921 to
60,000 annually only five years later.
Many other lines favored with points of historical
interest developed traffic by distributing handy
guides to prospective trolley sight-seers. One such
publication, Wayside Scenes, distributed by the
Philadelphia & Easton Electric Railway, pictured
— in addition to bona fide historical spots — such
establishments as a Doylestown steam laundry and
the "handsomest bar in the Lehigh Valley" at the
Lafayette Cafe in Easton, both of which undoubtedly
paid for the privilege. The West Penn Railways,
which didn't have any particular attractions to offer
excursionists, simply advised its patrons of the
healthful and relaxing benefits of ordinary, every-
day trolleying and suggested to them that they try a
quiet ride on a West Penn car after a hard day's
work as "a tonic that fits one better for the battle
of life that must be taken up the following day."
Trolley excursion travel was cheap, too. Excursion
rates as low as 1 cent a mile were common in Ohio
and Indiana, and one line, the Indianapolis & Cin-
cinnati Traction Company, was carrying Sunday ex-
cursionists for only V3 cent a mile in 1910. In 1927
the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway was selling
a $1 Sunday excursion ticket good for unlimited
travel over its 650 miles of track in the Boston area.
Trolley vacationing became fashionable too in
the regions where the interurban networks were all
encompassing. The Trolley Wayfinder, published
by the New England Street Railway Club, and
dozens of similar volumes made trolley touring
particularly popular in the New England states.
The Brooklyn Eagle published an annual Trolley
Exploring Guide which outlined everything from
Sunday jaunts through the suburbs to journeys that
took the trolley vacationer as far away as Washing-
ton, Boston, or Chicago. A similar Interurban Trol-
ley Guide, published annually in Chicago, made
vacationing on the electric cars easy for Midwest-
erners.
41
"When it comes to cheap, irresponsible, and satis-
factory recreation," proclaimed an article in World's
Work in 1903, "the trolley is certainly the very best
thing."
The Albany Southern, which operated through
a favorite summer vacation area along the upper
Hudson, published a widely circulated directory
of summer hotels and boarding houses, a list of
farms, cottages and tenting sites for rent, and real
estate for sale. Several other upstate New York
lines operated tenting grounds and cottage colonies
in resort areas. The Pittsburgh & Butler Street
Railway published the popular Summer Boarding
and Tent Life on the Butler Short Line.
The leisurely, long-distance trolley vacation be-
came popular soon after the turn of the century. Sus-
tained travel was not the thing for the trolley vaca-
tioner, for the frequent service offered by the electric
cars made it convenient to stop over at the many his-
torical sites and scenic attractions along the way. The
New York-Boston trolley tour early became a popu-
lar outing, and there were as many as four different
possible routings over some parts of the trip. In
1904, according to World's Work, it was possible
to make the trip in just two days by "hard and
steady electric travel" at a cost of only S3. 28 in fares.
A few years later the Old Colony Street Railway
Company was offering an even more economical
overnight trolley-steamer service at a cost of only
$1.75. Travelers boarded the cars at Post Office
Square in Boston for the trip to Fall River, where
they transferred to steamers for the overnight run
to New York.
To publicize Boston-New York trolleying, the
Bay State Street Railway fitted out one of its cars
with wicker lounge chairs in 1914 and took a party
of electric railway officials and 25 newspapermen on
a leisurely two-day junket between the two cities,
stopping at New London for the night.
Even more lengthy trolley journeys along the East
Coast were possible. The electric excursionist could
venture as far south as New Castle, Del., and north
to the suburbs of Waterville, Me., on an un-
broken interurban network. In A Trolley Honey-
moon, published in 1904, Clinton W. Lucas de-
scribed a 500-mile, 11-day honeymoon trip on which
he took his bride from Wilmington, Del., to York
Beach, Me.
The New York-Chicago trolley tour, often out-
lined in the various trolley guides for the "enthus-
42
Here the same portly chief executive is seen greet-
ing a crowd at Hollywood during a 1911 tour
over the Los Angeles Pacific aboard the company's
premier private car El Viento. Title Insur-
ance and Trust Company, Los Angeles.
Along with the common folk, presidents and
would-be presidents rode the electric cars. Proudly
displaying white flags and the presidential seal,
this gleaming special train, made up of office cat-
No. 233 and the matching observation trailer
Champaign, transported Pres. William
Howard Taft over the Illinois Traction System
in 1911 as the guest of company president and
U. S. Congressman William B. McKinley. Lunch
was served aboard the cars during the 1 Vl-hour
trip from Decatur to Springfield, for which
elaborate safety precautions were taken. Op-
posing train movements were stopped, switches
were spiked, flagmen were stationed at every
highway crossing, and a pilot train preceded the
special by 10 minutes.
During the 1912 campaign three-time-loser
William Jennings Bryan addressed a crowd at
Van Wert, O., from the steps of an Ohio Llectric
Railway interurban while campaigning for
Woodrow Wilson. John A. Rehor Collection.
43
iastic trolley tourist," was of such a time-consuming
and arduous nature that it was hardly calculated to
cause undue concern on the part of steam railway
officials, and was probably more talked about than
actually experienced. In 1910 E. C. Van Valken-
burgh, in a trip recounted for Electric Railway
Journal readers, spent just short of four weeks and
covered 1643 miles in what was described as a
"leisurely outing" between the two cities. Without
side trips the entire journey, covering some 1163
miles, was then possible in 45 to 50 hours of contin-
uous trolley riding, or in a week's time by daylight
travel, at a cost of less than $20. "A better way of
seeing the country at reasonable cost would be hard
to imagine," advised Van Valkenburgh.
Five years later, as outlined in the 1915 Inter-
urban Trolley Guide, the trip took anywhere from
31 to 45 hours of actual trolley riding, depending
upon connections, and covered 23 different electric
railways.
The entire journey between the two cities was
never actually possible by trolley. The most direct
route required the use of steam railroads between
Tarrytown and Hudson, N. Y., and again between
Little Falls and Fonda, a total of some 120 miles by
steam. A more circuitous routing through Connecti-
cut and Massachusetts, which was possible for a
period of only about two years around 1917-1918,
reduced the necessary steam mileage to about 55.
The practicality of long-distance trolley travel
was convincingly demonstrated in 1910 by the 2000-
mile "Utica (N. Y. ) Electric Railway Tour." A
Utica-Syracuse interurban car, fitted with lounge
furniture and provided with a porter to attend to the
The practicality of sustained interurban travel was demonstrated
by several Indianapolis Trade Association "Booster's Specials,"
which traveled throughout Indiana to promote the city. This
one, made up of chartered Indiana Union Traction Company
equipment, was photographed at South Bend in 1910. The most
extensive of all such junkets, however, was the 14-day, 2000-
mile /Midwestern tour made the same year by a group of
Utica (N. Y.) "Boosters." George Krambles Collection.
In a time of unhurried travel, combination interurban-steamer through
routings were sometimes available. This Inland Empire System express
from Spokane, Wash., made a dockside connection at Coeur d'Alene, Ida.,
with steamers of the Red Collar Line, which offered service to points on
Coeur d'Alene Lake and the St. Joe River. LeRoy O. King Jr.
Collection.
44
comforts of the 26 "Utica Boosters," was used
throughout the excursion, which spread the news of
Utica's business and industrial advantages through
six states to points as far west as Indianapolis and
Detroit. When the boosters returned 14 days later
they were met by a band at the edge of town, and a
triumphant parade of pedestrians, streetcars, wagons,
and automobiles followed the interurban car down
Genesee Street to Bagg's Hotel, where all adjourned
for a banquet and speeches.
Throughout the electric railway era interurban
travel was predominantly of the short-haul, local
variety, and during the early years it was exclusively
so. But soon after the turn of the century, as some
of the traction systems assumed substantial dimen-
sions and an interconnecting network of traction
lines spread across many states, particularly in the
Midwest, interurban traffic men began to develop
an interest in the long-distance passenger. Special
mileage coupon books good for travel over any line,
issued by many Midwestern lines, made long-
distance interurban travel inexpensive. The Central
Electric Railroad Association, for example, sold a
coupon book for S17.50 that was good for S20 worth
of fares over any of its member Midwestern
companies.
Sometimes the interurbans developed a long-
distance business between important points by oper-
ating through cars over the rails of two or more
connecting lines. Perhaps the first such invasion
of the steam roads' long-haul market was the de luxe
Indianapolis-Dayton Interstate Limited service in-
augurated in 1905 by the Dayton & Western, the
Richmond Street & Interurban Railway, and the
,
Indianapolis & Eastern. Special cars built for the
service featured plush parlor seats and heavy Wilton
carpeting in the main compartment, while the
smoking section was fitted with leather upholstered
seats and inlaid linoleum floors. The interior was
finished in St. Jago mahogany with "inlaid decora-
tions of the most recent design." A buffet between
the two compartments served light meals from a
menu said to be every bit the equal of those on
Pullman buffet cars. Such de luxe interurban serv-
ice, it was predicted, would soon become common
between points as far as 200 to 300 miles apart.
Occasionally, when direct electric routings all
the way were not available, the interurbans joined
with other carriers in long-distance through rout-
ings. In 1915 the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana
"Motorman" was by far the most popular title
for interurban car operators, but a few lines fa-
vored the steam railroads' more pretentious "engi-
neer," and at least one line, the Puget Sound
Electric, compromised on the title "motorneer."
In French Canada he was sometimes a "garde
moteur" and in Cuba (here) a "motorista."
William D. Middleton.
was selling through tickets all the way to St. Louis,
routed over its own line and the Clover Leaf System,
one of the few Midwestern steam railroads that
would have anything to do with the interurbans.
Quite a few years later the Dayton & Western, in
company with the Terre Haute, Indianapolis &
Eastern, was bidding for Dayton-Chicago business
with a through-car routing to Indianapolis, where a
steam railroad connection was made.
In 1910 the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muske-
gon Railway and the Grand Rapids, Holland &
Chicago Railway were offering through service to
Milwaukee and Chicago via steamer connections
at their western terminals. On the West Coast the
California Navigation & Improvement Company
and the Central California Traction Company were
offering the same sort of combination between
San Francisco and Lodi with a through routing that
involved steamers from San Francisco to Stockton,
where passengers transferred to the electric cars for
the final leg of the trip.
In 1927 the Chicago South Shore & South Bend
was offering a Chicago-Detroit "Golden Arrow"
service in conjunction with the Shore Line Motor
Coach Company. A limited train took passengers as
far as South Bend, where they transferred to a non-
stop bus, complete with toilet facilities and an
observation compartment, for the remainder of the
journey. The combination cut a full 3 hours from
the all-bus routing between the two cities.
A year later the Cleveland Southwestern Rail-
way & Light Company began selling through in-
terurban-air tickets to Detroit from points along its
lines. Passengers transferred from the trolleys to
Ford trimotors of the Cleveland-Detroit Air Line at
the Cleveland airport, which was conveniently lo-
cated beside the interurban's line into the city.
As the long-distance passenger business became
more important the larger interurban systems en-
deavored to provide luxury services that were equal
to, or even better than, those offered by the steam
railroads. Parlor cars, heavily carpeted, lavishly
decorated, and staffed with porters, were frequently
installed on the long runs. Light meals were served
from buffet sections on many of them, and several
lines operated full dining cars. A few of the longest
interurbans even introduced sleeping car service.
Bearing such dashing names as Liberty Bell
Limited, Dixie Flyer, and Meteor, de luxe interurban
limiteds sped imperiously through the rolling hills
of the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside, Hoosier
farmland, and California canyon alike, transporting
passengers in princely comfort on their errands of
importance.
Surely the electric way was the very best way to
travel, i
46
In the earlier years of the interurban era, two-man crews of motorman and conductor were almost
universal, and sometimes interurban lines patterned their operating rules after those of steam rail-
roading. Among these was Iowa's Fort Dodge Line, which even as late as 7 95 5 still went about the
fob of running electric cars in the traditional manner. Here conductor F. E. N unamaker passes up a
clearance card from the operator at Fort Dodge to motorman E. J. Berg before their departure with
southbound train No. 2 for Des Moines. Both wore the respective blue serge uniform and overalls
of their occupations. William D. Middleton.
47
The Interurban Car
48
Separated by 30 years of progress, these two interurbans bore little resemblance to
one another although they served similar purposes in their respective eras. Mag-
nificent wooden 302 was built by Niles in 1907 for the Washington, Baltimore &
Annapolis and later was sold to the Rock Island Southern. The Key System artic-
ulated unit, in purposeful 1938 styling, covered interurbanlike routes east of San
Francisco, yet had automatic cab signals for rush-hour operation on 1 -minute head-
way over the 1-mile fog-shrouded Bay Bridge. William D. Middleton Collec-
tion (Left); Richard Steinheimer (Above).
49
The Interurban Car
-DORN of an age which took joy in lavish orna-
mentation, the interurban car of the early years was
a splendid sight. The very first cars were little dif-
ferent from the prosaic streetcars from which they
evolved, but the skilled craftsmen who fashioned the
big electric cars, with the instinctive sense of balance
and proportion common to artisans of their kind,
soon developed an altogether distinctive interurban
car architecture.
With the exception of the shorter length dictated
by operation through city streets, the dimensions of
the interurbans were more like those of steam cars
than those of the city streetcars. Interurban cars
were usually anywhere from 50 to 60 feet long, al-
though cars over 70 feet in length were built for a
few lines. Car width was often restricted by the
width of the "devil strip" between double tracks of
street railway properties. For the 4-foot devil strip
found in a majority of cities a car width of 8'4" was
usually standard, but where clearances allowed, cars
were often built to widths equal to steam railroad
standards. Interurban cars were frequently designed
for double end operation, with controls at each end
and reversible seating, which enabled quick turn-
arounds without the necessity for loops or wyes.
Usually, however, interurban operators favored the
single end car, which permitted better interior ar-
rangement, eliminated the cost of duplicate controls
and fenders, and enabled the use of less expensive
nonreversible seating.
Early car construction was invariably of wood
and was aptly described as "house-upon-a-flat-car"
construction. Heavy timber sills provided the entire
structural support, and the carbody simply rested
on the sills. As cars became too long and heavy to
be supported by the wood sills alone, steel truss rods
and queen posts were added under the car. Large
turnbuckles made it possible to restore the car to
level after it began to sag with the strains of age and
service. Some master mechanics even preferred to
send a car away from a visit to the shops with a
slight arch to its back.
The clerestory "railroad" roof of steam road prac-
tice, which provided good ventilation, was widely
favored by interurban lines, although some roads
later adopted a high arch roof when satisfactory
ventilators were developed. The necessity for opera-
tion of interurban trains around sharp curves re-
quired the adoption of long radius couplings and
rounded ends, which resulted in a far more pleasing
appearance than the flat ends of steam road cars.
The almost universal use of "Gothic" arched
windows, fitted with what was variously described
as "art" or "cathedral" leaded glass upper panels,
gave a dash of elegance to any interurban. So
highly regarded was the arch window, in fact, that
even later, when some interurbans adopted rectangu-
lar, clear glass upper panels — which furnished bet-
ter interior illumination — a fake arch top, visible
only from the outside, was installed above the upper
panel in place of the usual letter board. This varia-
tion was known as the "Washington" sash after it
was first used on an order of cars for the Washington
Railway & Electric Company.
The durable, dark "Pullman green" finish of
steam railroad practice was favored by many inter-
urban roads, but many others felt that the extra cost
of less serviceable but brighter colors was good ad-
vertising. Lighter colors also afforded better visi-
bility of approaching electric cars. A variety of red,
orange, yellow, blue, and green hues were com-
monly used, and many lines were widely known by
the distinctive colors of their equipment. Interur-
ban cars were usually assigned numbers, and most
50
The zenith of wooden interurban car architecture was represented by the equipment delivered in 1911
by the Cincinnati Car Company for the Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation's Galveston-Houston
Electric Railway. This car is seen in the blue and white "bluebird" colors worn during the '20's, when
the Galveston Flyer won honors as America's fastest interurban. George Krambles Collection.
lines gave names only to their more elegant parlor,
sleeping, and dining cars. There were occasional
exceptions. A few lines named their cars after on-
line communities or famous local personages. Port-
land's East Side Railway gave its cars girls' names
such as Ava, Helen, and Flora; and Maine's Portland-
Lewiston Interurban named all its cars after flowers.
Interurban car interiors were usually divided into
a smoking section and a nonsmoking compartment,
sometimes referred to as the "ladies' parlor"; and
most of them had a baggage and express compart-
ment, often fitted with folding wooden seats or camp
stools for overflow crowds. The carbuilders lavished
their greatest efforts on fanciful decorative effects
for the car interiors. Fine woods of every descrip-
tion were employed. Ash, cherry, quartered oak,
California redwood, basswood, maple, and birch
were all popular. Mahoganies were imported from
Tobago, Mexico, the African Gold Coast, and South
and Central America; and teakwood came from
India, China, and the Philippines. When excep-
tional beauty and richness of finish were desired,
vermilion — a heavy, hard-to-work wood of the
mahogany family — was used. For particularly
handsome effects the dark woods were often inlaid
with white holly; and complex color schemes, artis-
tic moldings, and intricate carvings were provided.
Plush upholstery was commonly employed in the
main compartment, and the more elegant cars were
fitted with heavy draperies and thick carpeting.
More durable and easily cleaned materials, such as
leather or cane upholstery and linoleum flooring,
were favored for the smoking compartments, where
the rougher element customarily rode. Interurbans
usually had lavatories, and such other extras as
water coolers, mirrors, and electric fans. Match
scratchers and polished brass spittoons were pro-
vided for the smoker clientele, and heavy ornamental
bronze was liberally used for luggage racks, light
fixtures, hardware, and other trimmings.
With the arrival of balmy summer weather some
interurbans rolled out their special open cars. Wide-
ly used in New England and California, the open car
enjoyed a more limited popularity on interurban
lines elsewhere in the U.S. The most common type
of open car was fitted with benches running the full
width of the car and continuous running boards,
so that it could be boarded at any point. Conductors
had to negotiate the running boards to collect fares.
Waterproof awnings were lowered in case of rain.
The open car was a delight to ride on a hot sum-
mer night; nevertheless, it had its disadvantages.
Women found it almost impossible to climb aboard
the standard single-step open car after the hobble
51
The impressive dimensions of the WB&A's Niles "Electric Pullmans" are evident in
a broadside study. The big cars regularly clocked 66-mile-per-hour average speeds
once they got out of town. LeRoy O. King Collection.
skirt became fashionable. J. G. Brill, a leading car-
builder, came up with the Narragansett car, a
patented two-step design, as an answer to this prob-
lem. Boarding and alighting accidents were al-
together too frequent on open cars, and the prospect
of a passenger inadvertently "joining the birds'* in
high-speed interurban operation probably kept more
than one traction official awake nights. Some lines
solved the problem by providing standard center
aisles and vestibules, and screening in the lower
part of the sides.
On the West Coast, where weather was subject
to year-around vagaries, the "combination," or
"semi-open," type of car was often adopted, pre-
sumably in an effort to please everyone. One end
of the car was constructed as an ordinary closed car,
while the other was an open section. Usually, it was
found, everyone wanted to ride in the same end,
depending upon the weather. An earlier variation of
the combination type was the California car, which
had a closed center section and an open section at
each end.
Traction companies found the provision of a
duplicate set of equipment for summer operation
a costly proposition. An early effort to develop
a type of car adaptable to year-around operation was
the "convertible" car (or "nonhibernating" car,
as one builder described it), which could be trans-
formed from a closed to an open car by the use of
removable side panels. More widely used was the
This Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company interurban was constructed with the "Washington"
sash, an arrangement which employed clear glass upper sash for improved interior illumination but
retained the class of "Gothic" window design with dummy art glass arches in place of the customary
letter board. O. F. Lee Collection.
I
i
" '.,■-
Glistening in fresh varnish,
a line-up of brand-new
interurbans all ready for de-
livery to the Peoria Railway
Terminal Company was
photographed outside
the Paris (III.) plant of
builder McGuire-Cum-
mings. Charles Goethe
Collection.
The distinctive architecture of the interurban car had not yet been evolved when J. G. Brill delivered this
deck roof car for service on the Washington, Alexandria & Mt. Vernon Railway's new line to Alexandria
in 1896. Nevertheless, the car was equipped with such interurban features as train doors for passage between
cars, a lavatory, and a water cooler. It was capable of hauling one or two trailers at speeds up to 45 miles
per hour. This carload of dour individuals, probably Brill factory workers, simulated passengers for an ad-
vertisement that appeared in the February 1H')6 Street Railway Journal. LeRoy O. King Collection.
"semi-convertible" car, which had window sash that
disappeared into either wall or roof pockets for
summer operation, while the side panels remained
fixed in place. The J. G. Brill Company, which de-
veloped its patented roof pocket semi-convertible
system in 1899, pointed out in some early hard-sell
advertising that the wall pockets used by other
builders often became rubbish receptacles and were
a dangerous breeding place for germs; one instance
was detailed in which a carelessly discarded cigar
had started a fire in a wall pocket.
The interurbans' strength was their ability to
furnish an economical short-haul passenger service,
a fact which was reflected in the durably furnished
coaches that predominated in electric line equip-
ment rosters. But as the interurbans began to edge
into the long-distance luxury travel field in the
years following the turn of the century, more
53
lavishly furnished equipment was frequently seen.
Carpeted parlor cars fitted with cushioned wicker
lounge chairs were often provided for the long-
distance limited runs, and in the Midwest and West
the open observation platform, complete with brass
railing, scalloped awning, and a drumhead sign
bearing the road's emblem or train name, frequently
appeared on the premier interurban schedules, in
the manner of the best steam railroad limited trains
of the time.
An early example of the ornate parlor cars often
maintained for charter service was the pretentiously
titled "drawing room car" that was available in 1906
to transport the elite over the 25-mile Augusta-
Aiken Railway & Electric Company in Georgia.
The car's interior was fitted with handsome rugs,
Typical of the summer cars operated hi
great numbers by street railways and in-
terurbans was this 1-t-bencb open car
built by Jackson & Sharp in 1900 for the
Philadelphia & West Chester Traction
Company. Philadelphia Suburban
Transportation Company.
Designed to please everyone in the variable California climate, semi-open cars similar to this one ranged
by the hundreds over the rails of Pacific Electric and other California interurbans. Later on, the
open section on these PE cars was enclosed up to the belt rail and eventually was closed entirely.
Visible in the photograph is the pneumatic trolley base favored by PE over the usual spring base.
Ira Swett — Magna Collection.
An interior view of a more severely
furnished Youngstown & Southern Rail-
way Niles combine clearly shows such
typical electric car appurtenances as the
conductor's fare register and the coal-
fired stove that fed hot water to the
heating system. O. F. Lee Collection.
Interior appointments of this car, built by Brill in
1907 for the West Shore Railroad's Vtica-Syracuse
electrification, were typical of the early interurbans.
The walkover seats were upholstered in figured
plush, and the interior was finished in inlaid mahog-
any. The carbuilder's fanciful decorative touch was
evident in the embellishments applied to the full
Empire ceiling and the elaborate baggage racks.
Industrial Photo Service.
55
Built by Brill in 1907 for the Inland Empire System,
this early parlor car was ostentatious in the extreme,
with its plush-upholstered wicker arm chairs and
heavy, patterned carpeting. The full Empire ceil-
ing was tinted Nile green, and vermilion wood was
used for the interior finish. Windows employed
the patented Brill semi-convertible system, which
permitted the sash to be raised into pockets between
the roof and ceiling for summer operation.
LeRoy O. King Jr. Collection.
During the late '20's the Milwaukee Elec-
tee's Cold Spring shops manufactured two
of these articulated coach-diner units, which
operated three times daily in a through
service from Kenosha to Watertoivn via
Milwaukee. Modestly priced table d'hote
and a la carte meals were prepared in an all-
electric kitchen. After suffering heavy
losses, the company rebuilt the diners into
straight coaches a few years later. George
Krambles Collection.
In later years parlor car interiors became more
restrained in their decoration, if no less luxurious.
Milwaukee Northern car 99 was rebuilt by com-
pany shops in 1923 from a former funeral car for a
new high-speed, extra-fare Milwaukee-Sheboygan
service. George Krambles Collection.
Samuel lnsull's rebuilding of the South Shore line
during the '20's included such Pullman-built luxury
equipment as diners and parlor-observation cars for
limited name train service. In its interior furnishings
this solarium-observation car was indistinguishable
from the finest contemporary steam railroad equip-
ment. George Krambles Collection.
plush-cushioned parlor chairs, and silk draperies, all
done in harmonious shades of blue. The interior
finish was of richly carved and inlaid mahogany,
and the ceiling was tinted a delicate robin's egg
blue. The Lewiston, Augusta & Waterville Street
Railway, in Maine, offered the special parlor-
observation car Merrymeeting to charter parties at
a cost of $7 an hour. The car seated 35 in plush-
upholstered wicker chairs, had an observation plat-
form at each end, and was equipped with a re-
frigerator and an electric outline lighting system.
In 1930 the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern
converted a former business car for charter opera-
tion. Requiring a minimum of 25 full fares, the big
car came equipped with a complete galley and
pantry, linen and tableware, a library nook, and
observation compartments at each end with circular
glass windows reaching almost to the floor; and a
uniformed porter was included in the crew.
Often buffet or dining car service was offered on
56
1 I T
itfl
'fcftfiff^i
*SO*-^
If "J. .<
the longer interurban limited runs. All three of the
major interurbans radiating from Chicago offered
dining service, and the inauguration of through
service to the Loop by the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago
in 1905 was marked with a lavish dining car lunch-
eon for distinguished guests of the company's
officials. The group boarded the car at the Loop
elevated terminal and was served an elaborate eight-
course meal while they toured the system. Com-
mented Street Railway Journal: "Had it been served
in the evening at a downtown restaurant, followed
by after dinner speaking, it would have been called
a banquet." Dining car service was considered par-
ticularly advantageous by the AE&C since it per-
mitted Chicago businessmen to leave their desks at
noon or 1 p.m. and lunch on the way to the Wheaton
golf clubs.
Two of the finest interurban diners ever con-
structed were placed in service by the Interstate
Public Service Company in 1926 on its Indianapolis-
Louisville Dixie and Hoosier Flyers. Costing
S3 5,000 each, the cars were fitted out as combination
club, observation, and dining cars. Seats were up-
holstered in soft Spanish leather, and the interior
was trimmed in African mahogany. Portable tables
were provided for meal service, and an all-electric
57
The Holland Palace Car Company hoped to revolutionize
the long-distance interurban business with a com-
bination design that converted from parlor to sleep-
ing car through the use of rolling partitions. Only
two of them were ever built. Stephen D. Maguire
Collection (Above); George Krambles Col-
lection (Right).
Officers of the Everett-Moore syndicate, which controlled a number of interurbans in Ohio,
Michigan, and other /Midwestern states, rode over their Cleveland area holdings in regal
style aboard the private drawing room car Josephine, which included two observation
compartments, a stateroom, bathroom, kitchen, and a stenographer's office among its ac-
commodations. Only a few years after delivery by the J. G. Brill Company the Josephine
came to an untimely end in a spectacular fire. George Krambles Collection.
kitchen prepared food for a menu said to be almost
as extensive as that of a large hotel.
In 1903 a new company, the Holland Palace Car
Company, which hoped to occupy a position in the
electric railway industry comparable to that of the
Pullman Company in steam railroading, appeared
on the scene with a pair of ingenious combination
cars, the Theodore and the Francis, that converted
from parlor car by day to sleeping car at night
through the use of rolling partitions. First tried
on the 64-mile run between Columbus and Zanes-
ville, O., too short to make use of the sleeping car
feature, the two cars were later placed in overnight
service on the Illinois Traction System.
Although the Holland cars were considered un-
satisfactory, owing principally to excessive noise and
vibration from the power trucks, Illinois Traction's
sleeper service drew considerable interest, and in
1910 the company placed new sleepers of its own
design in service over the 172-mile St. Louis-Peoria
main line. The noise problem of the Holland cars
was eliminated by operating the new cars as trailers.
In a time before air conditioning, cinder-free
electric sleeper service offered distinct advantages
over steam railroad Pullmans, and Illinois Trac-
tion's new sleeping car accommodations were equal
or superior to those of Pullman cars in almost every
respect. Berths in the electric sleepers were fully
6 inches longer than in standard Pullmans, and the
cars featured windows for upper berth passengers,
an innovation that didn't appear on the steam rail-
roads until two decades later. A reading lamp and a
plush-lined, fireproof safety deposit box were in-
stalled in every berth. Porters on the cars served
hot coffee and rolls without charge in the morning.
Interurban sleeper travel was cheap, too. Uppers
and lowers cost only $1 and $1.25, respectively, and
porters were not allowed to accept tips. Later
Illinois Traction sleeping car innovations included
air conditioning and all-room sleepers.
Few other interurbans ever ventured into the
sleeping car business. The Oregon Electric Railway
operated sleepers between Portland and Eugene for
a few years, and the Interstate Public Service Com-
pany introduced an Indianapolis-Louisville service
in 1926 with a group of handsome steel cars. The
5S
The Oregon Electric Railway employed a pair of these Barney & Smith sleepers, built
along conventional lines, in a Portland-Eugene service for several years before selling
them to the Pacific Great Eastern steam line in British Columbia, where they continued to
operate until recent years. Arthur D. Dubin Collection.
'JfL.4
Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern line in Iowa, al-
though it never had sleepers of its own, once hauled
Pullman cars from Waterloo to Cedar Rapids, where
they were attached to Chicago-bound trains of the
Chicago & North Western.
Occasionally the officials of some of the larger
traction systems operated handsome private cars,
which often rivaled the rolling stock of steam
road contemporaries in the luxury of their equip-
ment and furnishings. Probably the most magnifi-
cent interurban of the entire traction era was the
private car Alabama, which the St. Louis Car Com-
pany turned out in 1905 for Southern California
traction magnate Henry E. Huntington. Almost as
large as a Pullman car, the 63-foot Alabama weighed
103,000 pounds and was driven by four 200-horse-
power motors. The Alabama was the most power-
ful, and one of the fastest, interurbans ever built;
it was capable of speeds approaching 100 miles
per hour, and once covered the 20 miles between
Los Angeles and Long Beach in 15 minutes, an
average speed of 80 miles per hour. The big car
could be coupled into any steam train, and Hunting-
ton used it for trips throughout the U.S., as well
as over his own Pacific Electric system. The
Alabama's interior was finished in figured African
mahogany, with inlay work and carvings for decora-
tion, and the two staterooms were fitted with figured
Prima Vera silk shades. A dining room, with places
for 10, buffet, china closet, and a genuine fireplace,
was located at one end of the car, and an observation
compartment with a built-in jardiniere was installed
at the opposite end.
After relinquishing active control of his traction
empire, Huntington sold the Alabama to the Sacra-
mento Northern Railroad for service as a de luxe
parlor-buffet car. In 1931 a coffee percolator short-
circuited in the kitchen and the resulting conflagra-
tion burned the mighty Alabama to the rails.
The Elmlawn, acquired by the International Rail-
way Company in 1905 for the use of funeral parties
en route to cemeteries in Buffalo, Niagara Falls,
Lockport, and the Tonawandas, was typical of the
special funeral cars operated by several interurbans.
Suitably finished in a somber dark green, the
Elmlawn was fitted with heavy green draperies
which provided adequate privacy for the party, and
a special door and sliding shelf were installed for
the casket.
Frequently the interurban carbuilders pioneered
important innovations in railroad passenger rolling
stock. Several interurban lines, for example, were
experimenting with roller bearing journals as early
as 1911. The fully automatic coupling, which the
steam railroad industry has yet to adopt, was a
practical reality on an interurban line in 1914. The
60
interurbans were a decade ahead of the steam rail-
roads in lightweight car construction, and a wind-
tunnel-designed, aerodynamic interurban was in
daily operation in 1931, fully three years before the
first diesel-electric streamliner took to steam road
rails. But in the most fundamental advance of all
in the railroad passenger car during the first half of
the 20th century, the transition from wood to all-
steel construction, the interurban builders lagged
nearly 10 years behind the steam railroads. Even a
few street railways and subways had steel cars well
before they appeared on interurbans.
The switch to steel was a reluctant one, for most
of the carbuilders were ill equipped for metal car
fabrication. Faced with the necessity of acquiring
the expensive heavy machinery required to cut,
form, and fasten steel members, more than one
builder simply went out of business. Steel was
first used only in center sill members, then for side
plating which was fastened over wood framing
members in what was termed "semi-steel" or "com-
posite" construction. The full advantages of steel
construction were not realized until steel side plat-
ing was used in conjunction with steel framing mem-
bers in such a manner that the car sides acted as
girders and, along with the center sills, helped to
carry the car's weight. Even after cars were being
constructed entirely of steel the truss rods of wood
construction were sometimes retained, although
Directors of the C. D. Beebe syndicate, whose inter-
urban activities were centered around Syracuse, N. Y.,
traveled about their traction domain in the incompa-
rable private car 999, delivered by the G. C. Kuhlman
Car Company of Cleveland in 1910. A splendid set of
builder's views of its richly finished interior reveal
scenes of electric car luxury that was not intended for
the masses. Charles Goethe Collection (Below) ;
William D. Middleton Collection (Right).
- — ^s**-
.
iissrl Ut 1
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C li
^4 few jear5 a//er Pacific Electric tycoon Henry E. Huntington relinquished control of his traction empire to
Southern Pacific, his celebrated private car Alabama was sold to the Sacramento Northern Railroad, where its
sumptuous furnishings became available to the general public in parlor-diner service on the Meteor and other
limited trains. It is seen here at Sacramento waiting to be attached to the San Francisco-bound Sacramento
Valley Limited. Like many wooden interurbans, the Alabama met its end by fire. David L. Joslyn Collection.
^^
1^
Jfc.
ill
w*\w
999
_ ... nm+
Before the automobile hearse became an acceptable
mode of transportation to the last resting place,
dignified funeral cars such as the Milwaukee
Electric's No. 1000 were a common sight on in-
terurban and street railway lines, and an on-line
cemetery was considered a definite asset.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
This special train, which operated over Pa-
cific Electric's Glendale line in 1914, marked
the first successful use of couplings which
automatically made car, air, and electrical con-
nections. Widely used on electric railways, the
innovation was still not adopted for general use
on steam railroads in 1961. William D. Mid-
dleton Collection.
many carbuilders were convinced that the compres-
sion introduced into the steel frame when the truss
rods were tightened actually served to weaken a car
rather than to strengthen it, as its users supposed.
By 1915, all-steel interurban car construction was
almost universal. The greater safety of steel equip-
ment in the event of accidents was an improvement
of major importance, and the lines which adopted
the new cars were quick to exploit the publicity ad-
vantages. In 1915 one line, the Toledo, Fostoria &
Findlay Railway, went so far as to insist that the
builders use round-head, rather than countersunk,
rivets wherever possible in its new steel cars, in
order to clearly advertise to the public that the cars
were not made of wood.
The use of steel was lavish in the first years of
metal car construction. Some of the first steel cars,
built for the Union Traction Company of Indiana in
1913, weighed almost 43 tons; and some of the
heaviest cars ever built, which were turned out in
1914 for the Michigan Railway, weighed over 65
tons. Within a few years, as the builders became
more familiar with the new materials, excess weight
was eliminated, and cars of comparable size were
being built which weighed less than 30 tons.
Soon after World War I, when the automobile
first began to make serious inroads upon interurban
passenger revenues, many lines started to search for
means of effecting substantial operating economies.
Some of their most rewarding efforts were in the
direction of lightweight car construction. Stronger
alloys, lightweight metals, and better design were
all used in an effort to reduce carbody weight, which
in turn permitted the use of smaller trucks and
motors with corresponding economies in power con-
sumption. Ten lightweight cars built by the G. C.
Kuhlman Car Company in 1922 for the Western
Ohio Railway, for example, weighed only half as
62
An otherwise conventional interurban of the Syracuse Northern Traction Company was distinguished
by the experimental application of roller bearings. Several other interurbans, as early as 1910,
made similar applications, far in advance of the adoption of roller bearings by steam railroads.
Robert O. Waters Collection, from William R. Gordon.
A close-up shows one type of fully automatic
coupling, in interurban service on the Balti-
more & Annapolis. William D. Middleton.
much and consumed only half as much power as
the cars they replaced, yet were capable of speeds as
high as 50 miles per hour.
A number of builders produced satisfactory light-
weight cars, but the most notable of the lightweights
was the distinctive curved-side design developed by
the Cincinnati Car Company. An important struc-
tural innovation gave the cars their unusual "fish-
belly" appearance. A reverse curve, introduced into
the alloy steel side plates, provided a girder strength
much greater than that afforded by a flat plate of the
same weight. Vertical stiffeners, cut to the curve of
the side plates, maintained the side contour. The
roof was built as a unit and was supported by two
pairs of vertical posts which rested directly on the
body bolsters. The window posts, which were
structural members in ordinary -car construction,
were simply inserts between the side plate and the
letter board in the Cincinnati design. A special low-
floor arch bar cantilever truck was developed for the
car. Aluminum was liberally used for interior fit-
tings to further conserve weight.
The first Cincinnati curved-side cars, a group of
10 built in 1922 for interurban service on the Ken-
tucky Traction tk Terminal Company, were nothing
less than a revolutionary improvement. Weighing
barely 25,000 pounds in working order, the lightest
63
Interurban car architecture of the heavy steel car period tended to straightforward, functional design,
and rarely were the results more pleasing than in the case of this Indiana Service Corporation combine,
one of five constructed by the St. Louis Car Company in 1926. Wilbourne B. Cox Collection.
cars of their size and capacity ever turned out by
Cincinnati, they weighed less than a third as much
as the wooden cars they replaced, and the company's
interurban power load was reduced by half. Four
25-horsepower motors gave them a free running
speed of 36 miles per hour — almost 10 miles per
hour slower than the cars they replaced — but im-
proved acceleration and deceleration characteristics
made it possible to maintain the same schedules.
The reduced power costs, in addition to the econo-
mies of one-man operation, enabled the line to re-
duce its fares. So spectacular was the success of the
new cars that within two months a parallel bus op-
eration had been forced out of business.
Even at an early stage of development interurban
cars were capable of rather high speeds, often in
excess of 60 miles per hour, but over-all running
times were usually anything but rapid. Lightly and
cheaply built lines, which precluded sustained high
speeds, and the almost universal operation through
the streets of cities and towns, made high average
speeds impossible. As late as 1906 three Ohio in-
terurbans were claiming the "fastest electric service
in the world" with limited trains which each av-
eraged only about 32 miles per hour. The deficiency
in speed was unimportant in the short haul passen-
ger business, for the steam trains were even slower;
but as the interurbans essayed the long haul trade,
speed became a matter of great concern.
In 1904 the John Stephenson Company, of Eliza-
beth, N. J., exhibited a 12-wheeled interurban car,
designed for extremely high-speed operation, at the
To provide increased seating capacity in a single unit, a few lines came up with articulated interur-
bans. The Milwaukee Electric Lines created eight of them in its Cold Spring shops in 1929 from
conventional steel cars acquired from the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction Company. The re-
sulting "duplex" units seated 84 passengers. State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
64
A less successful interurban experiment was this
bizarre device applied to the front end of a Buffa-
lo & Lake Erie Traction car which ivas designed
to utilize beat from the headlight to defrost the
front windows. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
The powerful heavy steel cars received by the
North Shore Line during the '20's, combined with
track and power improvements, enabled the company
to gain world honors for its high-speed schedules.
A Chicago-bound train of '20's-vintage equip-
ment, photographed during the mid-'50's in mod-
ern Silverliner dress, upheld the tradition as its
motorman notched the controller all the way around
to maintain a start-to-stop Racine-Kenosha timing of
10 miles in 10 minutes. William D. Middleton.
Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The
car, it was claimed, could attain speeds as high as
120 miles per hour, but there is no evidence that it
was ever operated at speeds even approaching this
figure. Stephenson, however, did produce some re-
markable high-speed cars at an early date. In 1903
a Stephenson-built car on the Aurora, Elgin &
Chicago Railway managed to cover the 35 miles be-
tween Aurora and Chicago in 34 minutes 39 seconds
despite the loss of over 6 minutes in stops, and nu-
merous speed reductions for steam railroads, trolley
lines, and street and highway crossings.
In 1903 the officials of the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition organized the Electric Railway Test
Commission to conduct a series of tests to develop a
carbody design that would reduce wind resistance
at high speeds. A long series of tests was carried
out by the Commission in 1905 on the Union Trac-
tion Company near Noblesville, Ind., with the
Louisiana, a special dynamometer car which con-
sisted of a 32-foot carbody arranged to roll freely
on rails secured to a special motorized flat car so
that the carbody's resistance could be measured in-
dependent of that for the entire car. Vestibule
sections of different shapes were suspended inde-
pendent of the carbody, with a dynamometer to
measure the resistance of each. Over 200 test runs
were made at speeds up to 70 miles per hour with
parabolic, wedge, standard, and flat vestibule ends.
The Louisiana test results indicated that a para-
--
••v
s
v
bolic-shaped front end reduced wind resistance at
high speeds below that of the conventional rounded
profile, and a variety of interurban known as the
"windsplitter" car subsequently appeared on several
lines in Indiana, Ohio, and New York. Although the
streamlined front end gave a dramatic appearance
to the cars, no significant operating economies were
realized, and streamlining was soon discarded for
another quarter century.
Interurban lines showed renewed interest in high-
speed operation in the face of the increasing auto-
mobile competition during the post-World War I
period. The first speed-up efforts took the form of
heavy steel cars, equipped with powerful motors,
which were capable of extremely high sustained
speeds. The most notable results along these lines
were achieved by the three major Chicago area inter-
urbans controlled by Samuel Insull, which not only
operated handsome new steel cars but, even more
important, spent millions in reconstructing track
and power facilities to enable the lines to fully ex-
ploit the potential capacity of the new cars. Top
speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour were reached
regularly, and station-to-station averages as high as
This builder's close-up shows the "drum" connector employed to connect the
carbodies of the articulated interurbans delivered to the Washington, Baltimore &
Annapolis by J. G. Brill in 1927. William D. Middleton Collection.
Most successful of the lightweight cars produced during the '20's was the Cincinnati Car
Company's curved-side design, which was produced in such numbers for both interurban and street
railway service that it became known as the Cincinnati "rubber stamp" car. This trim parlor car
was delivered to the Indianapolis & Southeastern Railroad in 1929, only three years before the
company went out of business. The car itself, however, operated for another 14 years on lines
in Tennessee and Georgia. George Krambles Collection.
mn
70 miles per hour were not infrequently attained.
On other systems efforts were directed to the
development of a lightweight, high-speed car that
could operate smoothly over the typically light,
often rough interurban track, for many of the lines
could ill afford the costly overhaul of roadbed and
power systems required for satisfactory high-speed
operation of heavy equipment.
Late in 1929, Dr. Thomas Conway Jr. and associ-
ates formed the new Cincinnati & Lake Erie Rail-
road from three ailing Ohio traction properties and
immediately ordered from the Cincinnati Car Com-
pany 20 radical new high-speed cars designed to win
back a declining passenger traffic. The design of the
new cars was based upon extensive experimentation
begun by the Conway group early in 1929 and
carried out in conjunction with the Westinghouse
Electric & Manufacturing Company, the General
Electric Company, the J. G. Brill Company, the
Cincinnati Car Company, and the Westinghouse
A rakish parabolic front end gave the "windsplitter" cars evolved from the 1904 Louisiana tests a
formidable appearance, but the design proved to be no faster than conventional cars and few were built.
This steel windsplitter was one of two built by G. C. Kuhlman in 1912 for New York's Utica-Syracuse
third-rail line, where they were known as "Arrow Cars." It is seen here on Clinton Square in
Syracuse about to depart on a Utica local schedule. Industrial Photo Service.
67
Traction Brake Company. Based upon the test re-
sults, specifications were built up under the direc-
tion of W. L. Butler, C&LE executive vice-president,
for a low-level, lightweight car of steel and alumi-
num that would be capable of sustained speeds in
excess of 75 miles per hour.
Among the major problems faced by C&LE and
the manufacturers were the development of a satis-
factory low-level truck which would operate smooth-
ly at the extremely high speeds contemplated and
the design of motors that were capable of producing
the necessary power yet would meet the severe
clearance limits of the low-level trucks. Braking
presented another serious problem, and from the
test program it was determined that something in
addition to air braking was required.
The Cincinnati Car Company adapted some of
the low-level arch bar cantilever trucks used on its
lightweight interurbans and mounted them under a
car comparable to the type planned by C&LE for
experimental purposes. A design was evolved for
a satisfactory 28-inch-wheel, low-level truck, and
following prolonged negotiation both Westinghouse
and General Electric contracted to supply traction
motors which developed 100 horsepower yet were
compact enough to be mounted on the Cincinnati
truck. The braking problems were solved by de-
signing a magnetic track brake which came into play
only after the air brake application approached the
safe limits of wheel friction.
The new cars, which made liberal use of alumi-
num, went into service during 1930. Eminently
successful, they were capable of speeds in excess of
90 miles per hour. In the extensive publicity which
surrounded their introduction, one of the cars at-
tained a reputed speed of 97 miles per hour in a
race against an airplane staged near Dayton in July
1930 for the benefit of Pathe newsreel cameras. An-
other of the cars outdistanced a racing car by 15
lengths in a race held on the National Pike between
Springfield and Columbus. Soon after the high-
speeds went into regular service Electric Railway
Journal reported, "Certain of the de luxe trains over-
take and pass such steam trains as the Ohio State
Limited to the great amusement and gratification of
the interurbans' passengers."
The response to the new equipment was heart-
ening, and C&LE reported increased business at the
expense of private autos, buses, and steam trains.
Three weeks after the cars went into service the
Big Four Railroad was forced to discontinue its
Cincinnati-Columbus Senator.
A year later the newly formed Indiana Railroad
System acquired a fleet of 35 similar cars from Pull-
man and the American Car & Foundry Company.
Somewhat heavier, the Indiana cars had all-alumi-
num bodies and employed a more conventional type
of equalized cast steel truck. Unlike the C&LE cars,
they were equipped for multiple unit operation.
In 1930 the Conway group gained control of the
Philadelphia & Western Railway, which badly
needed new equipment to regain its competitive
'""•'■;
Exhaustive testing pro-
duced the phenomenal
"Red Devil" lightweight,
high-speed car for the
Cincinnati & Lake Erie in
1930. Ten were built as
straight coaches, and 10
as coach-lounges, fitted
with swank furniture and
provided with "wrap-
around" windshield visi-
bility from the observa-
tion section. The 123 was
photographed at Moraine
Park. Both Photos:
Mayfield Photos Inc.
68
position with newly electrified suburban lines of the
Pennsylvania and Reading railroads. Co-ordination
of a broad research program and preparation
of detailed plans for the new cars was placed under
the direction of P&W Vice-Chairman W. L. Butler,
who had been largely responsible for development
of the C&LE high-speed car design. One of the
C&LE cars was shipped to P&W, where a testing
program conducted in collaboration with the J. G.
Brill Company produced an improved low-level
truck design.
An elaborate wind tunnel investigation was
carried out at the University of Michigan under the
direction of Prof. Felix W. Pawlowski to develop a
carbody design which would permit the attainment
of the desired high speeds with the lowest possible
power consumption. Some 30 types of models were
tested and Professor Pawlowski determined that a
streamlined car could be constructed which would
save 40 per cent or more of the energy required by
the conventional type of suburban car operated at
speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour.
The 10 Brill-built "Bullet" cars that were the
result of the P&W research program represented
the finest lightweight, high-speed interurban cars
ever constructed. Built almost entirely of aluminum,
the big 55-foot cars each had a total weight of barely
26 tons. Wind tunnel research had shown that even
such items as roof ventilators had an adverse effect
on power consumption, and the roofs of the Bullets
were unbroken by vents. Instead, ventilating air
was drawn in through louvers at front and back of
The Indiana Railroad's celebrated fleet of 35
high-speed cars delivered in 1931 was similar
to the design developed by Cincinnati & Lake
Erie. Pullman and ACE divided the million-
dollar order. Barney Neuberger Collection.
Wind tunnel research, along with experience
gained with the C&LE cars and the rest/Its of still
more testing, produced this "Bullet" design for
Philadelphia & Western in 1931. The sleek cars
not only looked, but were, capable of speeds of
over 90 miles per hour. WILLIAM D. Middleton.
the cars and exhausted through streamlined ducts.
The cars were designed for M.U. operation, and
completely automatic, self-centering couplers were
developed which made car, air, and electrical con-
nections. Four 100-horsepower GE motors were
mounted on the new Brill 89-E high-speed trucks.
Equipped with field taps, the cars were able to attain
speeds as high as 92 miles per hour, and in a test run
one of the cars covered the 13.5-mile P&W line from
Norristown to the 69th Street Terminal in Upper
Darby in just 11 minutes.
The high-speed car development represented vir-
tually the last major effort of the interurban car-
builders, soon to succumb to the combined effects
of depression and a rapidly failing traction industry.
Aside from a 1932 order for five cars of a modified
Bullet design, constructed by Brill for the Fonda,
Johnstown & Gloversville, none of the lightweight,
high-speed car designs was ever repeated.
With a few notable exceptions, interurban car
construction came to a virtual end during the early
years of the depression. In 1939 the bankrupt
Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee came back from
a paralyzing strike and near abandonment with an
order for two streamlined, air-conditioned trains
that represented an ingenious solution to an almost
impossible set of operating conditions. The North
Shore wanted a train that could run like the wind
and provide all the comforts of a steam road stream-
liner. Yet it had to operate through the narrow plat-
forms and around the hairpin turns of Chicago's El
and, like a streetcar, negotiate major thoroughfares
in Milwaukee. All this notwithstanding, builder
St. Louis Car Company managed to shoehorn a com-
plete streamliner into the Electroliners 156-foot,
fish-bellied length. Constructed of welded high-
tensile steel, each of the Electroliners consisted of
four articulated units, driven by eight 125-horse-
power motors and capable of speeds in the vicinity
of 85 miles per hour. Entirely successful, they rep-
resented the finest interurban equipment ever
constructed.
Another Chicago interurban, the Chicago Aurora
& Elgin, purchased 10 new cars from the St. Louis
Car Company at the end of World War II. While
they featured a number of mechanical and electrical
improvements, they were little different in outward
appearance from the heavy steel cars of the post-
World War I era. The very last interurbans of all
were three streamlined trains delivered by St. Louis
Car to the Illinois Terminal Railroad during 1948-
1949. Clad in corrugated aluminum and trimmed in
blue, the three hoof-nosed trains featured air con-
ditioning, reclining seat coaches, parlor-observation
cars, and a la carte dining service.
Modifications of the streamlined PCC ( Presidents'
Conference Committee) streetcar developed in the
mid-'30's were used by several interurban systems.
Pacific Electric, Illinois Terminal, and Philadelphia
Suburban employed double-end, multiple-unit PCC-
type cars in suburban services, and the Pittsburgh
Railways used PCC cars on its long Washington and
Charleroi interurban routes.
Quite often during the interurbans' declining
years, equipment improvement took the form of re-
building and modernization of elderly rolling stock,
with sometimes questionable results. Metal plating
was often applied over the wood sheathing of an-
Articulated carbodies permitted the North Shore's Electroliner streamliners to snake around the abrupt
curvature of Chicago's elevated and Milwaukee street railway tracks, and a "fish-belly" side enabled them
to squeeze between narrow elevated platforms. One of them whipped along north of Racine, Wis.,
at close to its 85-mile-per-hour top speed on the way to Chicago. William D. Middleton.
i^r
9 a:
The very last interurbans of all were three of these streamlined trams for the Illinois Terminal Railroad's
St. Louis-Decatur and St. Louis-Peoria services. One is shown arriving at IT's subway in St. Louis.
Their accommodations included reclining seat coaches, dining service, and parlor-observation sections, and
all of these were comparable in every way to those of the finest postwar steam road streamliners.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection (Left); William D. Middleton (Right).
tiquated cars in an effort to deceive the public, but
this provided no added protection when wooden
equipment was involved in collisions. Arched win-
dows and stained glass became anachronisms as
America entered the age of streamlining, and the
sheet metal that was used to conceal them from view
usually destroyed the graceful lines and pleasing
balance of the carbuilders' architecture of an earlier
time. Garish color schemes with such fanciful
effects as wings, swirls, and stripes were often em-
ployed in an effort to lend an air of speed and
modernity. The North Shore Line went so far as
to tediously decorate some of its equipment with
aluminum paint and shadow markings in an effort
to convince passengers that its 1920-vintage steel cars
were really corrugated stainless-steel streamliners.
More to the point, many interurbans concentrated
on mechanical improvements and interior renova-
tion of equipment, and a few even added air con-
ditioning. The South Shore Line, which began
chopping some of its solid Pullman-built interur-
bans in two and splicing in an extra mid-section to
gain extra seating capacity during World War II,
carried the process still further on many cars to add
new foam rubber seating, picture windows, and
air conditioning, and managed to produce interur-
bans that rivaled the best contemporary steam road
coaches in passenger comforts. 1
.^t
*Z*£<
Roadside and Rural
72
The New England Trolley
Southbound from Kaugatuck to New Haven, a Connecticut
Company trolley crossed a trestle at Beacon Falls in 1936. Wil-
bur Sherwood, from Jeffrey K. Winslow Collection.
73
Roadside and Rural
The New England Trolley
A shady road with a grassy track;
A car that follows free;
A summer's scene at early morn;
A nickel for a fee.
— Clinton W. Lucas.
iNlOWHERE was simple joy riding by trolley more
popular than on the intensively developed intercity
electric network of New England. Almost all of the
scores of lines were built to standards more appro-
priate for street railways, and the true high-speed
interurban of Midwestern practice was a rarity. In-
stead, the New England electrics wandered leisurely
along on lightly constructed trackage that followed
rural roads, or sailed over hill and dale. Because
speeds were usually low and frequent changes of
cars were required, few used the trolleys for serious
long-distance journeys, but the very nature of such
relaxed and unhurried travel encouraged the de-
velopment of the trolley vacation and the Sunday
outing by electric car. So intensive was electric line
development in such states as Connecticut and Mas-
sachusetts that several alternate routes were usually
available between principal points; between New
Haven and Boston, for example, venturesome trol-
ley tourists could choose from four major routes,
with numerous minor variations. Many of the lines
operated amusement parks, and there were large
numbers of summer theaters, hotels, resorts, and
casinos which catered to the trolley excursionist.
The open trolley was ideal for such pleasure travel
and nowhere in North America did it enjoy greater
popularity.
Numerous publishing houses and the trolley
companies themselves produced a flood of maps,
folders, and trolley touring guides designed to stim-
ulate the electric car excursion. Typical was the 10-
cent Trolley Trips, published in 1908, which lured
prospective trolley tourists with an engaging offer
of "your choice out of old New England, at ease in
your own conveyance, seeing the best, going where
you choose. We dart by quiet meadows, below an-
cient elms, past the old white farmhouse, in and
out of teeming city squares, the salt reach of the
racing Sound, Titanism of the White Mountains,
sandy isolation of Cape Cod, mysteries of Maine
virgin forests.
"We feel the cool rush of air on the cheek, heark-
en to the rhythmic click-click of the rail."
POTATOLAND INTERURBAN
Among the few New England interurbans to de-
velop an important freight traffic was the 33-mile
Aroostook Valley Railroad, which connected Presque
Isle, Washburn, Caribou, and New Sweden in north-
ern Maine. Carload traffic in lumber and Maine
potatoes was of principal importance from the time
of the line's opening in 1910, and even during its
peak years as a passenger carrier the Aroostook
Valley never operated more than four passenger
round trips daily. Soon after its opening the com-
pany briefly entertained notions of grandeur and
developed plans for the purchase of a 34-mile Ca-
nadian Pacific branch that extended from Presque
Isle to Aroostook Junction, N. B., and actually sur-
veyed a 111-mile route that would have extended
westward to a junction with the Quebec Central
Railway at Lac Frontiere, Que. Later on the
Aroostook Valley came under Canadian Pacific
control.
74
In 1913 the Wason works at Spring-
field, Mass., furnished a pair of cars
that were more characteristic of Alid-
w est em interurban practice than of
New England. No. 70 is shown in front
of the Odd Fellows Hall in Washburn.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
Granville Allen, principal motor-
man on AV passenger runs for
a quarter of a century before
the end of passenger operation
in 1946, receives a train order.
Gerald Boothbv.
Aroostook Valley combination car
No. 51, one of two delivered by J. G.
Brill in 1910 for initial service over
the line, is seen here at Presc/ue Isle.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
76
The finest of all New England interurhans was the
Portland-Lewiston Interurban Railroad, which
opened a 31 -mile line constructed to high standards
between its two terminal cities in 1914. Heavy
wooden rolling stock for the high-speed service
was provided by the Laconia and Wason companies,
and the interurban followed the unique practice of
naming each of them after a flower. Shown here
is No. 18, the Azalea. The last important New
England electric line to begin operation, the Port-
land-Lewiston ivas abandoned only 19 years to
the day after its opening, with the last run made by
the same car, the same crew, and many of the same
passengers that bad made the first trip. The final
run was followed by an employees' "wake" at the
Lewiston carbarn, where steamed clams, pickles,
lobsters, and 3.2 beer were consumed, and speeches
were made. Industrial Photo Service.
One of Maine's largest electric railway systems
was the Lewiston, Augusta & Water ville Street
Railway, which operated rural trolley lines from
Lewiston to Augusta, Bath, and Yarmouth. To
encourage trolley excursion travel the com-
pany ran Lake Grove Park at Auburn, featuring
an open air theater, a skating rink, cottages,
boating, and fishing. The company's Merry meet-
ing Park between Brunswick and Bath offered a
theater, a casino, and a lake. For special "trolley
parties" the palatial parlor-observation car Merry-
meeting was available at tnodest charges. In
regular service the company operated Brill semi-
convertible cars fitted with huge observation plat-
forms and finished in gay chrome yellow and red
colors. At top, one of them is seen passing through
North Vassalboro, while in the other scene two
of them meet at Depot Square in Gardiner. Both
Photos: Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
77
^v.
An unusual New England experiment was
the Boston <St Maine's Concord & Man-
chester branch line. This was constructed
as an electric inter urban in 1902, and was
said to be the first typical electric line
built by a steam railroad as an inte-
gral part of its general system. Although
track was constructed to higher standards
than on most New England electric lines,
much of the 17 -mile route was laid in rural
highways. Right and below are two views
of the cars turned out by the B&M's Con-
cord shops for initial service. Both
Photos: Carl L. Smith Collection.
-jA-..
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The Turkey Falls covered bridge across the Merrirnac River at Bow was shared by the interurban
and the B&M's Suncook Valley branch. A gantlet track was laid through the bridge and in-
terlocking protection was provided. Carl L. Smith Collection.
79
1
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Bound for Fair Haven, on the New York border,
the Rutland Railway, Light & Power Company's
Laconia-built combine No. 26 paused in a Rutland
(Vt.) street alongside a snappy runabout, while
the motorman posed stiffly in the doorway for the
photographer. Barney Neuberger Collection.
The Trolley That
Met All the Trains
Typical of the New England trolleys that
met all the trains, and the last of them to
survive, was the 8-mile Springfield Ter-
minal Railway, which operated down the
Black River Valley from Springfield, Vt.,
to Charleston, N. H., where a connection
was made with Boston & Maine's Connecti-
cut River line. The electric line developed
an important carload freight business from
industries at Springfield, which was not
served by a steam railroad, and the company
remains in operation as a diesel-pow-
ered freight feeder for the parent B&M.
Passenger operation ended in 1947. At up-
per right, the company's two steel com-
bines, both built by Wason in 1923, are
seen on the square at Springfield in 1940;
at right, one of them has just met a north-
bound B&M local at Charleston in 1941.
Charles A. Brown (Upper Right);
Stephen D. Maguire (Right).
Humming along through the orderly
and tranquil Green Mountain country-
side, the Mount Mansfield Electric
Railway's combine No. 3 rolled past
the park at W'aterbury Center, Vt.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
80
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In 7///y 2907, /Am group of straw-batted dignitaries traveled from Springfield to Palmer, Mass., on
the first run over the Springfield & Eastern Railway. The exquisitely detailed parlor cars Huguenot
and Rockrimmon were provided for the occasion. Barney Neuberger Collection.
The 46-mile "trolley air
line" of Boston & Worces-
ter Street Railway was
among the most important
of New England interur-
bans. With more private
right of way operation than
most of them, the company
was able to provide rela-
tively fast service. This
line-up of B&W open cars
was photographed about
1905 at the Muster Grounds
in Framingham. BARNEY
Neuberger Collection.
82
The lightly built New England electric lines were even more poorly adapted to
the operation of heavy freight trains than most interurbans, and all but a few of
them were confined to handling small shipments in box motors. The early de-
velopment of good highways in New England brought a quicker end to such opera-
tions there than elsewhere. This "Electric Express" train was photographed at
Brockton, Mass., on the Bay State Street Railway, one of the most extensive of New
England electric systems. Hard hit by truck competition, the company was
obliged to give up its freight operation in 1920. Industrial Photo Service.
jflflWtJP P*Il.MW« «OTi»T J U —
,| BAT STATE STHU I
I . ELECTRIC
HAILWAY COMPANY
EXPRESS
Q 22
Although neither could be classified as an interurban, there were two notable
steam railroad electrification experiments in the Boston region. In the late '20's
the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn Railroad electrified its narrow gauge steam
suburban line, and coaches ivere provided with the necessary electrical equip-
ment. Here at Crescent Beach station at Revere Beach, hordes of commuters un-
load from an outbound train. Abandoned before World War 11, much of the
former narrow gauge right of nay is now used by a new rapid transit line of
Boston's Metropolitan Transit Authority. General Electric Company.
In 1895 the New Haven Railroad electrified its Nantasket Beach line with trolley,
and in 1896 extended the electric operation some 3 miles with center-running
third rail. Boasting 200 horsepower, high-wheeled motor car 2510 seated 80
persons, ivas more heroic in proportions than street railway open cars.
Industrial Photo Service.
The Brockton & Plymouth Street Railway operated through historic Pilgrim
ground, and appropriately, the first cars of its earliest predecessor company bore
such names as Governor Bradford, Elder Brewster, Myles Standish, and John
Alden. The bass drum being carried on this overloaded car at Whitman was bound
along with the crowd to Memorial Day festivities at the company's Mayflower
Grove park in Pembroke. Carl L. Smith Collection.
85
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A few minutes out of Short Beach on the way to New Haven, a Connecticut Company car rolled through
lush rural scenery. Although the last Connecticut Company electric passenger services were
given up soon after World War 11, the trackage seen here is still operated as part of that owned by the
Branford Electric Railway museum group. KENT W. COCHRANE.
Northbound from New Haven to Waterbury over one of the fastest Connecticut Company lines, an
Osgood Bradley suburban car passed through High Rock Grove at Naugatuck in May of 1937.
Roger Borrup.
In 1903, under newly elected President Charles S.
Mellen, the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad began the acquisition of a vast mileage of
urban and rural trolley lines in Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, and New York's Westchester
County, along with Long Island Sound steamship
companies, in order to assure a continued New
Haven monopoly of transportation in southern New
England. By 1909 the New Haven controlled an
estimated 1500 miles of electric railways, and ul-
timately the steam line's electric subsidiaries in-
cluded eight major properties. Largest of them was
the Connecticut Company, which operated some
700 miles of New Haven-owned track in the state.
The New Haven's holdings in Rhode Island were
similarly grouped under the management of the
Rhode Island Company, and the railroad's several
Massachusetts trolley systems were held by the New
England Investment & Securities Company.
To acquire control the New Haven paid prices
that were often far higher than warranted by the
electric lines' true value, or any but the most opti-
mistic estimates of their future earnings. The
Rhode Island trolley system, for example, was pur-
chased for an amount said to be greater than three
times its actual valuation.
The excessive prices paid for the New Haven's
electric subsidiaries, combined with their poor fi-
nancial showing, contributed to the subsequent
bankruptcy of the railroad, and by 1914 the Justice
Department had brought action under the Sherman
Antitrust Act to force the New Haven to divest
itself of its electric line interests. Having closely
tied the corporate structure of the trolleys to that
of the steam line, Mellen stated rather smugly of the
Government action, "The result is that now the De-
partment of Justice is in despair. It is a hopeless
tangle, as I intended it should be."
Within the year, however, the New Haven was
ordered to give up all of its electric line holdings
except the New York, Westchester & Boston, and
21 of the company's directors were indicted for
violation of the Sherman Act. In Massachusetts state
courts found New Haven control of electric lines
through its subsidiary holding company to be in
violation of state law. X
87
Connecticut Company officers and other distinguished
personages rode about the system in high style
aboard business car No. 500, built in 1904 by the
J. G. Brill Company. The car's interior was finished
in hand-carved oak, provided with a lavatory and
steward's galley, and furnished with broadloom car-
peting and wicker lounge chairs. After the end of
Connecticut Company electric passenger service,
No. 500 became the premiere car of the Branford
Electric Railway museum, where these photographs
were taken in 1959. Both Photos: William D.
Middleton.
(SmmietteiMl^
Among the least successful of New England interurbans was the Shore
Line Electric Railway, which opened a line between New Haven and Say-
brook, Conn., in 1910. By 1913, through leases of connecting lines, the
company was operating some 250 miles of track extending east to
Westerly, R. I., and northward up the Quinebaug River valley almost to
the Massachusetts border. Plagued by meager earnings, the company suf-
fered a series of serious reverses beginning with a violent head-on collision
in 1917 which took 19 lives and injured 35, and culminating with a strike
in 1919 that resulted in bankruptcy and the suspension of operations. Por-
tions of the system later resumed independent operation, and the original
Shore Line route betiveen Saybrook and New Haven was restored to opera-
tion after four years of idleness — but lasted only six more years. In con-
trast to its poor financial shoiving, the original Shore Line route was
constructed to some of the highest standards in New England, with ex-
tensive private right of way and a 1200-volt catenary trolley system. Shown
here operating over the original line is one of the company's wooden,
center-entrance cars built by Jewett in 1910. A few of them were sold
in 1920 after the suspension of service and one survived into the early '50's
on loua's Charles City Western Railway. General Electric Company.
"Take the Trolley," advised this early promotional folder, which contained
a lithographed map of Connecticut Valley electric lines and described points
of interest along the way. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
88
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Through Eastern Hills and Valleys
The Middle Atlantic States
Not long after the turn of the century a deck-roofed International
Railway car waited at the Lockport depot for a trip to Buffalo.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
-
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Through Eastern Hills and Valleys
The Middle Atlantic States
IN TERMS of total interurban mileage the Mid-
dle Atlantic states were eclipsed only by the East
North Central states with their phenomenal net-
work in the Midwestern heartland of the interurban.
Pennsylvania, if it lacked the integrated traction
system of such states as Ohio and Indiana, exceeded
all other states in sheer numbers of electric railway
properties. The populous cities of New Jersey were
linked by the trolley rails of numerous independent
companies and the great Public Service Railway
system, which operated nearly 900 miles of street
and interurban railway. From the Hudson to the
Pennsylvania border, broken only by a 31-mile gap
between Little Falls and Fonda, upstate New York
boasted a continuous web of interurban railways,
which followed such earlier arteries of Empire State
commerce as the Mohawk Trail, the Erie Canal, and
the New York Central through the prosperous cities
of the Mohawk Valley and the southern littoral of
Lake Ontario.
Along the Mohawk Trail
A considerable traction development was centered
about the Upper Hudson cities of Albany, Troy, and
Schenectady. South of the capital city third-rail in-
terurbans of the Albany Southern Railroad raced
down the east side of the Hudson to Nassau, Kinder-
hook, and Hudson. In its earlier years the Albany-
Hudson line offered summer excursionists a com-
bination trolley-steamer outing for only 75 cents,
which included one-way transportation on the in-
terurban and a return trip aboard steamers of the
Hudson River Day Line. For those who so wished,
an evening stopover for theatrical performances at
the company's Electric Park on Kinderhook Lake
could be arranged. The Schenectady Railways op-
erated interurbans to Albany, Troy, and Saratoga;
and summer travelers to the posh watering places of
Ballston Spa, Saratoga, Lake George, and the lower
Adirondacks rode the big open cars of the Hud-
son Valley Railway, which extended from Troy to
Warrensburg.
A steam short line, the Fonda, Johnstown & Glover sville Railroad, opened a
Schenectady-Gloversville electric division soon after the turn of the century.
One of the big wooden St. Louis-built interurbans that provided the initial service.
Schenectady Limited car No. 104, paused for this photograph near Johnstown.
Its luxuriously appointed interior included a paneled and mirrored smoking room.
The banner draped across the pilot advertised a Fourth of July celebration at
Sacandaga Park in the Adirondacks, reached by the company's steam division.
From William R. Gordon.
92
Albany-Hudson Fast Line No. 60 was well
equipped for current collection, with trol-
ley poles, pantograph, and third-rail shoes.
The Fast Line was abandoned in 1929, but
this car rolled up the miles until after
World War II, on the FJ&G and on the
Portland-Oregon City interurban. John
D. Murphy, from William R. Gordon.
Past a rambling frame summer hotel, a Hudson
Valley open car rolled through a tree-shaded
street of Ball st on Spa on the way to Saratoga. Like
several other New York interurbans, the Hudson
Valley was owned by a steam railroad, having been
bought out early in the century by the Delaware &
Hudson. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
IAB&-4-
Despite the hard times of depres-
sion and declining traffic, FJ&G
made an earnest effort to stay
in the interurban passenger
business with five lightweight
"Bullet" cars delivered by J. G.
Brill in 1932, accelerated sched-
ules, and reduced fares. Business
boomed for a time, but abandon-
ment of electric operation came
only six years later and the
Bullets found a new home on
Utah's Bamberger Railroad. Two
of the high-speed cars met at
the Johnstown depot on the oc-
casion of a 1936 fan excursion.
James P. Shuman, from Wil-
liam Moedinger Jr.
ii* " ■ i "•■ i
Owe o/ //^e fastest Empire State interurbans was the
New York State Railways' 44-mile route, formerly
the Rochester & Eastern Rapid Railway, which con-
nected Rochester with the Finger Lakes region and
Geneva. Beyond Geneva, interurban travelers were
able to continue as far south as Watkins by means
of a Seneca hake steamship connection. Impromptu
races between the electric cars and steam trains on
the parallel New York Central Auburn branch, be-
tween Rochester and Canandaigua, were common,
and in a celebrated contest staged in 1904 an R&E
car outdistanced a four-car passenger train. This
splendid scene was photographed shortly after a new
block signal installation in 1914 enabled the line
to reduce running times for the Orange Limiteds to
1 hour 45 minutes from previous schedules of 2
hours or more. During R&E's last years timings
were further accelerated when the line, along with
other Rochester interurbans, entered the city
through a new 9-mile subway, laid in the aban-
doned bed of the old Erie Canal. But oul\
three years after the interurbans began using the
subway in 1928, the last of them was abandoned.
General Railway Signal Company.
Among the lines of the Central's trolley empire was
a notable interurban experiment, the 44-mile Oneida
Railway, which began operating between LJtica
and Syracuse in 1907 over the tracks of the NYC-
owned West Shore Railroad, electrified for the pur-
pose with a 600-volt undervunning third-rail power
system identical to that used in New York Central's
New York terminal electrification. Ultimately, it
ivas envisioned, the Oneida line could become part
of a New York-to-Buffalo electrification of the New
York Central. The electric cars, which supple-
mented West Shore steam trains, reached downtown
Syracuse and Vtica over street railway tracks. Four-
teen of these wood and steel cars, delivered in 1907
by J. G. Brill, were standard equipment for the
line. Industrial Photo Service.
Soon after the turn of the century the New York
Central, in order to forestall the threatened com-
petition of new electric railways in its territory, be-
gan acquiring widespread interests in a number of
upstate electric lines, consolidating them into the
600-mile New York State Railways in 1909.
95
For a relatively brief period, from 1911 to 1919, the important Buffalo, Lock-
port & Rochester Railway was a part of the Beebe syndicate. The line, which
operated from Rochester to Lockport, where a Buffalo connection was made, was
built to unusually high standards, with 70-pound rail and crushed rock ballast.
Shown are two of the heavy wooden cars built by Niles which were operated in
high-speed service. George Krambles Collection.
Second only to the New York State Railways
in New York interurban mileage were the five
lines, largely centered around Syracuse, operated by
the syndicate headed by Clifford D. Beebe. At their
peak the Beebe lines included some 318 miles
of electric railway, extending from Oswego to Lock-
port, as well as steamship lines on Skaneateles and
Oneida lakes. Pride of the syndicate was the 88-
mile Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern Railroad, com-
pleted in 1909 at a total cost of 7 million dollars and
hailed at the time as one of the nation's finest inter-
urbans. Double tracked throughout, the route was
free of grade crossings, and observed a maximum
curvature of 6 degrees outside of towns. Much of
the line employed heavy steel catenary bridges to
support the trolley wire. Driven by four 125-horse-
power motors each, the company's limited cars made
the trip between terminals in 2 hours 50 minutes.
A Syracuse, Lake Shore & Northern car battled a typical upstate New York winter on the way south from
Oswego to Syracuse. The double track, steel overhead bridges, and catenary trolley wire were repre-
sentative of the high construction standards observed by Beebe lines. From William R. Gordon.
An elderly Jewett interurban of the Beebe syndicate's Auburn & Syracuse Railroad squealed around
a tight curve in Auburn streets on its way to Syracuse in 1922. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
97
Bound for a Lake Ontario outing at Olcott Beach, three heavily loaded
International Railway interurbans paused for the photographer.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
Extended interurban travel in almost every di-
rection from Buffalo was possible. Interurbans of
the International Railway transported Niagara
Frontier residents to Lockport and Olcott Beach, on
Lake Ontario, and to Niagara Falls. At Lockport
passengers bound for Rochester could transfer to
cars of the Buffalo, Lockport & Rochester Railway,
and for a few years a through car service between
Buffalo and Rochester was available. At the Falls
connections could be made for Canadian points. So
dense was traffic over the International Railway's
original "Honeymoon Line" to the Falls, opened in
1895, that trackage was replaced in 1918 with the
company's splendidly engineered "Buffalo-Niagara
Falls High Speed Line," which cut running time
between the two cities from 80 minutes to an hour.
98
-ai
LOCKP'RT
OLCOTT
1
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The Great Gorge Route
No visit to the Falls was really com-
plete without a trip through the
gorge by open trolley on the Niag-
ara Gorge Railway. Postcard views
of "The Great Gorge Route" were
mailed home by the thousands.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
99
West of Buffalo the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Company tied the Empire State trolley network to
the great systems of Ohio and Indiana. Mainstays of the 90-mile Buffalo (N.Y.)-Erie (Pa.) main line
were a dozen fast and heavy Kuhlman interurhans of particularly graceful proportions. Two of them
are shown here, glistening in freshly applied varnish. George Krambles Collection.
New York's longest lived interurban was the Jamestown, West field &
Northivestern, which was created in 1913 by electrification of a bank-
rupt steam railroad that operated up the east shore of Chautauqua Lake
from Jamestown to a junction with the New York Central at West-
field. A phenomenal snowfall caused complications when it came time
for the JW&NW to discontinue passenger service in November 1947,
as this "last day" scene at Westfield indicates, and the company was forced
to precede its passenger cars with a locomotive to break through heavy
drifts on the line. Robert W. Richardson.
* vx.
VMMM
^^us.
The B&LE emerged from an extended receivership in 1924 with a new manage-
ment and a new name, the Buffalo & Erie Railway. Fourteen lightweight "fish-
belly" interurhans were delivered the next year by the Cincinnati Car Com-
pany. The first really fast lightweight cars built, they were capable of mile-a-
minute speeds. Weighing only half as much as the big wooden cars they replaced,
and designed for one-man operation, the new interurhans reduced the company's
operating costs per car-mile by over 25 per cent. Interior appointments in-
cluded parlor chairs, available at no extra cost, and for a brief period, limited
cars were staffed with porters. Shortly after the new equipment went into service
a limited from Buffalo rolled through Erie streets in heavy flivver traffic.
Fred E. Barber, from Howard E. Johnston Collection.
100
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■HILIMtTOV M. XX . HUt.l.V TIIAKTIilN »«.!
The New York, Westchester & Boston, opened in 1912, was one of
the most superbly engineered — and expensive — ■ lines of the electric
traction era. Constructed to standards equal to those of the mainline
electrification of its parent New Haven, the Westchester employed
1 1 ,000-rolt A.C. power, a catenary overhead supported by heavy steel
structures, a grade-crossing-free right of way, and reinforced concrete
stations of truly monumental architecture. Planned to relieve com-
muter congestion on the Neiv Haven's Grand Central Terminal line,
the NYW&B never developed sufficient traffic to pay its high costs or
to even approach its tremendous passenger-carrying capacity. Shortly
before abandonment in 1957 a White Plains car and a two-car Port
Chester train crossed a massive, four-track steel viaduct in Mt. Vernon
that characterized the Westchester. George E. Votava.
The Elmira, Coming & Waverly
Railway's route between Elmira
and Coming was only a year old
W hen inter urbans 107 and 110
met at a siding near Big Flats,
on the banks of the Chemung
River, in 1912. In pre-auto-
mobile days vacation travel to
summer cottages along the riv-
er furnished a considerable
traffic. Stephen D. Maguire
Collection.
New Jersey's Burlington & Mount Holly Traction Railroad Company was an
early Pennsylvania Railroad electrification experiment. The line's One-Spot,
a trim combine, toned an open-platform coach belonging to its parent.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
The last New Jersey interurban was the At-
lantic City & Shore Railroad, which operated
between the resort centers of Atlantic City and
Ocean City. After the cars reached the out-
skirts of the line's terminal cities, trolley poles
were hooked down for a fast ride over third-
rail-equipped trackage of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. In 1947 "Shore Fast Line" interur-
ban 117 traversed the long trestle crossing
Great Egg Harbor River, between Ocean City
and Somers Point. John A. Rehor.
Pennsylvania Dutch
More scenic than rapid was the
Philadelphia & Easton Electric Rail-
way, whose cars required fully 2
hours to negotiate the 32-mile route
between Easton and Doylestown,
Pa. The line was part of a route
to Delaware Water Gap resorts for
unhurried Philadelphians, requir-
ing no less than 6 hours and five
changes of cars en route for the 84-
mile journey. One of the company's
little trolleys rattled through splen-
did Delaware Valley scenery near
Raubsville not many years after
opening in 1904. Stephen D.
Maguire Collection.
■
|ik
The Northampton Transit Company, which wandered some
18 miles northward from Easton to Bangor, Pa., was another
link in the leisurely scenic route from Philadelphia to the
Water Gap. Passengers were scarce in the line's sparsely settled
territory, and the economies of Cincinnati lightweight cars
were introduced in 1924. Bright and new, one of them
paused at the company' s neat station at a park not far from
Easton. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
- Oil*.
to. .«$-
Southbound to Norristotvn, Pa., a Lehigh
Valley Transit Company Liberty Bell Limited
reached the crest of the long grade up Lehigh
Alountain at Summit Lawn one June after-
noon in 1950. William D. Middleton.
Abandonment was not far away and the weeds grew
unchecked between the rails when these ex-C&LE
Liberty Bell Limiteds met at the Quakertown sid-
ing in 1950. William D. Middleton.
In 1903, with the opening of a new line to the
Philadelphia suburb of Chestnut Hill, the Lehigh
Valley Transit Company, whose operations had
heretofore been largely centered in the Allentown
area, embarked on the first step of a grand plan for
a high-speed electric railway that would reach both
Philadelphia and New York. The Pennsylvania
Dutch interurban never made it beyond Pennsyl-
vania borders, but its Allentown-Philadelphia "Lib-
erty Bell Route" achieved deserved fame. After ex-
tensive rebuilding for high-speed operation and con-
struction of a Norristown connection with the newly
completed high-speed, third-rail Philadelphia &
Western in 1912, LVT was able to halve running
times between the two cities. Combined with low-
er fares, the faster service enabled the company to
divert a considerable passenger traffic from the steam
trains of the competing Reading Company. By
means of connections LVT was able to accommodate
excursionists to the popular Delaware Water Gap, a
traffic which the company assiduously promoted
with its widely shown publicity film, "A Honey-
moon Trip to Delaware Water Gap."
106
■■■■
After suffering a two-thirds decline in its passen-
ger traffic during a decade of depression, LVT re-
juvenated its interurban business in 1939 with
extensively remodeled lightweight rolling stock
from defunct Midwestern traction properties.
Thirteen of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie's renowned
high-speed cars were refinished in "picador cream"
trimmed in "mountain ash scarlet," and provided
with aluminum roofs, stainless-steel pilots, and
chromium-plated accessories for Liberty Bell Lim-
ited service. Interiors were refinished and re-
upholstered, and some of the cars were provided
with club compartments at the observation end.
Two years later a former Indiana Railroad car was
similarly refurbished and provided with lounge
furniture throughout, along with such elaborate
touches as a miniature hanging wall garden, com-
plete with sansevieria and philodendron plants.
Four Cincinnati curved-side lightweights were ac-
quired in 1919 from the Dayton & Troy Electric
Railway in Ohio for Easton Limited service. Fresh
frotn overhaul, one of them was photographed at
LVT's Fairview Shops in Allentown. David M.
Knauss, Commercial Photographer.
Freshly done up in maroon and trimmed in silver, Liberty Bell interurban No. 800
trundled through the passing track at School Siding in Center Valley in 19%.
When originally delivered by Jewett in 1912, No. 800 was among the first railroad
cars equipped with roller bearings. John P. Scharle.
Bullets to Norristown
"The Philadelphia & Western . . . marks another
noteworthy step in the development of heavy elec-
tric traction for high-speed transportation of the
suburbs of our large cities," observed the Street Rail-
way Journal on the occasion of the line's opening
between Upper Darby and Strafford in 1907; and
indeed, the P&W's builders had set a new standard
for the electric railway industry. Constructed with-
out a single grade crossing with roads or other
railroads, the double-track, third-rail-operated P&W
was built with maximum grades of 2Vi per cent and
a maximum curvature of 5 degrees, despite the ex-
ceedingly irregular topography through which it
operated. To meet these exceptional standards, the
builders excavated a million cubic yards of rock and
earth and placed a like amount in fills. The entire
line was governed by an absolute block signal sys-
tem, the first ever installed on an interurban. Com-
muters from Strafford, Norristown (which was
reached in 1912), and intermediate suburbs were
able to reach downtown Philadelphia with a transfer
to elevated trains at 69th Street Terminal in Upper
Darby, a combination which bettered steam railroad
commuting times. A projected P&W elevated and
subway that would have extended clear to the Dela-
ware River was never built.
In 1930, beset by vigorous competition from new-
ly electrified steam railroad suburban lines and
handicapped by an aging fleet of wooden interur-
bans, a new P&W management, headed by Dr.
Thomas Conway Jr., addressed itself to the task of
restoring the company's competitive position. Ex-
perimentation and wind tunnel research produced
the design for 10 magnificent "Bullet" interurbans,
and major improvements were made to track and
signal systems to permit extremely high speeds. New
schedules instituted upon completion of the half-
million-dollar improvement program cut Norris-
town line express running times by almost a third.
P&W was again, as Electric Railway Journal termed
it, "in the forefront of American high-speed subur-
ban railroads."
The P&W's major engineering work was this 3850-
foot steel bridge that carried the line over numerous
steam railroads, several canals, and the Schuylkill
River into Norristown. A Bullet rumbled across it
one summer day in 1956. William D. Middleton.
En route to Norristown at better than a mile a minute, Philadelphia & Western Bullet 200
leaned into superelevated curvature near Bryn Mawr in 1956. William D. Middleton.
X
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v ■ "Ska
Mr
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5^F
,**ii
&YSPE
The rhythmic tattoo of steel wheels on open track abruptly became a hollow rumble as a fast moving
Red Arrow interurban flashed across the Crum Creek bridge at Smedley Park on an August afternoon
in 1956 (see text, next page). William D. Middleton.
109
Red Arrow Trolleys
Sharing 69th Street Terminal space with the Phil-
adelphia & Western was the Philadelphia & West
Chester Traction Company, a still-operating electric
line that can trace its corporate history back more
than a century to the incorporation of the Philadel-
phia & West Chester Turnpike Road Company in
1848. Before the trolley wire went up in 1896, Red
Arrow Lines predecessor companies transported
Main Line commuters in such assorted conveyances
as mule cars and steam dummy trains. Reorganized
as the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Com-
pany in 1936, the Red Arrow system merged with
neighboring Philadelphia & Western in 1954.
Philadelphia Suburban interurban No. 81, a 1932
Brill lightweight capable of speeds up to 76 miles
per hour, loaded homeward-bound commuters at
69th Street one afternoon in 1956. William D.
Middleton.
One of PSTCo's newest cars, a 1949 St. Louis
interurban of PCC streetcar lineage, rolled
along beside a split rail fence on roadside
trackage of the West Chester line near Edge-
mont, Pa., a few days before abandonment of
the Red Arrow Lines' longest route in 1954.
Edward S. Miller.
The Citizens Traction Company of Oil City pro-
vided local and interurban electric service to Oil
City and nearby communities, in the historic oil
lands of northwestern Pennsylvania, not far from
the site of Col. Edwin Drake's epochal strike at
Titusville in 1859. Northbound from Franklin to
Oil City, interurban No. 50 paused at the Reno
switch. The gold-trimmed, medium red J. G. Brill
car employed the manufacturer's popular semi-
convertible system, which provided disappearing
window sash for summer trolleying. Donald K.
Slick Collection.
Pennsylvania traction was typified by light inter-
urban and rural trolley systems of modest ambitions
which radiated from the cities and county seats
in profusion throughout the state. Only rarely
were they interconnected in the fashion of the other-
wise similar systems of New England. Among them
were such lines as the Conestoga Transportation
Company, which centered its activities around Lan-
caster, seat of the county of the same name. This
Conestoga interurban rolled through a forested coun-
tryside on the line to Ephrata in 1946. At one time
the system's rails went all the way to Coatesville,
clear over in the next county. Herman Rinke.
M. S. Hershey, the "Chocolate King," began con-
struction of the Hershey Transit Company in 1904 to
furnish transportation for workmen and milk to
his chocolate factory at newly founded Hershey,
in Dauphin County, Pa. Resplendent in dark green,
trimmed with cream and gold, this well-kept Hershey
interurban wheeled through the manicured grounds
of the Hershey Hotel in 1939. Another electric
line in the Hershey chocolate empire, Hershey Cuban
Railway, still operates. Jeffrey K. Winslow.
Ill
Just before plunging into the tun-
nel — nearly a mile in length —
that carried the line under the
hills of Scranton's south side, a
Laurel Line inlerurban thundered
across Roaring Brook in 1951.
John F. Endler Jr.
112
Heavy Traction in the
Anthracite Country
Eastern financiers in 1900 proposed the construc-
tion of a 200-mile system of interurbans in the popu-
lous Pennsylvania anthracite country. The only part
of the ambitious scheme to materialize was the Lack-
awanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad, which con-
structed a double-track, third-rail line to high stand-
ards over some 20 miles between Scranton and
Wilkes-Barre. One of the earliest interurbans to em-
ploy the third-rail power system, which for a time
was highly regarded for high class interurban roads,
the "Laurel Line" received considerable support
from the Westinghouse interests, which were con-
cerned with the line for experimental purposes; and
George Westinghouse and other company officials
were actually listed as directors of the road for a
short period.
On a bright December day in 1950 an Os-
good Bradley combine, bound for Scranton,
whipped along through a Laurel Line
snowscape near Avoca. John F. Endler Jr.
p
A Pittsburgh & Butler Street
Railway interurban rolled up to
the Pittsburgh depot in 1914
when horse traffic still shared
street space with the early motor
cars. The interurban' s dash sign
advertised a Damrosch con-
cert. Stephen D. Maguire
Collection.
A St. Louis-built interurban,
northbound as a Butler Local,
negotiated one of the substantial
steel bridges that ivere frequent
in the hill country traversed by
the Harmony Route. The closely
spaced overhead poles, which
simplified trolley wire construc-
tion at curves, were another
Harmony Route characteristic.
Charles A. Brown Collection.
Operating north from Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh,
Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railway and the
Pittsburgh & Butler Street Railway were associated
broad gauge interurbans of considerable early dis-
tinction in the traction industry. The "Harmony
Route" was one of the first interurbans to use the
superior 1200- volt direct current electrification sys-
tem, and the line's builders employed such radical
departures from conventional practice as the use of
track laid on large concrete blocks embedded in
the roadbed, rather than the usual wooden ties. The
neighboring "Short Line" was originally electrified
in 1905 with a 3300-volt alternating current system,
which was later changed to 6600 volts, and finally,
in 1914, P&B was among the earliest A.C. interur-
bans to convert to the more successful D.C. system.
113
Short Line interurbans were impressive vehicles. Cincinnati-built No. Ill, a double-end coach seating
")2, weighed almost 38 tons. Trolley poles were used for operation through city streets, but the panto-
graph was raised for fast running through open country. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
Pittsburgh Railways, which still remains as one of the largest street railway
systems in North America, operated a pair of interurban routes through spec-
tacular scenery to Washington, Donora, Charleroi, and Roscoe. These left
Pittsburgh through the Mount Washington tunnel, the second longest interur-
ban tunnel in the (J. S. St. Louis-built interurban No. 3802, which featured plush-
upholstered bucket seats and rear-facing observation seats, is seen near Thomp-
sonville on the Washington line. The car was the last word in Pittsburgh Rail-
ways interurban equipment until the arrival of radio-equipped, air-cooled PCC
interurbans during the late 1940' 's. Union Switch & Signal Company, from
Robert F. Scanlon.
114
The conductor on a northbound Butler Flyer did some short flagging while the motorman
called the dispatcher for orders. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
Orange Trolleys on West Penn Hills
Through wonderfully scenic hills and valleys of
western Pennsylvania, studded with coal tipples and
beehive coke ovens, wandered the distinctive orange
trolleys of the West Penn Railways, a system that
at one time operated 340 miles of electric railway
in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. The
principal West Penn electric lines were included in
the company's Coke Region, located in Westmore-
land and Fayette counties in the bituminous-rich
Allegheny Plateau. X
116
Northbound from Fairchance to Uniontown, West Penn 706 met furious action on neigh-
boring Baltimore & Ohio, where un articulated hurled smoke and cinders into the sky as it
fought upgrade with a string of hoppers. Lester Wismer, from Stephen D. Maguire.
117
This is the magnetic track brake employed by West Penn interurbans, which were
without conventional air brake systems. To stop his car a West Penn mo tor man
used controller positions that converted the traction motors to generators. The
current passed through the spring-suspended electromagnets, drawing them down
against the rail and at the same time actuating a series of levers which tightened
brake shoes. Once stopped, the cars were held by cranking up a long gooseneck
hand brake. Anthony F. Krisak.
■■;■"
A few shirt-sleeved passengers gazed momentarily upon the waters of Loyalhanna Creek as car 111
sped across a bridge on the Latrobe line in 1952. John Stern.
Bridges, sharp curves, and perilous grades abounded on the abrupt profile of
West Penn lines. Center-door car 715 traveled across a typical trestle on the
Uniontown-Brownsville line in 1949. This interurban was one of 39 identical air-
less, whistleless cars built by the Cincinnati Car Company and company shops
from 1912 to 1925 which performed a majority of West Penn services there-
after. Anthony F. Krisak.
119
Trolley Sparks in Dixieland
The South Atlantic States
120
On the occasion of a 1941 excursion Hagerstown & Frederick Rail-
way interurban No. 160 headed for Myersville, Md., on what was left
of the company's onetime route from Frederick to Hagerstown. The
engaging H&F roamed in roller coaster fashion across the scenic Mary-
land hills, with grades that often seemed perilous in the extreme.
Howard E. Johnston.
121
Trolley Sparks in Dixieland
The South Atlantic States
SOUTH of the heavily populated industrial areas
of the Middle Atlantic coast, interurbans became in-
frequent. In the less populated, less prosperous states
of the Confederacy beyond the Potomac there were
far fewer opportunities for the quick and plentiful
profits interurban developers so often foresaw in
other areas. Aside from a substantial electric mile-
age in Maryland, there were only occasional in-
terurbans which ventured into the country from
the larger cities, and in the entire region only a
handful of systems existed which could be called of
major importance. Beyond the environs of the na-
tional capital, sustained travel by the electric cars
was not possible.
70 mph across Maryland
Pre-eminent among interurbans of the South
Atlantic states was Maryland's Washington, Balti-
more & Annapolis Railroad, which joined the cities
of its corporate title with a remarkable high-speed
system. Electrified with a 6600-volt A.C. system, the
WB&A's double track Baltimore- Washington main
line was opened in 1908, and limited service was in-
itially provided with huge 62-foot, 44-ton Niles
"Electric Pullmans." Too heavy to permit operation
over Washington streetcar tracks, the big cars were
soon sold and replaced by equipment of more modest
dimensions. Before World War I WB&A, in com-
pany with connecting steamship lines, operated an
extensive excursion business to such widespread
points as Norfolk, Savannah, Boston, and Provi-
dence. A round trip Washington-Atlantic City tour,
for example, which included interurban transporta-
tion to Baltimore, steamship passage to Philadelphia,
and steam railroad travel to Atlantic City, cost only
$5. At the peak of WB&A operations close to 100
trains cleared the Baltimore terminal daily. Wash-
ington limiteds left every half hour, and locals de-
parted hourly. Annapolis trains operated every hour
on the South Shore line and every half hour on the
North Shore route.
WB&A's finest interurbans were 10 of these two-
section articulated cars delivered by ]. G. Brill
in 1927. Seating 94 passengers in plush-upholstered
bucket seats, the 97-foot cars represented a 27 per
cent reduction in weight from the company's older
wooden equipment of comparable capacity. Despite
a half hour spent getting out of Washington over
the local car tracks, these big cars were able to op-
erate between the Washington and Baltimore ter-
minals on schedules that were competitive with the
steam railroads. On some limited schedules, with
65-minute timings for the 40-mile run, average
speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour were main-
tained over the 24 miles of open track between the
two cities. George Krambles Collection.
122
Originally the steam-powered Annapolis & Elk-
ridge, the WB&A's South Shore line into Annapolis
uas among America's earliest railroads, having op-
erated its first train on Christmas Day 1840. During
the early days of the Civil War its rails were used
by Union troops to bypass Baltimore after Con-
federate sympathizers had cut the Baltimore &
Ohio main line. This two-car special operated to
Annapolis over the line in 1935. Parlor car No. 100,
at the rear of the train, was normally reserved for
charter service or such distinguished tasks as trans-
porting dignitaries from the Capital to the Naval
Academy. Howard E. Johnston Collection.
A three-car Washington-Baltimore train
descended into Pratt Street at Baltimore
from the B&O overcrossing three days be-
fore abandonment in 1935. The two steel
passenger cars that headed the train then
moved west to the Chicago Aurora & Elgin,
where they served for better than 20 yean
more. James P. Shuman, from William
Moedinger Jr.
'■^t
By Short Line to the Severn Shore
WB&A's direct North Shore route from Balti-
more to Annapolis originally opened in 1887 as the
steam-propelled Annapolis & Baltimore Short Line.
Electrified by the Maryland Electric Railways in
1908, the Short Line was merged into WB&A in
1921. When the bankrupt WB&A was sold at public
auction on the courthouse lawn in Annapolis in
1935, bondholders of the old Short Line bought it
back, reorganized it as the Baltimore & Annapolis
Railroad, and continued to operate the electric cars
until 1950.
On a June afternoon in 1948 B&A combine No. 94
rolled across a placid arm of the Severn River estuary
into the Annapolis terminal. The much-rebuilt
Wason interurban, originally a center-entrance car,
was acquired by the predecessor Short Line in 1914,
when SL junked its A.C. system in favor of 1200-
volt D.C. power. William D. Middleton.
Initial electric service over
the Short Line was operated
with substantial wooden
equipment manufactured
by the Southern Car Com-
pany at High Point, N. C.
Because of the cumber-
some transformers and com-
plicated controls required
for the company's 6600-
volt A.C. power system the
cars were remarkably
heavy, weighing all of 50
tons. A train, made up
of two of the ponderous
coaches and a pair of
trailers evidently dating
from the Short Line's steam
days, was photographed at
Annapolis in the charge
of a handsomely mous-
tachioed conductor.
O. F. Lee Collection.
00^.
;
t I
i, Tl-
fex. -^,
With express and mail piled high on the front platform, B&A car No. 205 approached
the Linthicum Heights station in 1949 on the way to Annapolis. William D. Middleton.
When the B&A went on its own in 1935 trolley wire was strung over the Baltimore &
Ohio main line and the electric cars began operating into the B&O's Camden Station at Bal-
timore. In 1949 car No. 94 negotiated the specialwork at Carroll Tower to leave the
B&O main and head south on single track to Annapolis. William D. Middleton.
The clanging of the crossing bell was muted by a wet, clinging snow as a southbound two-
car B&A train rolled through Linthicum Heights in December 1948. Edward J. Melanson.
126
iiiniiillll
,
r^z—
fc.n v t, t— ~
Until 1954 the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway, under Potomac Edi-
son control, maintained the last of its once extensive passenger opera-
tion, a service which wandered 18 miles north from Frederick to
Thurmont, where connections were made with n'ntinline trains of the
Western Maryland Railway. Combine No. 171 met the Western
Maryland local from Baltimore in 1932 (above) and then headed
south to Frederick (below). Both Photos: John Stern.
Ready for the 25-mile run to Clarksburg, an orange Jewett interurban peered out
from the gloom of the Monongahela-W est Penn Public Service Company's inter-
urban terminal at Weston, W. Va., in 1941. Monongahela Valley passenger opera-
tion by the company continued until after World War II. Howard E. Johnston.
129
I*
V* tefcKfc
|PM^j
<S3*
3*"^
TO
Sm
«3b'^3:
R3
/« j heavily wooded setting a lightweight Cincinnati interurban and a much older wooden Jewett
combine met at Philadelphia siding on Monongahela-W est Penn's Clarksburg-W eston line in 1946.
By this time the cars were being operated by the City Lines of West Virginia. John F. Horan.
Electric Cars in the Old Dominion
In its time the Washington & Old Dominion Rail-
way provided such amenities as extra-fare, open-
platform observation cars and porter service on its
trains which operated some 52 miles up the Potomac
Valley from Georgetown, D. C, to the Blue Ridge
foothills at Bluemont over the rails of a former
Southern Railway System branch, acquired and elec-
trified by the W&OD in 1912. Another W&OD line
carried excursionists to the Great Falls of the Po-
tomac, north of Washington. Service on this line,
it was said, tended to be casual. In 1916 company of-
ficials were obliged to reprimand a motorman who
carried a shotgun on the front platform and took
potshots through the open front window at rabbits
which were lured onto the rails by the headlight
beam.
An Old Dominion local, having transported mail, express, and a few passengers to the communities
along the way, unloaded at its Bluemont terminal in 1937. The crack Loudon Limited of earlier days
stopped only at a few points of unquestioned importance along the line. E. E. EDWARDS.
To the consternation of motorists on U. S. highways 19 and 21, this interurban
made an abrupt ISO-degree turn, crossing and recrossing the pavement, to gain
access to its bridge across the Norfolk & Western main line at Bluefield, W. Va.,
on the Tri-City Traction Company's interurban run to nearby Princeton. Beneath
the skirting and fanciful striping, car No. 120 was just another curved-side Cin-
cinnati lightweight. The cars continued to operate over the 12-mile line for an-
other seven years after this photograph was taken in 1940. Stephen D. Maguire.
131
The Norfolk & Southern Railway, a
steam road, operated a short interur-
ban line from Norfolk to Cape Henry
and the resorts of Virginia Beach.
Combine No. 45, with an open trailer
in tow, waited on the Virginia Beach
wye about 1905. Gasoline rail
buses took over the service in 1935.
Allan H. Berner Collection.
White-collar Federal office workers
and tourists alike flocked aboard the
cars of the Washington, Alexandria &
Mt. Vernon Railway, later the Wash-
ington-Virginia Railway. This early
train, northbound at Potomac Park,
was jammed to the platforms.
LeRoy O. King Collection.
Such features as pantographs,
catenary overhead, and heavy
cars like combine No. 101 seemed
a little out of place on the Rich-
mond & Chesapeake Bay Rail-
way, a 6600-volt A.C. line which
operated all of 14 miles of track
from Richmond to Ashland, Va.
hater on the railway was con-
verted to direct current power
and more appropriate subur-
ban cars were acquired for the
service. General Electric
Company.
132
Unique among interurbans was the W ashington-
Virginia's parlor car Mount Vernon, aboard which
countless thousands rode in princely splendor to
view the Washington estate and tomb. Built by the
St. Louis Car Company in 1904 as the Mabel, the car
was originally owned by the Lewis Publishing
Company, publishers of Woman's Magazine and
Woman's Farm Journal, and was employed for the
entertainment of company friends atui visitors
during the 1904 St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Ex-
position. One compartment was furnished as a
parlor, with a handsomely carved settee in the center,
tastefully upholstered in a fine yellow fabric har-
monizing with the ceiling, curtains, and portieres,
which were pea green. Upholstered chairs and an
inlaid mahogany desk completed the parlor furnish-
ings. A smoker section and a completely equipped
buffet were installed in the opposite end of the car.
The elegant Mount Vernon posed for this pho-
tograph outside the railway's Four Mile Run
carhouse in 1923. Howard E. Johnston
Collection.
Catenary in the Carolinas
Carolina utility and tobacco tycoon James Bu-
chanan "Buck" Duke, founder of such diverse in-
stitutions as the Duke Power Company, Duke Uni-
versity, the Duke Endowment, and the American
Tobacco Company "Tobacco Trust," added a high
class interurban to the list shortly before World War
I. Duke's electric line, the Piedmont & Northern
Railway, actually consisted of two physically isolated
divisions, totaling 130 route miles in length, which
extended from Greenwood to Spartanburg, S. C, and
from Gastonia to Charlotte, N. C. Plans to close the
51-mile "missing link" between the two divisions,
and to undertake ambitious extension projects to
Winston-Salem and Durham, were temporarily de-
layed by World War I and the need for major
postwar rehabilitation after the disaster of Federal
control. Ready to go again in 1927, P&N announced
that work was "about to begin," only to be thwarted
once more, this time by the Interstate Commerce
Commission, which claimed jurisdiction over the
new construction under the 1920 Transportation Act
and denied permission. Claiming exemption from
I.C.C. control as an interurban, Piedmont & North-
ern fought all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court
before finally giving up the fruitless battle in
1930. 1
Piedmont &
Northern
founder and
tobacco tycoon
James Buchan-
an "Buck"
Duke. Pied-
mont &
Northern
Railway.
With a uniformed porter in attendance at the step
box, this two-car P&N train was ready to roll over
the South Carolina Division. The parlor car Cataw-
ba, once a handsome open-platform observation
car, had suffered the installation of this graceless
solarium rear end in an unfortunate attempt at mod-
ernization. Piedmont & Northern Railway.
Headed by combine No. 2101, a two-car
train roared through a raw cut near Lyman,
S. C, in 1947. Charles A. Brown.
A two-car P&N train rolled into Spartanburg,
at the northernmost end of the South Carolina
Division, in 1947. Charles A. Brown.
ib its 1 1 * * K fe
ssoo
A prospering textile industry grew up in the Pied-
mont Carolinas along with the Piedmont & North-
ern. The railway claimed, without exaggeration, "a
mill to the mile," and its freight business increased
as passenger traffic declined. Freight power such as
118-ton, 16-wheeled GE-built No. 5611, which
wheeled tonnage through a deep cut near Taylors,
S. C, in 1947, became the order of the day in the
final years of the line's electric operation.
Charles A. Brown.
136
Summer homes and cottages at Wrightsville Beach, N. C, were right handy to the
tracks of the Tidewater Power Company' s 14-mile interurban line to Wilmington.
The double track roadbed substituted for a street. Car No. 63 rolled along be-
tween the board sidewalks in November 1938. Robert G. Lewis.
Atlanta's Georgia Power Company, which operated interurbans to nearby Stone
Mountain and Marietta, followed the commendable, if rare, practice of naming its
interurbans after distinguished local personages. Finished in a cheerful red and
cream livery, the Richard Peters (left) met the A. Stephens Clay on the Marietta
line in 1942. Fitted with automatic couplers and train doors for multiple-unit
operation, they were unique among the numerous curved-side lightweights
turned out by the Cincinnati Car Company. Stephen D. Maguire.
137
The Interurban's Midwest Empire
The North Central States
*~***m£^
138
/w
For the benefit of the company photographer, one of Cincinnati & Lake Erie's new lightweight
cars posed at Springfield, O., in 1930 in a classic tableau of trainside activity. Mayfield Photos Inc.
139
The Interurban's Midwest Empire
The North Central States
1HERE WAS, it has been said with but little
exaggeration, an interurban line wrapped around
nearly every Indiana county courthouse. The Mid-
west was the heartland of the interurban, and here
it grew in its greatest profusion and purest form.
Within the five East North Central states of Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin was con-
centrated some 7540 miles of interurban railway —
better than 40 per cent of the U. S. total. Ohio had
a greater interurban mileage than any state in the
Union, and Indiana was not far behind. There was
hardly a major city in either state that was not
reached by at least one interurban line. The popula-
tion centers of southern Michigan were laced to-
gether with an equally extensive trolley network.
Illinois ranked fourth in national interurban mile-
age, with a network of major lines radiating from
Chicago and the greatest of all Midwest interur-
bans — Congressman McKinley's Illinois Traction
System — slicing through central Illinois from St.
Louis to the Indiana border. Wisconsin alone among
Midwestern states east of the Mississippi lacked
broad electric railway development, but among the
few Dairyland interurbans was one of the finest
systems of the entire Midwest. West of the Mississip-
pi Midwestern interurban development was less
frequent, except in Iowa, where flourished some
of the most successful of all U. S. interurbans.
An early nighttime photograph at the Springfield (O.) interurban depot recorded
in dramatic fashion the dashing front end of the Indiana, Columbus & Eastern
Traction Company's interurban No. 93. Formed in 1906 from several financial-
ly distressed lines, the IC&E became part of the great Ohio Electric Railway
system in 1907, went its own way after dismemberment of the OE in 1921, and
finally became part of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad. O. F. Lee Collection.
140
141
Among electric railway historians are some
who regard the Akron, Bedford & Cleve-
land Railroad as the first real interurban.
Certainly the company's 35-mile line between
Cleveland and Akron, opened in 1895, two
years after the pioneer Oregon City interurhan,
was among the earliest of the major interur-
han systems. Shortly after the turn of the
century the AB&C became part of the Everett-
Moore syndicate's Northern Ohio Traction &
Light Company that ultimately expanded into
one of the major Ohio electric railways, with
street and interurban railway operations
throughout much of northeastern Ohio.
Workmen at the Canton carbarn posed about
1910 with an assorted line-up of Northern
Ohio city and interurban equipment.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
n^ph|Tf
Despite phenomenal depression deficits the Lake Shore
Electric Railway, one of the most important Ohio in-
terurhans, managed to keep going until 1918, when this
big Jewett interurban rumbled through the streets of
Lakewood to Cleveland on the last day of operation. In
more prosperous days LSE did a big excursion business
to the numerous Lake Erie resorts along its route from
Cleveland to Toledo, and through cars transported long-
distance passengers all the way to Lima and Detroit over
connecting electric lines. G. R. Boeddener.
The trainshed in this 1926 scene is at
the Northern Ohio's then new Akron
terminal. The motor bus connection
operated a direct service to Youngs-
town, which could be reached from
Akron only by roundabout interur-
ban travel. Dudley S. Weaver
Collection.
143
Aside from the Ohio Electric system, Ohio's larg-
est interurban was the Cleveland, Southwestern &
Columbus Railway, which operated a total of 217
miles of track emanating from Cleveland to Wooster,
Bucyrus, and Norwalk. The "Green Line" operated
its route to Norwalk in spirited competition with
the Lake Shore Electric Railway, which also reached
the city from Cleveland. The rivalry led to a re-
markable race between the two interurbans on
December 11, 1903, when a Norwalk group char-
tered two electric cars, one from each line, for an
excursion to Cleveland. Each of the lines made
elaborate preparations for the race, and the chartered
cars were given right of way over all other move-
ments. The Southwestern car reached Cleveland
first, requiring only an hour and a half for the 58-
mile trip, 45 minutes faster than regular limited
schedules. Delayed by a broken wire, the LSE car
lost the race, although its actual running time ex-
cluding the delay was 10 minutes better. Ultimately,
the Lake Shore's faster line won out over the South-
western, and the "Green Line" cut its route back
to Oberlin in 1924. This wrote finis to a traction ver-
sion of the Broadway vs. Century races.
Among the few steel cars operated by the Southwestern were a half dozen of these heavy 37-
ton, 62-foot cars of a design peculiar to the G. C. Kuhlman Car Company of Cleveland,
which manufactured them in 1919 for service on the company's Southern Division. Freshly
rebuilt as a parlor car and finished in new orange, blue, and ivory colors. No. 205 operated
in limited train service from Cleveland to Mansfield and Galion. O. F. Lee Collection.
In an early scene at Seville Junction on the Southwestern 's Southern Division, a limited car is en route to
Cleveland from Bucyrus, where the company made a connection for Columbus. Max E. Wilcox Collection.
Ohio's only third-rail electric line, the Scioto Valley Traction Company, op-
erated interurban routes constructed to exceptionally high standards from
Columbus to Lancaster and Chillicothe. Original equipment for the "Valley
Route," such as 1903 American Car & Foundry coach 104, was of remarkably
simple lines for a time when interurban car design tended to the ornate. The
60-foot wooden coach seated 71 on plain cane-upholstered seats. Later on, Sci-
oto Valley Traction bought heavy steel cars and during the last few years of pas-
senger operation provided several parlor car limited schedules on both of its lines.
O. F. Lee Collection.
144
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145
Operating over one of the few stretches of
electric railway actually constructed by the
company, a southbound Ohio Electric
Toledo-Lima local loaded passengers on
Keyser Avenue in Deshler, O., in 1910.
John A. Rehor Collection.
Flanges squealed as this Ohio Electric ivood
combine negotiated abrupt track curvature
in the streets of Zanesville, O. The
car was characteristic of hundreds of
its contemporaries on the interurban prop-
erties of the Midwestern states. Ste-
phen D. Maguire Collection.
Largest of all the Ohio interurbans, for a rela-
tively brief period at least, was the Ohio Electric
Railway system organized in 1907 by the Schoepf-
McGowan syndicate, which by leases and new con-
struction assembled a network of over 600 miles ex-
tending from the Ohio River to Lake Erie, west-
ward to Richmond and Fort Wayne, Ind., and as
far east as Zanesville, O. In the years following
World War I the financially distressed OE system
began to fall apart, and by 1921 all of its various
predecessor companies had resumed independent
operation.
146
Red Devils in the Buckeye State
Beginning with the reorganization of the bank-
rupt Cincinnati & Dayton Traction Company as the
Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway in 1926, the
principal lines of the dismembered Ohio Electric
Railway system were reassembled by a group headed
by Dr. Thomas Conway Jr. The CH&D was liberal-
ly rebuilt, new equipment was purchased, and a
greatly expanded freight service developed. In 1930
CH&D was joined with the Indiana, Columbus &
Eastern Traction Company and the Lima-Toledo
Railroad, both former OE lines, to form the Cin-
cinnati & Lake Erie Railroad, which extended from
Cincinnati to Toledo, with a branch from Spring-
field to Columbus, and from 1931 to 1936 operated
the Dayton & Western Traction Company. Twenty
splendid lightweight, high-speed cars were acquired
for new limited services, and such innovations as
rail-highway containers were adopted for the sys-
tem's important l.c.l. freight operation. Until aban-
donment of the Eastern Michigan-Toledo Railway in
1932, such C&LE limiteds as the Meteor, the Ar-
roivhead, and the Rocket operated in through Cin-
cinnati-Detroit service three times daily, and ex-
tensive through freight services were operated with
connecting electric lines. The C&LE experiment
only proved the hopelessness of the interurbans'
plight; by 1932 the system was in receivership and
by 1939 its interurban lines were entirely abandoned.
This most famous of all Cincinnati & Lake Erie photographs depicted high-speed
interurban No. 126 during the course of a race with an airplane staged for news-
reel cameras near Dayton in July 1930. The Cincinnati-built car attained a
reputed speed of 97 miles per hour to outdistance the plane. This and similar
publicity stunts served to introduce the new C&LE system to Ohioans in dra-
matic fashion. Mayfield Photos Inc.
Medium-weight equipment delivered by the G. C, Kuhlman Car Company in 1927 for the Conway rehabili-
148
tation of Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton made up a three-car C&LE train. George Krambles Collection.
149
"The comfortable car goes kiting
along sounding a fish-horn blast like
schooners on the Grand Banks," wrote
Christopher Morley of a trip over
the "Red Electric." A "Red Devil"
sped southbound on a Cincinnati
Limited schedule in 1937. Alfred
Seibel, from Jeffrey K. Winslow
Collection.
The most important of the several con-
necting lines between the electric systems
of Ohio and Indiana was the Dayton &
Western Traction Company, a link in a
direct route between Dayton and Indian-
apolis. During the company's existence
it was variously under control of the
Ohio Electric Railway, the Cincinnati &
Lake Erie, and finally the Indiana Railroad,
with a few periods of independent op-
eration. This freshly overhauled train was
some of the equipment employed in the
company's through Buckeye Special and
Hoosier Special service between Dayton and
Indianapolis, operated jointly with the
connecting Terre Haute, Indianapolis &
Eastern. O. F. Lee Collection.
150
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Among the more obscure Ohio interurbans was
the Hoc king-Sunday Creek Traction Company,
operating a I 5-mile line between Athens and
Nelsonville in the coal country of southeastern
Ohio. A planned extension to a junction with the
Scioto Valley Traction Company at Lancaster never
materialized, and the little line remained isolated
from the remainder of the state s electric railway
network. Unlike the majority of Midwestern in-
terurbans, the company employed equipment of the
street railway type. No. 14, on a trestle midway
between the two terminals, was typical. Charles
Goethe Collection.
Toledo, with no less than 10 inter urban lines radiat-
ing in every direction, was among the leading Mid-
western interurban centers. Longest lived of the
Toledo lines, and indeed, one of the most enduring
of all Ohio interurbans, was Toledo, Port Clinton &
Lakeside Railway. TPC&L extended eastward on the
Marblehead peninsula to Marblehead and Bay Point,
where a connection was made with Lake Erie steam-
ers operating to the Cedar Point resort and Sandus-
ky. Remnants of the system survived until 1958 as
the freight-only Toledo & Eastern Railroad. When
Niles coach No. 6 was photographed at Port Clinton
in the late '30's, the company was known as the
Ohio Public Service Company. Hayden Alford
Collection.
151
The exquisitely furnished and detailed Martha, Union
Tractions official car, was employed only for the most im-
portant of occasions. O. F. Lee Collection.
Rarely was interurban equipment more magnificent than
that of Union Tractions Hoosierland of 1925, headed by
the new steel combine Fort Wayne, finished in a deep red.
O. F. Lee Collection.
Stately Cars in Hoosierland
The first — and the largest — of the great Indiana
interurban systems was that of the Union Traction
Company, which operated over 400 miles of line
in central Indiana radiating northeast and north
from Indianapolis. The Union Traction system
was initially conceived by Charles L. Henry of
Anderson, the "father of the interurban," who de-
veloped plans for an interurban linking Anderson
with Muncie, Marion, and Indianapolis in 1892.
The panic of 1893 prevented the immediate start of
construction, and it was not until 1898 that the first
car operated over 11 miles of track between Ander-
son and Alexandria. The initial cars developed by
Union Traction largely established the arrangement
that was to become typical of Midwestern inter-
urban equipment, and the company was among the
first (in 1913) to acquire all-steel equipment. The
company's powerhouse at Anderson was the first
to employ a three-phase distribution system. Power
was generated and distributed from Anderson at
15,000 volts to substations about 12 miles apart,
where transformers and rotary converters changed
it to 600-volt D.C. for the trolley wire, an arrange-
ment that was to become virtually standard for in-
terurban operation. Parlor-buffet cars were provided
on a few of the chief Union Traction routes,
and the company's timecard listed such memorable
interurban name trains as the Marion Flyer, the
Kokomo Traveler, and the Muncie Meteor.
152
153
The Indianapolis & Louisville Traction Company, which formed the Seymour-Sellersburg (hid.) link
in the route between the two cities, was the first interurban to actually begin operation with the
newly developed 1200-volt D.C. electrification system. Since equipment of the other two lines in
the route was capable of operation on 600-volt current only, Indianapolis & Louisville Traction
cars were used exclusively for the celebrated Dixie Flyer and Hoosier Flyer through limited sched-
ules installed in 1908. Niles interurbans provided the initial service. General Electric Company.
Late in 1907, with the completion of the Indianap-
olis & Louisville Traction Company, a through in-
terurban routing over the rails of three independent
electric lines became available between the two
cities. The southernmost portion of the route rep-
resented one of utilities baron Samuel Insull's first
ventures into electric railways, and by 1912 Insull
had acquired control of the entire route, which then
became known as the Interstate Public Service
Company.
In Dixie Flyer service, this Interstate train included a Cincinnati combine and the
parlor-buffet car Jeffersonville. O. F. Lee Collection.
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During the '20's the Insull management initiated
an equipment program for the Interstate that in-
cluded thorough rebuilding of many existing cars
and acquisition of some of the finest examples of
heavy steel interurban car construction ever produced.
Among them ivere a half dozen parlor-buffet cars
which operated five daily round trips on the Dixie
and Hoosier Flyers, and three sleepers for an over-
night service between Indianapolis and Louisville.
Since it was hardly possible to spend the entire night
on the 117-mile journey, the sleepers were placed in
sidings along the route during the night and brought
into the terminals on the first train in the morning.
A new steel combine, a rebuilt coach, a sleeper, and
a parlor-buffet car respectively were included in
the line-up for this publicity photograph. O. F. Lee
Collection.
In 1925 the large traction holdings of the Insull in-
terests in northern and central Indiana were further
expanded with the purchase of the Indiana Service
Corporation. In common with other Insull inter-
urban acquisitions, ISC received extensive improve-
ments, including heavy steel cars to re-equip prin-
cipal schedules. Among them were the magnificent
cars in this 1926 photograph. Both the combine and
the parlor-buffet car Little Turtle, newly delivered
by the St. Louis Car Company, were employed in
the Wabash Valley Flyer service operated between
Fort Wayne and Indianapolis via Peru in conjunc-
tion with the Union Traction Company. IT pro-
vided equivalent equipment for the similar jointly
operated Hoosierland service via Bluff ton. These
and other imperious ISC "flyer" schedules deigned
to stop only at county seats and points of similar
importance. George Krambles Collection.
155
The oldest portion of the Indianapolis-Louisville
route was the Indianapolis, Columbus & Southern
Traction Company, which on the first day of the
new century had operated the first interurban car
ever to reach Indianapolis. The triumphal arrival
was not without difficulty, for the big interurban
proved to be too wide to clear the overhead poles
located in the center of the street. In order to squeeze
the car by, workmen had to remove its handrails,
and passengers were obliged to shift to the far side
of the car. Further complications arose when the in-
terurban reached the Belt Railroad. The car was
forced to jump the rails, since the crossing had not
yet been installed. The company's No. 21, a hand-
some Pullman green coach, is shown in Indianapolis
streets. William D. Middleton Collection.
Less altered than most cars under the THI&E modernization program was No. 29, the Hendricks, seen
taking the curve at Market and Capitol in Indianapolis. Despite scuffs and abrasions of long years of
service, the car still bore an air of dignity lent by the classic Gothic lines of its Cincinnati builders.
Jeffrey K. Winslow Collection.
156
Most interurbans were constructed for motives of
profit to their stockholders, hut the Winona Inter-
urban Railway , which operated between Goshen
and Peru, Ind., was devoted to more lofty objectives.
The railway was constructed by the Winona As-
sembly and Summer School Session, and its profits
went to the operation of a trade school for the ed-
ucation of underprivileged children. During the
company's early years its hidebound directors re-
fused to operate on Sundays, and not until bond-
holders brought suit, alleging that the policy had
caused the road to fail to meet interest payments,
did they relent. To operate a new Goshen-lndian-
apolis through service with the Union Traction
Company in 1910, the Winona acquired a pair of
named wooden Jewett interurbans of the parabolic-
nosed "u'indsplitter" design. The Warsaw is shown
here stuck tight in drifts not far from its name-
sake city during the big snow of 1918. Van Dusen
Collection.
Among Indiana interurbans the Terre Haute, In-
dianapolis & Eastern Traction Company was second
in size only to Union Traction. Formation of
THI&E was begun in 1907, and by the time the
system was completed in 1912, its lines extended
from Paris, 111., across central Indiana almost to the
Ohio border. The Terre Haute-Paris branch fell
only 20 miles short of a connection with William B.
McKinley's Illinois Traction System, which would
have permitted continuous electric travel all the
way to St. Louis and Peoria, but the break was
never closed. A plan for a more direct connecting
line from Crawfordsville to Danville, 111., also was
unfulfilled, although the idea was kept alive until
as late as 1928. Never a particularly profitable in-
terurban, THI&E was unable to follow the example
of the other major Indiana electrics, which invested
in heavy steel rolling stock for their principal sched-
ules during the '20's. Instead, the company began
a sweeping modernization program for its hetero-
geneous roster of elderly wooden rolling stock for
service on such celebrated THI&E limiteds as the
Highlander, the Tecutnseh Arrow, and the Ben-Hur
Special, the last named for the protagonist of the
famous novel written by Gen. Lew Wallace of Craw-
fordsville. A splashy chrome yellow and black col-
or scheme was applied and the cars were given
names selected to honor the territory served, its in-
stitutions, distinguished historical figures, and oc-
casionally a deceased company executive.
The abrupt decline of the Indiana interurbans
during the latter part of the '20's presented Samuel
Insull's Midland United Corporation with an op-
portunity to carry forward a grand plan for a uni-
fied Indiana interurban network. The earliest Insull
interest in Hoosier traction properties dated to 1903,
but not until the mid-'20's were his Indiana hold-
ings greatly expanded. Union Traction went into
receivership in 1925, and after acquiring the system
for a bargain price in 1930, Midland United was able
to use it as the heart of a consolidation of the Insull
lines into the remarkable Indiana Railroad system.
The lines of the Indiana Service Corporation and
the Northern Indiana Power Company extended
IRR domination throughout much of north central
Indiana and to points north of Fort Wayne, and the
Indianapolis-Louisville line of the Interstate carried
the new system to the Ohio River. The Fort Wayne-
Lima Railroad was operated under IRR supervision,
but remained independent. The purchase of the
bankrupt THI&E in 1931 added trackage extending
across the breadth of central Indiana, and for a few
years after 1936 the lease of the Dayton & Western
carried IRR into Ohio.
An ambitious program was evolved for modern-
ization of the Indiana system. Weak and clearly
hopeless lines were abandoned forthwith, while
major improvements were planned for those which
were thought to have a future. New equipment,
track and power improvements, belt lines and re-
routings, and reduction of excessive curves and
grades were all part of the contemplated program.
An ultimate aim of IRR management was to
straighten and improve the system's major trunk
routes to permit the operation of standard steam rail-
road freight equipment. The most immediate IRR
improvements were new schedules that were better
co-ordinated than those of the previously independ-
ent companies, and by the summer of 1931 a million-
dollar investment in 35 magnificent lightweight,
In depression times IRR traffic was only rarely suf-
ficient to require multiple-unit operation of the line's
lightweight cars. A three-car train was photographed
at Rock Cut, west of Greencastle, on a railroad en-
thusiast excursion. George Krambles Collection.
high-speed cars went into service on the principal In-
dianapolis-Louisville and Indianapolis-Fort Wayne
lines. Another half million was spent for power sup-
ply and track improvements on the same lines.
Freight traffic was aggressively solicited, and in 1933
drastic passenger fare reductions were made. In
1936 older steel equipment was refurbished and con-
verted to one-man operation.
But modernization of the Indiana system started
too late. Even as the system was being formed
the nation was plunging into a deepening depres-
sion. The Insull utilities empire collapsed in 1932,
before the needed Indiana Railroad improvements
had barely been started. By 1933 the IRR was in
receivership, and only once in its existence — in
1936 — did the system show a profit. From a brief
peak of over 800 miles of track Indiana Railroad
mileage rapidly declined as line after line was given
up, and after barely a decade of operation the last
IRR passenger service was ended in 1941, on the
eve of World War II.
***V
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Southbound to Louisville as the Dixie Flyer, In-
diana Railroad lightweight No. 68 took a sharp
curve at Sellersburg, a few miles north of the Ohio
River. Barney Neuberger Collection.
158
In 1935 IRR secured two Railway Post Office contracts, between Fort Wayne-New
Castle and Indianapolis-Peru, given up by the Nickel Plate Railroad. To operate
the service four former Indiana Service Corporation combines were rebuilt with
RPO compartments. A fan excursion brought the 376 to the White River
bridge near Anderson. The Union Traction name was still visible on the bridge.
159
The company's glittering parlor car 7500, available for official duties or charter service, was
fitted with deep solarium windows at the front end and this elegant observation platform
at the rear. George Krambles Collection.
Detroit United's finest line was the Detroit, Mon-
roe & Toledo Short Line, built with a maximum
grade of 1 per cent and standards of curvature
which obviated speed restrictions. The line was well
graded and track was laid with 70-pound rail and
rock ballast. About half of the route was double
tracked, and grade crossings with other railways
were avoided. Beginning in 1911 frequent through
limited service was operated between Detroit and
Cleveland over the connecting Lake Shore Electric
Railway, and for a few years after 1930 through
Detroit-Cincinnati cars were operated with the new
C&LE. Rebuilt Kuhlman steel car 8005 was operated
in a de luxe, reserved-seat chair-car service between
Detroit and Toledo installed during the mid-'20's.
George Krambles Collection.
The large interurban system of the Detroit
United Railways, which was assembled in 1901 by
the Everett-Moore syndicate from a wide variety of
predecessor companies, radiated from the city in all
directions and even had a Canadian affiliate, the
Sandwich, Windsor & Amherstburg Railway, which
operated along the Ontario shore of the Detroit
River. Detroit was one of the earliest traction cen-
ters, and almost all of its interurban lines were built
in the '90's or the first few years of the new century.
Detroit also, of course, became one of the early
automobile centers, and its interurbans turned out
to be some of the first casualties among major Mid-
western systems.
Detroit United car 7794 made a special trip over branch-line trackage which was an extreme example of
the meandering, hill-and-dale, roadside variety of interurban construction. BARNEY NEl'BERGER Collection.
161
In the areas west and north of the territory served
by the Detroit United system, extensive interurban
operations were conducted by the Michigan Rail-
ways system, whose main routes north from Flint
and Jackson, and west from Jackson, served as ex-
tensions of the Detroit system. The company, whose
corporate structure and history were among the
most involved in Midwestern traction, was distin-
guished by a large mileage of third-rail track and
by some notable — though generally unsuccessful —
experiments in high voltage, direct current systems.
Several of the Michigan Railways' main routes
were constructed to some of the highest standards
in the industry, and the company was among the
earliest to make wide use of steel equipment. At
one time the Michigan Railways entertained am-
bitions of an electric line across the state connecting
Kalamazoo with a Lake Michigan port or, even bet-
ter, with Chicago. For this purpose the company in
1911 leased a steam railroad, the Kalamazoo, Lake
Shore & Chicago, which reached South Haven on
Lake Michigan and connected with the Benton Har-
bor-St. Joe interurban at Paw Paw Lake Junction.
Plans to electrify the line were never carried out,
and after five years of operation with steam equip-
ment, the lease was given up.
These splendid Niles interurbans were operated by Michigan Railways in through Bay City-
Detroit service. From Bay City to Flint the journey was made over the company's Northeast-
ern Division, which employed both overhead trolley and third-rail power distribution, while the
remainder of the trip was made over Detroit United rails. George Krambles Collection.
One of the most magnificently engineered lines
of the interurban era was the Michigan Railways'
Western Division, which opened a 50-mile main
line between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids in 1915.
Track was built on a 100-foot-wide private right
of way and laid with 80-pound rail, with a maximum
curvature of 3 degrees and maximum grades of 1
per cent. Rural portions of the line were provided
with a unique 2400-volt D.C. third-rail system. So
extreme was the resulting safety hazard that passen-
gers at way stations were loaded from enclosed floor
level "safety platforms" which have been described
as reminiscent of cattle pens. Conductors unlocked
a switch lock to drop the front side of the en-
closure, which formed a bridge between the plat-
form and the car floor for boarding passengers. Even
more serious were the frequent cases of an arc
striking from the third rail to journal boxes.
This burned away the box and then the end of
the axle. To extinguish the arc motormen laid a
metal bar between the third rail and a running rail,
which short-circuited the power feed and tripped
the substation breakers, killing the power supply on
the line. After a year of such difficulties, the line
was converted to 1200-volt power. A 44-mile branch
between Allegan and Battle Creek, purchased from
the Michigan Central, was similarly electrified. The
Kalamazoo-Grand Rapids main line was designed
for maximum speeds of 90 miles per hour, and even
though actual maximum speeds were lower than
this figure, the line was one of the fastest of all in-
terurbans. "Flyer" schedules between the two cities
covered the 50-mile route in 1 hour 10 minutes,
and for several years during the '20's the company
was among the top five in the U. S. in the annual
Electric Traction speed trophy competition.
On display in Grand Rapids for a 1922 convention is one of the seven huge coach-parlor-obser-
vation cars delivered in 1914-1915 by the St. Louis Car Company for limited service over the
Western Division. Weighing 70 tons, and over 67 feet in length, they were the heaviest inter-
urban cars ever built. Although of all-steel construction, they were provided with scribed
sides to simulate wood siding. George Krambles Collection.
162
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The only connection between Michigan and the
traction network of Indiana was provided by the
Southern Michigan Railway, which operated from
South Bend to St. Joseph, Mich. In 1914 the com-
pany was among those that joined in the operation of
the new Cannonball Express, an overnight inter-
urban fast freight which operated between Indian-
apolis and Benton Harbor, where a connection
was made with Chicago steamships. Brand new
from the St. Louis Car Company, interurban No. 304
passed through Niles, Mich., in 1906 on one of the
first through trips over the newly completed line
between South Bend and St. Joseph. George
Krambles Collection.
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The Rock Island Southern Railway, whose main
line between Rock Island and Monmouth, III.,
opened in 1910, employed steam power for freight
trains, but the W'estinghouse single-phase alternat-
ing current system was installed for passenger trains.
RIS was the last interurban to begin operation with
an alternating current poiver system, which by this
time had proven considerably less satisfactory than
the direct current systems then available. Six big
Niles "Electric Pullmans," acquired secondhand
from Washington, Haiti more & Annapolis, operated
the infrequent passenger schedules. Here, one of
them crosses the Pope Creek trestle. The electrifica
lion was junked in 1926, but steam freight opera-
tion continued for another quarter century. Wil-
liam D. Miudleton Collection.
165
To Green and Rural Places
Among the finest of Midwest traction properties
was the elaborate system of The Milwaukee Elec-
tric Railway & Light Company, which between 1896
and 1909 constructed some 200 miles of high-speed
interurban routes running from Milwaukee to Ke-
nosha, Burlington, East Troy, and Watertown, Wis.
The Milwaukee Northern Railway, which com-
pleted a line north along Lake Michigan to Sheboy-
gan in 1908, was merged with TMER&L in 1928.
Projected Milwaukee Electric extensions to Chi-
cago, Lake Geneva, Beloit, Madison, and Fond du
Lac were never built; instead, most were eventually
reached with joint rail-bus services. In 1922 the
company began a massive improvement program for
its interurban lines, expending in the vicinity of
6 million dollars before the depression finally halted
work. A superb new rapid-transit right of way was
built for the interurban routes from the west, bring-
ing them within a few blocks of the company's
downtown Milwaukee terminal. To the south a new
166
The Milwaukee Northern's Lake Shore Limited was
one of several extra-fare, parlor car limited schedules
installed by the company in a 1923 burst of com-
petitive spirit. Close connections were made at Mil-
waukee with the North Shore Line's parlor and din-
ing car limited trains to Chicago. With but one
scheduled stop en route, the MN limiteds covered the
57 miles to Sheboygan in only 1 hour 39 minutes,
despite extended street running in Milwaukee.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Deck-roofed TMER&L interurban No. 1101
is seen operating on the line to Oconomowoc
and Water town shortly after the line's con-
version in 1910 to the 1200-volt D.C. system
from the unsatisfactory 3300-volt single-phase
A.C. power supply originally provided.
During the company's great improvement
program of the '20's, cars of this type were
rebuilt into the handsome cars of entirely dis-
similar appearance shown on the next few
pages. General Electric Company.
101 2-mile belt line around South Milwaukee and
Cudahy cut 30 minutes from timings on the route
to Racine and Kenosha. A similar project on the
Sheboygan line and a half-mile subway into the
terminal from the western route were both started
in 1930 but were never completed. Elsewhere on
the system the original interurban lines were recon-
structed with heavier rail and new ballast. Block
signals were installed and the system's power sup-
ply improved. Forty-one interurban passenger cars
were completely rebuilt in company shops, re-
ceiving new motors, trucks, and controls. Exterior
appearance of the cars was completely altered, and
interiors were refinished and fitted with new leather
bucket seats. Eight secondhand steel cars were
rebuilt into 84-passenger articulated units, and a
few new steel cars were purchased or manufactured
in company shops, including a pair of articulated
coach-diner units for through limited service be-
tween Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, and Water-
town, where a Madison bus connection was
provided.
Work was still under way on the Milwaukee Electric's new rapid-transit route to
West Junction when this rebuilt motor car and trailer came out of the shops for
a 1926 inspection trip. Car 1111 was soon nicknamed the Four Aces by crews.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
West of the city proper. Milwaukee Electric interurbans shared their superb rapid-transit right of u.n
with the company's massive high-tension towers, resulting in some impressive scenes of heavy-duty
electric railroading. The single car in this scene, 1119, was eastbound at 40th Street in 1948.
William D. Middleton.
169
One of the articulated "duplex" units rebuilt by TMER&L shops from conventional equipment in 1929
crossed the substantial steel structure that carried the rapid-transit route over the Menomonee River
and the Milwaukee Road main line. William D. Middleton.
170
Among the extensively rebuilt
Milwaukee Electric inter ur bans
of the '20's were four of these
parlor-observation cars for lim-
ited train service on the Racine-
Kenosha and Watertown lines.
The Mendota was rebuilt in 1 924
from a coach almost identical in
appearance to that shown on
page 167. In 1941 the Mendota
was sold to the London & Port
Stanley in Ontario, but is now
back in home territory in the
ownership of a Chicago histori-
cal group. To accommodate ex-
tremes in Great Lakes weather,
TM cars were fitted with re-
movable screens and storm
windows. George Krambles
Collection.
Inbound from Hales Corners in
1949, a Milwaukee Electric in-
terurban crossed over the
Chicago & North Western at
West Junction on a bridge that
was clearly constructed to accom-
modate future multiple track.
The structure was part of a
mile-long cutoff completed in
1927 which afforded Burlington
and East Troy interurbans ac-
cess to the new rapid-transit
entry to Milwaukee, cutting 23
minutes from previous running
times via city streets. Wil-
liam D. Middleton.
The two near tracks west of
Soldiers Home carried interur-
ban traffic, while the remainder
accommodated West Allis local
cars. The W aukesha-bound car
appeared in the Milwaukee
Electric' S bright yellow and
green postwar color scheme,
which replaced the more digni-
fied Pullman green with yellow
trim of ear Her years. WIL-
LIAM D. Middleton.
171
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Southbound from Port Washington on the last
day of operation of former Milwaukee Northern
trackage in 1 948, a Milwaukee Electric inter urban
rumbled across the Milwaukee River bridge near
Grafton, providing the scene for what is among
the finest of all Milwaukee Electric photographs.
These through truss spans were nearly 100 years
old. They were built in the WW's for the Michi-
gan Central Railroad and were purchased second-
hand for $5722 by the MN in 1906. GEORGE
Krambles.
Following World War II, TMER&L's Waukesha and Hales
Corners routes, all that remained of the original W atertown,
East Troy, and Burlington lines, were operated briefly by
two bus companies before becoming the Milwaukee Rapid
Transit & Speedrail Company in 1949. The Speedrail effort
to rebuild the property into a profitable concern ended
ignomiuiously with a disastrous wreck in 1950, bankruptcy,
and final abandonment in 1951. Lightweight cars operated
most of the schedules under Speedrail management. This
Cincinnati car departing from the Milwaukee terminal, in-
terestingly enough, had replaced heavy steel cars on the
Indianapolis & Southeastern in 1929, which were then re-
built into articulated units by Milwaukee Electric. After
passing through the hands of two Ohio companies in the in-
tervening 20 years, the lightweights turned up in Milwau-
kee in 1949 to again displace the same heavyweight equip-
ment. William D. Middleton.
173
:. w rtti
This particularly attractive interurban, built by Cin-
cinnati in 1908, operated over the Sheboygan Light, Pow-
er & Railway Company's interurban line to Plymouth
and Elkhart Lake, the northernmost point from Chicago
that could be reached by continuous electric travel. The
photograph was taken at the Sheboygan depot. Frank E.
Butts Collection.
Traction on the Iron Range
One of Greyhound's earliest victims was the
little-known Mesaba Electric Railway, which
opened a 35-mile line across the Missabe Range
of northern Minnesota in 1913. The well-
constructed line between Hibbing and Gil-
bert employed 70-pound rail and gravel bal-
last, and cars were provided with a cab signal
system. In deference to the Minnesota winters,
the composite wood and steel cars delivered
by Niles were built with double side walls
artel fitted with storm sash. Unfortunately, the
small livery service that was the earliest
forerunner of the Greyhound Lines bus sys-
tem got its start in Hibbing only a year after
the Mesaba Railway opened and no doubt was
a factor in the interurban' s early demise
in 1927. Franklin A. King Collection.
Twin City Rapid Transit's half dozen express
steamers, like almost all of its passenger cars,
were built in the Snelling shops. As can be
seen in this photograph of the Hopkins, cabin
design on the steamers bore a family resem-
blance to that of the company's electric cars.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
In addition to purely streetcar services in Minnesota's twin
cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Twin City Rapid
Transit Company operated interurban routes to White
Bear Lake, Stillwater, and Lake Minnetonka, where the cars
connected with the company's express steamer service to
points on the lake. Interurban cars built for the lines in the
company's Snelling shops were identical in appearance to
its city cars, but interurban trucks and motors enabled them
to attain mile-a-minute speeds with ease. In 1906 a Twin
City interurban, shown at Excelsior on the Lake Min-
netonka line, was rebuilt as a double-deck car, rare in North
American electric railway practice. The experiment met
with only indifferent success and the second story was re-
moved about 1909. Bromley Collection, Minneapolis
Public Library.
174
175
.N»" ' •>.♦ . >vtv
176
In an earlier, more prosperous time passen-
gers on the predecessor lines of the Clinton,
Davenport & Muscatine rode in big wooden
cars of traditional pattern, and such attractions
as joint interurban-Mississippi River steamer
excursions, with an observation car trip
through Davenport, Moline, and Rock Island
thrown in, drew a big business. Long before
this car was photographed in 193S climbing
out of the /Mississippi Valley westbound from
Davenport to Muscatine, declining traffic had
forced the CD&A1 to adopt the economies of
lightweight, one-man cars, which were no
more than old Davenport city cars, rebuilt and
souped up for interurban service. Paul
Stringham.
Land of the Steam Road Trolleys
Unique among Midwestern electric railways were
the Iowa interurbans. Some had originally been
steam short lines and others developed as connec-
tions too, complementing the steam railroad net
more than they competed with it. The steam line-
interurban relationship was usually, therefore, a
more cordial one than elsewhere in the Midwest,
and carload freight traffic, freely interchanged with
the trunk lines, was substantial from the very be-
ginnings of the Iowa interurbans, a major factor in
their remarkable longevity. Almost half of them
continued to operate passenger service until well
after World War II, and a majority remained active
as freight-only short lines in 1961.
1
Bearing green flags
for a following sec-
ond section, this
Cedar Rapids & Iowa
City interurban,
bright in canary yel-
low with brown and
red trim, raced south
to Iowa City in 1950
beside a row of over-
head poles that ex-
tended to the horizon
of the rolling rural
landscape. Wil-
liam D. Middleton.
Roaring downgrade
to the Iowa River
bridge, a Crandic
"Comet," as the one-
time C&LE "Red
Devils" became in-
formally known in
their new corn belt
home, headed north-
ward to Cedar Rap-
ids in 1949. Wil-
liam D. Middleton.
■;J!|
177
One of the most prosperous of all the Iowa lines
was the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway, known
widely by the "Crandic" abbreviation of its corpo-
rate title. At one time the company's ambitions ex-
tended well beyond the two cities named in its
title. A projected eastern extension to Davenport
never got beyond Lisbon, 17 miles out of Cedar
Rapids, but the interurban's bus subsidiary, Crandic
Stages, ranged from Chicago to Denver with a fleet
of some 60 buses before it was sold to another bus
operator. Crandic passenger service achieved its
greatest distinction after 1939, when the company
acquired a half dozen of the Cincinnati & Lake
Erie's notable lightweight, high-speed cars, later
augmented by a similar Indiana Railroad unit. Dur-
ing World War II the high-speed cars, aided by
older wooden equipment, transported the greatest
passenger traffic in the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City's
history, reaching a peak of more than 573,000 in
1945.
Before the arrival of its secondhand lightweight equipment, Crandic passenger
service was maintained by rebuilt wooden cars. Soon after this photograph
■was taken on the Iowa River bridge during a 1941 excursion, car No. 109, a
former Southern New York Railway car built by Cincinnati in 1908, was leased
to the hard-pressed Des Moines & Central Iowa Railroad for wartime service.
Charles A. Brown.
During the '40's the CR&IC acquired a variety
of used freight equipment to accommodate a
rapidly growing traffic. Seventy-ton locomotive
No. 13, southbound from Cedar Rapids in 1950,
was one of two purchased in 1948 from the
Union Electric Railway, which in turn had ob-
tained them from the Oklahoma Railway. After
CR&IC converted to diesel power in 1953, the
two much-traveled locomotives moved on to
the Chicago Aurora & Elgin. William D.
Middleton.
The CR&lC's lone former Indiana Railroad light-
weight. No. 120, took siding at Oakdale for a north-
bound ex-C&LE car in 1950. Such meets were fa-
cilitated by a unique trolley wire switch — developed
by Crandic master mechanic John Munson — which
automatically moved with the track switch, elimi-
nating the need for resetting the trolley pole when
entering or leaving a siding. William D.
Middleton.
178
Long after similar rural operations bad vanished elsewhere, the Charles City Western
Railway continued to operate two round trips daily from Charles City to nearby Col-
well (population 122), and to Marble Rock (population 470) where a connection was
made with Rock Island steam trains. For the first few years of its existence CCW
transported passengers aboard a racy looking McKeen gas car. When the line was
electrified in 1915, McGuire-Cunimings delivered a neat little combine, No. 50, which
was still regularly rattling over the 21-mile line in 1949 when the car crossed the
Flood Creek trestle on a trip from Marble Rock. William D. Middleton.
Near Denver on the 22-mile
Waverly branch, Waterloo, Ce-
dar Falls & Northern No. 102
made a splash of orange in the
bright green Iowa spring of
1954. William D. Middleton.
Crossing the IC just outside of
Waterloo, la., WCF&N 102
headed for the paralleling Wa-
verly branch in a cloud of dust.
Had this train been bound for
the main line to Cedar Rapids,
it would have slowed for a wye
just ahead. The single-ended
cars were also wfed at each end
of the line, keeping the conduc-
tor busy. William D.
Middleton.
180
With its diesel-type air
born blaring, the 102
trundled along the It "a-
verly branch. how pow-
er and rough track kept
speeds down. Wil-
liam D. Middleton.
The three Cass brothers who built the Waterloo,
Cedar Falls & Northern Railroad were former steam
railroad men, and they constructed the company's
64-mile southern extension from Waterloo to Cedar
Rapids, opened in 1914, to standards employed by
steam lines. The brothers were determined, too, that
passenger service over the splendid new electric line
would be equivalent in every way to the best prac-
tices of the steam railroads. To this end three mag-
nificent parlor-buffet-observation cars were included
among the steam-car-proportioned steel interurbans
delivered for the new service by McGuire-Cum-
mings. Interiors were finished in oak, with writing
desks, and leather upholstered wicker chairs and
davenports. Floors were covered with green Wilton
carpeting, and plate glass mirrors decorated the in-
terior bulkheads. A uniformed porter served a la
carte meals from a Tom Thumb kitchenette. The
spacious observation platforms were equipped with
brass railings and scalloped awnings, and the com-
pany's "Cedar Valley Road" emblem was displayed
on the rear platform railing in the grand manner of
steam railroad limited trains of the time. Extra-
fare, limited train service proved none too profitable
and the cars were subsequently rebuilt into de luxe
coaches.
Rebuilt into a solarium-observation coach during the '20's, car 100 (at Cedar Rapids station) teas the
only member of WCF&N's trio of de luxe cars to survive a 1954 roundhouse fire that wiped out the
road's shops in Waterloo. The 100 continued to operate in interurban passenger service until 1956.
The unused semaphore alongside the station dated from the days when trains continued into downtown
Cedar Rapids over city streets. William D. Middleton.
A McGuire-Cummings steeple-cab
locomotive beaded this 1934
WCF&N freight train which was
southbound near Waterloo on
the Elk Run bridge, one of two
substantial concrete arch crossings
of the Cedar River that character-
ized the high-class construction
of the company's southern exten-
sion. The Cedar Valley Road was
among the earliest interurbans to
pursue a volume carload freight
business, and its efforts met with
extraordinary success. In relative-
ly recent years WCF&N freight
revenues have been in the vicinity
of 2 million dollars annually. Of
particular value in the develop-
ment of freight traffic was the
company's industrial belt line
around Waterloo which provided
exclusive service to several in-
dustries. William D. Middleton.
Since its donation to the Iowa Railway Historical Museum in 1956, No. 100 has operated on
occasional excursion trips over the Southern Iowa Railway at Centerville. This was a 1957 fall
foliage outing. William D. Middleton.
183
N
X
A jour-truck locomotive that once wheeled Oregon Electric tonnage through the
Willamette Valley had backed its Fort Dodge Line train into the Rockwell City
branch at Hope to clear a northbound car. William D. Middleton.
Bright yellow car 12 of the FDDM&S was southbound on the approach to the Chi-
cago & North Western overcrossing at Boone. William D. Middleton.
Iowa's largest interurban, the Fort Dodge, Des
Moines & Southern, originated in the '90's as a
steam freight line and ultimately reverted in the
late '50's to a diesel-powered, freight-only short line.
During its half century as an electric interurban the
Fort Dodge Line provided the usual amenities of
high quality interurban travel, including observa-
tion-parlor cars — available to Fort Dodge-Des
Moines travelers for an extra fare of 25 cents —
which were finished in inlaid mahogany and fitted
with Brussels carpeting, art glass Gothic windows,
and bronze chandeliers. The FDDM&S was un-
usual among interurbans in that freight traffic was
always of predominant importance, and even before
World War I, when the interurban passenger trade
enjoyed its most successful years, the company
derived fully 60 per cent of its revenues from
freight, i
184
The workhorses of Fort Dodge Line passenger
service throughout its history were 10 wooden
Niles interurbans of exceptionally graceful pro-
portions. In the course of its daily round trip
over the Des Moines-Fort Dodge main line dur-
ing the last year of passenger operation — J 95 5
— No. 12 crossed the highest of all interurban
bridges, the steel "High Bridge" over a ravine in
the Des Moines River valley. Erected in 1912
at a cost of $110,000, the 1%-foot-high structure
replaced an earlier wooden trestle (destroyed by
a flood) which had incorporated a million
board feet of lumber in its construction. Wil-
liam D. Middleton.
186
A line-up of equipment was
photographed just outside Hutch-
inson, Kans., on the opening
day of through service to Wichita
by the Arkansas Valley Interur-
han Railway in 1915. The com-
plete absence of ballast nas a con-
dition that, unfortunately, re-
mained permanent on much of the
AVI. Car No. 6, in the fore-
ground, expired in spectacular
fashion in 1928 when it way
wrecked and burned in a high-
speed head-on collision with a
freight train. William J.
Clouser Collection.
187
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.
Center-door steel cars of substantial appearance
operated on Missouri's largest interurban system,
the 79-mile Kansas City, Clay County & St. Joseph
Railway, which opened a pair of high-class 1200-
volt lines from Kansas City to Excelsior Springs
and St. Joseph in 191). Cathedral glass panels in
the upper window sash provided just the right
touch of elegance. To accommodate special parties
the rear of the cars was designed for conversion to
an observation compartment. Regular seats were
removed and carpeting and mahogany lounge chairs
installed. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
toTi
An obscure Midwestern inter-
urban was the Burlington's 5-
mile electrification of a portion
of the ^-foot-gauge Deadwood
Central Railroad between Lead.
Pluma, and Deadwood in the
Black Hills of South Dakota.
Passenger car 12150, a little
interurban with a big number,
was one of five cars operated
over the line. Here it is at
the three-level crossing with
the North Western and a mine
railroad in Lead about 1906. STE-
PHEN D. Maguire Collection.
Electric cars of the Union Electric Railway wandered over a devious 77-mile
route from Nowata, Okla., to Parsons, Kans. The entire trip, which jew at-
tempted, required about 4 hours. Hard pressed to make ends meet throughout
much of its existence, the company economized by purchasing lightweight, one-
man cars from the American Car Company in 1925. One of them waited for the
passage of a Frisco freight at Cherry vale, Kans., in 1946. Gordon E. Lloyd.
189
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The McKinley Lines
Illinois Traction System
Headlight aglow, an Illinois Terminal interurban waited at the joint IT-Wa-
bash depot in Champaign during a 1955 snowfall. William D. Middleton.
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The McKinley Lines
Illinois Traction System
.DURING the first decade of the new century, as a
great interurban network spread across Mid-Ameri-
ca, the Illinois Traction System assembled by Illinois
congressman and utilities tycoon William B. McKin-
ley clearly emerged as the giant of Midwest traction.
Only seven years after he opened his first electric
line in 1901 — a 6-mile stretch between Danville and
Westville, 111. — McKinley had pushed the main
lines of his traction empire to their full geograph-
ical extent. From Granite City, across the Mississippi
from St. Louis, the McKinley lines extended 167
miles northward to Springfield and Peoria; 125 miles
eastward from Springfield to Decatur, Champaign,
and Danville, on the Indiana border; and from De-
catur to Peoria via Bloomington. In 1910 a great
new Mississippi River bridge was opened and Illi-
nois Traction trains rolled across to a new St. Louis
terminal. That same year a sleeping car service
was inaugurated — the only one of its kind on any
interurban — with specially designed cars that out-
did even Pullman, and a year later a fleet of luxuri-
ous parlor-observation cars appeared on limited
trains operating over the main lines from St. Louis
to Springfield, Peoria, and Danville. Small wonder
that they were calling Illinois Traction the "greatest
interurban system in the world."
Only a few years later McKinley acquired the
Illinois Valley lines of the Chicago, Ottawa &
Peoria, which reached neither Chicago nor Peoria
but had connections at Joliet with the Chicago &
Joliet and plans for extensions from Streator to
Peoria and Mackinaw Junction on the main IT
system. It was considered only a matter of time be-
fore the missing links would be filled in and
through service over an uninterrupted Chicago-St.
Louis electric route would become a reality. As early
as 1906 ITS had purchased three special Com Belt
Limited cars that were to enter a through St. Louis-
Indianapolis service just as soon as the 20-mile gap
was closed between the McKinley Lines at Ridge
Farm, 111., and the Terre Haute, Indianapolis &
Eastern at Paris, 111.
Illinois Traction or its subsidiary companies oper-
ated local streetcar lines in 19 Illinois cities, and
fully half of the electric railway mileage in the state
was under McKinley control. By 1916 McKinley
owned some 40 railway, light and power companies
in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and
Wisconsin, and an estimated 800 miles of electric
railway track was under ITS supervision.
Expansion of the system continued even in later
years, although the Chicago and Indianapolis con-
nections were never realized. In 1928 Illinois Trac-
tion was merged with the prosperous and strategic
Illinois Terminal Company, a steam-operated ter-
minal line in the Alton-East St. Louis area. Two
years later still more electric mileage was added to
what was now known as the Illinois Terminal Rail-
road System when the St. Louis & Alton Railway
was leased.
The greatest single undertaking of the McKinley
Lines, and indeed the greatest engineering work
ever attempted by any interurban, was the mighty
bridge McKinley flung across the Mississippi to
gain access to St. Louis for his traction empire.
Finding the lack of a direct entry to the city a
hindrance to the development of his company, and
barred from the only available bridge to downtown
St. Louis by a monopoly of his steam road competi-
tors, the undaunted McKinley undertook the 4.5-
million-dollar project in 1906. The structure, at the
time the largest and strongest Mississippi crossing
ever built, took four years to build, and its com-
pletion was observed on November 10, 1910, with
appropriate ceremony. Special trains bearing Gover-
nors Hadley of Missouri and Deneen of Illinois met
at the center of the flag-bedecked span; the two men
"clasped hands, each congratulating the other on
this newest bond between Missouri and Illinois";
and Congressman McKinley's niece raised the U. S.
192
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H
Running in place of the streamliner Mound City, Illinois Terminal interurban car No. 2H3, trailed
by the parlor-buffet-observation car Cerro Gordo, headed south from Mackinaw junction in 1950 on
a fast Peoria-St. Louis schedule. William D. Middleton.
flag to the peak of the bridge as a band played the
national anthem. That evening, while the Illinois
Traction System entertained 700 prominent guests
at a banquet in St. Louis' Planter's Hotel, thousands
watched a fireworks display on the bridge.
McKinley Bridge, the only exclusive river cross-
ing to St. Louis owned by any railroad, greatly
strengthened the competitive position of Illinois
Traction's far-flung interurban passenger service,
and by gaining direct access to St. Louis industry,
greatly accelerated the growth of an ITS freig
business that was already assuming major prop
193
A typical Peoria-St. Louis limited train of 1925, made up of a handsome arcb-roofed coach and match-
ing parlor-buffet car with open observation platform, rolled across the jackknife draw span of Illinois
Traction's substantial Illinois River bridge at Peoria. This structure became insignificant only
in comparison with the company's Mississippi span at St. Louis. William J. Clouser Collection.
tions. A new suburban service between St. Louis and
Granite City, inaugurated with the opening of the
bridge, proved to be a lucrative by-product. Only
a few months after the line was opened, ITS was
able to report an average of 10,000 passengers a day,
a figure that tripled on Sundays when thirsty St.
Louis citizens fled their dry-on-Sunday city for the
saloons of nearby Illinois.
Far earlier than .most of its contemporaries, Illi-
nois Traction recognized the value and importance
of a carload freight traffic interchange with steam
railroads. Like most interurbans, ITS usually trav-
ersed the streets of intermediate cities and towns,
where sharp curves or legal limitations frequently
precluded the operation of long freight trains, and
as early as 1906 the system began the construction
of belt lines around its principal cities, a move that
ultimately was to prove the means for survival of
the Midwest's largest interurban. Early attention
was also given to the improvement of the system's
power supply, to satisfy the demands of heavy
freight locomotives.
William B. McKinley
built his Illinois Trac-
tion System into the
Midwest's greatest in-
terurban railway. His
distinguished career
in business and public
life was climaxed
with a term in the
U. S. Senate. Illinois
State Historical
Library.
194
Workhorse combine 283, seen in the gloom of the St. Louis terminal in 7955, bore the untnistakable im-
print of Illinois Traction electric car architecture, despite the blocked-off side window arches of a '30's re-
building. Operation from the left-hand side was an unusual IT feature. The rectangular insert of safety
glass in the motorman's window was a modern-day innovation. William D. Middleton.
I ; III
The crew of this Illinois Traction interurban viewed the roadbed from
behind a truly generous expanse of plate glass. An early arrival in ITS
ranks (American Car Company, 1904), car 252 predated the distinctive
car design that soon became a virtual company trademark. WILLIAM D.
Middleton Collection.
Splendid in tangerine, a special train, including the
parlor-observation car Lincoln, headed south across the
Sangamon River bridge near Springfield, III., in 19}8.
Paul Stringham.
196
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197
With controller wide open, a St. Louis-Peoria local skimmed downhill into a little valley not far from
Edwardsville, III., in / 95 5. By this time the bright orange of earlier years had been replaced by
less flamboyant blue and silver colors. William D. Middleton.
198
Trolley Car Luxury
Finished in Honduras mahogany, heavily carpeted, and richly furnished, Illinois Traction's parlor-buffet-
observation cars provided all of the appropriate comforts and a suitably dignified atmosphere for ex-
tra-fare travelers on the company's crack Peoria-St. Louis limited trains. In later years observation plat-
forms were enclosed, and such up-to-the-minute features as air conditioning and indirect lighting were
provided, along with a less somber decor, George Krambles Collection (Above Left, Center);
Herbert Georg Studio, Springfield (Above Right) ; William D. Middleton Collection (Below).
II li M 1 N A
ii Iffi ft ffl ffl 8 •
LINCOLN
~11
199
_ *
The interurban sleeping cars introduced by Illinois Traction in 1VW featured such advantages as up-
per-berth windows, extra-long berths, and individual safety deposit boxes. The Edwardsville was built
by the St. Louis Car Company in 1913. William J. Clouser Collection.
HI'
Extensive through rates and divisions were estab-
lished with connecting steam railroads. Illinois
Traction freight service was even extended to Chi-
cago in 1910 by means of specially equipped cars
for less-than-carload-lot package freight shipments,
which were interchanged with the Chicago & East-
ern Illinois at Glover, 111. A similar service was of-
fered via Peoria, where l.c.l. freight was transferred
to the Rock Island.
Under the skilled direction of Master Mechanic
J. M. Bosenbury, Illinois Traction early evolved a
passenger car design of altogether distinctive ap-
pearance; and the high arched "crown" roof and a
front end with three graceful arched windows be-
came a virtual company trademark. Until three new
streamliners arrived in 1948-1949, IT's newest main-
line passenger car dated to 1918, and most of its
rolling stock was considerably older than that. In
the interim the company's Decatur shops assumed
the substantial task of rebuilding and modernizing
the elderly equipment in order to maintain a com-
petitive position in the passenger trade. Through
the years many of the venerable interurbans received
such improvements as reclining seats, air condition-
lllinois Traction brass and distinguished visitors rode in baronial elegance aboard private car 2 53.
Originally constructed in 1906 as the Missouri for the projected St. Louis-Indianapolis Corn Belt
Limited service, No. 213 was rebuilt and sumptuously furnished for its official duties by the St. Charles
(Mo.) shop of American Car & Foundry in 1910. George Krambles Collection (Upper) ; William J.
Clouser Collection (Lower).
Shortly after World War II Illinois Terminal made an ill-advised million-dollar bid to stay in the pas-
senger business ivith three streamlined blue and aluminum interurban trains. The City of Decatur, the
Fort Crevecoeur, and the Mound City were delivered by the St. Louis Car Company in 1948-1949. Pro-
vided with every comfort of comparable steam railroad equipment, the trains were costly proof that
interurban passenger traffic was irrevocably lost, atid were withdrawn from service by 1956. Hoof-
nosed streamliner No. 100 headed a two-car St. Louis limited train at the East Peoria station in / 95 5.
William D. Middleton.
201
ing, and other interior refinements. Illinois Termi-
nal was, incidentally, the first electric line to operate
air-conditioned equipment, beginning in 1935 when
a car was equipped for a new high-speed Peoria-
St. Louis service.
Illinois Terminal continued to develop its pas-
senger service long after most interurbans. In the
early 1930's, while much of the nation's electric
railway mileage was being abandoned, IT completed
After 1911 the mainstay of the high-speed Alton
service was a group of high-wheeled, center-door
cars, some of which were capable of speeds in ex-
cess of 85 miles per hour. Two of the breed
entered St. Louis over the elevated line from McKin-
le\ Bridge in 1948. Motorman W. "Dutch" Horr-
man (far right), who began operating cars over
the line in 1903, was at the controls of an Alton
Limited in 1941. William J. Clouser (Right);
Linn H. Westcott (Far Right).
An early version of the Alton-St. Louis Limited
waited at the end of historic Eads Bridge in 1916.
The Alton line, then operated by the East St. Lou-
is & Suburban, later became part of Illinois Ter-
minal. William T. Diesing, from William J.
Clouser Collection.
II
202
I ■
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il jfl
pS3
/« //>e /iwa/ year* o/ &} S/. Louis-Granite City suburban service, Il-
linois Terminal provided streamlined PCC trolleys, modified for multi-
ple-unit, double-end operation. A pair of them descended the St. Louis
approach to McKinley Bridge in 1955. The Granite City cars, Illinois
Terminal's last passenger operation, continued to run until 1958.
William D. Middleton.
a new elevated structure that brought its passenger
trains from McKinley Bridge close to the heart of
St. Louis, and a short subway that took them the
rest of the way to a basement terminal in the com-
pany's huge new Central Terminal Building. New
passenger stations were constructed at such im-
portant points as Peoria, Springfield, and Decatur,
and passenger train schedules were accelerated by
routing the cars around traffic-congested streets on
IT's freight belt lines at a number of cities, i
Home-Built for Tonnage
These photographs record the evolution of the
distinctive motive power constructed in Illinois
Terminal's Decatur shops over a 12-year period.
Earliest of the home-built products were 18 of
these 60-ton Class B box-cab locomotives built be-
tween 1910 and 1918. Class B No. 1566 entered
East Peoria, 111., in 1950 with interchange from the
Peoria & Pekin Union. William D. Middleton.
After World War I a steadily increasing
freight traffic made the small two-truck Class
B locomotives inadequate for mainline ton-
nage, and 20 of these four-truck articulated
Class C machines rolled out of the shops be-
tween 1924 and 1950. Weighing 80 tons, they
were powered with eight motors salvaged from
scrapped passenger cars. No. 1597 was pho-
tographed near Allentown, III., in 1941 with a
northbound extra. Paul Stringham.
Largest of the Decatur-built locomotives were five
streamlined Class D units built in 1940-1942. Weighing
108 tons and developing 1800 horsepower with eight
traction motors, they required double trolley poles to
draw sufficient current. Virtually identical carbodies
gave all three classes of IT freight power a strong family
resemblance. The five Class D's, as a matter of fact, utilized
frames and carbodies from scrapped Class C units. With
blowers whining, a Class D rolled into Springfield
from St. Louis in 1950. David A. Strassman.
Lengthened and rebuilt with "picture windows," air conditioning, and foam
rubber seats, the big steel interurbans which were constructed during the
South Shore Line's overhaul by Insull management in the '20's still pro-
vide the last word in passenger comforts. Two of them operated a
South Bend-Chicago schedule near Gary in 195 3. Linn H. Westcott.
206
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Insull's Interurbans
The Great Chicago Systems
AMONG the men who achieved prominence dur-
ing the interurban era, one of the greatest traction
tycoons of them all was Chicago's Samuel Instill,
whose Midwestern power, gas, and traction empire
was truly one of the wonders of the '20's. The phe-
nomenal business career of the London-born magnate
began in 1881 when, at the age of 21, he became
private secretary to Thomas Edison. Insull stayed
with Edison long enough to assist in the organiza-
tion of the General Electric Company, then moved
west to begin a conquest of Chicago's public
utilities. By 1907 the city's entire electric power
business was under the control of Insull's Com-
monwealth Edison Company, and only three years
later an Insull "superpower" system, destined to em-
brace the entire state of Illinois and much of the
Midwest as well, began branching out from Chicago.
Within 20 years Insull's Middle West Utilities em-
pire had assets in excess of 2 billion dollars, pro-
duced a tenth of the nation's electricity, and served
over 1,800,000 customers in some 3500 communities
in 39 states.
If only a minor part of his incredibly complicated
holdings, Insull's traction network was nonethe-
less impressive. Convinced that electric transporta-
tion would ultimately supplant all other mass trans-
portation media, Insull acquired control of Chi-
cago's surface and elevated railways, and provided
ample cash to place them in top condition. His in-
terurban interests, usually interlocked with asso-
ciated power companies, included a network that
covered much of Indiana, and eventually every line
of consequence that radiated from Chicago.
Pre-eminent among the Insull traction holdings
were the three superb interurbans which extended
north, west, and southeast from Chicago. Each al-
ready enjoyed a measure of distinction when Insull
acquired control in the decade following 1916, but
Insull provided the management and hard cash to
transform these railways into some of the most re-
markable properties of the entire interurban era.
The oldest of the three, Chicago North Shore &
Milwaukee, began operation in typically modest
interurban fashion in 1894 as the Bluff City Electric
Street Railway at Waukegan, 111. Reorganized a few
years later as the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Rail-
way, the line was reorganized twice again before re-
ceivers finally managed to complete in 1909 a main
line which extended from Evanston to Milwaukee.
Hindered by the lack of an entrance to the heart
of Chicago, the line was only a modest success until
a 1916 reorganization under Insull control created
the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad,
and the new management invested 5.5 million dol-
lars in an extensive development program. By 1919
North Shore trains were running to the Chicago
Loop over elevated tracks, and a few years later pas-
sengers were being transported between Chicago and
Milwaukee aboard such luxurious limited trains as
the Eastern Limited, the Badger, and the Interstate,
which numbered parlor-observation cars and diners
among their features and offered close Chicago con-
nections with the 20tb Century Limited and the
Broadway Limited. Powerful new steel cars sped
between the two cities over newly rebuilt roadbeds
in as little as 2 hours 10 minutes, and North Shore
billboards challenged, "Did you ever travel 80
miles an hour?" Between 1916 and 1922 the number
of daily trains increased from 192 to 295, and the
North Shore enjoyed a 350 per cent increase in gross
operating revenues.
Chicago's interurban to the western suburbs was
several cuts above ordinary interurbans right from
its opening day in 1902. Conceived as a "super in-
terurban," the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railroad
employed the third-rail system ihen highly regarded
for heavy-duty, high-speed lines and was engineered
to the extremely high standards required for a con-
templated 70-mile-per-hour continuous maximum
speed. A ruling grade of 1 per cent and a maximum
208
Near Four Mile Road, north of Racine, Wis., on an
August morning in 1955 a four-car North Shore Line
Milwaukee Limited thundered across the Root River
which meanders on through lush farmlands to Racine
and Lake Michigan. William D. Middleton.
I tilities magnate Samuel Instill built his three big Chicago elec-
tric lines into the wonders of the interurban era. CHICAGO
Historical Society.
209
STOP
LOQKfM]
OR
A splendid double-
track roadbed between
Chicago and Milwau-
kee enabled the North
Shore to gain interna-
tional recognition for
its speed achievements
and permanent posses-
sion of the Electric
Traction interurban
speed trophy in 1913.
Freshly ballasted in
crushed stone and
straight as a rifle bore,
this stretch of track
near Racine was typi-
cal. A /Milwaukee Lim-
ited traveled it in 1956
at a speed considerably
in excess of a mile a
minute. William D.
MlDDLETON.
210
Southbound on its last trip of the day, an Electroliner paused briefly at North Chicago on its flight be-
tween Milwaukee and Chicago. William D. Middleton.
curvature of 3 degrees were maintained, and the line
employed 80-pound rail, rock ballast, and sturdy
bridges of concrete and steel construction. Unlike
other Chicago interurbans, the AE&C enjoyed the
advantages of a direct entrance to the Loop early in
its history, inaugurating through service over the
tracks of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Com-
pany in 1905. The superior transportation repre-
sented by the AE&C encouraged rapid development
of the western suburbs, and within a very few years
after the line's opening the number of intermediate
stations, originally planned at 3-mile intervals, had
increased to 27 in the 25 miles between Chicago and
Wheaton.
Reorganized as the Chicago Aurora & Elgin in
1922 by Dr. Thomas Conway Jr., later to earn fur-
ther distinction as the organizer of the Cincinnati &
Lake Erie system and the rebuilder of the Philadel-
phia & Western, the line received the benefit of bet-
ter than a million dollars in improvements, includ-
ing stone reballasting between Chicago and Whea-
ton, power system and shop improvements, and 20
heavy Pullman-built steel passenger cars.
Employing a 6600-volt, single-phase power system,
the Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend Railway,
opened in 1908, achieved early prominence as one
of the most important alternating current interur-
bans. Constructed to high standards, and equipped
with unusually large and handsome Niles wooden
interurbans, the Lake Shore line did a substantial
business between the communities at the foot of
Lake Michigan and South Bend. The necessity for
a transfer to the Illinois Central at Kensington, how-
ever, had a discouraging effect on the interurban's
business into Chicago, until an agreement was ne-
gotiated with the steam road in 1913 whereby
through trailer cars from seven Gary-Chicago lim-
iteds daily were attached to IC steam locomotives,
211
'iTip^'f
**,
ill
The North Shore by Night
In this series of nighttime camera studies, the North Shore is
depicted as it went about "business as usual" after a January
195H blizzard. This snowfall, of the prodigious proportions
common to the shores of the Great Lakes, had raged across
Chicago's North Shore suburbs, thoroughly disrupting road
traffic and other activities similarly less reliable than the elec-
tric cars. The white stuff was still drifting down as a Skokie
Valley local stopped at the Liberty ville (III.) station.
William D. Middleton.
Surrounded by darkened interurbans awaiting the morning rush
back to the city, a late evening local was about to depart from
Mundelein for Chicago. William D. Middleton.
While compressors hammered air into the train line, a trio of
GE steeple-cab locomotives waited at Pettibone Yard in North
Chicago with 29 cars for the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern at Rondout
and the Soo at Mundelein. William D. Middleton.
213
H^
Dressed in skirting and red and silver colors, a pair of heavy Pullman cars of the Insull era raced
into Milwaukee in 1957. William D. Middleton.
Instills management of the CNS&M produced the 10-million-dollar Skokie Valley Route that cut
nearly 20 minutes from Chicago-Milwaukee schedules. The Dempster Street interlocking at Skokie
(Siles Center) protected the stub terminal of Chicago Rapid Transit's Howard Street shuttle trains,
which operated north to this point from 1925 to 1948. The three-car Milwaukee Express, photo-
graphed around 1947, was decked out in the green, gray, and red livery which replaced traction
orange and maroon with the introduction of the Electroliners. John Stern.
fust after leaving congested Milwaukee streets behind, a North Shore Limited picked up speed across
the high fill on Milwaukee's south side. William D. Middleton.
>
which transported them to Illinois Central's Ran-
dolph Street suburban station. Passenger revenues
between Chicago and points on the electric line
showed an encouraging 25 per cent increase soon
after the new arrangement went into effect.
Approaching the mid-'20's the big Chicago lines
found themselves facing a somewhat disturbing fu-
ture. The Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend was
in the worst predicament. Hard hit by declining
traffic, the once handsome property had fallen into a
sorry state of disrepair, and was to find itself in
receivership by 1925. The North Shore Line, bene-
fited by its extensive improvement program, was
doing exceedingly well but still suffered an ener-
vating slow drag through the streets of Chicago's
northern suburbs which threatened the continued
prosperity of its important traffic between Chicago
and Milwaukee. Only the Chicago Aurora & Elgin
Railroad was without major plant improvement
requirements.
215
Aloving at a rapid clip, an Elec-
troliner hammered across Chi-
cago & North Western double
track at Oak Creek tower, south
of Milwaukee, early in 1938.
William D. Middleton.
Since construction of the huge Great
Lakes Naval Training Center during
World War I, countless thousands of
Midwestern youths have arrived at
the gates of "hoot camp" aboard the
electric cars of the North Shore Line.
Returning to the "Lakes" from a week-
end liberty, this sleepy whitehat and
his wife waited for departure of a late
evening train from the Milwaukee
depot. Joseph C. O'Hearn.
216
At this point Sam Insull went to work.
Early in 1924 Insull pushed ahead with plans for
further massive improvements to the North Shore
Line. During the next several years no fewer than
65 new steel interurbans were placed in service, and
10 million dollars was expended for the new Skokie
Valley high-speed line, which bypassed the con-
gested lake shore suburbs — cutting nearly 20 min-
utes from Chicago-Milwaukee schedules — and
opened a whole new area to suburban development.
Construction of the line set off what was described
as a "spectacular real estate boom" and land values
increased to as much as 10 times their previous val-
ues. Following the new line's completion in June
1926, the North Shore enjoyed the most prosperous
year in its history.
The tremendous carrying capacity of the new
Skokie Valley line was shown off in spectacular
fashion a few weeks after its completion, when a
great Catholic Eucharistic Congress was held at
Mundelein, 111. On the final day of the Congress
on June 24, 1926, the North Shore moved 170,000
The North Shore entered the streamliner era in
1941 with a pair of articulated trains that repre-
sented the finest inter urban equipment ever con-
structed in the United States. Between them the
Electroliners have clocked more than 6 million
train-miles on five daily Chicago-Milwaukee round
trips offering air-conditioned de luxe coach ac-
commodations for 120 passengers, plus tavern-
lounge facilities. A panned photograph captured
the seemingly effortless pace of an Electroliner as
it glided southward at a speed approaching its 85-
mile-per-hour capability. William D. Middleton.
217
After 1926 interurbans of Sam Insult's South Shore Line operated straight through
to the Chicago Loop from Kensington over the rails of the Illinois Central's
superbly engineered suburban electrification. In /956 a four-car Chicago Ex-
press, operating over the outer "special" track reserved for nonstop trains, was
about to overtake an IC local on six-track right of way not far from the Loop.
William D. Middleton.
A Pullman-built North Shore coach, trimmed in the Silverliner colors of recent
years, got a new set of wheels in the company shops at Highwood, III., in 1955,
William D. Middleton.
V*
VM^L
r":t
■
passengers from Chicago's Loop to Mundelein and
back, and another 60,000 were transported between
the Chicago & North Western station at Lake Bluff
and Mundelein. Six-car trains of borrowed Chicago
Rapid Transit equipment left the Loop every 2
minutes beginning at daybreak, and 13 eight-car
trains shuttled steadily between Lake Bluff and
Mundelein to carry the record crowd.
Working through his Midland Utilities Com-
pany, Insull next acquired the Chicago, Lake
Shore & South Bend at a foreclosure sale in 1925, re-
organized it as the Chicago South Shore & South
Bend, and during the next three years gave it a
6.5-million-dollar transfusion of Insull capital for
rehabilitation and new equipment. At the peak of
its overhaul program the South Shore had 900 men
at work laying rail, reballasting, and building new
structures and line relocations. The Illinois Central
had just completed the 1500-volt D.C. electrification
of its suburban system, so the South Shore scrapped
its A.C. equipment, rebuilt its electrical system to
conform with the IC's, and negotiated a new track-
age rights agreement that permitted South Shore
electrics to operate through to Randolph Street sta-
tion, cutting some 12 minutes from previous running
times behind IC steam power. Pullman and other
builders turned out 49 new steel cars for the system,
among them 15 handsome parlor-observation and
dining cars. When South Shore began operation of
limited name trains with the new de luxe equipment,
the trade periodical Electric Railway Journal termed
it a "smashing blow to competition." The newly
overhauled South Shore did well indeed, for in only
one year — between 1926 and 1927 — gross passen-
ffi
Eastbound with afternoon commuters in 1935, a Michigan City train pounded past Burnham Yard near
Hammond, Ind., where one of the South Shore's three 273-ton "Little Joe'' locomotives made up an
eastbound freight. William D. Middleton.
Late on a rainy evening a train of heavy
Pullman interurbans rolled through the
streets of East Chicago, Ind. By the
mid-'Ws South Shore was running its
trains around the city on a new bypass
route built to trunk line standards.
H. A. List.
In pre-Insull days the South Shore Line operated
its passenger service with unusually large and
heavy wooden interurbans constructed by the Niles
Car & Manufacturing Company. Three of them
headed an eastbound special, which included a
Chicago & Alton diner, in a scene at the Michigan
City (Ind.) shops. Chicago South Shore & South
Bend Railroad.
221
Before and After Insull
Geared for pulling power, a Niles combine of Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend days, photographed in
1926 at Lake Park siding, was able to make good time with a six-car special of borrowed Illinois
Central coaches of the familiar arch-roofed Harriman lines pattern. Van-Zillmer Collection.
A quarter of a century later a 24-wheeled "Little Joe," developing better than 5000 horsepower, made
even easier work of a 10-car Illinois Central picnic special made up of the selfsame Harriman coaches.
The train is seen eastbound at the Pennsylvania overpass east of Gary. Van-Zillmer Collection.
Carefully arranged for a 1927 publicity photograph, a Chicago Aurora & Elgin train, made up of four handsome
222
I
■JM
1 •• -^<*
Pullman steel interurbans and a buffet-parlor car, presented a fine sight. Charles A. Brown Collection.
223
ger revenues increased no less than 100 per cent.
Fresh from its million dollar refurbishing under
the Conway management when it was added to the
Insull holdings in 1926, the Chicago Aurora & El-
gin had less need for the sort of capital showered on
the North Shore and South Shore lines, but none-
theless received another million and a half for sta-
tion and right-of-way improvements, and 15 heavy
steel interurban cars.
The splendidly engineered and equipped Insull
lines became models for a new kind of heavy-duty,
high-speed interurban that many hoped would bring
a new era of traction prosperity. High-speed op-
eration had become the object of growing interest
on the part of electric railway managers, and the un-
paralleled accomplishments of the Chicago lines
End of track for CA&E's Elgin line teas this tranquil
spot on the Fox River, where car 415 waited to de-
part as a Chicago Express. Until 1 9 50 interurban
connections were available at Elgin for Rockford,
Freeport, and southern Wisconsin points.
William D. Middleton.
During weekday rush hours the well-kept Chicago
Aurora & Elgin roadway between Wheaton and
Chicago handled a parade of multiple-unit com-
muter trains on streetcar headway. On a quiet Sun-
day morning, hoivever, this car, westbound at Glen
Oak station, was more than adequate equipment for
a Wheaton local. Roarin Elgin traffic dwindled
after expressway construction forced discontinuance
of "one-seat" service to Chicago's Loop in 19*>4, and
abandonment followed three years later.
William D. Middleton.
A shirt-sleeved conductor waved a highball from the
vestibule and the motorman reached for his con-
troller as a CA&E Chicago local prepared to depart
from Wheaton station in J 9'*''. Heading the train was
one of the line's 10 post-World War 11 St. Louis-built
interurbans, constructed with "fish-belly" sides to
permit extra seating room despite Chicago El plat-
form restrictions. William D. Middleton.
brought them widespread recognition. In 1924 Elec-
tric Traction magazine began the award of an an-
nual Speed Trophy to America's fastest interurban
railways. Texas' Galveston-Houston Electric Rail-
way received top honors for the first two years, but
thereafter, as the benefits of the Insull improve-
ments were realized, the three Chicago lines domi-
nated the competition. After 1929 the Insull lines
regularly held the first three places in the competi-
tion, and in 1933, after winning the first position for
three consecutive years, the North Shore gained
permanent possession of the trophy.
A few years later the North Shore earned world
distinction as the subject of a special article in Great
Britain's The Railway Gazette. Stated the Gazette
in 1935, after citing examples of the North Shore's
frequent start-to-stop timings requiring average
speeds in the vicinity of 70 miles per hour, "Some of
As an express from Chicago cleared the single track
Aurora Hue, a pair of CA&E freight motors headed
out of the Burlington interchange with tonnage
for Wheaton. The much-traveled locomotives had
previously operated under the colors of no less than
three interurbans, in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa.
William D. Middleton.
mmm
225
the point-to-point bookings are probably without
rival, and the timings of the hourly trains between
leaving the Milwaukee suburban area and entering
that of Chicago make the whole service the fastest
of its kind in the world."
Such high speed dominance among electric rail-
ways has continued even into recent years, when
the North Shore has regularly scheduled nearly 2000
miles daily of mile-a-minute or better timings.
Samuel Insull's great public utilities complex
weathered the stock market crash of 1929, but fi-
nancial reverses of the next few years forced the util-
ilities mogul into an increasingly difficult position
From a tower overlooking the junction of CA&E's
Aurora and Elgin branches at Wheaton, the line's
dispatcher ran his busy railroad. William D.
MlDDLETON.
Drab platforms were transformed by wet, sticky
snow at the CA&E National Street station in Elgin
as this cold passenger contemplated the joys of
electric heat aboard the coming train. DALE BUFK1N.
226
and finally, in 1932, the Insull empire collapsed.
Thousands of small investors found their savings
wiped out and Insull, harassed by intense public feel-
ing, fled to Europe to escape prosecution. Seized
aboard a Greek vessel at Istanbul in 1934, Insull was
returned to the U. S. for trial on charges of mail
fraud, violation of federal bankruptcy laws, and
embezzlement, from all of which he eventually won
acquittal.
It is interesting to speculate on what might have
been had the Insull empire survived the depression.
As early as 1925, when Insull's Midland Utilities ac-
quired the bankrupt Chicago, Lake Shore & South
Bend, the electric railway trade press gave serious
attention to rumors that formation of a single giant
Insull interurban extending all the way from Mil-
waukee to Louisville was in the making. The affairs
of the three big Chicago interurbans were close-
ly interlocked following acquisition of control by
Midland Utilities. The three lines engaged in joint
traffic promotion, and two of them, the North Shore
and the South Shore, were headed by the same presi-
dent, Britton I. Budd. The purchase by the South
Shore in 1930 of two new locomotives, designed
for either 1500- or 600-volt operation and trolley,
pantograph, or third-rail current collection to per-
mit their use on any of the three Chicago lines,
hinted at an even closer relationship to come. The
extensive Indiana properties of another Insull hold-
ing company, Midland United, were actually con-
solidated in 1930 into the statewide Indiana Railroad
System, but no effort was ever made to join it with
the Chicago lines. Some initial improvements were
made to the Indiana system, but by this time the
kind of capital needed to rebuild the lines after the
pattern of the Chicago super interurbans was no
longer available and the network vanished scarcely
10 years later. 1
An Insull interurban that never made the grade
uas the Chicago & Interurban Traction Company,
which got as far as Kankakee with a line that was
projected to reach Lafayette, Ind. Ill equipped
to compete with the neighboring Illinois Central
for through business, and paralleled by Illinois' s
first paved highway in 1921, the line suffered
from a chronic shortage of passengers and fre-
quent financial crises. Electrification of Illinois
Central suburban service in 1926, which absorbed
most of the company's suburban business, was the
last straw, and C&IT promptly folded. Soon after
delivery from St. Louis in 1907, car No. 202 of
C&IT -predecessor Chicago & Southern Traction
stepped out on a special excursion. William D.
Middleton Collection.
rs iron
Run
Way Down Sout]
The South Central States
Houston Electric Railway's
•re blue and white, trimmed
observation compart//
e Krambles Collec
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Way Down South
The South Central States
AS in the states of the Confederacy along the At-
lantic coast, interurban development in the central
states of the Deep South was rare. In the entire re-
gion, plus the border state of Kentucky, there were
to be found barely a half dozen important interur-
ban systems. Farther west, in Oklahoma and Texas,
electric line development was more frequent, and
the two states boasted several of the most distin-
guished— and financially successful — properties
of the interurban era. Almost every important popu-
lation center in the two states had at least one inter-
urban; and Dallas, the leading traction center of
the entire South Central region, had no less than
six radiating routes, operated by three different in-
terurban systems. Interurban development in the
two states began relatively late, and continued well
after the beginning of the decline and disintegra-
tion of traction systems elsewhere in North Ameri-
ca. The Northeast Oklahoma Railway, for example,
did not electrify its original line until 1921, and
continued the construction of new lines until 1923.
The ill-considered Texas Interurban Railway, which
operated 62 miles of track from Dallas to Terrell
and Denton, was not completed until 1924, al-
though total abandonment came only eight years
later. The very last interurban to begin operation
in North America was the Missouri Pacific's Hous-
ton North Shore Railway, which opened in 1927.
The most successful of the two interurbans operating from Nash-
ville, Tenn., was the Nashville Interurban Railway, later the Nash-
ville-Franklin Railway. These two photographs showing a freight
train and one of the company's original passenger cars were taken
shortly after the line began operation in 1909, and track ballast was
still conspicuously absent. Both Photos: Mack Craig Collection.
230
During the '30's the N-F acquired a few
secondhand Cincinnati lightweights such
as this one at the Tennessee Central cross-
ing in Nashville in 1940, the last year of
passenger operation. Nashville's other
interurban, the Nashville-Gallatin Inter-
urban Railway, opened a 24-mile high-
speed, 1200-volt route to Gallatin in 1913.
The company proposed ultimately to ex-
tend its system clear across the state of
Kentucky through Bowling Green to
Louisville, where a direct connection was
to be made with the great traction net-
works of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Nothing, of course, ever came of the
scheme, and the company quietly folded
after 19 years of operation. Stephen D.
Maguire.
The first interurban to adopt the Cin-
cinnati curved-side lightweight cat-
was the Kentucky Traction & Ter-
minal Company, which bought 10 of
them in 1 922 for service on its four inter-
urban routes radiating from Lexington.
The phenomenal success of the light-
weights in achieving economies and
increasing patronage led to their wide
adoption on Midwestern interurbans.
One of the original KT&T light-
weights, No. ill, was photographed
at Frankfort en route to Lexington in
1932. Abandonment came two years
later. Howard E. Johnston
Collection.
**\
^
232
233
234
Although brightly painted cars such as the Piankasha provided frequent passenger service to points in the
mining district in the Oklahoma-Missouri-Kansas corner, the Northeast Oklahoma Railroad's principal
business was the transportation of ore from the lead and zinc mines to the smelters of owner Eagle-Picher
Alining & Smelting Company. The last passenger cars quit running in 1940, but freight traffic continues
behind diesel power. George Krambles Collection.
The 24-mile Pittsburg County Railway began op-
eration between McAlester and Hartshorne, Okla.,
in 190 3. Although frequent passenger service con-
tinued almost to the time of abandonment in 1947,
carload coal traffic from the mines of eastern Okla-
homa brought in most of the company's revenue.
Box motor *>2 snitched a strip mine near Alderson
in 1946. Preston George.
The Pittsburg County, in operation for four years
when Oklahoma became a state, originally was
called the Indian Territory Traction Company. In
1946 car 55 zipped along the highway between
Bache and Dow. After 1924, three of these Cin-
cinnati cars operated all passenger schedules.
Preston George.
- ^
->- -
I llJSii3'r
The Sand Springs Line began the replacement of its original heavy wooden equip-
ment with secondhand lightweight cars during the '30's. Here, at Lake Station
in 1946, are former Oklahoma Union Railway lightweight No. 69, en route from
Tulsa to Sand Springs, and Tulsa-bound No. 62, one of the five lightweights ac-
quired from the Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg & Aurora in 1934. Built by the Cin-
cinnati Car Company in 1918, the CL&A cars were among the first lightweight
cars built. Gordon Lloyd.
Former Union Electric Railway No. 75 arrived at Tulsa in. 1954 on double track which
paralleled the Frisco's Tulsa-Oklahoma City main line. William D. Middleton.
236
To augment the motive power available for its growing freight traffic, the Sand Springs purchased
two 11-ton locomotives from the Niagara Junction Railway of New York in 1946. One of the radio-
equipped steeple-cabs, No. 1006, pulled a cut of tankers from the Sinclair plant at Sand Springs in 1934.
WlILIAM D. MlDDLETON.
Charity's Interurban
In 1908 Oklahoma oilman, industrialist, and phi-
lanthropist Charles Page began construction of his
Sand Springs Home for orphans and widows on 160
acres of onetime camping ground in the former
Osage Indian Nation a few miles west of Tulsa. Dis-
pleased with the undependable flagstop transporta-
tion service afforded by a nearby Katy branch line.
Page decided to build his own railroad to the Home.
Completed in 1911, the Sand Springs Railway was
initially operated with McKeen gasoline cars, but
was soon electrified. To assure a permanent income
for the Home, Page established the City of Sand
Springs as a model industrial center and liberally
endowed the Home with tracts of industrial land and
a multitude of business enterprises, chief among
them the Sand Springs Railway itself. A highly
successful electric railway, the Sand Springs Line
continued passenger operation until 1955, when
lack of profits, not a shortage of passengers, brought
its abandonment. Diesel freight operation continues.
The Oklahoma Railway's steel combine Lindbergh was built for the company m 1917 by the St. Louts
Car Company. Scrollwork painting and the glass in the lower panels of the baggage door augmented
the "de luxe" appearance lent by white tires. O. F. Lee Collection.
1
Oklahoma's largest traction system was that of the
Oklahoma Railway, which operated interurban
routes from Oklahoma City to Guthrie, El Reno,
and Norman, as well as street railway lines within
the capital city. The company's interurban routes
survived through World War II, when they were
subjected to a tremendous traffic growth resulting
from defense plant activity and installation of a
huge Naval Training Station at Norman. The com-
pany, which had purchased a considerable number
of relatively modern interurbans on the secondhand
market during the '30's, sought still more, and old
passenger cars which had been converted for freight
service were re-equipped for passenger operation.
Arriving at Oklahoma City from Guthrie in 1946 was a former Rock ford (III.) Public Service Com-
pany interurban obtained in 1917. Preston GEORGE.
One of the different car types acquired by the Oklahoma Railway from aban-
doned Midwestern properties during the '30's lias this former Fort Wayne-Lima
Railroad lightweight shown at the Norman depot in 19 IX. Preston George.
239
The original composite wood and steel equipment of the two predecessor companies operated
virtually all Texas Electric passenger schedules throughout the system's existence. Much rebuilt
through the years, the cars were maintained to high standards even in the company's last years. Hand-
somely groomed No. 368 was photographed at Vickery on a northbound trip in the summer of 1947,
little more than a year before Texas Electric abandoned its entire system. A head-on collision be-
tween two passenger cars in 1948 hastened the company's liquidation. George A. Roush.
Texas Electric was the last interurban, save Pacific Electric, to operate Railway Post Of-
fice equipment. In 1941 the company's RPO car No. 362, southbound from Denison to
Dallas, was just north of Vickery, where the interurban line made an abrupt change of
direction to pass under the T&NO Railroad. George A. Roush.
240
-#
Arch Windows Across
the bluebonnet state
Texas interurban development was largely cen-
tered about the populous Dallas-Fort Worth area,
and a large portion of the state's electric mileage was
under the control of the Stone & Webster Manage-
ment Association of Boston. Street railways in both
Dallas and Fort Worth were Stone & Webster-man-
aged, along with the high-class Northern Texas
Traction Company, which connected the two cities
with a 35-mile line, and the Tarrant County Traction
Company, which operated 30 miles south from Fort
Worth to Cleburne. The Texas Traction Company,
operating north from Dallas to Sherman, and
the Southern Traction Company, operating south-
ward to Corsicana and Waco, on the other hand,
were locally owned and managed, and South-
ern Traction was sometimes known as the "Home
Interurban" for its predominance of local stock
ownership. The two affiliated companies, both pro-
moted by J. F. Strickland of Dallas, were merged in
1917 to form the 250-mile Texas Electric Railway,
the longest interurban in the entire south. Despite
its failure to develop more than a modest freight
traffic, Texas Electric was a remarkably successful
interurban, and its Denison and Waco lines con-
tinued through World War II, when passenger rev-
enues reached a peak of nearly 2 million dollars ;
year, and the company even paid a few dividends.
241
3t =M 3?
c»
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~./ - k
These interurban terminal facilities in
Dallas were provided by the local city
system. At the terminal in 1948 were red
and cream TE RPO car No. 350 and coach
No. 326, one of the jew all-steel cars op-
erated by the company. George A. Roush.
Shortly before abandonment in
194H of the largest interurban of
the entire South Central region, this
Texas Electric interurban traveled
to Waco on a special run with a
party of railroad enthusiasts.
W. P. Donalson Jr.
After Northern Texas Traction was
abandoned in 1934, Texas Electric
acquired a few of NTT's distinguished
arch-roofed wooden cars. Two of
them met at George siding be-
tween Dallas and Denison in 1940.
C. D. Savage.
242
America's Fastest Interurban
Throughout the age of electric traction there
were few interurbans that equaled the magnificent
Galveston-Houston Electric Railway, which was
completed between the two cities in 1911 by the
Stone & Webster Engineering Company. Built with
what the railway's house organ termed "utter disre-
gard for expense," the line observed excep-
tionally high standards of engineering and construc-
tion. For 34 of its 50 route miles the railway's track
was laid on a perfect tangent, and altogether there
were only six curves on the entire interurban sec-
tion, none of them exceeding 21 . ? degrees. The maxi-
mum grade on the entire line was only 0.5 per cent,
with the single exception of the approaches to a
crossing over the Santa Fe. Private right of way was
a full 100 feet wide. Eighty-pound rail, founded in
shell ballast, was employed throughout the length of
the line. Catenary construction was employed for the
overhead system, and power was generated in the
company's own modern steam turbine plant. Galves-
ton-Houston traffic proved highly profitable from the
start. During the '20's some of the company's splen-
did standard interurbans were provided with parlor
sections, and accelerated schedules were installed.
Beginning in 1924 the parlor car limiteds Galves-
ton Flyer and Houston Rocket were scheduled twice
daily between the two cities on 75-minute timings,
requiring an average speed of over 40 miles per hour
between downtown terminals. It was the fastest elec-
tric railway service in America, and for two consecu-
tive years the Galveston-Houston line was awarded
the Electric Traction interurban speed trophy. Dur-
ing the summer months Houston pleasure seekers
rode down to the Gulf on equally rapid schedules
aboard the weekday Pleasure Limited and the Sun-
day-only 55 Limiteds, which operated directly to the
beach in Galveston. Late in the evening the north-
bound Moonbeam was scheduled for the return
home. Special excursion fares were offered, among
them such combination tickets as the Pleasure Lim-
ited round trip which included admission to a bath-
house and the Tokio dance hall, and a tourist outing
which included a sight-seeing tour of either Houston
or Galveston. For the convenience of dance hall
patrons, the last train north in the evening, the
Nigbthawk local, was routed by the Tokio at
12:05 a.m. 1
This gay drawing appeared in local news-
papers at the time of the Galveston-Hous-
ton's opening in 1911. Herb Woods
Collection.
A concrete causeway, over 2 miles in length,
afforded the interurban, five railroads, and a high-
way access to Galveston Island. The electric line
contributed a quarter of the 2-million-dollar con-
struction cost. During the great hurricane of 1915
portions of both approaches to the causeway were
wrecked, stranding a passenger train and a work
train as winds approaching 100 miles per hour
swept sheets of water across the structure. The pas-
senger-train conductor and a number of passengers
who took refuge in the nearby Causeivay Inn lost
their lives when the building was swept away at
the height of the storm. Two passenger cars and an
electric locomotive ivere eventually recovered from
the bay, but a tower car was swept away and never
found. Herb Woods Collection.
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Tu'O jour-car special trains loaded a crowd of Galveston-bound pleasure seekers on Texas Avenue in
Houston about 1927. The two wooden trailer cars in the foreground had come to the rail u ay second-
hand from Pennsylvania's Laurel Line. Herb Woods Collection.
245
To Far and Lonely Places
The Mountain States
246
Against a stern Wasatch Range backdrop, a sleek Bamberger Railroad
Bullet raced southward to Salt Lake City in 1950 across the vast and open
spaces that characterized the Utah interurban. William D. Middleton.
/■'
^^■%f^^Wm
247
To Far and Lonely Places
The Mountain States
VvEST of the Great Plains, in the forbidding
reaches of the Rockies and lesser ranges, the electric
cars became only an infrequent sight. The trans-
portation needs of the thinly populated Mountain
states were already amply accommodated by the
great transcontinental, and the gold and silver dig-
gings of the Colorado Rockies had been thoroughly
covered by the narrow gauge frenzy of a few decades
earlier. Only in the fertile lowlands of Mormon
Utah, where a chain of interurbans extended nearly
200 miles southward from the Idaho border through
the Great Salt Lake basin, did traction develop-
ment approach that of the Midwestern states.
The operations of the omnipresent
Anaconda Copper Mining Com-
pany of Anaconda, Mont., extended
even to a Street Railway Depart-
ment, whose interurban trains ran
to the company's nearby smelter
and the town of Opportunity.
Almost in the shadow of the great
smelter stack, a St. Louis motor
car struggled into Anaconda with
four trailers of homeward-bound
workers in 19W. John Stern.
Aside from portions of major lines of Utah and Washington which
extended into the state, Idaho's few miles of electric railway were
concentrated in the Boise region. Largest of several Idaho in-
terurbans was the Boise Valley Traction Company that operated
westward from Boise to Caldwell over two alternate routes. The
company's combine No. 7, shown at the Ballantine way station in
1919, was built by American Car Company in 1911. Smokers were
expected to ride in the baggage compartment, which was fitted
with folding wooden seats. Allan H. Berner Collection.
248
-1
250
The Denver & Interurban Railroad was a notable
early experiment in high-voltage, single-phase elec-
trification of Colorado & Southern steam tracks be-
tween Denver and Boulder, employing the Westing-
house 11,000-volt A.C. system. At one time Colo-
rado & Southern plans contemplated a mainline elec-
trification and hourly interurban service all the way
to Fort Collins, but the Burlington, which controlled
C&S after 1908, didn't take to the idea and the
catenary never extended beyond Boulder. The eight
generously proportioned motor cars which were
constructed for the service by the St. Louis Car
Company employed extra-heavy steel frames and
wooden bodies because of operation over the same
tracks with steam trains, and weighed better than
62 tons. The extra weight of bulky A.C. controls in
addition to duplicate D.C. controls for operation
over Denver and Boulder streetcar tracks and such
lavish features as steel plate floors contributed to the
great weight of the cars. The exuberance of the Old
West had not entirely disappeared before the brief
span of D&I operation, and on one occasion an in-
terurban passing through Louisville during a bitter
miners' strike was liberally ventilated by gunfire.
The passengers took to the floor while the electric
car hastened out of range.
In Pullman green trimmed with gold, car A1-J57 paused at D&I Junction
with an inspection party of company officials in 1908, the year of D&l's opening.
Motorman Fred Spencer lounged nonchalantly in the doorway. Andrew W.
Whiteford, from Jack Thode.
A small boy gazed rapturously at the big interur-
ban as a Denver & Interurban train made a station
stop under the A.C. catenary. William D. Mid-
dleton Collection.
251
Between Denver and D&I Junction, a distance of some 16 miles, Colorado &
Southern deemed it advisable to construct a new and separate line for its electric
subsidiary, but the remainder of the distance to Boulder was operated over either
of two C&S steam lines which had been electrified for the interurban service.
This activity at Louisville about 1910 indicates the close integration of D&I
252
schedules with those of the parent C&S. The two interurban cars, en route to
and from Denver, are meeting the C&S's Lafayette Stub local, powered by
4-4-0 No. 303. The dual-gauge track was employed for mixed-gauge freights trans-
porting ore concentrates from the Denver, Boulder & Western interchange at
Boulder to the smelter in Denver. Boulder Historical Society.
253
An interurban with an ambitious past was the
Denver & Intermountain, which extended west from
Denver to Leyden and Golden. Originally built by
David Moffat as the narrow-gauge Denver & North-
western, the line was once possessed of plans to
cross the Continental Divide to Grand Lake, a pop-
ular resort near what is now the Rocky Mountain
National Park. Instead, Moffat built his Denver &
Salt Lake line through Corona Pass and Denver &
Northwestern became an interurban affiliate of
the Denver Tramways. Later on, a second, more
direct route to Golden was provided when the
Tramways took over and electrified a standard-gauge
steam line. Between Arvada and the Leyden Mine
the company operated a rare stretch of dual-gauge
electric track.
This D&IM narrow-gauge interurban, a con-
verted city car, was running at a respectable JO
miles per hour near Arvada, Colo., in l')4H on
dual-gauge track of the old Denver & Northwest-
ern, which was parallel to the rails of D&RG\\"s
Mofjat-built transcontinental. A onetime funeral
car which transported mourners while the cof-
fin rode in a four-wheel trailer behind, car .03
retained its black leather upholstery to the end.
For reasons now obscure, Denver & Intermoun-
tain applied decimal numbers to its narrow-
gauge interurbans. Ross B. Grenard Jr.
Lava-capped North Table Mountain provided a scenic background as a standard-gauge D&IM interurban
rolled eastward out of Golden, Colo., in ll)4l), a year before abandonment. John Stern.
255
Trailing a former Colorado & Southern com-
bine which served as a caboose, a pair of D&IM
narrow-gauge steeple-cab locomotives ran
ALU. near Leyden in 1950. The unusual en-
gines were leased from Denver Tramways.
Freight equipment was painted a simple black,
but passenger cars were the same golden yel-
low as DT streetcars. Ross B. Grenard Jr.
Arriving from Colorado Springs, a deck-
roofed Colorado Springs & Interurban car
headed through the streets of Manitou
Springs, past the terminal where passengers
transferred to the cog railroad that scaled
nearby Pikes Peak. Rambling resort hotels,
such as the one seen in the background, ac-
commodated passengers who came to partake
of the health-giving benefits of the mineral
springs. From Railroad Magazine.
256
/*'
The Highest Interurban
The gold mining camps of the mountainous Crip-
ple Creek district, the scene of Colorado's last great
mining boom, were linked by the rails of an early
U. S. interurban, the Cripple Creek District Rail-
way, that began service between Cripple Creek and
nearby Victor early in 1898. This original "High
Line" between the two points traversed an extreme-
ly mountainous area, affording what was perhaps
the most spectacular interurban ride available in
North America. The electric cars negotiated severe
grades, which reached a maximum of 7.5 per cent up
Poverty Gulch, and climbed to an elevation of near-
ly 2 miles above sea level at Midway, making the
line easily the highest electric railway in all of
North America. A year after its opening the electric
line was purchased by the new Colorado Springs &
Cripple Creek District Railway and the latter con-
structed a second, shorter "Low Line" between Crip-
ple Creek and Victor in 1901. During the Cripple
Creek boom times the interurban transported such
later distinguished personages as Bernard Baruch,
Jack Dempsey, Tom Mix, and "Texas" Guinan; and
the famous vaudeville team of Gallagher and Shean
first tried out their routines for passengers on the
mountain interurban, on which they worked as
motorman and conductor.
About 1900, Cripple Creek District Railway's car No. 1, the Evelyn, a Barney &
Smith motor car, stopped at Midway en route from Cripple Creek to Victor.
Barely visible to the south are the peaks of the Sangre de Crista range.
Eddie Wiwatowski Collection.
The interurban's route and the irregular topography of the Cripple Creek District are shown in some-
what exaggerated fashion in this early promoter's view. Trains Collection.
Controlled by the Carlton interests, the Grand
River Valley Railroad, tvhich extended 16 miles
from Grand Junction, Colo., to Fruita, was
once scheduled to become a part of the Colo-
rado Midland's projected western extension to
Salt Lake City. Instead, following World War 1,
the Midland earned the unfortunate distinction
of being the largest single abandonment in
railroad history, and the "fruit Belt Route" con-
tinued to the end of its existence in relative
obscurity. Combine No. 5 J is seen in Grand
Junction. Fred Fellow Collection.
Northernmost of the chain of Utah interurbans
was the Ogden, Logan & Idaho Railway, later known
as the Utah Idaho Central, which meandered north
from Ogden across the Collinston Divide to the
Cache Valley and southern Idaho. Originally the
wealthy David Eccles interests, which built the line,
contemplated an electric trunk line that would
eventually extend all the way to Yellowstone
Park, but traffic was scarce in the lonely UIC coun-
try and prosperity eluded the interurban. In 1910 a
UIC predecessor, the Ogden Rapid Transit Com-
pany, successfully waged a miniature "canyon war"
with Simon Bamberger's Salt Lake & Ogden in-
terurban, when both raced to be the first to build
a line up the scenic Ogden Canyon. While Bam-
berger crews were busy surveying and grading a
new line to the mouth of the canyon, east of Ogden,
ORT managed to get there first by extending an
Ogden local line, and Bamberger was forced to
abandon his virtually completed roadbed.
Winters were severe on the Utah interurbans, and scenes such as this were com-
mon. Home-built wooden freight locomotive No. 6 battled heavy drifts on
the Ogden Rapid- Transit line near Nerva before 1912. Fred Fellow Collection.
260
Speeding downgrade after topping the Collinston
Divide at Summit, northbound VIC train No. 1
beaded through desolate countryside to Preston.
Ida., in 1947. By this time the company's
passenger operation had declined to a single
daily round trip, and abandonment was only a
month away. The "rising sun" front-end treat-
ment was typical of the flamboyant color schemes
adopted by Utah interurbans during their later
years. Fred Fellow.
261
With the great Mormon Temple prominent in the
background, a three-car Bamberger train headed
north out of Salt Lake City for Ogden in 1950.
John Stern.
Garbed in brilliant orange and cream
colors, a Bamberger interurban approached
North Salt Lake station in the wake of a
February snowstorm in 1951. Originally
constructed as an open trailer car in 1916
by the Jewett Car Company, car 355 was
rebuilt numerous times b\ company shops
in later years. After being gutted in a half-
million-dollar Ogden carbouse fire in 1918,
No. 355 and five identical cars were rebuilt
in company shops as enclosed motor cars.
Their last rebuilding came in 1946 in
preparation for a new high-speed "Flyer"
service; interiors were completely refur-
bished and new gearing was installed which
permitted top speeds of 73 miles per hour.
William D. Middleton.
Dissatisfied with the indifferent service offered
between Salt Lake City and Ogden by the Union
Pacific and the Denver & Rio Grande, and con-
vinced that a local railroad devoted to local interests
was required, Simon Bamberger, later a Utah gov-
ernor, organized the Salt Lake & Ogden Railway,
which completed construction of a line between the
two cities in 1908. Originally steam powered, the
SL&O was converted to electric power in 1910, and
still later adopted the Bamberger family name as its
corporate title. Connecting Utah's two principal
cities, and traversing the rich Mormon lowlands
between the Wasatch Range and Great Salt Lake, the
Bamberger line developed a rich traffic and survived
well beyond the midcentury.
26:
Just north of Farmington, Utah,
Salt Lake & Ogden construc-
tion crews drained a swamp,
created an artificial lake, and
built the elaborate Lagoon
amusement park that soon be-
came a major source of the com-
pany's passenger traffic. Jam-
packed with passengers in a
holiday mood, a five-car Fourth
of July special rumbled through
Farmington on the way from
Salt Lake City to the park.
Fred Fellow.
In company with their steam railroad con-
temporaries, interurban proprietors considered the
monumental passenger terminal, befitting the im-
portance and substantial character of their lines, a
necessary adjunct to the passenger business. Among
the most imposing of such structures was the great
terminal erected in 192} on Salt Lake City's Temple
Square by Utah interurban tycoons Simon Bam-
berger atid W . C. Orem for the joint use of their
Bamberger Railroad and Salt Lake & Utah
electric cars. Fred Fellow Collection.
Marble and tile finishes were lavishly employed
in the public rooms of the Salt Lake terminal,
which cost $300,000. Space was provided for a
restaurant, stores, and other facilities befitting an
important passenger terminal, as well as office
spaces for both companies. A Salt Lake & Utah
train unloaded at the platforms in the rear of the
terminal. Fred Fellow Collection.
South from Salt Lake City into the Utah Valley,
during the final years of the great electric railway
boom, Boston mining and railroad tycoon Walter C.
Orem pushed the rails of his high grade Salt Lake &
Utah Railroad. Among the contractors who built
the "Orem Road" was Mrs. W. M. Smith, a rather
remarkable lady who was claimed to be the only
woman railroad contractor in the world. Reputed to
be worth a half million dollars, Mrs. Smith had
built branches for Union Pacific and Southern Pa-
cific and a portion of the Western Pacific main line
before taking the Salt Lake & Utah job. Working
with Mrs. Smith on the interurban was her daughter
Irene, who was learning the business. Said Mrs.
Smith, who bossed her own track gangs, "There is
good money in the contracting business and I don't
see why a woman shouldn't succeed in it as well as
a man. Certainly I can look along a rail and see
if it is laid straight. If it isn't I make the men take
it up and fix it."
In common with most western interur-
bans. Salt Lake & Utah operated an ex-
tensive freight business, interchanging
traffic with its interurban and steam rail-
road connections alike. Steeple-cab loco-
motive No. 52, shown with a tonnage train
of coal from the line's Utah Railway con-
nection at Provo, was a 1922 product of
the company shops at Payson. Rebuilt
from the remains of an earlier locomotive
demolished in a head-on collision with a
steam locomotive, No. 52 met a similar
fate 20 years later when it was completely
wrecked in another "cornfield meet," an
event that occurred altogether too fre-
quently in SL&U history. Fred Fellow
Collection.
I
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j.^HF
I
yliL
Only two years after completion of the Ore/n Road, these SL&U trains met on multiple track not far
from Salt Lake City. Fred Fellow Collection.
265
At Granger, south of Salt Lake, the SL&U Magna branch headed west from the
main line. Car No. 610 was bound down the branch while train No. 5, headed
by combine No. 603, accommodated "Red Arrow Fast Freight" and passengers
for Payson. FRED FELLOW COLLECTION.
Freshly outshopped, a pair of the handsome Niles-built steel interurbans that operated Salt Lake &
Utah passenger service throughout U years of electric operation were lined up in a Salt Lake City street
for a 1935 publicity photograph. Fred Fellow Collection.
266
To provide suitable class on its crack Utah County
Limited and Zion Limited, Salt Lake & Utah ac-
quired a pair of roomy observation cars from the
Niles Car Company in 1916. Local farmers liked to
enrich the family homestead by tossing the chairs
off the observation platform as the electric cars sped
by their farms. To solve what was probably a
unique problem among interurban lines, SL&U
was finally forced to remove all of the seats from
the platforms. This gay group rode south from
Salt Lake City on the Utah County Limited in 1916.
Fred Fellow Collection.
Ready for the return trip to Salt Lake City, a Saltair train made up of two McGuire-Cummings com-
Except for the proceeds of a modest freight traf-
fic, the Salt Lake, Garfield & Western derived vir-
tually all of its revenues from the transportation of
great throngs of pleasure seekers to the company-
owned Saltair resort on Great Salt Lake. In addi-
tion to effortless bathing in Great Salt Lake, such
assorted attractions were offered as a roller coaster
and one of the world's largest dancing pavilions.
268
bines and a brace of company-built open trailers loaded at Saltair pavilion in 1950. Fred H. Matthews Jr.
Heading due west from Salt Lake City over a straight
and level line laid on the bed of prehistoric Lake
Bonneville, the Saltair line opened for business in
1893 as a steam railroad with the grandiose title of
the Salt Lake & Los Angeles Railway. Aside fro!
building a short-lived branch to Garfield, the rail
never did manage to do anything about its c
for rails to the west. 1
269
In the Far West
The Pacific States
270
Luxurious Oregon Electric rolling stock such as that shown in this verdant Willamette Val-
ley scene, combined with lower fares and superior schedules, diverted large numbers of
passengers from rival Southern Pacific's steam trains. For only 35 cents extra passengers
could ride in the opulent parlor-bufjet-observation car Sacajawea, or the identical Cham-
poeg, delivered in 1910 by the Niles Car works. Light lunches and spirituous refresh-
ments were dispensed from the car's miniature buffet. University of Oregon Library.
lib*
271
In the Far West
The Pacific States
In the states of the Pacific Coast grew some of the
finest traction properties of the interurban era.
Except in the matter of their motive power, the trac-
tion systems of the Far West frequently resembled
steam railroads more than they did their electric
contemporaries of the Midwest and East. Construc-
tion standards were usually high, steam railroad op-
erating rules were frequently observed, and many
of the Western electrics engaged in heavy freight
business from their very beginning, often function-
ing essentially as short line feeders to the steam
systems. Such attributes served them well, for long
after the decline of interurban passenger business
and electric traction many of the Far West interur-
bans continued to perform a useful service as freight-
only carriers.
19 Orders and Motor neers
A dominant force in electric interurban develop-
ment in the Puget Sound region was Boston's Stone
& Webster Engineering Company. The earliest of
the Stone & Webster interurbans was the splendidly
engineered third-rail Puget Sound Electric Railway
opened in 1902 between Seattle and Tacoma. By
1907, when Stone & Webster's Seattle-Everett Trac-
tion Company was reaching northward from Seattle
and construction forces were ready to move south
from Bellingham, company executive C. D. Wyman
was able to speak confidently of plans for a Stone
& Webster traction empire that would soon stretch
from the International Boundary south to Olympia
and Chehalis, and perhaps eventually to the Grays
Harbor country and Portland. By 1913 Stone &
Webster's Pacific Northwest Traction Company was
operating two separate divisions, between Seattle
and Everett and between Mount Vernon and Bell-
ingham, with construction of the 30-mile missing
link scheduled for the "near future." To the north
the British Columbia Electric Railway was ready
with plans for a new line into Bellingham that
would have completed an unbroken interurban
route between Seattle and Vancouver. Temporarily
postponed during World War I, neither project
ever materialized, and interurban construction south
of Tacoma never amounted to more than a few
short branches to nearby towns.
With trolley rope bowed in the
breeze, a Puget Sound Electric
Railway Seattle-Tacoma local raced
along near Fife on a stretch of track
where the transition from overhead
to third-rail power collection was
made. General Railway Signal
Company.
272
273
274
Led by a combine laden with an impressive
variety of front-end accessories, a three-car Puget
Sound Electric Seattle Limited paused near Kent
in 1915. Operating in strict accordance
with steam railroad rules, PSE crews picked up
"19" orders and clearances on the fly with tradi-
tional order hoops, and the motorman went by
the hybrid title of "motorneer." A never fully
explained PSE phenomenon was the tendency of
its third rail to travel — one stretch of third rail
moved over 60 feet in the space of only a few
years — and PSE maintenance crews were for-
ever removing or adding pieces of third rail.
H. A. Hill Collection.
Street traffic magically melted in the path of PSE's formidable interurbans. This Tacoma Limited was all
set to rumble off from Seattle in 1924. Washington State Historical Society, from Robert S. Wilson.
Virtual twins of the handsome cars that plied
Stone & Webster's Texas interurban properties,
a half dozen wooden Niles interurbans were
standard equipment for Pacific Northwest Trac-
tion's Seattle-Everett Southern Division from
1910 until abandonment nearly 30 years later.
No. 54 was fresh from the Ohio builder's plant
when this view was recorded. Washington
State Historical Society, from Robert S.
Wilson.
Trolley Varnish in the Inland Empire
Grown shabby in their last years
in the clamp coastal air, these two
North Coast Lines interurbans
met at Ronald siding on the
Seattle-Everett line shortly be-
fore abandonment in 1939.
Stuart B. Hertz.
Operating eastward to Coeur d'Alene, Ida., and south to Colfax,
Wash., and Moscow, Ida., the interurbans of the Inland Empire System
traversed the rich agricultural and forest lands of the Columbia
Plateau. In the early years the electric cars did a brisk picnic business
out of Spokane to nearby lakes in Washington and Idaho, and dur-
ing the summers a special "Campers' Limited Train" operated be-
tween Spokane and Hayden Lake. This holiday crowd jammed a
Coeur d'Alene train at the big Spokane terminal not too many years
after the line's 1903 opening. LeRoy O. King Jr. Collection.
276
Inland Empire luxury travel was provided by
two Brill parlor-observation cars. The Shoshone,
shown here, operated over the Coeur d'Alene line,
ivhile the Kootenai handled extra-fare trade on
the Moscow line. The company's crack Shoshone
Flyer covered the 32 miles to Coeur d'Alene in an
even hour, making connections with the Coeur
d'Alene Lake steamers of the Red Collar Steam-
boat Company for widespread western Idaho
points. LeRoy O. King Jr. Collection.
Brill-built combine 8 and trailers 61 and 62 rested at Coeur d'Alene in 1908. The trailers had observa-
tion platforms, and trolleys for standby lighting. LeRov O. King Jr. Collection.
Four cars of excursionists prepared to venture down
the Liberty Lake branch, while a Coeur d'Alene
local paused on freshly ballasted mainline double
track at Liberty Lake junction. After an involved
series of changes in organization and corporate title,
the Inland Empire System became a Great Northern
subsidiary in 1 927, and was eventually merged with
the steam road. GN freights still traverse the one-
time interurban main lines, but the electric cars
are long gone. LeRoy O. King Jr. Collection.
In true Western railroad fashion, white flags and
an "X-6" train indicator designated an extra train
of Brill cars bound out of Spokane on Washington
Water Power Company's I1 -mile line to Medical
Lake. Short lived (1906-1921) because of poor
patronage, this route and a branch to Cheney were
nevertheless distinguished for their open-platform
observation cars and an interesting automatic block
system with train stop. Mechanically linked to
upper quadrant semaphores, an arm extending
from the mast in the stop position would break
a glass tube on the car roof, exhausting the
brake line and applying the brakes. O. F. Lee
Collection.
A lonely survivor of Washington's interurban era
is the Yakima Valley Transportation Company,
which still does a modest freight business. Steeple-
cab locomotive No. 298 headed for the Union Pa-
cific interchange in 1958 with a single reefer from
a packing shed near Yakima. In passenger-carrying
days the company's two short lines out of Yakima
were serviced by two wooden Niles interurbans
that, although compact in their dimensions, were
constructed to the classic pattern. Fred MATTHEWS.
279
On rails which once led all the way to Estacada, a Portland Traction utilitarian-
pattern wooden interurban, constructed by the company shops in 1910, rolled
through a forested countryside near Gresham about 1952. At Haij.
In its declining years Portland Traction operated a collection of secondhand rolling stock of wide-
spread origins. Lightweight car 4007, shown on the Bellrose line in 1952, had previously operated
on New York's Albany Southern and Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville lines. William C. Downey Jr.
»1V*
280
To Forest and River
Generally regarded as the first true interurban
line, the Portland Traction Company's Oregon City
line very nearly survived long enough to become
the last as well. In their earlier years the Portland
electric cars did a lively excursion business. Picnick-
ers rode the cars to Canemah Park above the falls
of the Willamette, south of Oregon City, and the
unhurried among them took advantage of round
trip tickets offered jointly by the interurban and the
steamship company that provided a rival service
on the Willamette River. Long trains of open
trailers pulled by electric locomotives operated be-
tween Portland and the big Oaks amusement park,
and those who wanted to really get away from the
uproar of the city rode all the way to Estacada, far
up the Clackamas River on the interurban's Spring-
water Division, where the company provided a park
and a hotel in a tranquil setting.
Portland Traction No. 4001 — photographed in 1957 on the Clackamas River bridge not jar from
the onetime grounds of the Gladstone Chautauqua, a source of considerable traffic for the electric
cars in earlier years - — originally plied Indiana Railroad rails. Edward S. Miller.
Freight for the Bellrose line thundered through Golf Junction in 1949 be-
hind a brace of Portland Traction steeple-cab motors, one a 1907 GE prod-
uct, the other a near duplicate built in company shops. John Stern.
Last cars to arrive on FT were eight former Pacific Electric "Hollywood"
cars, one of which is seen passing through the company's East Portland
freight yard in 1935. By this time diesel power was sharing freight duties
with the line's aging steeple-cabs. William D. Middleton.
*■■££
,uv:r
283
The high construction standards of the Hill-controlled Oregon Electric are evident
in this photograph taken shortly after 1910. Heavy rail and crushed rock ballast
were employed for trackwork, and catenary construction was used for the over-
head trolley wire. On the busiest stretch of OE rail, between Portland and
Garden Home, where passenger train movements alone reached a peak of 36 daily,
continuous block signals were installed. General Railway Signal Company.
284
Just in from Portland, 123 miles north, an
Oregon Electric train unloaded in 1913 at the
Eugene depot, where a hotel omnibus waited for
prospective guests. For a brief period, from 1913
to 191X, OE offered a leisurely sleeping car serv-
ice between the two cities. The owl trains made
the run in 5 to 6 hours, but passengers remained
in their berths until # a.m. Special "hop pickers
trains" were another feature of Oregon Electric
passenger traffic in earlier years, during the an-
nual exodus from the city to the hop and berry
fields of the Willamette Valley.
Jim Hill's Wedge . . .
During the first decade of the 20th century, the
forces of steam railroad titans Jim Hill and Edward
H. Harriman squared off for the last of the great rail-
road wars, a fight for supremacy in the Northwest.
The first round went to Hill, who in just three years
built his Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway down
the north bank of the Columbia to rival Harriman's
Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company (Union
Pacific) on the opposite bank. The battle turned
then to the rugged Deschutes River canyon, where
Hill launched a successful drive to strike south
through central Oregon with his Oregon Trunk
Railway into the hitherto exclusive Northern Cali-
fornia preserves of Harriman's Southern Pacific.
While Hill and Harriman forces engaged in fre-
quent fisticuffs in the battle for control of the
Deschutes canyon, Hill moved into still other Har-
riman territory with the purchase in 1910 of the
Oregon Electric Railway, whose interurban line ex-
tended south from Portland through the rich, SP-
dominated Willamette Valley to Salem, and whose
plans contemplated an eventual extension to Rose-
burg and perhaps even across the Siskiyous to a
juncture with the Sacramento Northern to create
an all-electric transcoastal route. Under Hill con-
trol, Oregon Electric construction standards were
upgraded to create a first-class railroad capable of
across-the-board competition with Southern Pacific,
and within two years OE trains were running all
the way to Eugene. Harriman countered the threat
of Hill's electric competition in 1912 with plans
for an expansive system of SP branch and subsidiary
line electrification in the Willamette Valley that
would ultimately embrace 330 route miles of track.
By 1914 the splendid new "Red Electrics" were op-
erating from Portland to Whiteson over two al-
ternate routes, and within five years . interurban
service was being operated as far south as Corvallis,
which turned out to be as far as SP's electrification
ever got.
. . . And Harriman's Answer
The superbly constructed permanent way of
Southern Pacific's Oregon interurban system
out of Portland was equaled by the high quality
of the rolling stock provided for the service.
Weighing as much as 52 tons each, the porthole-
windowed cars delivered by Pullman in 1914
were among the earliest all-steel interurbans.
After the untimely abandonment of "Red Elec-
tric" passenger service late in the '20's, most of
the cars moved south to join the roster of the
SP's Pacific Electric. University of Oregon
Library.
^i^
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Over the Hills to Sacramento
Of revered memory among Western electric trac-
tion enthusiasts is the great Sacramento Northern
Railway. SN's Meteor and Comet limiteds pene-
trated nearly 200 miles northward from San Francis-
co Bay to Sacramento and Chico on North America's
longest interurban journey. Trains frequently ran
to as many as six cars in length and offered such
amenities of long distance travel as dining and par-
lor car service, and open observation platforms
from which to view the sometimes spectacular
scenery.
Among the many who recorded Sacramento North-
ern on film in the last years of its passenger opera-
tion, none produced more inspired camera work
than the late Art Alter, who composed this memora-
ble photograph. Sweeping around the Valle Vista
curve, a big Wason combine led a five-car Concord-
San Francisco local westward to Redwood Canyon
and the tunnel through the hills above Oakland.
Train No. 27's consist represented the handiwork of
no less than four carbuilders from such widely scat-
tered locales as Springfield, Mass., and San Francisco.
Arthur R. Alter.
arc.
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During the first years of Oakland-Sacramento in-
terurban operation this Oakland, Antioch &
Eastern limited crossed Lake Temescal in the
Berkeley hills. To obviate turning at each end of
the line the richly appointed parlor-observation cat-
platform at both ends. In 1929 OA&E, by then
known as the San Francisco-Sacramento Railroad,
was merged under Western Pacific ownership with
the Sacramento Northern Railway, the former
Northern Electric Railway. Golden State Trans-
Moraga was equipped with a complete observation portation Historical Society.
Above Oakland, Sacramento Northern trains made a laborious ascent up Shepherd Canyon to pierce
the hills via 3458-foot Redwood Peak Tunnel, then rolled downward through the scenery of Red-
wood Canyon. The walls of Shepherd Canyon echoed to the whine of a dozen traction motors as a six-
car Sunday-morning version of the Comet scaled the 3 per cent grade. Arthur R. Alter.
£****
-Jii
Bursting forth from the east portal of SN's tunnel, a Comet beaded by Holman-
built combine 1006 gathered speed for the downhill ride to tidewater. ARTHUR R.
Alter.
Long after first-class schedules disappeared from the Sacramento Northern time-
card, freight tonnage continued to roll through the canyons. In 1951 this eight-
car freight crept up the hill from Oakland, propelled by a big Baldwin-West-
inghouse steeple-cab, with an identical machine shoving mightily behind the
caboose. Even though they represented Sacramento Northern's heaviest electric
motive power, these 68-ton locomotives were rated at only 400 tons on the
formidable track through the canyon. William D. Middleton.
289
To Sea by Interurban
The waters of Suisun Bay presented a natural ob-
stacle in the path of Oakland, Antioch & Eastern's
"short line" to Sacramento. To cross it company
engineers planned a 10,000-foot bridge, 70 feet above
high water at the navigable part of the stream, esti-
mated to cost 1.5 million dollars. Preliminary work
was actually under way when the project was post-
poned due to unsettled business conditions result-
ing from the outbreak of World War I, and the car
ferry that was to have been only a temporary ex-
pedient became a permanent feature of the line.
The delay occasioned by ferrying trains across the
Bay was not serious during the early days of OA&E
passenger operation, for the company's chief com-
petitor for San Francisco-Sacramento traffic — South-
ern Pacific — likewise was forced to ferry its trains
across the Bay. But in 1930 Southern Pacific com-
pleted its great Martinez-Benicia bridge, and Sacra-
mento Northern was thereafter placed at a severe
disadvantage.
In 1951 one of SN's black and orange striped motors eased out toward the apron
at Mallard, pushing a cut of cars onto the ferry Ramon. William D. Middleton.
From 1VI4, a year after the Suisun Bay car ferry crossing was opened, until its
abandonment in l'J'>4, SN trains were shuttled across the half mile of open water
and tricky currents by the ferry Ramon, a steel-hulled vessel powered by a re-
markable 50-ton, (yOO-borsepower distillate-fueled engine which represented
the largest electric-ignition, internal-combustion engine ever constructed.
Arthur R. Alter.
With the train safely stowed, the Ramon headed across the Sacramento River.
In the days of passenger service, coffee and doughnuts were served during
the voyage in a small lunchroom on the vessel. William D. Middleton.
290
The flatland running that carried Sacramento Northern trains from the Suisun Bay ferry to Sacra-
mento was broken by the 2-mile Lisbon trestle which crossed the Yolo Basin. Such was the quality
292
'
of this 1500-volt, catenary-equipped speedway that the Comet was able to cover 47 miles from the
ferry to Sacramento Union Station at an average speed of 50 miles per hour. Fred Fellow.
293
One leg of the SN turning wye in Woodland was under the station arches. Train J7 was beading for
a connection with the westbound Comet. B. H. Ward.
294
^
Sacramento Northern passengers to Woodland enjoyed the facilities of a mission-style structure that
was without question one of the handsomest of all interurban stations. The 18-mile Sacramento-W ood-
land branch was as far as predecessor Northern Electric ever got with plans for its own route to San
Francisco, conceived at a titne when Oakland, Antioch & Eastern, later to become part of the same Sac-
ramento Northern, was a fierce rival. Western Pacific Railroad.
This solid-tired, chain-driven "auto bus" trans-
ported passengers between the third-rail Northern
Electric' s East Grid ley station and nearby Grid ley.
At the time of its completion in 1913 NE had the
longest third-rail interurban line in the United
States. The earliest portions of the line were con-
structed with overhead trolley wire, but so success-
ful was the later adoption of the third-rail system
that the trolley wire was replaced, resulting, in one
case, in the resignation en masse of the section gang
along the affected stretch of track. Western
Pacific Railroad.
Early in 1939 Sacramento Northern trains, which
had previously terminated on the Key Route
ferry pier out in the Bay, began operating across
the new Bay Bridge into East Bay Terminal in
downtown San Francisco. The expected traf-
fic boom failed to materialize and within two
and a half years SN ended its interurban pas-
senger business. Few were on hand in August
1940 when train No. 10 departed from East
Bay Terminal on the last through trip to Sacra-
mento. Arthur R. Alter, Al Haij Collection.
*00m
Between runs at the Northbrae terminal of the "F" line, this Key unit waited on
track which was until 1941 a part of Southern Pacific's rival East Bay electri-
fication. After SP abandoned its operation. Key System trains began service
over several stretches of former SP track. Donald Sims.
During earlier years the Key Route offered high-
class electric traction service to San Francisco's East
Bay cities with commodious wooden cars of typical
interurban pattern, one of which won a first prize
at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and
thereafter displayed a bronze plaque to that effect.
Chefs on the big orange Key ferries that plied be-
tween the company's Oakland Pier terminal and
San Francisco served up such specialties as "Key
Route Corned Beef Hash." and stringed orchestras
provided Sunday entertainment. Altogether it was
a most satisfactory method of commutation. In
preparation for through service to San Francisco
over the new Bay Bridge which replaced the ferries
in 19V), the Key System designed an unusual type
of articulated unit. In this 1951 photograph an
inbound Bethlehem-built unit from the Berkeley
"F" line headed for the Bay Bridge, dipping under
the Southern Pacific main line and a highway
approach to the bridge in a three-level montage
of electric, steam, and internal combustion transport.
William D. Middleton.
2%
A Key System predecessor, California Railway, bought masterfully painted car 11 from Carter Brothers
of Newark, Calif., in 1896. Its proportions and massive clerestory indicate a greater familiarity with
steam car construction than with electric car building on the part of the local builder. Industrial
Photo Service.
297
In 1939 NWP'i car from Manor waited at San
Anselmo station for the connecting train from
San Rafael. The owl-faced cars ran south to
the ferry terminal at Sausalito on this former
narrow-gauge trackage. Arthur R. Alter,
Al Haij Collection.
North from the Golden Gate
From 1903 until 1941, commuters from the Marin
peninsula north of San Francisco rode down to the
ferries at Sausalito on the first third-rail electric
line in California. Originally narrow gauge and op-
erated with steam motive power, the North Pacific
Railroad was renamed North Shore Railroad when
it was electrified in 1903. The Northwestern Pacific
Railroad took over operations in 1907. Some of the
first cars built for the railroad in 1902 — open plat-
form wooden coaches — were outfitted with elec-
trical equipment and operated right to the end of
service as rush hour extras. Soon after Southern Pa-
cific took control of the NWP in 1929, 19 steel and
aluminum interurbans were put into service. Al-
most identical in dimensions and appearance to cars
built before World War I for SP's East Bay electri-
fication, the 55-ton cars incorporated many other
improvements in addition to the use of aluminum
in the bodies. Completion of the Golden Gate
Bridge and through bus service to San Francisco
doomed interurban service, but the big orange cars
went south to the Pacific Electric where many of
them operated in Long Beach service until early
1961. 1
298
Northbound at Alto, five big orange cars of the NWP's extra "school train" car-
ried Tamalpais High School students home to Ross Valley suburban towns. These
72-foot cars, built in 1929 and 1930 by St. Louis Car Company, had no doors on
their semi-enclosed platforms. Sliding screen gates closed the double-width
vestibule steps. Stephen D. Maguire.
y . i
The longevity of the electric car was ably demonstrated by the vehicles which
inaugurated service on the United Railroads of San Francisco's San Mateo
interurban line in 1904 and were still around for last-day festivities in 1949. One
of them raced southward down the peninsula at Lomita Park in 1947 , by which
time the line had long since become part of the San Francisco Municipal Railways.
Arthur R. Alter, Al Haij Collection.
These steel passenger cars of the San Francisco &
Napa Valley Railroad borrowed gas-electric body
styling, and were noteworthy as the last interur-
bans constructed (in 1953) before depression and the
decline of the electric railways almost entirely
wiped out the carbuilding industry. A serious
equipment shortage resulting from a carbarn fire,
rather than any sudden increase in traffic, neces-
sitated the purchase of these cars. Only five
years later the company's Napa Valley passenger
service between Calistoga and Vallejo was ended.
George Krambles Collection.
The Central California Traction Company, which
began operation between Stockton and Lodi in
1907, was an early user of the 1200-volt D.C. power
system and was the first electric line to employ
1200-volt third-rail power distribution. These two
wooden cars were part of a six-car order constructed
by the Holman Car Company of San Francisco in
1910 to operate passenger schedules over the com-
pany's newly completed extension to Sacramento.
Ready to roll northward on the 53-mile trip to the
stale capital, they were near the docks in Stockton,
where a connection was made with overnight San
Joaquin River steamers from San Francisco.
George Krambles Collection.
301
302
Red Cars in the Southland
■ i
Pacific Electric Railway
Six cars of pleasure-bent Southern Californians
raced southward over the four-track main
line of Pacific Electric' s Southern District,
bound for the docks at Wilmington and
the connecting steamer to Avalon in the
carefree days before World War II. The
1200-class steel interurbans were PE's fastest
and finest cars. Donald Duke Collection^
303
Red Cars in the Southland
Pacific Electric Railway
CjREAT RED TRAINS of heavy steel interurbans,
their air whistles shrieking hoarsely for road cross-
ings, hurtled at mile-a-minute speeds down the inner
rails of the Pacific Electric's four-track steel boule-
vards, overtaking mundane locals that skipped from
stop to stop on the outer tracks. Multiple-unit trains
of suburban electric cars worried their way through
the congested boulevards of Hollywood and then,
like big red snakes, darted into the subway that sped
their way to downtown Los Angeles. Polished par-
lor-observation cars with guide-lecturers transported
breathless tourists over the length and breadth of a
trolley empire of over a thousand miles that ranged
from the snow-capped peaks of the San Gabriel
Mountains to citrus groves, vineyards, and endless
Pacific beaches. Sumptuously furnished private cars
glided along the rails bearing high officials on their
errands of importance. In a time before Southern
California became the world's most automobile-
oriented society almost everyone rode Pacific Elec-
tric's "big red cars" to the beaches, mountains, race
tracks, and other pleasure spots of the Southland,
as well as to and from their daily work.
Pacific Electric freight trains rumbled in every
direction across the red car network behind electric,
steam, and later, diesel motive power, and a compre-
hensive box motor service delivered package freight,
express, and mail to every extremity of the system.
Full-fledged Railway Post Office cars raced imperi-
ously along the more important routes.
"The World's Greatest Interurban Railway" was
what they labeled this Los Angeles-centered traction
colossus assembled under Southern Pacific control in
the Great Merger of 1911. And even in a region
prone to generous superlatives and overstatement,
the title was one that could hardly be disputed, for
the Pacific Electric Railway simply encompassed
more miles of track, operated more cars, and hauled
more passengers and freight than any other inter-
urban. It has been estimated that nearly 10 per cent
of the U. S. interurban investment was represented
by this one system.
In the geographic extent of its interurban services
Los Angeles was eclipsed by Indianapolis, but in
sheer numbers of passengers PE easily made Los
Angeles America's leading interurban center. In
1914, for example, a total of 1626 trains, made up
of 3262 cars, entered or left Los Angeles daily over
PE's three operating districts.
Pacific Electric was largely the creation of Henry
E. Huntington, wealthy heir and nephew of Collis P.
Huntington, one of the Southern Pacific's "Big
Four." Arriving on the Southern California scene
in 1898 with a broad background of experience
on Southern Pacific and other family railroad prop-
erties, Huntington purchased a pioneer Los An-
geles-Pasadena interurban and within 10 years par-
layed it into a traction giant that reached out from
Los Angeles to San Pedro, Long Beach, Newport
Beach, Santa Ana, Glendora, and Glendale.
Huntington's electric railway activities were close-
ly allied with his extensive real estate interests, and
the advance of the red cars into new territory was
carefully co-ordinated with the operations of his
Pacific Electric Land Company. Southern California
was then enjoying a period of unparalleled growth
and prosperity, and Huntington profited handsome-
ly from his dual interests.
Retiring from active management of his electric
railway interests in 1910, Huntington sold out to
Southern Pacific which a year later merged PE with
other Southern California traction properties into
the greatest electric railway system in history. New
construction continued until 1914 when the last
major Pacific Electric line, a high-speed route to
San Bernardino, was opened.
Had the favorable climate for interurban develop-
ment lasted a few years longer than it did, Pacific
Electric might have grown to even greater dimen-
sions. As early as 1906 the "Huntington syndicate"
304
The first interurban route of what was to become the world's greatest
traction system was created when Gen. Moses H. Sherman and Eli P.
Clark connected two local lines with this bridge across the Arroyo Seco
and inaugurated electric car service between Los Angeles and Pasadena
in 1S95. This is the first car. Historical Collections, Security First
National Bank, Los Angeles.
After retirement from business affairs Henry E. Hunting-
ton, who made a fortune from his Southern California
real estate and electric railway activities, devoted his
last years and his fortune to the distinguished library
and art gallery at San Marino which bears his name.
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery.
305
Both the Sixth and Main Street terminal building
and the San Pedro interurban line were new when
this photograph was taken about 1906. No. 279,
scraping the pavement as it heeled into the ter-
minal, was one of 130 semi-open cars delivered by
the St. Louis Car Company between 1902 and 1906.
The sidewalk semaphores and track switches were
operated from the raised bay-window office to
expedite heavy two-way movements in this then
stub terminal, and to protect narrow-gauge city
cars which also used Main Street's three-rail
trackage. Al Haij Collection.
All dressed up for a day's outing, a crowd of
excursionists unloaded from a Pasadena & Pa-
cific train at Santa Monica around the turn of
the century. The P&P was constructed with such
rapidity by promoters Gen. Moses H. Sherman
and Eli P. Clark that some called it another
"Sherman's March to the Sea." Later known
as the Los Angeles Pacific, the company came
under Southern Pacific control in 1906 and be-
came part of Pacific Electric in the 1911 merger.
Historical Collections, Security First
National Bank, Los Angeles.
306
was believed to be backing a group which proposed
to build a Los Angeles-San Diego electric line along
the coast, and Huntington's name was associated
with grandiose plans for a high-speed electric line
through the San Joaquin Valley which would extend
all the way to San Francisco. Still other proposals
envisioned lines to Santa Barbara via San Fernando,
and from Santa Monica to Ventura.
101 Miles for ioo Cents
Then as now, Southern California was a favored
vacation spot, and Pacific Electric developed the
tourist excursion business into a fine art. The most
popular of PE's inexpensive electric tours of the
Southland was the "Balloon Route Trolley Trip"
originated by Los Angeles Pacific and continued
by PE after the 1911 merger. Tourists flocked
aboard the "palatial observation cars" of the Bal-
loon Route specials by the thousands. On one
record day 18 carloads of excursionists were trans-
ported on the tour, and in 1909 an average of
10,000 monthly rode the trip during the tourist
season. First stop on the "101 miles for 100 cents"
tour was the Hollywood Boulevard home and gallery
of renowned French floral artist Paul de Longpre,
where this tour party posed self-consciously early
in the century. Historical Collections, Security
First National Bank, Los Angeles.
Midway through the Balloon Route all-day
outing, the excursion cars stopped at the
Playa del Rey Pavilion, where a fish din-
ner was served. Boat rides on the lagoon
and skating on a rink were also possible
during the stopover. Freshly rebuilt for
regular service on the Balloon Route trip,
Los Angeles Pacific cars 900 and 901 were
photographed at Playa del Rey with a
group about 1910. Al Haij Collection.
307
De luxe excursion car 023 transported Southland tourists on the "Old Mission Trolley Trip" to San Gabriel
Mission, Pasadena, Bush Gardens, and the Cawston Ostrich Farm, all for a dollar. Al Haij Collection.
The Greatest Mountain Trolley Trip
Among the greatest of Southern California's tourist
attractions of the early 20th century was Pacific
Electric' s amazing trolley ride up the slopes of the
Sierra Madre to Mount Lowe, named for Prof.
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, who huilt the railway in
1893. In this rare photograph Professor Lowe (with
field glasses) and two ladies are studiously ignoring
construction progress in the vicinity of the Cape of
Good Hope on the Alpine Division.
Charles S. Lawrence.
308
*&,
Throughout most of its existence as a passenger
interurban PE was subdivided into three major dis-
tricts, each virtually a complete interurban system
in itself. Largest of them was the Northern District,
operating north and east from Los Angeles, which
included no less than 400 miles of track and 33 sep-
arate routes. Main artery of the PE north was a
great four-track right of way along Huntington
Drive that carried trains to Pasadena and other San
Gabriel Valley points, and within the district's jur-
isdiction were such diverse operations as the Great
Cable Incline and narrow-gauge Alpine Division
that elevated excursionists to the scenic heights of
Mount Lowe, and the 48-mile, 1200- volt San Bernar-
dino route that was PE's longest and fastest line.
At the top of the standard- gauge Mount Lowe inter-
urban line, the Great Cable Incline (designed by
Andrew S. Hallidie, who engineered San Francisco's
early cable railways) carried passengers up to the
Alpine Division's narrow-gauge trolleys. At this
level were a hotel and dance pavilion; at the top
of the incline stood Echo Mountain House, an
observatory, and a 3-million-candlepower search-
light said to be visible from 150 miles at sea.
Historical Collections, Security First
National Bank, Los Angeles.
Above Echo Mountain, the Alpine Division wound
through 127 curves and crossed 18 trestles to reach
Mount Lowe Springs, just 1100 feet below the sum-
mit. This is Circular Bridge, with a fearless group
posing in skeletal car 9. In the background is the
trolley line down to the summit of the incline.
Eldon M. Neff.
The Western District, made up largely of the lines
of the premerger Los Angeles Pacific Company, op-
erated 260 miles of track and 12 lines which served
a vast area to the west of Los Angeles, and included
among its destinations Hollywood, Beverly Hills,
Glendale, Burbank, the San Fernando Valley, and
the beaches at Santa Monica, Venice, and Redondo.
The Southern District, with 400 miles of track and
17 lines under its supervision, reached south from
Los Angeles to the busy harbors of Long Beach and
San Pedro, southeast along Pacific beaches to the
Newport and Balboa resorts and through the orange
groves to Santa Ana, and southwest to the El Segun-
do oil fields and Redondo Beach.
The Alpine Division was carved out of solid granite for its entire 4-mile length,
and its grade sometimes exceeded 7 per cent. A dusting of snow was not entirely
unusual at this 5000-foot altitude, making a unique ride even more spectacular
for Southern California tourists. PE purchased the line in 1902, and double-
truck car 121 replaced the original Mount Lowe cars in 1906.
Charles S. Lawrence.
-V .V- v
- < -
■
In vivid contrast to the snow scene on page 310 is this view of PE interurban
No. 1044 tarrying along the beach south of Long Beach on the way to the sea-
side resorts of Newport and Balboa. Such diverse scenes were only a few hours
apart on the "big red cars." Donald Duke Collection.
311
An almost universal feature of the hundreds of wooden interurban cars operated
by Pacific Electric was a generous expanse of front-end glass, which extended
clear around the corners in an early version of the "wraparound" windshield.
Exceptional among these spacious wooden chariots were the cars of PE's 1000
class, which arrived from the Newark (O.) works of the Jewett Car Company
on their own wheels in 1913. A year later they were featured participants in the
gala celebration and parade attended by 20.000 which marked the opening of
PE's celebrated San Bernardino line. William D. Middleton Collection.
Slated with other PE wooden cars for scrapping on the eve of World War II, the 1000's were re-
prieved to meet the severe test of record PE passenger loads. These five jam-packed 1000's hurtled
down multiple track to Long Beach in 1942. The Long Beach line, the last PE interurban line to op-
erate, was abandoned April 1, 1961.. H. L. Kelso.
In 1929, when PE converted six cars purchased from the SP Oregon lines into
reserved-seat parlor cars, extra-fare passengers on boat trains to Los Angeles Harbor
enjoyed the questionable privilege of viewing each other's knees, rather than the
scenery. The service didn't last long, thanks to the depression. Ira L. Swett —
Magna Collection.
313
In 1906 Henry Huntington opened a new PE inter urban route to Pasadena which
was designed to serve his Hotel Huntington — an elegant resort hostelry atop Oak
Knoll — and adjacent Huntington real estate. Late one October afternoon in 1950,
only a day before the line's abandonment, lone interurban No. 1129 lumbered up
the slopes of Oak Knoll not far from the hotel. A year later the 50 cars of the
1100 class were loaded aboard ship at New Orleans for a trip to new duties in
Buenos Aires. "William D. Middleton.
Race Track Special
On such occasions as the annual Tournament of Roses at Pasadena or races at
Santa Anita, the four-track main line of PE's Northern District absorbed a truly
phenomenal traffic of rail-borne humanity. On an average day 100,000 rode the
red cars to see the ponies run; atid multi-car trains, such as this trackbound special
barreling through Sierra Vista in January of 1951, rolled over the line in
profitable profusion. WILLIAM D. MlDDLETON.
fm[mnifHfiJ||mLffrrPPfri
315
316
During the final years of its passenger operation
PE acquired from abandoned interurban properties
in the San Francisco Bay Area a fleet of owl-faced
electric cars of prodigious dimensions. Over 12 feet
in length, and weighing up to 61 tons, the big cars
provided seats for 80 passengers after remodeling
and refurbishing by the company's Torrance shops
in 1947. Led by combine No. 498, a four-car special
train of former Southern Pacific Oakland-Berkeley-
Alameda suburban cars rolled northward to Los
Angeles off the San Pedro line at Dominguez Junc-
tion. Donald Duke.
The great length of these massive
cars is evidenced in this broadside
view of No. 312 — an aluminum-
bodied car that once rolled down to
the Golden Gate on Marin County
rails of the Northwestern Pacific —
entering the Los Angeles elevated
terminal. William D. Middleton.
For services more suburban than interurban in char-
acter. Pacific Electric had 160 cars of the "Hollywood"
type, so called for their long association with the lines
to the film capital. In 1950 No. 152 burst from the
gloom of the mile-long subway into bright Southern
California sunshine on the long journey to the San
Fernando Valley. These low-floor, center-door cars,
built between 1922 and 1928, were unusually successful.
William D. Middleton.
■■■■9SEC20
«*~
Deadheading into Subway Terminal for rush-hour service on the Glendale-Bur-
hank line, a two-car train of Hollywoods snaked its way out of Toluca Yard in
1954. Some of these cars now operate in Argentina (see page 367).
William D. Middleton.
318
•Mor/ty W^e World War II Pull-
man-Standard delivered 30 PCC-
type streamliners, modified for dou-
ble-end, multiple-unit operation, for
service on PE's Glendale-Burbank
route, which was thereupon restored
to all-rail operation after a highly
unsatisfactory experiment with joint
bus-rail service. In 1950, 5026
crossed the high Fletcher Drive
trestle on the climb over Elysian
Hills on the way from Glendale to
Los Angeles. William D.
MlDDLETON.
An outbound Edendale-Atwater
local dropped downgrade from the
hills into the Los Angeles River
valley at Montesano in 1954. In
1959 the 30 PCCs joined two
previous PE car types on Argen-
tina's Ferrocarril Nacional Ge-
neral Urquiza at Buenos Aires.
William D. Middleton.
rl
j1
jt
-,- -^r-.
PE trains to San Pedro mingled intimately with harbor traffic. Momentarily seen
from the bridge of a tanker tied up in the San Pedro Harbor's West Basin, an
interurban train from Los Angeles was about to cross the huge SP bascule bridge
that separated the basin from the remainder of the harbor. H. L. Kelso.
320
The intense activity characteristic of Pacific Elec-
tric 's four-track steel boulevard leading south from
Los Angeles is evident in this scene near Watts. At
left, a freight train had just entered the line from
Graham Freight Yard. On the right, a northbound
drag of oil tankers struggling upgrade was being
passed by a fast-moving passenger train inbound
from San Pedro. William K. Barham.
In downtown Los Angeles, Pacific Electric op-
erated two major passenger terminals, and it had
both an elevated and a subway line. In 1905 Henry
E. Huntington opened the 2-million-dollar nine-
story terminal building at Sixth and Main streets
which was Los Angeles' first "skyscraper" and, at the
time, its largest building. Hundreds of daily train
movements caused intolerable congestion in sur-
rounding streets, and in 1916 an elevated approach
was constructed, which thereafter accommodated
a majority of train movements. In 1925 PE opened a
4-million-dollar subway and terminal that took at
least some Western District trains off the downtown
streets.
Merchandise and small freight shipments of every description were loaded aboard
box motors at Pacific Electric's Eighth Street Yard. Car 1459, in the foreground,
came from SP's Portland (Ore.) interurban lines. Pacific Electric Railway.
i~jjpp
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In earlier years, PE-predecessor Los Angeles Pa-
cific had formulated plans for a far more ambitious
subway than the mile-long tube finally opened in
1925. In 1906, only months after the Southern
Pacific's E. H. Harriman had purchased control of
LAP, plans were announced for a four-track subway
and private-right-of-way route from Vineyard to
downtown Los Angeles, along with new connecting
cutoff routes, which would have created the greatest
rapid transit system west of Chicago. But Har-
riman's plans were "temporarily postponed" dur-
ing the panic of 1907, and LAP's great subway was
never built. 1
Mail and express activity was concentrated around
PE's Sixth and Main Street terminal and the Los
Angeles Union Passenger Terminal. It was
handled by box motors such as 1415, a standard
type constructed in large numbers by PE. The
extra train approached Slauson Junction inbound
from the Whittier line in 1950. William D.
Middleton.
The scattered industry of the Southland was well served by Pacific Electric, and the greatest of all
interurbans became California's third-ranking freight railroad. Electric freight activity centered around
compact Butte Street Yard, where traffic was interchanged with the major transcontinental systems.
Steeple-cab locomotive No. 1610 worked the south end of the yard. Pacific Electric Railway.
; u
M
Moving behind one of the standard Baldwin-W estinghouse steeple-cab designs that served PE in
large numbers, a solid block of refrigerator cars hurried along the Santa Monica Air Line near Palms.
Donald Duke.
323
"7"
The extraordinary freight traffic of World War 11 was responsible for such dramatic activ-
ity as this combination of Mogul and steeple-cab working an east bound extra freight
through the vineyards near Etiwanda on the San Bernardino line. Overburdened with
324
:fi<
—
wartime traffic on its main line east of Los Angeles, Southern Pacific diverted much ton-
nage to the line of its parallel subsidiary. Confronted with a resulting motive power
shortage. Pacific Electric borrowed SP steam to help out. F. J. Peterson.
325
Sunset on the Fraser River . . . and this British Columbia
Electric 1200-class car tripped lightly over the trestle fro?n
Lulu Island, bound for Mat pole and Vancouver. Symbolic
of the Pacific Northwest are a sawmill burner and fishing
boat masts in the dusky background. Stan F. St
V
*T4T M
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1 « !* 8
Maple Leaf Traction
Canada's Interurbans
Maple Leaf Traction
Canada's Interurbans
iNORTH of U.S. borders the interurban was less
frequently seen, and nowhere were to be found the
interconnecting electric networks common to New
England or the Midwestern states. Over half of the
Canadian mileage was located in the Province of
Ontario and virtually all of this was concentrated in
the southern part of the province bordering Lakes
Erie and Ontario, where industrial development and
population were greatest. Elsewhere the vast dis-
tances and sparse population of the Dominion of-
fered scant inducement to interurban promoters,
and few lines were built except those which ven-
tured out from the largest metropolitan centers.
The two great Canadian transcontinentals occa-
sionally took an interest in the interurbans. Cana-
dian National acquired several important properties
from predecessor companies upon its formation after
World War I, and added another to its holdings as
recently as 1951. Canadian Pacific's electric line ac-
tivities were confined to an important pair of inter-
connected lines in Ontario, the Hull Electric Railway
in Quebec, and the Aroostook Valley Railway in
Maine. Government ownership of electric railways,
a practice which was virtually unknown in the
United States, was much more frequent in the
Dominion.
On a quiet Sunday evening in 1958 a Quebec Railway, Light & Power
Company interurban waited at Montmorency Falls, Que., for a late evening
local run into Quebec City. William D. Middleton.
328
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329
Chemin de Fer de la Bonne
Sainte Anne
Aside from returns on traffic of a suburban
nature, passenger revenues on the Quebec
Railway, Light & Power Company's interur-
ban were derived in large measure from the
movement of summer visitors to one of North
America's most celebrated Roman Catholic
shrines at Ste. Anne de Beaupre. Such was the
identification of the railway with the shrine
that among French-Canadians the former was
widely known as the "Chemin de Fer de la
Bonne Sainte Anne." Long after its disappear-
ance elsewhere the trolley excursion continued
on the Quebec interurban, and the "Special
Tourist Electric Train Service" remained on
summer timecards until the end of passenger
operation. Excursion car 455, whose crew in-
cluded a bilingual guide-lecturer, waited for
the return trip in a siding at Ste. Anne during
the last summer of passenger operation in 1958.
William D. Middleton.
For peak movements to the shrine the railway retained a fleet of incredibly antique
rolling stock, much of it constructed during the 19th century for QRL&P's steam
road forerunner. This string of 1889 Jackson & Sharp coaches rolled down the
north bank of the St. Lawrence to Ste. Anne behind a steeple-cab passenger loco-
motive on the occasion of the annual feast day of Ste. Anne in 1958, the
tercentenary of the shrine. William D. MlDDLETON.
330
Over 100 feet higher than Niagara, Montmorency
Falls, not far from Quebec, constituted a major
attraction for trolley excursionists. In earlier
years the interurban operated a park and me-
nagerie at the base of the falls, and an incline rail-
way carried tourists to a hotel at the top of the
cliff. A short pause on the electric line's bridge
below the falls was always scheduled for the en-
joyment of passengers on "tourist specials." After
completing a local run from the city, this in-
terurban turned on the wye beside the falls in
1952. Wooden car No. 401, built in 1902 by Ot-
tawa Car, remained in operation until abandon-
ment of the electrification in March 7959, by
which time the car had long since assumed the
title of North America's oldest interurban car
still operating in revenue service. Robert J.
Sandusky.
Until Canadian National acquired the line in 1951,
the 25-mile QRL&P interurban was the only link
between the transcontinental and its isolated Murray
Bay Subdivision. To power CNR passenger trains
moving over the electric line, QRL&P provided a
pair of big steeple-cab locomotives. After CNR
purchased the line steam and diesel power operated
straight through, but the passenger electrics were
retained for special movements, such as this train
of Canadian Pacific equipment leaving Quebec
in 1958 with 215 nuns from Montreal on a pilgrim-
age to the shrine. William D. Middleton.
Among the assets acquired by Canadian National
from its predecessor Grand Trunk Railway was
the Montreal & Southern Counties Railway, an in-
terurban which represented, in part, electrification
of former steam lines of the Grand Trunk's subsidiary
Central Vermont. An eventual long-distance elec-
trification of CV lines was contemplated, but the
trolley wire never extended beyond Granby, some
41 miles east of Montreal, which was reached in 1916.
Much of the company's traffic was of a commuter
nature to suburban communities across the St. Law-
rence from Montreal. In 1953 this wooden car
waited at the McGill Street terminal in Montreal for
a run to suburban Mackayville. Philip R. Hastings.
At the conclusion of its electric passen-
ger operation in 1956, M&SC still used
much of the same equipment acquired
to inaugurate service nearly a half century
before. This train of wooden coaches,
approaching Canadian National's Vic-
toria Jubilee Bridge from St. Lambert
in 1949, was typical. Trailer car 201, at
the rear of the train, had been on hand
at the opening of initial Montreal-
St. Lambert service in 1909.
William D. Middleton.
"*,»-
Si §£**
■. - ^HH
This M&SC "mixed train," made up of a pair of l.c.l box cars
and a like number of passenger coaches, was photographed at
St. Lambert in 1949. Charles A. Brown.
Following discontinuance of passenger service to Granby in
1931, M&SC electric cars terminated their runs at Marieville,
backing around this wye to reverse direction.
Robert J. Sandusky.
Waving the motorman back on dead
slow, an M&SC conductor at Marieville
ponders the difference in drawbar lev-
els as he makes up his train. He's going
to have to get in between there,
against the rules, and armstrong
60V s coupler up about 5 inches.
Philip R. Hastings.
335
North from Lake Erie
An important figure in Ontario traction was Sir
Adam Beck, founder of the Hydro-Electric Power
Commission of Ontario. In 1912 he advanced an
ambitious scheme for a system of "radial railways"
(as interurbans were commonly known in Ontario)
which, together with already existing lines, would
link the Toronto area, the Niagara peninsula, and
the cities north of Lake Erie with an integrated net-
work of high grade electric railways. Sir Adam,
whose power commission represented the first major
successful public power project in North America,
envisioned that the Commission would construct,
equip, and operate the radials for the benefit and at
the expense of the municipalities concerned, with
the initial financing to come from bond issues which
would be guaranteed by the provincial government.
The Hydro proposal was delayed during a decade
of political bickering and cessation of construction
during World War I, perhaps fortunately, as the
ultimate collapse of interurban railways was to
prove. Eventually government skepticism about the
ability of the lines to become self-supporting and
the all-too-evident growth of highway travel killed
the plan.
Electrification of the London & Port Stanley Rail-
way, a former steam railroad, in 1915 afforded a
prototype of the sort of electric railways contem-
plated by the Hydro Commission. Originally con-
structed in 1856 by London business interests to ob-
tain lower freight rates than those charged by the
Great Western (now CNR), the municipally owned
L&PS was rebuilt and electrified under the direc-
tion of Sir Adam Beck and the Hydro Commission.
A 1500- volt D.C. system was employed and the new
all-steel cars for the service were built to specifica-
tions of the Commission. Beck himself invited guests
to the line's June 30, 1915, opening celebration,
where the project was described as the first step in a
1500- volt D.C. electrification of Ontario municipal
railways which would ultimately extend through
central Ontario from Lake Erie to Georgian Bay. So
successful was the London & Port Stanley electrifica-
tion that within three years of its opening the paral-
lel London & Lake Erie electric line had been forced
into bankruptcy and abandonment.
Heading southward to Lake Erie in 1952, a two-
car L&PS train sped under the catenary just south
of the Thames River bridge at London. A motor-
less control trailer of wooden construction pre-
ceded the steel motor car. Robert J. Sandusky.
LrzJ^jjn-* 35
J
The steel Jewett coach that headed this north-
bound L&PS train at St. Thomas in 1949 had an
all-steel roof of unique contour. Constructed for
the original electrification in 1915, the car was con-
sidered a prototype for electric cars that radial
railway proponents believed would soon traverse
much of central Ontario. To combat the rigors of
the Canadian winter, the cars came equipped with
storm sash, a not infrequent feature on Dominion
interurbans. William D. Middleton.
336
337
•^^
-
With some 100 railroad enthusiast passengers
aboard, a three-car London & Port Stanley train
raced southward across the substantial Kettle Creek
viaduct just north of St. Thomas in 1 952. The train
was made up of cars acquired in 1941 from the Mil-
waukee Electric Lines, on which they had been the
de luxe parlor cars Mendota, Waubasee, and Menom-
inee. John A. Myers.
338
L&PS trains provided Londoners convenient con-
nections with Michigan Central (NYC) trains at
St. Thomas, where this train waited at the steam
line's depot in July of 1956. The diesel in the
foreground headed a westbound freight.
Herbert H. Harwood Jr.
Three of these GE box-cab locomotives powered L&PS freight trains from the time of the 1915 elec-
trification until dieselization in 1951. This one switched at the London yard in 1949. A. C. Kalmbach.
,Xil
The combined trackage of the Lake
Erie & Northern Railway and the
Grand River Railway, closely as-
sociated under Canadian Pacific
ownership, extended southward
from the CPR main line at Gait to
Port Dover on Lake Erie, affording
the transcontinental system a stra-
tegic connection to the cities of
the Grand River valley. Like
some of the other important On-
tario lines, LE&N-GRRy operated
at right angles to the east-west
trunk lines of the major steam
railroads. This is the bridge which
carried the electrics over the
Michigan Central and Toronto,
Hamilton & Buffalo lines at Water-
ford. The car was northbound on
the last day of passenger operation
in J955. Robert J. Sandusky.
StfS ~— —
Southbound to Port Dover, an LE&N car rolled into
Simcoe over a well- maintained roadbed in 1950.
During the latter years of passenger service the Ca-
nadian Pacific electrics experimented with various
front end color schemes, designed to improve vis-
ibility of the oncoming cars for motorists. A yel-
low checkerboard effect had been applied to this
wine red coach. William D. Middleton.
340
Though elsewhere on the system freight traf-
fic predominated, the Grand River Railway's
short Preston-Hespeler branch did a lively pas-
senger business, and even after World War II
some 35 daily round trips were offered. The
sturdy wooden car arriving at Preston was a
797 5 product of the home-town Preston Car &
Coach Company. David H. Cope.
Just arrived from Brantford behind a pair of
Bald win-W estinghouse steeple-cabs one leaden
winter day in 7 956, an LE&N freight pulled
into the Canadian Pacific interchange at Gait,
where a Mikado freight engine of the parent
road waited for a westbound trip. Electric
freight operation on the combined LE&N-GRRy
continued into 1961. William D. Middleton.
Prominent in Ontario traction development were
Sir William MacKenzie and Donald Mann, who had
been contractors in the construction of the Canadian
Pacific, and later began construction of their rival
Canadian Northern in 1896. The most important
of the four interurbans developed by the MacKenzie,
Mann & Company partnership was the Niagara, St.
Catharines & Toronto Railway, which operated
across the Niagara peninsula between Lakes Erie
and Ontario, and into Niagara Falls. Ultimately,
the NStC&T, along with other Canadian Northern
electric properties, became part of the Canadian
National system.
Before the decline of electric railway travel NStC&T
formed a link in leisurely travel between Buffalo
and Toronto. From a Niagara Falls (N. Y.) con-
nection with the International Railway's Buffalo-
Niagara Falls High Speed Line, cars of the Canadian
line operated over the old Rainbow Bridge and
across the peninsula to Port Dalhousie East, where
a shipside connection with Toronto-bound Lake
Ontario steamers was made. Such traffic still moved
in profitable volume in the '20's, as evidenced by
this train of elegant wooden cars, representing a
1914 Preston Car & Coach order in its entirety.
William S. Flatt Collection.
In the final years of its electric operation NStC&T
used a group of widely traveled cars on its re-
maining passenger line between Tborold and Port
Colborne. Built by the Ottawa Car Company in
1930 for an ill-advised modernization of the Wind-
sor, Essex & Lake Shore Railway under Hydro Com-
mission management, the original group of five
medium-weight interurbans spent but two years on
the "Sunshine County Route" before its abandon-
ment. The cars then moved to Canadian National's
Montreal & Southern Counties, where they operated
until 7955, when one went to a Maine museum and
the remainder were transferred to NStC&T. No. 620
was ascending the steep grade between Merritton
and Thorold early on a Sunday morning in
1956 en route from the carbarn at St. Cath-
arines to begin the day's operation. William D.
MlDDLETON.
At speed near Port Colborne on a bleak March day, 620 typified the exciting, exhilarating operation
of a cross-country interurban paralleling a highway. Unfortunately, no passengers were aboard to enjoy
the sensation. William D. Middleton.
343
Except for two Ft. William (Ont.)
city cars, Canada's only curved-side
Cincinnati lightweights, were op-
erated by the Niagara line in local
service on the St. Catharines-Port
Dalhousie route. Charles A. Brown.
Motors and gears groaned as NStC&T's little steeple-
cab locomotive No. 19 slowed almost to a walk and
then settled into a steady stride that finally gained
her the summit of the steep Merritton hill with
seven cars of freight for the Welland Subdivision
in 1956. William D. Middleton.
344
L M
345
In all the vast reaches of the Canadian prairie there
was but one interurban, the Winnipeg, Selkirk &
Lake Winnipeg Railway, which radiated from the
Manitoba capital to Selkirk and Stonewall. Against
a frosty backdrop near Stony Mountain, one of the
line's big wooden combines headed south to Win-
nipeg on a midafternoon run in the early '30's.
Stan F. Styles.
The winter of 1928-1929 and its aftermath proved difficult for the Winnipeg in-
terurban. Motorman Ray Styles and two sectionmen posed atop a snowbank on
the Stonewall line after the railway's rotary plow had cleared up the results of
a February blizzard. Stan F. Styles.
I'l'l
In April of 1929, the winter's snow melted and produced a severe spring flood, causing this two-car train
on the Stonewall line to make its way cautiously through water that lapped at the rails. Stan F. Styles.
347
*^\'0*
Bound for a Fraser Valley excursion on the Chil-
liwack line, a train of commodious BCER in-
terurbans paused at New Westminster in 1914.
four years after the line was opened. Outings to
the valley by interurban were long popular.
As late as 1940 BCER operated special "bicycle
trains" into the country for a Vancouver club.
A baggage car was provided for the trans-
portation of members' bicycles. Ernie Plant
Collection.
Interurban Trams to Chilliwack.
Canada's largest interurban system was that of
the British Columbia Electric Railway, which op-
erated an extensive suburban service around Van-
couver, a long and scenic route through the Fraser
River Valley to Chilliwack, and a disconnected,
short-lived line north from Victoria on Vancouver
Island. Vancouver is more British in character than
much of Canada, and it was not uncommon to hear
local people speak of the "interurban trams." British
capital, as a matter of fact, built BCER, and this may
have accounted for the presence of several British-
built Dick Kerr electric locomotives among the
company's roster of otherwise conventional equip-
ment of North American manufacture. i
348
• -1
-1
1311
• • • •
.... 1
1
i
I
3
#
'41
$
/« J9i2, ///>o« //)e occasion of a visit to
western Canada by the Duke of Con-
naught, interurban car No. 1 304 was
repainted, fitted with drapes and a red
carpet, and the Connaught crest applied
to each corner in preparation for serv-
ice on a special train transporting the
Duke over the Chilliwack line. Fol-
lowing completion of the trip No. 1304
was shorn of its special furnishings and
operated in more mundane passenger
service until the mid-'50's. It is now
owned by an Oregon historical group.
Ernie Plant Collection.
349
Against a backdrop of threatening skies, this Fraser Valley train waited on the
loop at Chilliwack before beginning the 76-mile return trip to Vancouver.
David A. Strassman.
350
m
While one of the company's PCC streetcars discharged passengers in the street, a pair of BCER in-
terurbans waited to depart from the Carrall Street depot in Vancouver on their respective late evening
journeys to Burnaby Lake and New Westminster. Stan F. Styles.
Highlighted by the morning sun, three cars full of BCER commuters hurried across Gladstone Trestle on a
12-mile run from New Westminster to Vancouver over the Central Park line. Stan F. Styles.
352
Two steam railroads shared the Fraser River bridge at New
Westminster with interurbans of British Columbia Electric's
Chilliwack line. In 1948 the two-car interurban train was
about to follow the center track to Chilliwack. The track to
the right carried Canadian National transcontinental traffic,
while that to the left handled international traffic on Great
Northern's line to Seattle. Ernie Plant.
Behind a former Oregon Electric steeple-cab locomotive, freight
extra 961 West waited in a forested siding at Bradner, on the
Chilliwack line, to permit the passage of a Vancouver passenger
train headed by baggage motor No. 1700. Stan F. Styles.
353
Traction in the Tropics
>ey Cuban passengers begim their journey
fr>&rn Havana aboard 5-cent motor launches,
whttb^ cross the harbor between the old coloni-
al seclfbuof Havanajfnd the interurban terminal
at C.asahkinca. Just beyond the noisy waterfront
dive that houses the ticket office, a three-car
train waited for the run to Matanzas in 1957.
The big maroon cars were little changed from
the day they rolled out of the J. G. Brill
plant 40 years before. William D. Middleton.
V
Traction in the Tropics
oOUTH of U. S. borders the interurban was almost
nonexistent. Street railways were a common means
of mass transportation in the larger cities of Central
and South America, and remain so today in many
cases. But only occasionally, in such cities as Mexico
City and Buenos Aires, did electric railways venture
into the suburban countryside on lines with interur-
ban characteristics.
Both severe topography and an almost continual
state of revolution that discouraged investment capi-
tal during much of the interurban era combined to
deter the development of true interurbans in
Mexico. The Mexican Tramways Company in 1927
advanced an interesting proposal to construct a 130-
mile electric interurban from Mexico City to Pueblo,
and another, 60 miles in length, to Pachuca, but
nothing ever came of it.
A notable exception to the dearth of interurbans
in Latin America was Cuba's Hershey Cuban Rail-
way, which survives into 1961 as the last example
in all North America of the typical heavy electric
interurban railway.* The Hershey Cuban's princi-
pal reason for existence was the development by
the parent Hershey Chocolate Corporation of its
own Cuban sugar enterprise at the end of World
War I. A vast acreage of sugar plantations and sev-
eral mills, for conversion of the cane to raw brown
sugar, were centered around the company's prin-
ed by decree of the Ca
cipal mill, a refinery, and power plant at Central
Hershey, east of Havana. A network of rail lines
was constructed to gather the cane from the sur-
rounding plantations, and a main line was installed
to transport the refined sugar down to Havana har-
bor. Developing its railroad on the principle that it
should be a self-supporting enterprise rather than
just an accessory to sugar manufacture, Hershey ex-
tended the main line to Matanzas, 56 miles east of
Havana, in order to establish a year-around com-
mon carrier freight and passenger business.
Crews of Jamaican laborers completed the first
section of line, between Havana and Central Her-
shey, in 1918, and it was immediately placed in
operation with steam power to haul construction
materials for the refinery and power plant. The en-
tire railway, comprising some 100 track miles under
a 1200-volt D.C. catenary system, and several times
that amount of steam-operated sugar cane trackage,
was officially opened four years later.
The J. G. Brill Company delivered a fleet of heavy
maroon-clad wood and steel multiple-unit interur-
bans. Interiors were plainly finished in mahogany
and were fitted with durable rattan-upholstered
walkover seats. Splendidly maintained by the rail-
way's thoroughly equipped shops, these cars re-
main today in virtually "as built" condition. A
group of lighter single-unit cars, designed for
branch-line service, came a few years later from the
Cincinnati Car Company, i
356
Late one June afternoon in 1957 train No. 33,
westbound from Central Hershey to Casablanca,
backed into the siding at Justiz for a cruzando
(meet) with eastbound Matanzas train No. 8.
Headed by a big wood-bodied mail-baggage car,
the three-car train came swaying through the
tropical undergrowth at a respectable 30 miles per
hour. Train crews shouted cheerful Spanish greet-
ings, the conductor threw the switch to let No. 33
back on the main line, and the journey to Casa-
blanca was once more in progress. William D.
MlDDLETON.
357
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Central Hershey is a handsome "company town"
with elegant residences for company executives and
such attractions as a golf course, tropical gardens,
and a comfortable small hotel. Tours of the re-
finery have long been popular, and in earlier years
the railway offered a handy "package tour" from
Havana which included interurban transportation,
a conducted tour of the sugar mill, lunch at the
Hershey Hotel, and an automobile tour through
the scenic byways of the surrounding countryside.
Four times daily the Hershey Cuban's mainline
passenger trains are scheduled to meet at Central
Hershey. During the ^-minute stop of a pair of
Casablanca-Matanzas trains one hot June morn-
ing, the quiet station became the scene of frantic
activity. The brown-uniformed train crews gath-
ered on the platform to exchange small talk,
while crowds of passengers boarded and left the
interurbans. The camarero (baggageman) un-
loaded a few pieces of express. Friends and idlers
chatted through open windows, and a boy passed
from window to window hawking candies held
up on a stick for the passengers' inspection. Then
the motoristas returned to their controllers, and
the conductors signaled departure time with a
blast from their whistles. The big red cars went
rumbling out of town, the crowd thinned, dogs
went back to sleep in the shade, and Central Hershey
station grew quiet again. All Photos, William D.
MlDDLETON.
Clattering along an irregular roadbed,
the ponderous interurbans nosed gently
from side to side as they followed the
rails through a verdant trough in
vegetation that frequently stands as
high as a man. Windows were thrown
wide open to the warmth of the Cuban
summer. William D. Middleton.
Awaiting the end of the day shift,
a Cincinnati-built interurban stood
in the street outside the main gate
of the Central Hershey sugar mill
and refinery. Soon the train would
be off with homeward-bound work-
ers to Santa Cruz del Norte, on the
edge of the Atlantic. The June
afternoon was hot and humid, and
an ice cream salesman was doing
business in the shade of a nearby
tree. William D. Middleton.
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Approaching Matanzas the Hershey Cuban traverses
some of central Cuba's finest scenery. Having just
completed its circuit of the spectacular Yumuri
Valley, an eastbound train came rolling between
the rock cliffs of the gap which carries the Yumuri
River, a country road, and the interurban from the
valley to the Bay of Matanzas. William D.
MlDDLETON.
361
Inter urban No. 21 3 had just completed its daily afternoon run from Central
Hershey to Bainoa. While the crew stepped into the weathered masonry depot
shared with the Occidentales de Cuba to call the dispatcher for return trip orders,
a small boy clambered about the fascinating electric car. William D. Middleton.
Returning to Central Hershey from an afternoon trip down the Bainoa branch,
Cincinnati interurban 213 rejoined the Hershey Cuban main line at San Mateo
Junction. William D. Middleton.
362
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Powered by a bright silver and red diesel,
Hershey's weekly mixed train departed
from Central San Antonio for the return
trip over nonele drifted branch-line track-
age to Central Hershey. With eight tank
cars of molasses, a box car of miscellaneous
freight, and a Brill interurban trailer, the
little diesel had all it could do to get the
train under way. William D. Middleton.
Time freight No. 53, westbound from
Matanzas to Havana harbor behind a
pair of GE steeple-cab locomotives, headed
out of the siding at Canasi as an east-
bound passenger train cleared the main
line. William D. Middleton.
Almost hidden by trackside growth, east-
bound Havana- Matanzas time freight
52 came grinding up the long grade into
Central Hershey. The steeple-cabs' panto-
graphs reached high for the 1200-volt
catenary. William D. Middleton.
A trim little GE locomotive switched Ferrocarriles Occidentals de Cuba passen-
ger cars at Havana's Central Station in 1957. The Occidentals, formerly the
Havana Central, once operated interurban passenger equipment in an extensive
suburban service, and is still possessed of a generous amount of 600-volt overhead
in the Havana area. William D. Middleton.
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As the electric street and interurban railways declined in North America, a con-
siderable amount of their still-serviceable rolling stock found its way to the electric
lines of Central and South America. In 1952 a train of former Pacific Electric
Hollywood suburban cars, still attired in PE red and orange colors, operated
left-handed on the Federico Lacroze line of the Ferrocarril Nacional General
Urquiza at Buenos Aires. William D. Middleton Collection.
367
1
368
Wrecks and Other Mishaps
♦4
TA<? combination of a dispatcher's lap order and a foggy
November morning had this violent aftermath at Fair-
view, Ida., in 1917 on the Ogden, Logan & Idaho Rail-
way. The conductor on the almost completely telescoped
wooden express motor was killed and three other crew-
men were seriously injured. Fred Fellow Collection.
369
Wrecks and Other Mishaps
DISASTER AND DEATH along the rails were
sometimes a part of the interurban era. Most in-
terurbans were single tracked and rarely were
equipped with such safety refinements as block sig-
nals. The tragedy of a high-speed collision result-
ing from an overlooked meeting point or a forgotten
special train, combined, perhaps, with the restricted
visibility of hills and curves or a foggy night, is a
recurring theme in interurban history.
The first interurban, Portland's East Side Rail-
way, was only a few months old when the car Inez,
inbound from Oregon City one misty November
morning, slid on frosty rail and plunged through
the open Madison Street drawbridge in Portland.
Most of the passengers saved themselves by jumping
as the interurban hung in the air momentarily, but
7 were killed when the car plummeted into 35 feet
of water.
The worst interurban accident of all occurred at
Kingsland, Ind., on September 21, 1910, when an
extra car on the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Trac-
tion Company overran a meeting point and collided
head-on at high speed with a northbound local. The
crowded local was completely telescoped, and 41 lost
their lives in the splintered wreckage of the wood-
en car.
The old adage that "bad accidents come in threes"
seemed to hold some truth, for during the same week
that the Kingsland disaster occurred, 5 were killed in
a collision on the neighboring Indiana Union Trac-
tion Company, and less than two weeks later 36 met
death in a head-on Illinois Traction System crash,
which took place under similar circumstances of an
overlooked meet.
The public outcry following the Kingsland and
other accidents was predictable. The Indiana Rail-
road Commission demanded the installation of block
signals on all interurbans in the state. Illinois Trac-
tion voluntarily began the costly installation of sig-
nals on all of its major lines and by 1915 had 150
miles of track under continuous block signals. Adept
at making the best of a bad thing, ITS extracted
maximum publicity benefits from its new signals.
Full-size models of the signals were displayed on
street corners in principal cities, and the workings
of their mechanism explained to the curious. "Travel
is perfection under IT block protection," proclaimed
the company's advertising, and nervous passengers
were assured "they never sleep."
Sometimes the lessons taught by disaster are for-
gotten, and in 1950, 40 years after the Kingsland
wreck, the last big accident of the interurban era
occurred under almost identical circumstances, when
two Milwaukee interurban excursion trains collided
head-on with a loss of 10 lives. A misunderstand-
ing of orders sent the two trains racing toward each
other on single track, and just as at Kingsland, an
overgrowth of trackside brush at a curve obscured
visibility for the motormen until too late.
More often though, interurban mishaps were not
so deadly. One of the most bizarre and spectacular
interurban accidents, which happened on the In-
diana Service Corporation at Lafayette, Ind., in 1930,
took place with the almost miraculous absence of
serious injury or death. Approaching Lafayette from
Fort Wayne, motorman Frank Simons, after ap-
parently suffering an attack of dizziness or a faint-
ing spell, toppled through the open door of his in-
terurban car. Running wild with the power still on,
the big wooden car reached an estimated speed of 45
miles per hour before leaving the rails on a curve in
the streets of Lafayette and plunging into a grocery
store, tearing out the entire front of the building
and finally coming to rest within the store in a mass
of tumbled merchandise and debris. The interur-
ban's passengers escaped with bruises and were se-
verely shaken up. The narrowest escape of all was
experienced by little Jimmy Moore, who was in the
370
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Forty-one persons died when these two interurbans slammed together with
brutal force at Kingsland, Ind., in 191Q. It was the worst crash of the interurban
era. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
store directly in the path of the runaway car. Buried
in the wreckage, the 7-year-old emerged with only
minor cuts. An estimated 10,000 people visited the
scene of the crash and watched efforts to free the in-
terurban from the wreckage.
An Illinois line, the Rockford & Interurban,
seemed to have recurrent trouble with dairy cattle.
On one occasion, not far from Rockford, one of the
line's cars struck a cow, which became wedged under
the car, threw it off the track, and left it at right
angles to the rails. On another occasion a car ran
into a whole herd of cows which had lain down on
the rails at night. Twenty cattle were killed before
the car finally derailed and very nearly plunged into
the Pecatonica River.
A somewhat similar mishap occurred in Ohio in
1907, after a bull escaped from a slaughterhouse at
Jimtown, near Wapakoneta. After chasing residents,
the bull wandered onto the nearby tracks of the
Western Ohio Railway where it charged head-on
into an interurban car. The contest was a draw, for
the bull was killed and the interurban derailed.
371
Anti-climbers did not always prevent
cars from telescoping. In 1949 a
Milwaukee Electric local car missed
a passenger waiting at Soldiers Home
station, backed up through a protect-
ing block signal, and was rammed by
a limited train running in the yellow
block. The local car was obscured
until the last minute by a hill and
curve. The impact peeled the sides
and roof of the limited car like a
banana and shoved the locked cars 1 50
feet down the track. None of the 21
passengers were fatally injured, but
the horror-stricken waiting passenger
who witnessed the roaring crash fled
the scene, never to be identified.
The Milwaukee Journal.
Disaster was narrowly averted near Delaware, O.,
in 1914 on the Columbus, Delaware & Marion Rail-
way when an unemployed railroad fireman named
Bickle telephoned the dispatcher to advise that a
stretch of track had been torn up in an attempt to
wreck a car. Suspicious officials determined that the
unfortunate Bickle had attempted the train wreck-
ing himself in the hope that by doing them the serv-
ice of calling in time to save the road from accident
he would be taken into their employ.
A newsworthy mishap of another sort took place
near Cleveland in 1905. The New York Central then
had an interest in a number of New York state elec-
tric lines, and the Central's William K. Vanderbilt
Jr. was making a tour of a number of Ohio in-
terurbans aboard the Everett-Moore syndicate's lux-
urious private car Josephine. Vanderbilt's jour-
ney over the Lake Shore Electric was disrupted
when an overheated motor set fire to the floor of the
car. Members of the inspection party rushed to a
nearby farmhouse for water to extinguish the blaze,
and the Josephine was then hauled to a nearby re-
pair shop. While the necessary repairs were being
made, the entire party played baseball, and Mr. Van-
derbilt proved to be a star player, a news story of
the event reported.
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This car of the Ballston Terminal
Railroad of New York drew quite
a crowd after lunging off the
rails and heading for the river.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
The Salt Lake & Utah Railroad's
observation car 751 was uncere-
moniously dumped into the street
after this grade crossing tangle
with a Denver & Rio Grande
switch engine at Provo in 1917.
Fred Fellow Collection.
Both wrecking crew and dapper idlers
posed for the photographer during
efforts to restore the derailed Elmira
to the rails on the Elmira & Seneca
Lake line in New York in 1903.
William R. Gordon Collection.
This particularly violent head-on col-
lision occurred in a fog north of Can-
ton, III., on the Illinois Central Electric
Railway. Car No. 12 (background),
since it was higher, overrode car
No. 9, completely destroying it.
Paul Stringham Collection.
373
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Little more than twisted steel re-
mained of these Waterloo, Cedar
Falls & Northern interurbans in
195-t after a nocturnal fire wiped
out the Waterloo roundhouse. The
lone interurban that escaped the
blaze managed to provide all of
the company's passenger service
until its discontinuance in 1956.
William S. Kuba Jr.
Fire, as a matter of fact, was a constant threat
to the interurbans, particularly during the earlier
years, when wooden cars and inflammable carbarns
were common and electrical apparatus was often er-
ratic. A few years after the Vanderbilt party mishap
another fire had more serious consequences and the
glittering Josephine was completely destroyed. Simi-
lar spectacular conflagrations were recorded in the
history of almost every interurban road with usual-
ly little more remaining than a few smoldering em-
bers and a tangle of heat-twisted metal parts. An-
other all too common occurrence was the midnight
carbarn fire, which more than once left a line with
hardly a single car available at the start of business
the following morning.
The heyday of the train robber was fairly well
over by the time the interurban arrived on the Amer-
ican scene, but there were a few more or less ama-
teurish attempts to knock off an interurban car in
the grand manner of the Old West. One of the first
trolley car holdup attempts occurred on the St. Paul-
Minneapolis Inter-Urban Electric in 1893. Five
toughs boarded the midnight car from St. Paul, and
when it had reached a deserted spot along the line,
one of them pulled down the trolley pole while
the others set upon the conductor, one of them in-
flicting a 2-inch stab wound. The intrepid motor-
man came to the rescue with his brass lever and, ac-
cording to a contemporary account, "the way he
cranked it was a caution to evil-doers, and caused a
general stampede." The conductor replaced the
trolley pole and the car escaped amidst a shower of
stones that smashed all its windows and caused other
damage, but no money was lost to the thugs.
What newspapers described as the most sensational
street accident in Vancouver (B. C.) history occurred
in 1947 when a British Columbia Electric interur-
ban train (left) ran amuck. As the train left the
interurban depot, motorman James Dinsmore was
knocked unconscious when a WO-volt short circuit
passed through the controls of his two-car train.
Hurtling out of control into the street, the inter-
urban sent a taxi flying, derailed two streetcars, and
crushed an automobile in the wreckage. A hun-
dred persons were shaken up by the crash but
miraculously there were no fatalities. Ernie Plant.
As automobiles became common-
place, the grade-crossing accident
became a distressingly frequent
occurrence. The interurban, like
this Pacific Electric car, usually
won out over the early flivvers.
Ira L. Swett Collection.
Dewirement was a frequent
minor mishap on trolley lines.
After the 620 's trolley left the
wire in a high cross wind
and slammed against the cross-
arms, the Niagara, St. Catha-
rines & Toronto crew strug-
gled to replace the wrecked
pole with the spare carried
for just such emergencies.
William D. Middleton.
A pair of bandits who attempted to stick up a
Seattle-Tacoma car on the Puget Sound Electric Rail-
way in 1914 fared even worse. Once their intentions
were made known, the pair were overpowered and
beaten into insensibility by passengers, and a news
account of the affair held little hope for their
recovery.
Two masked bandits who held up a British Co-
lumbia Electric interurban train on the Marpole line
in 1913 were more successful, managing to make
their escape into a nearby wood after extracting ap-
proximately S100 from the train crew and passen-
gers.
Another pair of masked bandits, who knocked
off a Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern car at
Maywood, Ind., in 1923, were better compensated
for their efforts. After stopping the car on signal,
the two climbed aboard, firing into and through the
car. The passengers and crew were forced outside,
lined up along the track, and relieved of better than
S1000 in cash and valuables.
What was probably the most lucrative heist of the
traction era took place on Pennsylvania's Laurel Line
interurban in 1923. Bearing 870,126 among them,
the paymaster of the West End Colliery of Mocana-
qua, an assistant paymaster, and two armed guards
boarded a morning limited at Scranton. Taking the
group by surprise, five roughly dressed armed ban-
dits opened fire within the car near Moosic station,
successfully relieved the men of the payroll, and
made good their escape from the interurban. During
the melee one passenger was killed, and the motor-
man and two other passengers wounded. Eventually
the entire band was apprehended and brought to
justice.
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375
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Ttfo Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville cars suffered embarrassment after unsuccessfully contesting track
space in the Gloversville (N. Y.) yard. William R. Gordon Collection.
376
Weather sometimes got the best of the electric cars.
Floodwater stranded an International Railway Ni-
agara Falls interurhan at Tonairanda, N. Y., in 1918.
William R. Gordon Collection, from Stephen D.
Maguire.
Sometimes individuals of a larcenous bent ap-
plied more subtle methods against the traction com-
panies. In 1930 a crew engaged in an ek-ctrolysis
survey on the lines of the Milwaukee Electric was
sent out to take ground current flow readings dur-
ing the early morning hours when no cars were
operating. The men were puzzled to find that large
amounts of current were flowing through the rails
despite the absence of interurban cars. Investiga-
tion revealed that a Cudahy garage owner had rigged
a bare copper wire across a street above the trolley
wire. At night, when no one was looking, the wire
was lowered onto the trolley wires and free elec-
tricity was drawn for battery charging and other
operations.
Trespassers on private right of way were found
to be a problem by many interurbans. In 1910 one
line tried the experiment of providing its motor-
men with circular letters of warning which could
be thrown to trespassers. No one, it was discovered,
took much notice of the circulars, and the practice
was discontinued.
Collapse of the bridge over the Miami River at Day-
ton, O., under a two-car freight train in 1932 was
the last straw for the bankrupt Dayton & Troy Elec-
tric Railway. With no money in the till to repair the
damage, the company abandoned its entire line a week
after the mishap. O. F. Lee Collection.
A trainload of steel proved too heavy for the
Sacramento Northern s long Lisbon trestle in
1951, and the structure went down like a row
of dominoes. Getting the train out proved
to be a major task. Fred H. Matthews Jr.
Obstreperous passengers sometimes made life dif-
ficult for the interurban trainmen. Consider this
accident report filed by a conductor on the Grays
Harbor Railway & Light Company (Washington) in
1914: "A man at Hoquiam came on the car at 7 p.m.
He spit and expectorated all over the car and when
I asked him to quit he swore strong at me. Then he
vomited all over a seat and on the floor. 1 told him
to clean it up or I would have him arrested. He
started to clean it up, and then he went to the door,
jumped from the car, and ran down E Street to the
river and jumped in. I stopped the car, ran after the
man, jumped in the river, dragged him out, and had
him arrested for spitting on the floor of the car."
Another interurban rescue, under more heroic
circumstances, brought Lake Shore Electric motor-
man William Lang national recognition in the
form of a Carnegie Medal and an I.C.C. medal ap-
proved by President Roosevelt. Rounding a curve
at 55 miles per hour Lang spotted a child playing
on the tracks and slammed on the brakes of his
Toledo limited car. Realizing that the wheels were
sliding and the car could not be stopped in time,
Lang climbed out on the car fender and snatched
2-year-old Lelia Smith to safety.
Life was seldom dull for the men who ran the
cars. 1
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The electric-powered rotary plow that kept the
line clear on the Oneonta & Mohawk Valley, in up-
state New York's snow belt, obviously had its work
cut out for it. In addition to snow removal prob-
lems, winter weather provided a jew difficulties
peculiar to interurban operation. Sleet frequently
disrupted current collection from both third-rail
and overhead, and the trolley wire sometimes
snapped under the contraction caused by extreme
cold. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
Where they traversed city streets, interurban and street railways usually took
care of snow removal with electrically powered rotary sweepers. The McGuire-
Cummings standard four-wheel sweeper was common anywhere snow fell.
and its big rattan brushes sent up a barrage of ice chips that had the hardiest
of pedestrians ducking for cover. This sweeper cleared track in Winnipeg
after a Manitoba blizzard in 1949. Stan F. Styles.
The Philadelphia & West Chester's rotary No. 1, shown on the West Chester line
around 1907, didn't have quite such arduous duties as the O&MV's plow, and
the company's successor, Philadelphia Suburban, manages to get along very
well without it. These plows had rotary blades at both ends, a practice more
common on electric than on steam railroads. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
379
Trolley Freight
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The Inland Empire System, whose electric lines centered about Spo-
kane, Wash., was typical of the western interurbans on which carload
freight traffic was a major revenue source from their very begin-
ning. These Baldwin-W estinghouse box-cab locomotives were on the
company's Moscow (Ida.) line, which was electrified with a 25-cycle,
6600-volt single-phase system. Wheat was the principal commodity
carried on Inland Empire freights. LeRoy O. King Jr. Collection.
>
Trolley Freight
IN a few cases the interurban railways were former
steam-powered short lines, already doing a sub-
stantial freight business, and in many still develop-
ing areas of the West, where only limited steam
railroad service was available, electric lines were
often built to serve as both passenger and freight
carriers. Indeed, many of the Western interurbans
were built as feeder lines to the large steam rail-
roads, or were later acquired by them for that pur-
pose. But the majority of interurban roads were
conceived principally as passenger carriers, and
generally little attention was given in their design
and construction to the requirements of freight train
operation.
Even those lines originally built exclusively for
passenger transportation soon found that light
freight and express traffic could be a profitable side-
line. The very nature of interurban service, with
cars operating on fast, frequent schedules, made it
possible to provide a service far superior to that of
the steam railroads. Such traffic as newspapers, milk
and cream, fruit, produce, and small merchandise
shipments could be loaded aboard the baggage com-
partments of the regular cars, and even lines with-
out cars so arranged found they could develop
worth-while extra revenues by transporting small
parcel shipments on the front platform with the
motorman at nominal charges of 25 cents or 50 cents
per parcel.
Once the possibilities of the trolley freight busi-
ness became apparent, interurbans began to inten-
sively promote its development. Even before World
War I, when a few lines were starting to lose
passengers to automobiles, interurbans began to re-
gard freight traffic as a good area to recover the lost
revenues.
The handling of perishables between farm and
market, with their requirement for fast service, was
a particularly lucrative traffic. To help develop such
business the New England Investment & Securities
Company, a New Haven Railroad subsidiary which
controlled a group of electric lines in central Mas-
sachusetts, sponsored in 1910 a four-car "Trolley
Farming Special," which toured 300 miles of trolley
line in the Springfield-Worcester area with agricul-
tural and forestry exhibits. In 1915 Fort Wayne &
Northern Indiana operated a similar two-car agri-
cultural exhibit and lecture train over electric lines
in Indiana. The Portland Railway, Light & Power
Company organized an agricultural department to
furnish farmers with information on the growing
of feed for hog and cattle raising, and the Bangor
Railway & Electric Company operated a 40-acre
demonstration farm — staffed with a University of
Maine agriculturalist — to promote better farming
practices in its territory. In 1914 the Lehigh Valley
Transit Company and the Philadelphia & Western
Railway joined in establishing a "farmers' market"
at 69th and Market streets in Philadelphia for the
sale of produce brought in on the electric cars.
Efforts to develop interurban freight traffic were
confronted with numerous difficulties. The physical
limitations of steep grades, light construction, and
sharp curves often precluded the operation of stand-
ard freight equipment, and made necessary the con-
struction of special cars which were noninterchange-
able with steam railroads. In some areas trolley lines
were built to nonstandard track gauges, effectively
preventing interline freight traffic development.
Pennsylvania electric lines, for example, were gen-
erally built to a 5-foot 21/i-inch "Pennsylvania
broad gauge."
Often severe restrictions on freight operation
through city streets proved a handicap. Many cities
restricted the length and frequency of freight trains,
and some confined freight operation to nighttime
hours only. Such objections were not without
reason. Long, lumbering trolley freight trains could
be an infernal nuisance in traffic-congested streets,
and there were valid objections on grounds of safety.
382
Pennsylvania's Hersbey Transit
Company was representative of the
majority of electric lines which de-
rived nonpassenger revenues from
the box-motor carriage of express
and small freight shipments. Trans-
portation of milk to the plant of
parent Hersbey Chocolate Company
was a major traffic for the Hersbey
line. From Stephen D. Maguire.
Usually unable to engage in freight
interchange with steam railroads, the
interurbans of the Ohio-Indiana-Michi-
gan network turned to development
of their own interchange operation, em-
ploying equipment designed to ne-
gotiate restrictive interurhan curves.
These electric freight trailers were lined
up at the Northern Ohio Traction &
Light Company's Akron freighthouse
in 1926. George Krambles Collection.
The trailers hauled by this Fort
Wayne, Van Wert & Lima box
motor were constructed to stand-
ards established by the Central
Electric Railway Association
to permit their use in the in-
terline freight operation of the
Midwestern interurbans. The
Fort Wayne-Lima line was one
of three connecting routes be-
tween the Ohio and Indiana
systems. O. F. Lee Collection.
In addition to the usual prob-
lems which made freight inter-
change with steam lines dif-
ficult, the broad-gauge track of
many Pennsylvania interurbans
prevented them from handling
steam road cars. The West Penn
Railways and the connecting
Pittsburgh Railways managed
to develop their own modest
I.e. I interchange business with
these "Consolidated Electric
Freight" box motors.
Charles A. Brown Collection.
This was convincingly demonstrated in 1927 by the
Detroit, Jackson & Chicago Railway at Ann Arbor,
Mich., when four cars of sheet steel got away from
a trolley freight crew on the West Huron Street hill.
Failing to make the curve at Main Street, the
runaway cars demolished the Farmers & Merchants
Bank, doing $50,000 worth of damage.
The City of Detroit required that freight cars be
similar in appearance to passenger cars, and re-
stricted operation of the freight cars to single units
only, not less than 2 hours apart in each direction.
A gondola car built for coal and ash service on
the Philadelphia & Easton Electric Railway in 1910
had to be disguised with a roof and gaily striped
side curtains before city officials would permit it to
be moved through the streets. In 1932 Milwaukee
residents, complaining that the passage of heavy
Milwaukee Electric freight trains was damaging
their homes, obtained a court order requiring the
company to limit freight space to not more than a
quarter of the total area of the car.
But in many regions the greatest obstacle to the
development of widespread interurban freight traf-
fic was the refusal of steam railroads to have any-
thing at all to do with the electric lines. The inter-
vention of the courts, state public utilities commis-
sions, or the Interstate Commerce Commission was
not infrequently required to compel steam railroads
to interchange carload freight traffic with inter-
urbans, and in more than one case a steam road
fought its case to the U. S. Supreme Court before
accepting such a ruling. The steam railroad op-
position to the new electric lines sometimes reached
ridiculous extremes, as in the case of the Youngs-
town & Southern, an Ohio interurban, which was
forced to power its freight trains with steam before
the steam road members of the Central Freight Asso-
ciation would agree to interchange traffic with it.
384
Despite the broad-gauge handicap, Philadelphia &
West Chester Traction Company was able to do
a brisk business in I.e. I. freight and milk. A box
motor unloaded milk for Philadelphia about 1923
at the company's 63rd and Market freight station.
Philadelphia Suburban Transportation.
In addition to a carload freight business the Salt Lake & Utah offered a "Red Arrow Fast Freight" service
for express and small freight shipments. Free pickup and delivery were provided for I.e. I. shipments.
Unfortunately, this type of business, which constituted the majority of interurban freight traffic,
proved just as vulnerable to highway competition as passenger traffic had. Fred Fellow Collection.
This scene on the Illinois Terminal at Bloomington, III., illustrates
the difficulty encountered in handling freight around the streetcar
curves found on interurban lines. Henry J. McCord.
Illinois Terminal developed a special double-jointed coupling for company-owned box cars in order
to make the curves on its line through Bloomington. Other interurbans used radial couplers,
or employed slotted coupler knuckles and intermediate drawbars. Henry J. McCord.
Largely unable, because of physical restrictions
and steam road intransigence, to interchange freight
cars with steam railroads, Midwestern interurbans
developed their own standard trolley freight car
designs and operated an extensive interline freight
service over the interconnecting traction networks
of Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. The traction freight
service was usually far superior to that of the steam
roads.
A freight terminal was built in conjunction
with Indianapolis' great Traction Terminal, and the
interurban people boasted that they could deliver
shipments within 75 miles of the city the same day
the goods were ordered. Following-day deliveries
were possible almost anywhere in Indiana and Ohio.
A number of electric lines in northern Indiana and
southern Michigan joined in through less-than-car-
load-lot traffic arrangements with Lake Michigan
steamship companies, a service that saved a day or
more for shipments destined beyond Chicago. Faster
electric service made it possible to get livestock to
market before the usual shrinkage in weight
occurred, and several of the Indiana lines developed
a profitable stock business employing special trol-
ley cattle cars. In 1922 some 8500 cars of livestock
were moved into Indianapolis by interurban.
Occasionally the Midwest interurbans joined in
the operation of fast through freight trains, similar
J
in concept to the lines' many through passenger
operations. Perhaps the first such service was the
Cannonball Express, inaugurated in 1914 as a
joint operation of five electric lines and the Wells
Fargo Express Company. The Express ran on a
fast limited schedule between Indianapolis and
Benton Harbor, Mich., where Chicago connections
were made with the Graham & Morton Steamship
Company. Such fast time freights as the overnight
Indianapolis-Detroit Aeroplane connected many of
the major cities of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.
Trolley freight equipment was constructed in a
tremendous variety of types and sizes. For express
or light freight service the "box-motor" or "express-
motor" unit, more or less resembling a motorized
baggage car, was widely employed. Usually equipped
with more powerful motors than passenger cars,
and geared for pulling power rather than speed,
box motors were often capable of operating with
short trains of freight trailers. Some lines built
similar motors which were equipped as refrigerator
or cattle cars.
For heavier freight operation, particularly when
steam railroad cars were handled, small electric
locomotives, usually of the B-B double-truck ar-
rangement, were favored. Most were some variation
of the "steeple-cab" type, which derived its name
from the appearance suggested by low hoods at each
end sloping up toward a cab in the center. Noisy
equipment, such as blowers and compressors, was
The bane of freight operations on the Sacramento
Northern Railroad was the route over the Oak-
land hills, where grades up to 4 per cent were en-
countered. This southbound freight had success-
fully made the climb and was descending into
Oakland late one afternoon in 1951. Pusher engine
No. 652, a standard General Electric unit, had al-
ready dropped its pantograph. William D.
MlDDLETON.
m*#mm
During the last years of the interurban era a lively
trade in used freight locomotives developed, and
some of the machines survived as many as three
abandonments of electric service. The 50-ton Charles
City Western No. 303, wheeling westward across
Iowa farmland to Marble Rock in 1955, had
originally operated on the Texas Electric Railway,
where it had been built. William D. Middleton.
Potomac Edison steeple-cab locomotive No. 10 was typical of the hundreds of double-truck units
operated by interurban railways. Most of them averaged 50 to 60 tons, but weights ranged from 30
to 100 tons. The 10, at Frederick, Md., was dwarfed by an ordinary box car. H. N. Proctor.
387
usually enclosed in the hoods, and the shortened cab
provided excellent visibility during switching oper-
ations. A less widely seen variation was the "box-
cab" locomotive, which had a cab extending the full
length of the locomotive, containing all of its elec-
trical and mechanical equipment.
A few of the larger interurban roads found that
the double-truck locomotive just wasn't big enough
for their requirements, and developed 16-wheel,
4-truck locomotives which employed articulated
frames to permit negotiation of tight interurban
curves. The biggest interurban locomotives of all
were three 24-wheel monsters acquired in 1949 by
the Chicago South Shore & South Bend. Originally
built for the U.S.S.R. but never delivered because of
strategic export restrictions, the GE machines
were among the most powerful single-cab electric
locomotives ever constructed, weighed better than
270 tons, and had an hourly rating of over 5500
horsepower.
In several notable respects interurban freight
operators pioneered important innovations in rail-
road freight equipment and service well ahead of
their steam railroad competitors. Locomotive stand-
ardization, for example, was common in the
traction industry years before the diesel motive
power revolution brought it to the steam roads.
While steam lines were still ordering custom-built
motive power, such manufacturers as Baldwin-
Westinghouse and General Electric were offering
standard lines of electric locomotives to electric
railways. And multiple-unit control made it pos-
sible for trolley roads to operate together any num-
ber of their standardized freight motors controlled
from a single unit, employing the same fundamental
"building block" principle now used with diesel
power to assemble a motive power combination suit-
able for trains of any size.
At the time of its construction by Northern Electric 's
Cbico (Calif.) shops in 1911, 82-ton No. 1010
was said to be the largest and heaviest interurban
locomotive in the West. All electrical equipment
teas carried beneath the floor and the elongated
body provided space for I.e. 1. freight. In 1930 NE-
successor Sacramento Northern rebuilt the big lo-
comotive along more conventional lines.
Western Pacific Railroad.
Pennsylvania's Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley
Railroad operated a pioneer locomotive in No. 401, '
seen here emerging from the Scranton tunnel in
1930. The 401 was built as an experimental combi-
nation passenger- freight locomotive by Baldwin-
W estinghouse in 1H95, and was acquired by the
Laurel Line in 1906. After 59 years of service, 401
was retired in 1953, when the company converted
to diesels. William D. Middleton.
388
Wooden-bodied 5 502, built in the
Piedmont & Northern Railway's
Greenville (S. C.) shops, hauled
new Buicks around 1916. This was
one of the first interurban loco-
motives of the four-truck, articu-
lated-frame pattern. Piedmont &
Northern Railway.
Evolution of the four-truck
wheel arrangement on P&N con-
tinued through 1941, when Gen-
eral Electric built the 118-ton
No. 5611. General Electric
Company.
Last in a long line of home-built Illinois Terminal electric motive power were five of these 16-wheeled
Class D locomotives upgraded by Decatur shops between 1940 and 1942. They weighed 108 tons
and were equipped with eight traction motors totaling 1800 horsepower.
390
The largest of all interurban locomotives were
three 5500-horsepower units which were
originally destined for Soviet Russia but which
went to work on the South Shore Line instead.
Still very much in use in 1965, they are broth-
ers to 12 units operated by the Milwaukee Road.
William D. Middleton.
A chore peculiar to trolley freight haulage
was the necessity of tending the trolley pole
during switching operations. This Potomac
Edison brakeman guided the pole during a
backup move. H. N. Proctor.
Multiple-unit control enabled interurbans to
assemble their freight locomotives into a
motive power combination suitable for trains
of varying tonnage. This "building block"
principle, which later contributed greatly to
the success of the diesel-electric revolution in
steam railroading, is illustrated by this train
about to depart from the North Shore Line's
Pettibone Yard at North Chicago, III.
William D. Middleton.
Municipal ordinances governing freight op-
eration in city streets sometimes resulted in
oddities such as this Illinois Traction box
motor, which was built to resemble a passenger
car in order to satisfy St. Louis authorities.
Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
i
The Bonner "rail wagon" equip-
ment operated by the hake Shore
Electric in 1930 employed an un-
usual flat car with inside-bearing
trucks which was rolled under
three 18- foot trailers. These were
then fixed to the car with lug
latches. The idea had some simi-
larity to the "Clejan" system
adopted by some steam railroads
in more recent years. George
Krambles Collection.
This unusual General Electric loco-
motive, operated on the Hutchin-
son & Northern in Kansas, was
equipped with a "frameless truck."
Axle bearings were placed in an
extra-heavy traction motor frame,
which was provided with lugs over
the bearings to receive the equalizer
bars. Fred Fellow.
392
An Insull interurban, the North Shore Line,
pioneered "piggyback" transportation of truck
trailers in its present-day form in 1926 when it
began hauling trailers, loaded with small freight
shipments, on flat cars between Chicago and Mil-
waukee. A few years later, in 1932, the North Shore
offered what was perhaps the first modern "common
carrier" piggyback service when it began transport-
ing trucks on flat cars for either trucking companies
or shippers themselves. And as early as 1930 an Ohio
interurban, the Lake Shore Electric Railway, was
moving trailers between Cleveland and Toledo on
Banner "rail wagon" cars which were similar to the
specially designed cars developed several decades
later for steam railroad piggyback services.
Interurban roads made early use of special freight
containers which could be lifted from flat cars to
truck beds, permitting "door to door" freight serv-
ice. Many lines were thus able to extend the radius
of their freight service far beyond the limits of their
own lines. The Cincinnati & Lake Erie, for example,
in addition to the overnight "store door" container
service available between Cincinnati and Toledo on
its own line, was able to offer shippers second-
morning deliveries in Kentucky and Michigan cities.
Mechanical refrigerator cars, which have only
recently begun to replace ice-refrigerated cars on
steam railroads, were in operation on several inter-
urban roads during the '20's. Electrically driven re-
frigeration equipment was used.
In 1926 an interurban, the Northern Ohio Trac-
tion & Light Company, even participated in a joint
rail-air freight service. A shipment of 670 pounds
of forgings was moved from Alliance, O., to the
Cleveland airport in 3 hours 18 minutes by trolley
freight and an airplane completed the journey to the
Ford plant in Detroit in another 1 hour 45 minutes.
Freight traffic on interurban railways grew to
substantial proportions. In 1902 it was estimated
that interurban companies received about 2 million
dollars for hauling such commodities as newspapers,
mail, milk, and express. By 1925 trolley freight
revenues were in the vicinity of 65 million dollars
annually, and some 15 per cent of electric railway
gross revenues came from freight.
Unfortunately, the light package freight and ex-
press business that generated most of the trolley
freight income proved just as vulnerable to the com-
petition of the new trucking industry as the passen-
ger business had to the automobile, and during the
'20's it became increasingly evident that develop-
ment of an extensive carload freight business, with
interchange of standard steam railroad equipment,
was required.
A few of the lines originally ill equipped to
handle heavy freight traffic had taken early steps to
develop the necessary facilities. As early as 1906,
for example, Illinois Congressman McKinley was
building belt lines around principal cities on his
Illinois Traction System to permit unrestricted car-
load freight operation, and his system ultimately be-
came a major freight railroad. But not many other
interurbans had equal foresight, and by the time
the need for a heavy freight traffic became apparent,
few of them had sufficient means to undertake the
necessary improvements.
Many of the interurbans which had a capacity for
carload freight operation all along, or managed to
develop it, survived the interurban era as freight-
only short line railroads, usually employing diesel-
electric motive power. But for most interurbans
freight traffic proved to be as ephemeral as passenger
traffic, and when both vanished abandonment was
the only recourse. 1
Almost all of the interurbans that have survived
as freight-only carriers have abandoned elec-
tric equipment in favor of diesel-electric mo-
tive power. Iowa's Fort Dodge-Des Moines
Line still employed both forms of power when
this 70-ton General Electric diesel worked in
the Des Moines River valley in 1955, but the
railway has since taken down its trolley wire.
William D. Middleton.
393
— L -
K..
hr M^.«
!w*gfe
Exit the Interurban
77>e sun set on the interurban at Tuck Station on British
Columbia Electric 's Steveston line. Stan F. Styles.
395
Exit the Interurban
THE INTERURBAN was, of course, "done in" by
the automobile, a form of transportation almost as
old as the electric cars themselves. In a manner not
unlike that in which the interurban had largely sup-
planted steam railroad local passenger service, the
automobile in its turn captured the public fancy
simply because it provided an even greater utility
and convenience than the electric service it displaced.
In the automobile's infancy few, even among its
most ardent advocates, had any notion of the monster
industry it would one day create. The early autos
were far too costly for any but the well-to-do; they
were extremely unreliable; and the roads were abom-
inable in any case. Clearly, autos were no more than
a rich man's plaything. The electric cars, on the
other hand, were sturdy, dependable vehicles that
had proven their worth and were headed for a gold-
en future which held unlimited promise. Electric
transportation, it was widely felt, would soon be-
come almost universal.
Occasionally, during the early days of motoring,
the auto was even a source of extra revenue for the
interurbans. In 1905 the general superintendent of
the Lake Shore Electric Railway, noting the frequen-
cy with which farmers were hauling in disabled
automobiles from the highway which paralleled the
railway all the way from Cleveland to Toledo, estab-
lished an "automobile ambulance" service, which
employed a flat car drawn by a freight locomotive
and equipped with the necessary apparatus for haul-
ing stranded autos aboard. The service, which cost
$15 and up, was said to be "much less embarrassing
than having to resort to the horse to get back to
town." The Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Company
was collecting $5 a head in a similar manner by pro-
viding a train of flat cars to haul motorists when
roads became impassable along its line. Even as
late as the '20's the Pacific Northwest Traction Com-
pany was doing a lively business hauling trucks,
buses, and automobiles around gaps in the uncom-
pleted Pacific Highway north of Seattle on the elec-
tric line's "land ferries," which consisted of flat cars
drawn by a freight locomotive.
As early as 1905 the Street Railway Journal took
editorial notice of the rapidly growing number of
automobiles, but only to discount it as a threat of
any consequence. And even 10 years later, when
some interurbans were beginning to feel the effects
of automobile competition, the Journal, still not
sure there was anything to worry about, remarked,
"Whether this condition will be permanent or
whether it will practically disappear, as in the case
of the bicycle, is hard to say."
Any lingering doubts were soon resolved. Auto-
mobile ownership soared and the traction industry
found itself with a competitor that could no
longer be disregarded. The urban transit industry
was the first to feel the severe effects of widespread
auto ownership, but a clamor from the new motor-
ing public set in motion a road building pro-
gram to get rural America "out of the mud,"
and the interurbans soon found that more and more
of their onetime passengers were driving their own
cars over a new network of hard-surfaced roads. A
few of the smaller lines, which had been marginal
propositions all along, promptly folded, but general-
ly the first effect of the new competition was to
bring to a halt the heretofore spectacular growth of
the interurbans. Total U. S. interurban mileage,
which had grown steadily to a peak of about 18,100
miles in 1917, leveled off and then began a gradual
decline, although occasional new construction con-
tinued for another 10 years. The last new interurban
line, for example — Texas' Houston North Shore
Railway — opened as late as 1927. But after 1917
the abandonments always came faster than the new
construction.
Interurban car construction, another indicator of
the industry's health, gradually declined from an av-
erage of more than a thousand cars annually during
396
With the end of over 40 years of service not far away, a lonely Illinois Terminal interurban waited
quietly in a January 1955 snowstorm at the Champaign depot. WILLIAM D. MlDDLETON.
397
the years prior to 1910 to a low of 128 new cars built
during 1919.
If business was not quite as good as it had once
been, most of the interurbans were still in good
shape, and throughout the '20's the stronger systems
that had been soundly conceived to begin with were
able to wage a determined battle to regain their pas-
senger traffic. Millions were spent on track and pow-
er improvements and on line relocations to provide
faster service. Older rolling stock was modernized,
and as many lines installed brand-new equipment,
interurban carbuilding enjoyed a brief resurgence,
reaching a peak of over 500 cars annually in 1924.
Imaginative new services were started, and freight
traffic, which the interurbans had been giving
increasing attention, grew to unprecedented levels.
Dr. Thomas Conway's prescription for the success-
ful interurban included consolidation, high-speed
equipment, new traffic promotion ideas, and pub-
licity. After one of his new Cincinnati & Lake
Erie interurbans defeated an airplane in a race
staged for newsreel cameras in 1930, a bannered car
toured Dayton streets inviting the public to see
films of the race at a local theater. C&LE later
adopted such innovations as free taxi service to and
from the depot, but the lure of the automobile was
irresistible and the system lasted only until 1939.
Mayfield Photos Inc.
tv
^ks
Despite its aged equipment, the Atlantic
City & Shore Railroad tried to keep
right up with the times in 1 940 by pro-
riding its interurbans with hostesses on
the run between Atlantic City and Ocean
City. Ann Hackney, "the world's first
trolley hostess," prepared to board her
Shore Fast Line wooden car in 1 942.
Central Studios, Atlantic City.
A remarkable pair of Pennsylvania interurbans, Lehigh Valley
Transit and West Penn Railways, survived into the '50's as
typical examples of the passenger interurban of old. In
1950, LVT's Liberty Bell Limited No. 1030, a former Indiana
Railroad high-speed car, careened down Lehigh Mountain
near Allentown on its way to Norristown. Abandonment
was a year away. William D. Middleton.
A bright orange West Penn interurban rambled across the high bridge at Brownsville. The broad-gauge
system lasted until the mid-")0's, despite a lack of commuters and carload freight. David A. STRASSMAN.
399
For a time the rejuvenation had encouraging re-
sults. A good example of the thoroughgoing over-
haul given many properties was that of the Cin-
cinnati & Dayton Traction Company, which had
been in almost continuous receivership for 10 years
when it was reorganized in 1926 as the Cincinnati,
Hamilton & Dayton. Headed by Dr. Thomas Con-
way Jr., the new management refinanced and com-
pletely rebuilt the property. Track was rebuilt
with new rails and ties, drainage was improved, and
the power distribution system completely rebuilt.
New shops were erected, new passenger cars were
placed in service, and a large fleet of freight equip-
ment was acquired for a new fast freight and express
service.
The publicity-conscious Conway management in-
troduced the newly overhauled CH&D with a gala
celebration near Dayton on June 22, 1927. Nearly
400 prominent citizens, public officials, and railway-
men attended a banquet at the new car shops, then
adjourned to a nearby natural amphitheater where
nearly 30,000 were awaiting the public celebration.
There was a night flying exhibition and an elaborate
fireworks display, and a band played while seven old
cars were burned. The climax of the occasion came
when the lights were turned on in the new fleet of
cars to the accompaniment of horns and gongs.
Thus, with much fanfare, the CH&D regained its
competitive position and was soon solidly back in
the black. Other lines enjoyed similar comebacks
and many electric railwaymen, for a few brief years,
looked to the future with renewed confidence. Pre-
dicted Britton I. Budd, president of Samuel Insull's
North Shore and South Shore interurbans at Chi-
cago, in 1927, "Well-located interurban lines, in-
stead of being obsolete, are in reality entering upon
the period of their greatest usefulness." His pre-
diction, although it proved correct in the special case
of his own lines, turned out to be a rather bad guess
about the future of the interurbans.
400
The first interurban came close to being the last. Portland's Oregon City line,
opened in 1893, lasted until early 1958. Former Pacific Electric car 4018 rolled
across a much-photographed trestle at Milwaukie, Ore., in 1955. William D.
MlDDLETON.
The Milwaukee Rapid Transit & Speedrail Com-
pany was an ill-fated attempt to modernize the
remaining interurban routes of the old Milwaukee
Electric system with the economies of lightweight
cars and one-man operation. A head-on collision of
two excursion trains in 1950, the last big wreck of
the interurban era, brought financial difficulties
and abandonment a year later. On a bright Decem-
ber day in 1950 Waukesha Limited car No. 60, a
Cincinnati curved-side lightweight that had seen
service on three Indiana and Ohio lines, sped
through West Junction. William D. Middleton.
401
Pacific Electric transported the greatest passen-
ger loads in its entire history during World
War II, and continued to carry a flourishing
rail passenger traffic into the early '50's. During
rush hour at Amoco Tower, on the celebrated
four-track main line of PE's Southern District,
a Watts local on the outer track had just been
overtaken by a fast moving Bellflower express.
Early in 1961 the last PE interurban route — to
Long Beach — was abandoned by its most recent
operator, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit
Authority. William D. Middleton.
Smoking brake shoes and motors testified to the
heat of a July afternoon in 1955 as a North Shore
local, en route from Chicago to W aukegan over the
Shore Line route, braked to a stop at North Chi-
cago Junction, only a week before the route was
abandoned. Once the main line, the Shore Line
continued to operate an extensive, if unprofitable,
commuter business to the suburbs north of Chi-
cago following completion of the high-speed
Skokie Valley main line in 1925. Early in 1963
the remainder of the North Shore system was
abandoned. William D. Middleton.
The great depression that began with the stock
market crash of 1929 brought the interurbans' come-
back to an end. As business activity stagnated, in-
terurban freight and passenger revenues declined ac-
cordingly, and often there was too little left even
for operating expenses, much less further improve-
ments. For 40 major interurbans Electric Railway
Journal reported 1930 net operating revenues that
were down 46 per cent from the year before, while
operating expenses decreased only slightly. Financial
reports for 1931 were even worse. A survey of 23
interurbans revealed that operating revenues had
dropped as much as 60 per cent below 1930 results,
and while 10 of the lines had reported some net in-
come in 1930, only 6 had anything left after oper-
ating expenses in 1931. Further drops in revenues
as high as 40 per cent were reported in 1932. Sys-
tem after system went under, and by 1933 interurban
mileage had been reduced to little over 10,000 miles,
a decline of almost 6000 miles in 10 years. New in-
terurban car construction reached an all-time low of
seven cars in 1932, and then disappeared altogether.
Separate Chicago Aurora & Elgin cars from Aurora and Elgin had just been con-
solidated into a single Chicago express at Wheaton, III., on a summer evening
in 1955. A few years later, with insufficient freight revenues to cover com-
muter traffic losses, the CA&E became the first of Samuel Insult's "super inter-
urbans" to abandon service. William D. Middleton.
402
' '■■■ ■ . '. /'
1 :<h9i&-u
mill HMMWiiMiit;iiiin;'!»i
- ~- '":*•
Even under the crushing effect of depression there
were a few major efforts to modernize and to consoli-
date separate lines into strong systems. In Ohio in
1929, Dr. Conway, with his overhauled CH&D as a,
nucleus, assembled the new Cincinnati & Lake Erie
system stretching from the Ohio River to Lake Erie,
bought 20 new high-speed cars, and installed im-
proved through services. In 1930 the Insull inter-
ests organized the statewide Indiana Railroad Sys-
tem, bought 35 new high-speed cars, spent thousands
on line improvements, and inaugurated vastly im-
proved service. In 1932 the Fonda, Johnstown &
Gloversville in New York placed new Bullet cars on
limited schedules that cut as much as half an hour
from previous Gloversville-Schenectady timings, and
enjoyed a 78 per cent increase in net revenues over
those for 1931. Such efforts were widely hailed, and
many thought the winning combination for the in-
terurban had at last been found.
Still going strong in 7965, the Philadelphia Suburban
Transportation Company was the only surviving in-
terurban east of Chicago. A lightweight Brill subur-
ban car, one of the last cars turned out by the once-
great Philadelphia carbuilder, rolled through a rock
cut at S medley Park in 1956, en route from Media
to 69th Street terminal. William D. Middleton.
A South Shore Line express from Gary, Incl., slid into Illinois Central's
Randolph Street Suburban Station in Chicago in 1955. Lengthened
and fitted with picture windows, foam rubber seats, and air condi-
tioning, this equipment helped place the South Shore in the fore-
front of passenger inter ur bans, but tonnage freight traffic moving
behind heavy electric motive power had a lot more to do with the
South Shore's continued prosperity in /965. WILLIAM D. MlDDLETON.
405
One of Dr. Conway's wind-tunnel-designed Bullet cars raced through Gulph Cut
on the third-rail "super-interurban" Philadelphia & Western line, since 1954 a
part of the Philadelphia Suburban system. William D. Middleton.
ag.
r t. x-
But such measures provided only a temporary
stay of execution. By 1932 piecemeal abandonments
had reduced Indiana Railroad mileage from 850 to
only 300, and the entire system was gone by 1941.
Dr. Conway's Cincinnati & Lake Erie lasted only
until 1939, and the high-speed cars that had shown
such early promise on the FJ&G were returned to the
builders in default of payments several years after
delivery.
The few interurbans that survived into the '40's
and '50's could generally be fitted into one of two
special categories. Some, which entered large metro-
politan areas, found new usefulness as home-to-work
transportation for burgeoning bedroom suburbs. All
three of the major Insull interurbans at Chicago, for
example, became important commuter railroads.
Others which had become essentially electric freight
railroads continued to operate an interurban pas-
senger service which was by this time no more than
a minor sideline. A few fortunate systems enjoyed
both a substantial freight traffic and a large com-
muter business. Los Angeles' Pacific Electric, with
A lightweight interurban car of the Evansville &
Ohio Valley Railway in Indiana was one of
the first to fall to the bus. In 1928 No. 136
posed beside its replacement on the Hender-
son (Ky.) run. George Krambles Collection.
both a tremendous suburban passenger business and
enough on-line industries to make the railway Cali-
fornia's third largest originator of freight traffic,
was one of these.
A few remarkable interurban systems managed
to survive as purely passenger-carrying intercity
railroads. Notable among them was Pennsylvania's
Lehigh Valley Transit Company, which served the
populous communities of the Lehigh Valley and
had good connections for Philadelphia-bound pas-
sengers. When the Cincinnati & Lake Erie folded in
1939 LVT acquired the major part of C&LE's fleet
of high-speed, lightweight cars, completely refur-
bished them for its "Liberty Bell Route," and con-
tinued to operate an interurban passenger service
in the grand old manner until 1951.
407
rAUlU^ '
A sober-faced group gathered in the main street of New Philadelphia, O., in 1929
for the departure of the last interurban car on the Northern Ohio Power &
Light Company. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.
408
Those lines that survived the depression enjoyed
a brief return to the bonanza traffic of an earlier
era during the World War II years of gasoline ra-
tioning and the great industrial activity of national
defense. The Southern California population ex-
plosion generated by an extraordinary defense in-
dustry growth, for example, provided the Pacific
Electric system with more rail passengers (a peak of
109 million in 1945) than it had ever handled
before.
With the end of the war the forces which had
been at work on the interurbans resumed. More
autos than ever before rolled off the assembly lines,
and continuing declines in what passenger traffic
was left combined with growing operating costs to
force the abandonment of the remaining marginal
passenger operations. Low fares and excessively high
peak hour requirements served to make commuter
traffic less and less attractive, regardless of its vol-
ume; and even those few systems that operated ex-
ceedingly large suburban traffics found remaining
solvent more and more difficult. Within less than 10
years Pacific Electric had almost entirely converted
its passenger operation to more economical, if less
satisfactory, bus services, and in 1961 its last interur-
ban route, by then part of a metropolitan transit
authority, was discontinued. By early 1963 two
of the three Insull interurbans at Chicago — the
Chicago Aurora & Elgin and the North Shore Line
— had quit entirely. Only the South Shore Line
transported enough freight traffic to underwrite
its passenger losses and continue operation.
Sometimes the interurbans last run was the occasion for a celebration every bit the equal of its
inaugural trip. This croud gathered at Thurmont, Md., one rainy day in 1954 to see the last trolley
off on the Potomac Edison's inter urban line to Frederick. H. N. PROCTOR.
A handsome 1903 Niles wooden interurban of classic lines, originally owned by
the Toledo. Port Clinton & Lakeside Railway, approached Proprietors' Road on
trackage of the Ohio Railway Museum at W'orthington. John Mallov.
409
~ /W^-.j.^- Hr>sr - J» V^T
Excursionists boarded a restored Connecticut
Company open car in 1 959 for a ride over the
Branford museum's line near East Haven, Conn.
William D. Middleton.
Traction enthusiast E. ]. Quinby, a former inter-
urban mo tor man, took the controls of a well-
restored open car on the Branford Electric Rail-
way museum. William D. Middleton.
A former Connecticut Company open car rolled through a New England wood
on the Connecticut Electric Railway trolley museum, whose rails are laid on the
long-abandoned roadbed of a Hartford & Springfield Street Railway branch.
William D. Middleton.
East of Chicago only a single system, the Philadel-
phia Suburban Transportation Company, favored
with unusual circumstances that helped level off the
peak demands of its suburban passenger business,
continued to operate.
As the interurban, along with the urban trolley
car, vanished from North America, its determined
fans, who seemed to grow in numbers as the elec-
tric cars became increasingly uncommon, com-
menced to assemble its history in painstaking texts,
countless photographs, maps, timetables, and other
memorabilia. Their ultimate achievement was to
preserve and operate the cars themselves, and the
first such group formed for this purpose, the Sea-
shore Electric Railway, was established at Kenne-
bunkport, Me., in 1939. Others followed, and by
1961 there were more museum groups operating in-
terurban cars than there were surviving interurban
railways. Over two dozen groups had preserved well
over 200 pieces of electric railway equipment, and
more than a dozen of these were actually operating
the cars or had definite plans to do so. The Seashore
undertaking alone, the largest of the projects, had
preserved no less than 71 items of traction rolling
stock of every description.
In retrospect it is all too easy to write off the
interurban railways as ill-conceived ventures, for
clearly they failed to achieve the lasting position and
universal application that was once so freely pre-
dicted for them, and only rarely did they reap the
promised rich financial returns that once made them
so popular with investors. But in their time the elec-
tric cars served well the transportation needs of a
growing nation, and this essential contribution can
never be overlooked.
It is worth noting, too, that the interurban rail-
ways were rendered obsolete not by a transportation
development of superior technology but by one that
provided only a greater mobility. As a mass trans-
portation vehicle the electric railway possessed many
of the same virtues in 1965 that it had in 1900. For
it could still transport large numbers of people far
more economically, and quite often more rapidly,
than its petroleum-fueled successors.
As America's metropolitan planners, and not a
few of the commuting public as well, were becoming
increasingly aware, the private automobile, with its
insatiable demand for highway and parking space.
was a costly and far from satisfactory way of getting
the suburban dweller between home and work. It is
not unreasonable to suppose, for example, that the
Waukesha commuter who once was whisked to
411
Interurban enthusiasts of the Iowa Railway Historical Museum have the 17 -mile Southern Iowa
Railway at their disposal for excursions with the group's former Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern
Railroad parlor-buffet-observation car. William D. MiDDLETON.
412
jMBWCcli
^^\,v^
Iowa's Charles City Western Railway, which
couldn't bear to part with its inter urban after
passenger service ended in 1952, refurbished car
No. 50 with a pastel color scheme, draperies, and
lounge furniture and offered it for charter trips
over the freight-only line by trolley fans and
nostalgic local residents. William D. Middleton.
downtown Milwaukee in as little as 35 minutes by
interurban, and who must now spend considerably
more time making the same trip by bus or ma-
neuvering his automobile through congested streets,
regards the disappearance of his electric railway
with some regret.
Indeed, throughout the 50s there was a grow-
ing interest again being shown in the electric rail-
way. Toronto completed its handsome new Yonge
Street subway, Cleveland inaugurated a brand-new
rapid transit system, and Chicago was extending
its subway and elevated lines into new territory. San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, and many other
cities were making serious plans for construction of
rapid transit systems. To be sure, the new electric
railways bore little outward resemblance to the col-
orful interurbans of a half century before, but be-
neath their sleek and functional modernity the very
same principles of clean, quiet, and efficient electric
transportation were at work.
If the Buckeye Specials, Hoosierlands, and Comets
that once raced importantly through the countryside
in the glamorous days of the interurban era were
gone forever, a new and different era of electric
transportation was perhaps at hand. X
413
Interurban and Rural Railways
in the United States, Canada, and Mexico
1 HIS' directory is based upon a 1922 Electric Railway Census by the Depart-
ment of Commerce, with corrections, additions, and deletions by the author and
others. Companies listed operated bona fide interurbans, rural trolley lines, or
suburban electric lines with interurban characteristics. Companies which operated
street railways only are excluded.
Company names are normally those under which the railways were listed in
1922. Successor companies and previous names, when they were well known, are
shown in italics. Steam railroad control or affiliation is shoivn in parentheses.
Companies are entered under the state in which headquarters were maintained.
NOTES
*Company still electrically operated for passenger service in 1965.
f Company still electrically operated for freight service only in 1965.
All companies were operated by overhead trolley exclusively except as indicated
below:
(1) Third-rail operation.
(2) Third-rail and overhead-trolley operation.
(3) Underground-conduit and overhead-trolley operation.
(4) Gas-electric operation.
NEW ENGLAND STATES
MAINE
Androscoggin & Kennebec Ry. Co.,
The
Lewiston, Augusta & W aterville St.
Ry.
Androscoggin Electric Co.
Portland-Lewiston Interurban RR
Aroostook Valley RR Co. ( CPR )
Atlantic Shore Ry. Co.
Bangor Ry. & Electric Co.
Biddeford & Saco RR, The
Cumberland County Power & Light
Co.
Portland RR
Rockland, Thomaston & Camden St.
Ry. Co., The
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Berlin St. Ry.
Boston & Maine RR
Concord Electric Co.
Claremont Ry.
Dover, Somerset & Rochester St. Ry.
Co.
Exeter, Hampton & Amesbury St. Ry.
Manchester & Derry St. Ry.
Manchester & Nashua St. Ry.
Manchester St. Ry.
Nashua St. Ry.
Portsmouth Electric Ry.
VERMONT
Barre & Montpelier Traction &
Power Co.
Bellows Falls & Saxton River
Electric RR
Burlington Traction Co.
Mt. Mansfield Electric RR
Rutland Ry., Light & Power Co.
St. Albans & Swanton Traction Co.
Springfield Electric Ry. Co. ( B&M )
Springfield Terminal Ry.
Twin State Gas & Electric Co., The
MASSACHUSETTS
Attleboro Branch RR Co.
Berkshire St. Ry. Co. (NH)
Blue Hill St. Ry.
Boston & Worcester St. Ry. Co.
Bristol County St. Ry. Property
Concord, Maynard & Hudson St. Ry.
Co.
Connecticut Valley St. Ry. Co.
Eastern Massachusetts St. Ry. Co.
Bay State St. Ry. Co.
Fitchburg & Leominster St. Ry. Co.
Grafton & Upton RR
Holyoke St. Ry. Co.
Interstate Consolidated St. Ry. Co.
Lowell & Fitchburg St. Ry. Co.
Massachusetts Northeastern St. Ry.
Co.
Medway & Dedham St. Ry. Co.
Middlesex & Boston St. Ry. Co.
Milford & Uxbridge St. Ry. Co.
Milford, Attleboro & Woonsocket St.
Ry. Co.
Nahant & Lynn St. Ry. Co.
New Bedford & Onset St. Ry. Co.
Northampton Street Ry. Co.
Northern Massachusetts St. Ry. Co.
Norton, Taunton & Attleboro St. Ry.
Co.
Plymouth & Brockton St. Ry. Co.
Plymouth & Sandwich St. Ry. Co.
Shelburne Falls & Colerain St. Ry. Co.
Springfield St. Ry. Co. (NH)
Union St. Ry. Co.
Ware & Brookfield St. Ry. Co.
Worcester Consolidated St. Ry. Co.
(NH)
RHODE ISLAND
Newport & Providence Ry. Co.
Providence & Fall River St. Ry. Co.
Rhode Island Co., The (NH)
United Electric Rys. Co.
CONNECTICUT
Bristol & Plainville Electric Co.
Connecticut Co., The (NH)
Danbury & Bethel St. Ry. Co.
Hartford & Springfield St. Ry. Co.
Shore Line Electric Ry. Co., The
Waterbury & Milldale Tramway Co..
The
MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES
NEW YORK
Albany Southern Ry. Co. (2)
Auburn & Syracuse Electric RR Co.
Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Co.
Buffalo & Erie Ry.
Chautauqua Traction Co.
Cortland County Traction Co.
Elmira, Corning & Waverly Ry.
(Erie)
Elmira Water, Light & RR Co.
Empire State RR Corp.
Erie Railroad ( Mt. Morris Div.)
Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville RR
Co.
Geneva, Seneca Falls & Auburn RR
Co.
Hudson Valley Ry. Co. (D&H)
International Ry. Co.
Ithaca-Auburn & Lansing RR
Jamestown, Westfield & Northwest-
ern RR Co.
Kaydeross RR Corp.
Keesville, Ausable Chasm & Lake
Champlain RR ( 1 )
Lima-Honeoye Electric Light & RR
Co.
New Paltz, Highland & Poughkeepsie
Traction Co.
New York & Stamford Ry. Co.
New York State Rys. (2) (NYC)
Rochester & Sodus Bay Ry.
Rochester & Eastern Rapid Ry.
Oneida Ry.
Utica & Mohawk Valley Ry.
New York, Westchester & Boston Ry.
Co. (NH)
Niagara Gorge RR Co., The
Olean, Bradford & Salamanca Ry. Co.
Orange County Traction Co.
Paul Smith's Electric Light, Power &
RR Co.
Penn Yan & Lake Shore Ry.
Putnam & Westchester Traction Co.
Rochester & Syracuse RR Co.
Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern RR
Co.
Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo RR
Corp.
Buffalo, Lockport & Rochester Ry.
Schenectady Ry. Co. (D&H-NYC)
Southern New York Power & Ry.
Corp.
Southern New York Ry.
Syracuse & Suburban RR Co.
Syracuse Northern Electric Ry.
Walkill Transit Co. (Erie)
NEW JERSEY
Atlantic & Suburban Ry. Co.
Atlantic City & Shore RR Co. (2)
Atlantic Coast Electric Ry. Co.
Bridgeton & Millville Traction Co.
414
Burlington County Transit Co.
Jersey Central Traction Co.
Millville Traction Co.
Monmouth County Electric Co.
Morris County Traction Co., The
North Jersey Rapid Transit Co.
Northampton-Easton & Washington
Traction Co.
Public Service Ry. Co.
Salem & Pennsgrove Traction Co.
Trenton & Mercer County Traction
Corp.
Trenton-Princeton Traction Co.
(RDG)
PENNSYLVANIA
Allegheny Valley St. Ry. Co.
West Penn Ry. Co.
Allen Street Ry. Co.
Allentown & Reading Traction Co.
Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Ry.
Co.
Bangor & Portland Traction Co.
Beaver Valley Traction Co., The
Bethlehem Transit Co.
Blue Ridge Traction Co.
Carlisle & Mount Holly Rys. Co.
Centre & Clearfield Ry. Co.
Chambersburg & Gettysburg Electric
Ry. Co. ( PRR )
Chambersburg & Shippensburg Ry.
Co.
Chambersburg, Greencastle &
Waynesboro St. Ry. Co.
Citizens Traction Co., The
Cleveland & Erie Ry. Co.
Conestoga Traction Co.
Corry & Columbus Traction Co.
Cumberland Ry.
Eastern Pennsylvania Rys. Co.
Ephrata & Lebanon Traction Co.
Fairchance & Smithfield Traction Co.
Hanover & McSherrystown St. Ry.
Co.
Harrisburg Rys. Co.
Hershey Transit Co.
Indiana County St. Ry. Co.
Jefferson Traction Co.
Jersey Shore & Antes Fort RR Co.
Johnstown & Somerset Ry. Co.
Johnstown Traction Co.
Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley RR
Co. (2)
Lancaster & Southern
Lancaster & York Furnace St. Ry. Co.
Lehigh Traction Co., The
Lehigh Valley Transit Co.
Lewisburg, Milton & Watsontown
Passenger Ry. Co.
Lewistown & Reedsville Electric Ry.
Co., The
Lykens Valley Ry. Co.
Mauch Chunk & Lehighton Transit
Co.
Montgomery Transit Co.
North Branch Transit Co.
Northampton Transit Co.
Northern Cambria Ry. Co.
Northwestern Electric Service Co. of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania RR ( Dillsburg branch)
Pennsylvania & Maryland St. Ry. Co.
Pennsylvania-New Jersey Ry. Co.
Philadelphia & Easton Transit Co.
* Philadelphia & West Chester
Traction Co.
Philadelphia Suburban Transporta-
tion Co.
♦Philadelphia & Western Ry. Co. ( 1 )
Philadelphia Suburban Transporta-
tion Co.
Phoenixville, Valley Forge &
Strafford Electric Ry. Co.
Pittsburgh Ry. Co.
Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New
Castle Ry. Co.
Pittsburgh, Mars & Butler Ry. Co.
Pottstown & Reading St. Ry.
Reading Transit & Light Co.
Schuylkill Ry. Co.
Scranton Ry. Co.
Scranton, Montrose & Binghamton
RR Co.
Shamokin & Edgewood Electric Ry.
Co.
Shamokin & Mount Carmel Transit
Co.
Sharon & New Castle St. Ry. Co.
Slate Belt Transit Co.
Southern Cambria Ry. Co.
Southern Pennsylvania Traction Co.
Stroudsburg Traction Co., The
Sunbury & Sellinsgrove Ry. Co.
Titusville Traction Co.
Trenton, Bristol & Philadelphia St.
Ry. Co.
United Traction St. Ry. Co.
Valley Rys.
Warren & Jamestown St. Ry. Co.
Warren St. Ry. Co.
Waverly, Sayre & Athens Traction
Co. ( Erie )
West Chester, Kennett & Wilmington
Electric Ry. Co.
West Chester St. Ry. Co., The
West Penn Ry. Co.
Wilkes-Barre Ry. Co., The
Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton Ry. Co.,
The (2)
York Rys. Co.
SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES
DELAWARE
Wilmington & Philadelphia Traction
Co.
MARYLAND
Cumberland & Westernport Electric
Ry. Co.
Kensington Ry. Co.
Potomac Public Service Co.
Hagerstoun & Frederick Ry.
United Rys. & Electric Co. of
Baltimore
Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis
Electric RR Co. (3)
Baltimore & Annapolis RR Co.
(B&O)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington Ry. & Electric Co. (3)
VIRGINIA
Newport News & Hampton Ry.
Gas & Electric Co.
Norfolk Southern RR
Richmond & Chesapeake Bay Ry.
Richmond- Ashland Ry. Co.
Richmond-Fairfield Ry. Co.
Roanoke Ry. & Electric Co.
Virginia Ry. & Power Co.
Washington & Old Dominion Ry.
Washington-Virginia Ry. (3)
Arlington & Fairfax Ry.
Washington, Alexandria & Ml.
Vernon Ry.
WEST VIRGINIA
Appalachian Power Co.
Tri-City Traction Co.
Charleston Interurban RR Co.
Kanawha Traction & Electric Co.
Monongahela West Penn Public
Service Co.
Lewisburg & Ronceverte Electric Ry.
Co.
Monongahela Power & Ry. Co.
Monongahela West Penn Public
Service Co.
Ohio Valley Electric Ry. Co.
Parkersburg & Ohio Valley Electric
Ry.
Princeton Power Co.
Tri-City Traction Co.
Sistersville & New Martinsville
Traction Co.
Tyler Traction Co.
Wellsburg, Bethany & Washington
Ry. Co.
Wheeling Public Service Co.
Wheeling Traction Co.
NORTH CAROLINA
Piedmont Ry. & Electric Co.
Tidewater Power Co.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston-Isle of Palms Traction
Co.
Columbia Ry., Gas & Electric Co.
Piedmont & Northern Ry. Co.
GEORGIA
Atlanta Northern Ry. Co.
Augusta-Aiken Ry. & Electric Corp.
Fairburn & Atlanta Ry. & Electric
Co. (4)
Georgia Ry. & Power Co.
Savannah Electric & Power Co.
FLORIDA
None
NORTH CENTRAL STATES
OHIO
Cincinnati & Columbus Traction Co.
Cincinnati & Dayton Traction Co.,
The
Ohio Electric Ry. Co.
Cincinnati. Hamilton & Dayton Ry.
Co.
Cincinnati & Lake Erie RR
Cincinnati, Georgetown &
Portsmouth RR Co., The
Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg & Aurora
Electric St. RR Co., The
Cincinnati, Milford & Blanchester
Traction Co., The
Cincinnati St. Ry. Co.
Cleveland, Alliance & Mahoning
Valley RR Co.
415
Cleveland & Chagrin Falls Ry. Co.,
The
Cleveland & Eastern Traction Co.,
The
Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula
RR Co., The
Cleveland, Painesville & Eastern RR
Co., The
Cleveland, Southwestern & Columbus,
Ry. Co., The
Columbus, Delaware & Marion
Electric Co., The
Columbus, Magnetic Springs &
Northern Ry.
Columbus, Marion & Bucyrus Ry.
Co., The
Columbus, New Albany & Johnstown
Traction Co., The
Columbus, Newark & Zanesville
Electric Ry. Co., The
Ohio Electric Ry.
Columbus Ry., Power & Light Co.,
The
Columbus, Urbana & Western
Electric Ry., The
Dayton & Troy Electric Ry. Co., The
Dayton & Western Traction Co., The
Ohio Electric Ry. Co.
Indiana RR System
Dayton, Covington & Piqua Traction
Co., The
Dayton, Springfield & Xenia
Southern Ry. Co., The
Felicity & Bethel RR Co.
Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima
Traction Co., The
Ohio Electric Ry. Co.
Fort Wayne-Lima RR Co.
Fostoria & Fremont Ry. Co., The
Gallipolis & Northern Traction Co.
Hocking-Sunday Creek Traction Co.,
The
Indiana, Columbus & Eastern
Traction Co., The
Ohio Electric Ry. Co.
Cincinnati & Lake Erie RR
Interurban Ry. & Terminal Co.
Lake Erie, Bowling Green &
Napoleon Ry.
Lake Shore Electric Ry. Co., The
Lebanon & Franklin Traction Co.
Lima-Toledo RR Co., The
Ohio Electric Ry. Co.
Cincinnati & Lake Erie RR
Lorain St. RR Co., The
Maumee Valley Ry. Co., The
Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co.
Northwestern Ohio Ry. & Power
Co., The
Norwalk & Shelby RR
Ohio & Southern Traction Co., The
Ohio Public Service Co.
Ohio River & Columbus Ry.
Ohio River Electric Ry. & Power Co.
Ohio Service Co., The
Ohio Traction Co.
Ohio Valley Electric Ry.
Pennsylvania & Ohio Ry. Co.
Pennsylvania-Ohio Electric Co., The
Mahoning & Shenango Ry. &
Light Co.
Portsmouth Public Service Co.
Scioto Valley Traction Co., The ( 2 )
Southeastern Ohio Ry. Co., The
Springfield & Washington Ry. Co.
Springfield & Xenia Ry. Co., The
Springfield Terminal Ry. & Power
Co., The
Springfield, Troy & Piqua Ry. Co.
Stark Electric RR Co., The
Steubenville, East Liverpool &
Beaver Valley Traction Co.
Tiffin, Fostoria & Eastern Electric
Ry. Co., The
Toledo & Indiana RR Co., The
Toledo & Western RR Co., The
(WAB)
Toledo, Bowling Green & Southern
Traction Co., The
Toledo, Fostoria & Findlay Ry. Co.,
The
Toledo, Ottawa Beach & Northern
Ry. Co., The
Wellston & Jackson Belt Ry. ( Hock-
ing Valley )
Western Ohio Ry. Co., The
Youngstown & Ohio River RR Co.,
The
Youngstown & Suburban Ry. Co.,
The ( Montour )
INDIANA
Beech Grove Traction Co.
Bluffton, Geneva & Celina Traction
Co.
* Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend
Ry. Co.
Chicago South Shore & South
Bend RR
Chicago, South Bend & Northern
Indiana Ry. Co.
Northern Indiana Ry.. Inc.
Evansville & Ohio Valley Ry. Co.
Evansville Suburban & Newburgh
Ry. Co.
Fort Wayne & Decatur Traction Co.
Fort Wayne & Northwestern Ry. Co.
Indiana RR System
Gary & Southern Traction Co.
Gary & Valparaiso Ry. Co.
Gary Rys. Co.
Gary St. Ry. Co.
Gary Rys. Co.
Goshen, South Bend & Chicago RR
Co.
Indiana Service Corp.
Indiana RR System
Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction
Co.
Indianapolis & Southeastern RR
Co.
Interstate Public Service Co.
Indiana RR System
Lafayette St. Ry. Co.
Lebanon-Thorntown Traction Co.
Marion & Bluffton Traction Co.
Indiana Service Corp.
Indiana RR System
Northern Indiana Power Co.
Indiana RR System
St. Joseph Valley Traction Co.
Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co.
Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern
Traction Co.
Indiana RR
Union Traction Co. of Indiana
Indiana RR
Winona Interurban Ry. Co.
MICHIGAN
Benton Harbor-St. Joe Ry. & Light
Co.
Detroit, Jackson & Chicago Ry.
Detroit United Ry.
Michigan Electric Ry.
Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Short Line
Detroit United Ry.
Eastern Michigan-Toledo Ry.
Detroit United Ry.
Eastern Michigan Rys.
Escanaba Power & Traction Co.
Grand Rapids, Grand Haven &
Muskegon Ry. Co. ( 2 )
Houghton County Traction Co.
Lake Superior District Power Co.
Michigan Ry. (2)
Michigan RR
Michigan United Ry.
Michigan Electric Ry.
Grand Rapids, Holland & Chicago
Ry.
Southern Michigan Ry. Co.
Northern Indiana Ry., Inc.
ILLINOIS
Alton, Granite & St. Louis Traction
Co.
Illinois Terminal RR
Alton, Jacksonville & Peoria Ry. Co.
Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric
Co.
Aurora, Plainfield & Joliet RR Co.
Bloomington, Pontiac & Joliet
Electric Ry. Co.
Cairo & St. Louis Ry. Co.
Central Illinois Traction Co.
Chicago & Interurban Traction Co.
Chicago & Joliet Electric Ry. Co.
Chicago, Aurora & De Kalb RR Co.
Chicago Aurora & Elgin Ry. Co. (2)
Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee
RR (2)
Chicago, Ottawa & Peoria Ry. Co.
Coal Belt Electric Ry. Co. (MP)
De Kalb, Sycamore & Interurban
Traction Co.
East St. Louis & Suburban Ry. Co.
East St. Louis, Columbia & Waterloo
Ry. Co.
Elgin & Belvidere Electric Co.
Fox & Illinois Union Ry. Co.
Galesburg & Kewanee Electric Ry.
Co.
Galesburg Ry. Lighting & Power Co.
Illinois Central Electric Ry., The
Illinois Traction System
Illinois Terminal RR
Joliet & Eastern Traction Co.
Kankakee & Urbana Traction Co.
Lee County Central Electric Ry. Co.
Murphysboro & Southern Illinois Ry.
Co.
Peoples' Traction Co.
Peoria Ry. Terminal Co. (CRI&P)
Rock Island Southern RR Co.
Rock Island Southern Ry. Co.
Rockford & Interurban Ry. Co.
St. Louis & Belleville Electric Ry. Co.
Southern Illinois Ry. & Power Co.
Springfield, Clear Lake & Rochester
Interurban Ry.
Sterling, Dixon & Eastern Electric
Ry. Co.
416
Woodstock & Sycamore Traction Co.
(4)
WISCONSIN
Chicago, Harvard & Geneva Lake Ry.
Co.
Eastern Wisconsin Electric Co.
Milwaukee Electric Ry. & Light Co.,
The
Milwaukee Rapid Transit & Speed-
rail Co.
Milwaukee Northern Ry. Co.
Milwaukee Electric Ry. & Light
Co.. The
Wisconsin-Minnesota Electric Light &
Power Co.
Wisconsin Power & Light Co.
Wisconsin Public Service Corp.
Wisconsin Traction, Light, Heat &
Power Co.
Wisconsin Valley Electric Co.
MINNESOTA
Electric Short Line Ry. (4)
Mesaba Ry. Co.
Minneapolis, Anoka & Cuyuna Range
Ry. Co.
Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester &
Dubuque Electric Traction Co.
(4)
Minnesota Northwestern Electric Ry.
Co. (4)
St. Paul Southern Electric Ry.
Co.
Twin City Rapid Transit Co.
IOWA
Albia Light & Ry. Co.
Cedar Rapids & Marion City Ry. Co.
tCharles City Western Ry. Co.
Clinton, Davenport & Muscatine Ry.
Co.
Des Moines & Central Iowa RR
Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern
RR Co.
Iowa Ry. & Light Co.
Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Ry. Co.
+Iowa Southern Utilities Co.
Southern Iowa Ry. Co.
Keokuk Electric Co.
tMason City & Clear Lake RR Co.
Oskaloosa Traction & Light Co.
Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern
Ry. Co.
MISSOURI
Jefferson City Bridge & Transit Co.
Kansas City, Clay County & St.
Joseph Ry. Co.
Kansas City Power & Light Co.
Mexico, Santa Fe & Perry Traction
Co.
Missouri Electric RR Co.
St. Francois County RR Co.
St. Joseph & Savannah Interurban
Ry.
Southwest Missouri RR Co., The
Union Depot Bridge & Terminal RR
Co.
United Rys. Co. of St. Louis
NORTH DAKOTA
Valley City St. & Interurban Ry. Co.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RR
( 3-foot-gauge interurban at Dead-
wood, Lead, and Pluma)
NEBRASKA
Omaha & Lincoln Ry. & Light Co.
Omaha & Southern Interurban Ry.
Co.
Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice Ry. Co.
KANSAS
Arkansas Valley Interurban Ry. Co.
Iola Electric Ry.
Joplin & Pittsburg Ry. Co.
Junction City & Fort Riley Ry.
Kansas City, Kaw Valley & Western
Ry. Co., The
Kansas City, Lawrence & Topeka
Electric RR Co.
Kansas City, Leavenworth & Western
Ry. Co.
Manhattan City & Interurban Ry. Co.
Missouri & Kansas Ry. Co.
Southwestern Interurban Ry. Co.
Union Traction Co., The
Union Electric Ry.
SOUTH CENTRAL STATES
KENTUCKY
Kentucky Traction & Terminal Co.
Louisville & Interurban RR Co.
TENNESSEE
Bristol Traction Co.
Chattanooga Traction Co.
Memphis & Lake View Ry. Co.
Nashville Interurban Ry.
Nashville-Franklin Ry.
Union Traction Co. of Tennessee
Nashtille-Gallatin Interurban Ry.
ALABAMA
Alabama Power Co.
Birmingham Ry., Light & Power Co.
Mobile Light & RR Co.
MISSISSIPPI
Gulfport & Mississippi Coast Traction
Co.
Laurel Light & Ry. Co.
ARKANSAS
Central Power & Light Co.
Fort Smith Light & Traction Co.
West Helena Consolidated Co., The
Interurban Traction Co.
LOUISIANA
Orleans-Kenner Traction Co.
St. Tammany Ry. & Power Co.
Southwestern Traction & Power Co.
OKLAHOMA
Ardmori- Ry.
Bartlesville Interurban Ry.
Chickasha St. Ry. Co.
Muskogee Electric Traction Co.
Northeast Oklahoma RR Co.
Oklahoma Ry. Co.
Oklahoma Union Ry. Co.
lulsa-Sapulpa Union Ry. Co.
Pittsburg County Ry. Co.
Sand Springs Ry.
Sapulpa & Interurban Ry.
Shawnee-Tecumseh Traction Co.
TEXAS
Brownsville St. & Interurban RR Co.
Bryan & College Interurban RR Co.
Eastern Texas Electric Co.
Galveston-Houston Electric Ry. Co.
Greenville Ry. & Light Co.
Houston North Shore Ry. (MP)
Northern Texas Traction Co.
Rio Grande Valley Traction Co.
Roby & Northern RR Co.
Southwestern Traction Co.
Tarrant County Traction Co.
Texas Electric Ry.
Texas Interurban Ry.
Uvalde & Leona Valley Interurban
Ry.
Wichita Falls Traction Co.
MOUNTAIN STATES
MONTANA
Anaconda Copper Mining Co.
Gallatin Valley Electric Ry. (MILW)
IDAHO
Boise Valley Traction Co.
Caldwell Traction Co.
Sandpoint & Interurban Ry.
WYOMING
Sheridan Ry. & Light Co.
COLORADO
Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek
District Ry. Co. (C&S)
Colorado Springs & Interurban Ry.
Co.. The
Denver & Intermountain RR Co., The
Denver & Interurban RR Co. (C&S)
Denver & South Platte Ry. Co., The
Grand River Valley Ry. Co., The
(Colorado Midland)
Trinidad Electric Transmission Ry. &
Gas Co., The
NEW MEXICO
None
UTAH
Bamberger Electric RR Co.
Emigration Canyon Ry. Co.
Salt Lake & Utah RR Co.
Salt Lake, Garfield & Western Ry. Co.
Utah Idaho Central RR Co.
Utah Light & Traction Co.
ARIZONA
Douglas St. Ry.
Phoenix Ry. Co. of Arizona
Warren Co.
II arren-Bisbee Ry.
NEVADA
None
PACIFIC STATES
WASHINGTON
Grays Harbor Ry. & Light Co.
417
Inland Empire RR Co.
Spokane, Coeur d'Alene & Palotue
Ry. (GS)
Lew iston-CIarkson Transit Co.
North Coast Power Co.
Olympia Light & Power Co.
Pacific Northwest Traction Co.
Pacific Traction Co.
Puget Sound Electric Ry. ( 2 )
Puget Sound International Ry. &
Power Co.
Seattle & Rainier Valley Ry. Co.
Seattle Municipal St. Ry.
Spokane & Eastern Ry. & Power Co.
Spokane, Coeur d'Alene & Palouse
Ry. <GN)
Tacoma Ry. & Power Co.
Twin City Ry.
Vancouver Traction Co.
Walla Walla Valley Ry. Co. (NP)
Washington Water Power Co.
Willapa Electric Co.
TYakima Valley Transportation Co.
(UP)
OREGON
Oregon Electric Ry. Co. (SP&S)
Portland Ry. Light & Power Co.
Southern Oregon Traction Co.
Southern Pacific Co.
Portland, Eugene & Eastern Ry.
United Rys. Co. (SP&S)
Willamette Valley Southern Ry. Co.
CALIFORNIA
Central California Traction Co. (2)
(SP-WP-ATSF)
Fresno Traction Co.
Glendale & Montrose Ry. (UP)
Market St. Ry.
Northwestern Pacific RR (1) (SP)
Pacific Coast Ry. Co.
Pacific Electric Ry. Co. ( SP )
Peninsular Ry. Co. (SP)
Petaluma & Santa Rosa RR Co.
(NWP)
tSacramento Northern RR ( 2 ) ( WP )
San Diego Electric Ry. Co.
San Diego Southern Ry. Co.
San Francisco, Napa & Calistoga Ry.
San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Rys.
(2)
Key System
San Francisco-Sacramento RR Co.
Sacramento Northern RR (WP)
Southern Pacific Co.
lnterurban Electric Ry.
Tidewater Southern Ry. (WP)
Visalia Electric RR Co. (SP)
CANADA
NEWFOUNDLAND
None
NOVA SCOTIA
Cape Breton Tramways
Pictou County Ry.
NEW BRUNSWICK
None
QUEBEC
Hull Electric Co. (CPR)
Montreal & Southern Counties Ry.
(CNR)
Montreal Tramways
Quebec Ry., Light & Power Co.
(CNR)
ONTARIO
Brantford & Hamilton Electric Ry.
Brantford Municipal Ry.
Chatham, Wallaceburg & Lake Erie
Ry.
Grand River Ry. (CPR)
Grand Valley Ry.
Hamilton & Dundas St. Ry.
Hamilton, Grimsby & Beamsville
Electric Ry.
Hamilton Radial Electric Ry.
Lake Erie & Northern Ry. (CPR)
London & Lake Erie Ry. & Trans-
portation Co.
tLondon & Port Stanley Ry.
Mt. McKay & Kakabeka Falls Ry.
Niagara Falls Park & River Ry.
Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto
Ry. (CNR)
Nipissing Central Ry.
Sandwich, Windsor & Amherstburg
Electric Ry.
Schomsburg & Aurora Ry.
Sudbury-Copper Cliff Suburban Ry.
Toronto & York Radial Rys.
Toronto Suburban Ry. (CNR)
Windsor, Essex & Lake Shore Rapid
Ry.
Woodstock, Thames Valley &
Ingersoll Ry.
MANITOBA
Winnipeg Electric Co.
Winnipeg, Selkirk & Lake Winnipeg
Ry.
SASKATCHEWAN
None
ALBERTA
Calgary Municipal Ry.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
tBritish Columbia Electric Ry.
MEXICO
F.C. Electrico de Lerdo a Torreon
F.C. Electrico de Tampico a la Barra
F.C. Mexicano, Tejeria-Jalapa branch
(mule power)
*Servicio de Transportes Electricos,
Mexico City
CUBA
*F.C. Cubano de Hershey
PUERTO RICO
Caguas Tramway Co.
Principal lnterurban Carbuilders
Indiana Railroad's notable high-
speed, lightweight car fleet of 1931-
JTOR a more detailed discussion of carbuilders the reader is referred to "Rail-
way Car Builders of the United States & Canada,'' written by E. Harper Charlton
and published by Interurbans, from which this summary is drawn with the kind
permission of the author and publisher.
American Car Company, St. Louis,
Mo., 1891-1931.
A leading street and interurban car-
builder, American was acquired by
J. G. Brill in 1902 as a strategically-
located plant for Brill's western or-
ders. Cars were built there under the
American label until the plant's re-
organization as J. G. Brill of Missouri
in 1931, only a scant four months
before the works closed its doors
for good.
American Car & Foundry Company,
1899-
Formed by the merger of 1 3 older
firms, ACF is still a leading railroad
carbuilder. Much of ACF's interur-
ban car construction was centered at
its Jeffersonville ( Ind. ) plant, which
included among its output many of
the handsome heavy steel coaches,
diners, parlor cars, and sleepers that
graced Ohio and Indiana traction
during the '20s, and a portion of the
Barney & Smith Car Company, Day-
ton, O., 1849-1923.
A general railway carbuilder,
Barney & Smith built interurbans for
many Midwest and other systems. The
plant made the transition to steel car-
building in 1913, and closed only 10
years later.
J. G. Brill Company, Philadelphia,
Pa., 1868-1956.
Without question Brill was the
leader in street and interurban car
construction throughout the age of
electric traction. Formed by John
George Brill and his son G. Martin
Brill, the firm pioneered many im-
portant advances in electric railway
418
cars and their equipment. In 1899
the company laid plans to consolidate
its own activities with several other
firms' into the Consolidated Street
Car Company, which would have ab-
sorbed 90 per cent of the electric
carbuilders in the U. S. These plans
were later abandoned, but between
1902 and 1908 Brill acquired the
American Car Company at St. Louis;
G. C. Kuhlman Car Company at
Cleveland; John Stephenson Car
Company at Elizabeth, N. J.; Wason
Manufacturing Company at Spring-
field, Mass.; and Danville Car Com-
pany at Danville, 111., giving the com-
pany strategically located plants in
most parts of the U. S. In 1912 Com-
pagnie J. G. Brill was formed with a
plant at Paris, France, which pro-
duced cars and trucks for electric
lines throughout the Eastern Hemis-
phere. Brill cars were, in fact, to be
found throughout the world.
Every conceivable type of car was
built by Brill. Among a few of the
most notable Brill designs were the
patented Brill semi-convertible car,
which was widely used throughout
the U. S.; the heavy steel high-speed
articulated cars built in 1926 for the
Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis;
and the lightweight, high-speed Bul-
let cars developed in 1930. Brill had
patents covering virtually every com-
ponent of car construction, from
trucks to trolley wheels, and the firm
pioneered "package" selling and as-
sembly line production.
Brill declined along with the
electric railways it supplied, and the
last car came out of the Philadelphia
plant in 1941, after which the firm
turned its attention to buses and
other products.
Canadian Car & Foundry Company,
Limited, Montreal, Que., 1909-
A general railway carbuilder ever
since its organization, Canadian Car
was a leading builder of electric rail-
way cars in Canada, and large vol-
umes of street and interurban cars
were built from 1909 until the last
one rolled out of the plant in 1946.
Now Canadian Car Company, Ltd.,
the plant still produces railroad
equipment.
Cincinnati Car Company, Cincinnati,
O., 1902-1931.
A subsidiary of the Cincinnati
Street Railway, Cincinnati Car had its
origin in Chester Park shops which
built cars and trucks for the parent
firm for its own use. Other Ohio com-
panies asked to have cars built for
them, and as the demand increased
the separate carbuilding firm was
formed.
Cincinnati cars were seen largely
on systems in the Midwest and South-
east. Virtually every type of car, both
wood and steel, was built during the
firm's 30 years in business, but the
most notable among them were the
famous curved-side lightweight cars
built during the 1920's, and the fleet
of lightweight, high-speed cars built
in 1930 for the Cincinnati & Lake
Erie Railroad. The latter represented
virtually the last cars built by the
firm, for only a year later Cincinnati
completed its final order.
Columbia Car & Tool Works, Port-
land, Ore.
Columbia built only a modest num-
ber of cars for electric lines in the
Northwest but is deserving of men-
tion by virtue of having built the first
cars, in 1892, for the Portland-Oregon
City East Side Railway, generally re-
garded as the first interurban.
Danville Car Company, Danville, III.,
circa 1900-1913.
Danville, a short-lived firm, built a
considerable number of street and in-
terurban cars for Midwest and West-
ern systems. The plant was acquired
by J. G. Brill in 1908 but went out of
business only five years later when
the traction industry began the transi-
tion to steel equipment.
Harlan & Hollingsworth, Wilmington,
Del., 1836-1905.
Established in 1836, Harlan & Hol-
lingsworth was one of the oldest rail-
way carbuilders. Purchased by Beth-
lehem Steel in 1905, the car works
continued in operation until 1944.
Among the most interesting interur-
ban cars produced by the plant were
the "Holland" sleeping cars built in
1903, which converted from a parlor
car by day to a sleeper by night, and
the unusual articulated units con-
structed by Bethlehem in 1935 for the
Key System's Bay Bridge service be-
tween San Francisco and the East Bay
cities.
Jewett Car Company, Newark, O
1894-1918.
Jewett was one of several builders
that produced in large numbers the
handsomely proportioned "classic"
cars that typified the wood car era on
the Midwestern interurbans. Jewett
changed over to steel construction
and turned out a few groups of distin-
guished all-steel cars before it went
into receivership and out of business
in 1918.
Jones' Sons Car Company, Water-
vliet, N. Y., 1839-1922.
An early entrant in the electric car-
building industry, the Jones firm be-
gan building street railway cars in
1864 and as early as 1886 was said to
be building 300 streetcars a year.
Jones cars went to many countries,
but most of them were to be found
on the streetcar and rural trolley lines
of New England and the East. Pro-
duction of cars ended in 1912.
G. C. Kuhlman Car Company, Cleve-
land, O., 1892-1932.
Kuhlman built an extensive variety
of street and interurban cars, includ-
ing wood cars of classic pattern,
heavy steel cars, and a considerable
number of lightweights during the
1920s. J. G. Brill absorbed the Kuhl-
man firm in 1904, as part of its pro-
gram to acquire plants at strategic lo-
cations. Production continued under
the Kuhlman name until 1931, when
the plant was reorganized as J. G.
Brill of Ohio. Only a year later car-
building ceased for good.
Laconia Car Company, Laconia,
N. H., 1881-1928.
Cars by Laconia, one of the lead-
ing builders in New England, were
found everywhere in the Northeast,
and frequently in other parts of the
U. S. as well. The company was also
an important builder of steam road
equipment. Along with a majority of
the traction carbuilders, Laconia went
out of business with the decline of
the electric railway industry in the
late 1920s.
McGuire-Cummings Manufacturing
Company, Chicago and Paris, III.,
-1943.
Entering the electric railway field
as a car truck builder in 1888,
McGuire-Cummings was known as the
McGuire Manufacturing Co. Later
the company began building spe-
cialized equipment, and finally be-
came a major producer of all types
of electric railway equipment, as well
as a considerable amount of steam
railway rolling stock. A great volume
of wood and steel interurbans bore
the McGuire-Cummings label. Prob-
ably the most distinguished among
them were the three steel parlor-buf-
fet-observation cars built for limited
service on the Waterloo, Cedar
Falls & Northern Railroad in 1915.
The company later became the Cum-
mings Car & Coach Company, and
built its last car in 1930.
Niles Car & Manufacturing Com-
pany, Niles, O , 1901-1917.
Although it built a few steel cars
in its last years, the Niles firm was
noted principally for the handsome
wood cars it turned out during the
peak years of interurban carbuilding.
Niles called its cars "The Electric
Pullmans," and among them were
perhaps the largest wood interurbans
ever constructed. Built for the Wash-
ington, Baltimore & Annapolis in
1907, these 62-foot cars weighed 44
tons.
419
Osgood Bradley Car Company,
Worcester, Mass., 1833-1930.
A producer of railway cars since
1833. the Osgood Bradley plant,
which operated until 1960 as part
of Pullman-Standard, was the oldest
carbuilding plant in the United
States. Its 127 years of production in-
cluded virtually every type of steam
and electric railroad car. Osgood
Bradley was associated with the
Standard Steel Car Company after
1910, and became part of Pullman-
Standard in 1930. P-S rapid-transit
car production was concentrated at
the Osgood Bradley plant until its
closing in I960.
Ottawa Car Manufacturing Com-
pany, Ottawa, Ont., 1891-1947.
One of the leading Canadian car-
builders, Ottawa built large numbers
of street and interurban cars that op-
erated in all parts of the Dominion.
The plant closed in 1947, after build-
ing a final order of streetcars for the
Ottawa Electric Railway.
Pressed Steel Car Company, Pitts-
burgh, Pa., 1896-1954.
A pioneer steel carbuilder from
the time of its organization, Pressed
Steel was exclusively a freight car-
builder until 1906, when it built some
of the first steel passenger cars. The
firm, principally a steam road car-
builder, also manufactured street and
, interurban cars, among them some of
the earliest all-steel designs. Out-
standing among its interurbans were
24 all-steel cars built in 1915 for high-
speed service over Pacific Electrics
premiere San Bernardino line. The
legendary super-salesman "Diamond
Jim" Brady was associated with
Pressed Steel Car until 1902, when
he walked out to join in forming the
rival Standard Steel Car Company.
Preston Car & Coach Company, Pres-
ton, Ont., 1908-1921.
Another of the principal Canadian
builders, Preston built electric rail-
way cars, as well as occasional steam
road equipment. In 1921, when the
Toronto Transportation Commission
restricted bidding on new cars to Ca-
nadian firms, J. G. Brill leased Pres-
ton Car & Coach and set up Canadian
Brill Company, Ltd., which lasted
hardly long enough to complete the
50-car Toronto order it obtained.
Pullman-Standard Car Manufactur-
ing Company, 1867-
One of the leaders in American car-
building, the Pullman organization
began its carbuilding activities in
1867, when George Pullman founded
Pullman's Palace Car Company. Vari-
ous corporate changes have taken
place in the intervening years but the
name "Pullman" has been synony-
mous with sleeping cars and carbuild-
ing ever since. Pullman entered the
electric car field in 1891 and has con-
tinued in the business to the present
time, building everything from 4-
wheel streetcars to heavy M.U. coach-
es for steam road electrifications.
Among distinguished Pullman inter-
urbans have been some of Pacific
Electric's finest steel interurbans, cars
for Southern Pacific's Oregon electri-
fication, high-speed steel equipment
for the Insull interurbans at Chicago,
and a portion of Indiana Railroad's
1931 fleet of high-speed aluminum
cars.
St. Louis Car Company, St. Louis,
Mo., 1887-
Exceeded only by Brill in volume,
St. Louis Car was one of the greatest
of the electric carbuilders, and it en-
joys the distinction of being the only
one of the firms once devoted largely
to carbuilding for the electric railway
industry that still remains in busi-
ness. In I960 the company was pur-
chased by General Steel Castings Cor-
poration. St. Louis has built electric
equipment of every description, and
a considerable amount of steam rail-
road rolling stock also, including
carbodies for many of Electro-Mo-
tive's early gas-electric cars and sev-
eral of its first diesel-electrics. Like
Brill, St. Louis designed and built
trucks and virtually every other ma-
jor car component, as well as cars
themselves. The noteworthy interur-
bans produced by St. Louis are almost
too numerous to mention. Among the
most recent were the two extraordi-
nary 85-mile-per-hour streamlined
Electroliner trains built for the Chi-
cago North Shore & Milwaukee in
1941, and the three post-World War
II electric streamliners for the Illinois
Terminal Railroad, which were the
very last interurbans built. Today
St. Louis is turning out rapid trans-
it cars and equipment for steam rail-
roads.
Southern Car Company, High Point,
N. C, 1904-1917.
In business only 13 years, South-
ern Car was nonetheless an important
builder, and its street and interurban
cars were found throughout the
South, and at points as far away
as New York and Puerto Rico. When
Southern went out of business a new
firm, the Perley A. Thomas Car
Works, was established, which took
over the plant and continued build-
ing streetcars until 1930.
John Stephenson Car Company, Eliz-
abeth, N. J., 1831-1917.
Stephenson was one of the first
U. S. railroad carbuilders. Originally
located in New York, the firm built
most of the city's first street railroad
rolling stock. In the 15 years from
1876 to 1891 alone, Stephenson built
25,000 horse, cable, and electric cars.
During the boom years of interurban
construction many lines were
equipped with handsome wood cars
turned out by the Stephenson plant,
including some of the earliest cars
capable of really high speeds. In
1903, for example, a Stephenson car
covered 35 miles on the new third-
rail Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Rail-
way in 34 minutes 39 seconds, in-
cluding speed restrictions and stops.
The Stephenson plant was acquired
by J. G. Brill in 1904, but production
continued under the Stephenson
name. The plant never tooled up for
steel carbuilding, and closed in 1917.
Wason Manufacturing Company,
Springfield, Mass., 1845-1931.
Wason was another of the car-
builders acquired by J. G. Brill in its
expansion program shortly after the
turn of" the century. Wason electric
cars were built in large numbers for
lines in New England and other
areas, and it was also a steam road
carbuilder. Trucks and bodies for
General Electric's line of gas-electric
cars were almost always turned out
by the Wason plant. The Wason
name continued in use after the 1906
Brill purchase until 1931 when the
plant, in common with the other re-
maining Brill subsidiaries, lost its
identity and became J. G. Brill of
Massachusetts. Within a year, also in
common with the other Brill subsidi-
ary plants, Wason went out of the
carbuilding business for good, i
420
Principal Types of Interurban Rolling Stock,
Important Components, and Accessories
PASSENGER CAR TYPES
CLOSED Car: The ordinary closed
car, comparable in general arrange-
ment to steam railroad coaches, with
doors and enclosed vestibules at each
end, was by far the most common
type of interurban passenger car.
Combine Car: With the provision
of a compartment for mail, express,
and baggage at one end of the car, a
single unit enabled interurban op-
erators to provide varied services.
Center-Entrance Car: With
doors and steps at or near the center
of the body, the center-entrance car
usually had side plates that sloped
down to the bottom of the steps, giv-
ing what was described as a "possum-
belly" or "sow belly" appearance.
OPEN Car: The most common
variety of this summer car had trans-
verse benches across the full width of
the car, with longitudinal steps the
full length of the car to permit board-
ing or alighting at any point.
Combination or "Semi-Open"
Car: Divided between open and
closed sections, this arrangement was
popular in California, where weather
changes were often sudden.
California Car: This variation,
the original type of "semi-open" car,
placed the closed section at the center.
Convertible Car: Equipped with
removable side panels and windows,
the "full convertible," which enjoyed
only modest popularity, was an
attempt to develop an open car suit-
able for year-around operation.
Semi-Convertible Car: Window
sash which could be removed, or
which disappeared into wall or roof
pockets, made the semi-convertible a
practical car for both winter and sum-
mer operation, and it was built in
great numbers for interurban lines in
all parts of the U. S.
motor was used for express or light
freight service.
B-B Steeple-Cab Locomotive:
This locomotive, the most widely
used locomotive type for interurban
freight service, had a center cab of
variable length, with sloping hoods
at each end that housed a part of
its air, electrical, and other equip-
ment. These machines were usually
equipped for multiple-unit operation,
and ranged in size from very light
units to ones weighing as much as 100
tons. Standardized lines of steeple-
cabs were produced by such builders
as GE and Baldwin-Westinghouse.
^gB
~T—
S ■ Bj II II 11 11
*§jgg|g^ ^"^^■^^■■^^■^EflJBg^
CLOSED
Articulated Car: Articulation,
with two carbodies resting on a com-
mon truck, made possible a high-
capacity unit which could still nego-
B-B Box-Cab Locomotive: Oth-
erwise identical to the steeple-cab de-
sign, the box-cab locomotive had all
of its equipment installed in a full-
length cab. The arrangement was
simplicity itself, but the design was
never as popular as the steeple-cab,
principally because visibility was not
as good in switching operations.
COMBINE
tiate the restrictive curvature common
to most interurbans. Another type of
articulated car, consisting of a short
carbody suspended between two
single-truck cars and often described
as "two rooms and a bath," was used
on a few street railways.
FREIGHT EQUIPMENT
Box or Express Motor: Essential-
ly a motorized baggage car, with con-
trols at one or both ends, the box
B-B + B-B Articulated Locomo-
tive: Several interurban lines with
extremely heavy freight traffic built
powerful locomotives of this ar-
rangement, which employed four
power trucks under a pair of artic-
ulated frames to operate through
short radius electric line curves.
CURRENT COLLECTION
Overhead Systems: A trolley
pole, which was held against the wire
CENTER-ENTRANCE
TROLLEY BASE
421
TROLLEY WHEEL
TROLLEY SHOE
RETRIEVER
by the tension of springs mounted in
a swiveling trolley base, was the usual
means of current collection for over-
head systems. Originally the use of a
large trolley wheel, 6 inches or more
in diameter and cast from a variety
of compositions, was favored for cur-
rent collection. A trolley "harp" held
the wheel and provided a positive
means of electrical contact. In later
years sliding shoes were developed
which seemed to work better, and
they were eventually substituted for
wheels on most lines. In case of de-
wirement the flailing trolley pole
often caused damage to the overhead
construction, and some lines used
various types of retrievers, which
automatically pulled the pole down
when the shoe or wheel became dis-
engaged from the wire.
PANTOGRAPH
The amount of current that could
be successfully drawn by a single trol-
ley wheel or shoe was limited, and
for heavy-duty lines on which large
currents were required the panto-
graph system was preferred. The pan-
tograph, employing one or two flat
collectors which slid along the wire,
was raised and held against the wire
by springs and was lowered by air
pressure.
The use of "pole bow" trolleys,
which combined some of the features
of an ordinary pole trolley and a pan-
tograph, although common in Europe,
was rare in North America. Either a
flat collector or a roller was held
against the wire by spring tension.
Only one line, the Indianapolis &
Cincinnati Traction Company, used
this system for an extended period.
Third-Rail Systems: Current
collection from third-rail systems was
usually by means of a truck-mounted
iron collection shoe, which was held
against the top of the power rail by
its own weight. In protected third-
rail installations, where the power
rail was usually inverted, an "under-
running" shoe, held in place by
spring tension, was used.
Underground Conduit Systems:
Sliding shoes on a truck-mounted
"plow," which projected through the
slot between the rails, collected cur-
rent from the underground power
rail. Two shoes were usually neces-
sary, since most conduit systems had
a separate return rail.
TRUCKS AND MOTORS
The double-truck car was virtually
universal in interurban operation,
and truck design largely followed the
pattern of steam railroad passenger
car practice. The typical interurban
truck was a four-wheel design of the
M.C.B. (Master Car Builders) type,
with the car weight carried to the
truck frame by a transverse bolster
beam supported by leaf springs, and
the load in turn carried to the axles
through coil springs and equalizer
bars. Trucks were usually built up
from steel shapes and forged sections,
although some builders used pressed
steel assemblies, and in later years
a few cars were built with cast steel
trucks. Several of the major car-
builders, such as St. Louis and Brill.
BOW TROLLEY
OVERRUNNING SHOE
UNDERRUNNING SHOE
built trucks of their own design,
which were often applied under the
cars of other builders as well as their
own; the Baldwin Locomotive Works
and the American Locomotive Com-
pany both built widely used motor
trucks; and a number of independent
truck builders, prominent among
them Peckham, Standard, McGuire,
and Taylor, also built extensively
used designs.
The wheelbase of interurban trucks
usually varied between 6 and 7 feet.
A longer \vheelbase provided a
smoother ride in high-speed opera-
tion, but the necessity for operation
around sharp curves set a limit on the
practical maximum wheelbase. Iron
wheels and axles were often used on
the earlier cars but steel soon became
standard for this purpose. A wheel
around 36 inches in diameter was
ordinarily employed, although some
roads used wheels as large as 39
inches for high-speed operation.
Wheel flanges were usually smaller
than M.C.B. standards because of the
restricted flanges and specialwork
prevalent on the street railways used
for city entrances. The smaller flanges
were more prone to chipping or
breaking, and provided a smaller
margin of safety against derailment
at high speed. Because of the limita-
OPEN
422
tions of trolley curvature, the six-
wheel "Pullman" type of passenger
car truck was impractical for inter-
urban service, and only a few cars
were ever attempted with this tvpe.
One of the most radical departures
in interurban truck design was the
modified arch bar cantilever (A.B.C.)
truck developed in 1923 by the Cin-
cinnati Car Company for use on its
lightweight interurbans and street-
cars. The equalizer bar of conven-
tional practice was eliminated and
the load was carried directly from the
truck frame to the axles through coil
springs. Various types of "snubbers"
were used which counteracted the
tendency of coil spring suspension to
set up a dangerous rhythmic undu-
lation (in some Cincinnati experi-
ments test cars actually left the rails
from this cause). Further refined in
subsequent years, the Cincinnati
A.B.C. truck was extremely success-
ful in providing a smooth ride at
high speeds. Much smaller and light-
er than the usual M.C.B. trucks, the
A.B.C. used wheels only 28 inches in
diameter, and required the develop-
ment of very compact motors.
Many early interurban cars em-
ployed only two motors, placing
one on each truck or both on a
single truck, but the requirement for
LIGHTWEIGHT TRUCK
HEAVYWEIGHT TRUCK
ample power to drive heavy cars at
high speed soon made the four-motor
car the most common type. Motors
were either "inside" or "outside"
hung, depending upon whether they
were placed between or outside the
axles, and were connected to the axles
by gear drives. The inside-hung ar-
rangement, which was almost univer-
sal on trucks designed for interurban
service, required a longer wheelbase,
which was needed for smooth opera-
tion at speed anyway. Motors nor-
mally varied from about 75 to 100
horsepower in large interurban car
applications, but on occasion motors
developing as much as 200 horse-
power each were used for exception-
ally large and fast cars.
BRAKES AND CONTROLLERS
Conventional air brake systems
were almost always used by inter-
urban roads. At first, when single
car operation was common, "straight
air" systems, in which air was admit-
ted to or exhausted from the brake
cylinder directly by the motorman's
valve, were used. Train operation re-
quired the use of "automatic" brake
systems, with the brake cylinders
directly controlled by a "triple valve"
in each car, which in turn was con-
trolled by varying the pressure in the
brake pipe with the motorman's
valve. An electric motor-driven com-
pressor under each car provided the
necessary air supply.
At least one interurban system, the
West Penn Railways, made wide use
of cars which had no air brakes at all,
but used instead a magnetic track
brake. This consisted of an electro-
magnetic brake shoe suspended be-
tween the wheels from springs
mounted on the truck frame. To
apply brakes the electromagnet was
energized, which drew the brake shoe
down against the rail. When air
braking systems alone were found in-
adequate for the extremely high-
speed cars developed by several lines
in 1929-1930, they were supple-
mented by magnetic track brakes.
To control the flow of current to
the traction motors on the earliest
interurban cars, a "direct controller"
was used, which passed the entire cur-
rent through the motorman's control-
ler. This type had several disadvan-
tages. The electrical equipment re-
quired to control the heavy currents
drawn by the powerful motors of
CAB INTERIOR
large interurban cars made the con-
troller extremely bulky, and the
presence of high-voltage, high-amper-
age currents on the platform pre-
sented a potential hazard to crew and
passengers. Also, the direct controller
was adaptable to single car operation
only.
The invention of multiple-unit con-
trol — which was essentially a re-
mote-control system — by Frank J.
Sprague in 1898 eliminated the short-
comings of the direct-control system.
The remote-control system employed
only a small master controller at the
motorman's position and a .low-volt-
age, low-amperage control circuit
that actuated, by means of magnet-
SEMI-CONVERTIBLE
423
ic or pneumatic switches, the main
controller which was located under
the car. When operation of more
than one car in a train was desired,
the control circuits of the separate
cars were simply connected by jump-
ers and the main controller of each
car was then operated simultaneously
with others in the train by the master
controller in the lead car.
MISCELLANEOUS CAR EQUIPMENT
Pilots and Fenders: Huge pro-
jecting timber pilots were often em-
ployed on the early cars, but when
operation in trains was contemplated,
pilots of more restrained size, re-
cessed under the front of the car to
permit coupling, became necessary.
After the earliest years, steel and iron
were almost always used for pilots.
For winter operations in areas of
heavy snows, pilots were sometimes
covered with sheet metal to act as
plows, or were sometimes replaced
entirely by snowplows.
City ordinances in many areas, par-
ticularly in California, required elec-
tric lines to provide their cars with
special fenders, which looked not un-
like a large bed spring, designed to
scoop up wayward pedestrians before
they were run over by the cars.
Anti-Climbers: The projecting
steel corrugations of this device,
which was installed at each end of
interurban cars, were supposed to in-
terlock in the unfortunate event of a
collision with another car, and pre-
vent the floor of one car from riding
over that of the other with a devastat-
ing telescoping effect.
Couplers: Interurban lines most
often employed automatic couplings
similar to those which were by then
in general use on steam railroads.
However, the short shank and limited
swing of the standard steam road
coupler made it impossible to use on
the sharp curves of interurban lines,
and special long-radius couplings
were developed. Some lines devel-
oped special fully automatic cou-
plings which made all of the neces-
sary air, electrical, and control con-
nections automatically.
Headlights: Oil lamps were used
on the earliest interurbans, but were
ARTICULATED
FRONT EQUIPMENT
soon replaced by massive electric arc
headlights. One problem encoun-
tered with electric headlights was
their failure whenever the power sup-
ply was interrupted, often at a critical
moment. Some roads solved this prob-
lem by the use of a storage battery on
the car. Another difficulty was the
insistence by cities and towns that the
bright arc headlights be dimmed.
This was sometimes accomplished by
means of a curtain device, which the
motorman could pull over the head-
light with a string, but most lines
adopted combination arc and incan-
descent headlights and turned off the
arc light when passing through cities
or towns. Later, incandescent head-
lights were used almost exclusively.
The "Golden Glow" headlight, which
employed a special colored reflec-
tor that extracted from the head-
light beam blue and violet rays,
thought to have a blinding effect, was
a patented type that was widely used.
Whistles, Horns, and Bells:
Interurbans usually had an air-oper-
ated horn or whistle which acted as
a warning device. For operation
through city streets some sort of air-
or foot-operated bell or gong was
provided for the same purpose.
Destination Signs: Interurban
cars operating over fixed routes some-
times had the names of their destina-
tion cities painted directly on the ves-
tibule dash, but more often destina-
tions were shown by metal or wooden
signs hung on the front or sides of
the cars, and sometimes illuminated
at night by lights. Later on, an illum-
inated roller destination sign became
the most common practice.
B-B STEEPLE-CAB
EXPRESS MOTOR
424
SANDERS: To prevent slipping on
wet rail, most interurbans were
equipped with some sort of sanders.
A supply of sand, stored in a dry,
well-protected box or container, was
fed onto the rail by gravity or air
pressure and was directed under the
wheels by pipes.
Heating Systems: Interurban cars
were heated with either electrical re-
sistance heaters or coal-fired hot
water heaters, and a few cars had
both types. The hot water heaters
were more economical to operate,
but took up more space and were not
as clean as electric heat. An impor-
tant advantage of a hot water system
was the fact that a car could still be
heated without a power supply.
FARE REGISTERS: Some interurbans
employed a fare register, which the
conductor could operate from any
point in the car, to ring up fares as
they were collected, but most relied
on the same type of cash fare receipt
used by steam railroads to account
for fares received. When one-man
car operation became common dur-
ing the '20's the time-consuming
handling of fare collections by the
motorman often slowed up opera-
tion, and elaborate registers were de-
veloped that automatically computed
the fare and printed a receipt. 1
B-B BOX-CAB
"^L-^^^gSjA^, ,^3ag&
B-B + B-B ARTICULATED
Electrification and Current Collection
CURRENT AND VOITAGE
Direct Current: Low-voltage,
direct-current motors, which were
simple and rugged in construction,
and possessed superior control and
performance characteristics under the
varying demands of electric railway
service, were by far the most widely
used type on both street and inter-
urban railways. Because higher volt-
ages presented greater hazards to the
public and were generally frowned
upon for street railway service, direct
current systems of 550 to 600 volts
became virtually universal for urban
electric railways, and since interur-
bans frequently used the streetcar
tracks to enter cities and were often
operated by the same companies,
600-volt electrification became the
most common type for interurban
railways as well.
Low-voltage direct current did
have some disadvantages in interur-
ban operation, however. Since a larg-
er current is required to transmit a
given amount of energy at a lower
voltage, transmission of 600-volt cur-
rent over any distance resulted in
either excessive voltage drop and
power loss, or extremely heavy trans-
mission line requirements. Conse-
quently, the spacing of substations,
which converted the high-voltage
alternating currents used for efficient
long distance transmission to the low-
voltage direct current fed to the trol-
ley wire, could rarely exceed 10 to 12
miles. Even then, under severe oper-
ating conditions the actual voltage
available to an interurban car some-
times dropped to as little as 250 volts,
and often less than 50 per cent of the
power generated was actually deliv-
ered to the car.
Higher voltage direct current sys-
tems of 1200 to 1500 volts were also
common, and since the current re-
quired for a given amount of power
decreased in inverse ratio to the volt-
age, transmission losses were reduced
and substation spacing could be sub-
stantially increased. When operation
over 600-volt streetcar lines was
necessary, the high-voltage cars either
were operated at half speed or used
relatively simple changeover devices.
Occasionally even higher voltages of
2400 to 3000 were used on interurban
systems, and on at least one occasion
an experimental direct current elec-
trification at 5000 volts was made.
Basic substation equipment con-
sisted of transformers to reduce the
voltage of the alternating current
from the transmission lines, and
either motor-generator sets or syn-
chronous or "rotary" converters to
convert alternating to direct current.
A motor-generator was nothing more
than an alternating current motor
driving a direct current generator,
while the rotary converter performed
an identical function but incorpo-
rated both motor and generator into
a single unit. In later years mercury
arc rectifiers were developed which
did the same job more efficiently.
Occasionally banks of storage bat-
teries were included in substations to
provide for peak loads which ex-
ceeded the capacity of the conversion
equipment, or to act as an emergency
power source in case of power failure.
Many interurban systems also em-
ployed portable substations, which
incorporated all of the necessary
equipment into a box car that could
be moved about the system to lake
care of seasonal or other peak load
requirements.
In earlier years of the interurban
era, substation equipment was such
that it required an operator in
continuous attendance, but later
reliable controls were developed
which permitted automatic operation.
425
Alternating Current: The use
of high-voltage, single-phase alter-
nating currents for electric railways,
which largely eliminated the need for
frequent substation installations and
the problems of voltage drop and
power loss inherent in low-voltage
direct-current systems, presented, in
theory at least, a much more satis-
factory system of electrification, and
enjoyed a brief period of popularity
shortly after the turn of the century
when a number of interurbans were
thus electrified, usually with either
6600- or 1 3,000-volt systems. Alter-
nating current motors were less sat-
isfactory in performance or efficiency,
and the necessary heavy transformers
and complicated control systems
added greatly to the weight of rolling
stock. Many lines found the equip-
ment more difficult and costly to
maintain as well. The complexity of
A. C. equipment was further increased
when operation into cities over 600-
volt D. C. systems was necessary. The
single phase A. C. motors normally
used could also be operated on direct
current, but separate control and cur-
rent collection systems were required.
Such were the practical disadvantages
that in later years many of the A. C.
interurbans were converted to D. C.
operation, usually at great expense
and necessitating extremely intricate
construction schedules to avoid in-
terruptions to service. When the
Pittsburgh & Butler Street Railway,
for example, converted from alter-
nating current to 1 200-volt D. C. op-
eration in 1914 it was able to realize
a 15 per cent saving in power costs,
and reduce the weight of each of its
motor cars by 6 tons through elimina-
tion of the bulky A. C. equipment.
DISTRIBUTION AND
CURRENT COLLECTION
Direct Suspension: Overhead
wire distribution systems were
used by the majority of interur-
ban systems. The most common type
was the "direct suspension" system
consisting of a single hard drawn
copper wire supported at intervals
of 80 to 125 feet from either metal
brackets or insulated span wires sus-
pended between poles on opposite
sides of the track. Originally soldered
"ears" were used to attach the wire
to its supports but later a grooved
wire was developed to which a
mechanical clamping ear could be
attached. Parallel feeder wires were
used to feed current to the trolley
wire. On single track lines, double
overhead wires, spaced about 6 inches
apart, were occasionally employed,
one for traffic in each direction, which
eliminated the need for overhead
switches or frogs at turnouts and re-
placed some of the feeder copper
requirement.
Catenary: The sag between sup-
ports and the varying flexibility of
direct suspension sometimes caused
dewirement of the trolley wheel or
shoe, and for high-speed operation
catenary systems were often used, in
which the trolley wire was hung from
a "messenger" wire by hangers of
varying length. The spacing of sup-
ports was usually increased to inter-
vals of about 1 50 feet with catenary
systems. A few lines used catenary
spans of as much as 300 feet. The
more uniformly level catenary system
was especially desirable when panto-
graph collection was employed.
Overhead Supports: Wood poles
were usually used to support over-
head construction, but some of the
more elaborate installations employed
substantial steel structures. When the
supporting structure was also used
to carry high tension transmission
lines for a parent power company, as
was sometimes the case, the resulting
installation was impressive indeed.
Within cities more ornamental metal
poles were often used.
Third Rail: For heavy-duty, high-
speed interurbans third-rail systems
were often used. A steel power rail
was used, usually mounted about 6
inches above and 20 inches out from
the running rail and supported on in-
sulators placed on the ends of extra
long ties spaced every 6th to 10th tie.
Third-rail systems had the advan-
tage of a greater conductivity than
was possible with a trolley wire, and
could be more easily made level and
true. However, because of the danger
to human life, they could be used
only on private right of way and most
third-rail interurbans had to install
alternate overhead wires where opera-
tion in city streets or in populated
areas was involved. Still other dis-
advantages were the necessity for gaps
in the third rail at road crossings and
switches and the extreme vulnerabil-
ity of the bare rail to sleet, which
stuck to the rail like varnish and had
to be removed with special scrapers
or brine. The use of a protected
third rail, which employed a metal or
wood cover, helped eliminate the
sleeting problem and reduced the
potential hazard to life. Third-rail
lines still required a pole line to sup-
port feeders, and were usually more
costly to install than an overhead
system.
Third rails were normally used
only for low-voltage D. C. systems,
but at least one line, the Michigan
Railway, had a 2400-volt third-rail
system, later cut to 1200 volts, on its
high-speed Kalamazoo-Grand Rapids
and Battle Creek-Allegan lines. Ex-
tremely elaborate protective measures
were required, however, to insure the
safety of the public.
Underground Conduit: A varia-
tion of third-rail current collection
was the underground system, consist-
ing of power rails mounted in a con-
duit beneath the track, which elimi-
nated the unsightly overhead con-
struction. The system was extremely
costly and resulted in intricate spe-
cialwork at switches and crossings.
It was used in the U. S. only by street
railways in Washington, D. C, and
New York City, and the several in-
terurban lines that entered Washing-
ton were the only ones that ever
used it.
Current Return: Except on a
few street railways, which employed
a second overhead wire, and the
underground conduit systems, which
had a separate return rail, the running
rails were universally used to com-
plete the return circuit to the
powerhouse. This required careful
bonding between each length of rail,
usually by means of copper wire.
When bonding systems were not care-
fully maintained the current had a
habit of wandering off and following
other conductors, such as water pipes,
gas mains, and telephone cables, creat-
ing electrolytic corrosion and other
complicated problems. In one in-
stance, in 1930, on the Milwaukee
Electric's interurban line between Ra-
cine and Kenosha, where many rail
bonds were missing, it was found
that the return current was striking
off across a celery marsh for half a
mile to the North Shore Line's rails,
which it followed to Racine, then
jumped to the city car rails and fol-
lowed these to the Milwaukee Elec-
tric powerhouse.
POWER SUPPLY
In the early years of interurban
construction, the provision of a com-
pany-owned power generating plant
was the usual practice. In many cases
the interurban companies also sold
power to communities or individual
users, and the sale of power by inter-
urban companies was occasionally the
first form of rural electrification. The
first electric range installed in an
Ohio farm home, for example, was
powered by current purchased from
the Scioto Valley Traction Company.
Indeed, many interurbans were no
more than subsidiaries of large pow-
er companies, although Government
trustbusters were to frown upon this
practice in later years.
Because of the varying power de-
mands at different times of the day,
most interurbans found that genera-
tion of their own electricity was less
economical than purchase from pub-
lic utility companies, and most later
discontinued the operation of their
own plants in favor of purchased
power, i
426
Electric Railway Museums
in the United States and Canada
NEW ENGLAND
MAINE
Seashore Electric Railway,
Kennebunkport, operated by the
New England Electric Railway His-
torical Society, was founded in 1939
and is the original, as well as the
largest, electric railway museum. The
museum collection includes 43 city
cars, 1 1 interurbans, and 26 freight or
work cars, and represents a nearly
complete selection of important car
types and builders throughout the
history of North American electric
traction. Among the outstanding in-
terurban cars preserved are light-
weight, high-speed cars from both
the Indiana Railroad and the Cincin-
nati & Lake Erie. Over a mile of track
is presently operated and construc-
tion of 3 additional miles is under
way.
The museum is open daily from late
June through Labor Day, and on
week ends during the remainder of
the year. Cars are operated daily dur-
ing the summer.
CONNECTICUT
Branford Electric Railway
Association Inc., Short Beach,
founded in 1945, operates one of the
most successful of all trolley museum
projects. The museum collection in-
cludes 28 city and suburban cars, 4
interurbans, and 15 freight or work
units, representing almost all impor-
tant car types and periods. Outstand-
ing among the interurban cars are a
former Connecticut Company parlor
car, still completely furnished, and a
Cincinnati & Lake Erie high-speed
car.
A mile of track, part of the aban-
doned Connecticut Company Short
Beach line, is presently operated.
Service over another half mile of
track is suspended until reconstruc-
tion of a hurricane-damaged trestle.
The museum is open daily, and
cars are operated from 1 p.m. to 6
p.m. on Sundays from April through
November, and during the same
hours on Saturdays and holidays from
May 30 through Labor Day. Cars
may also be chartered by advance ar-
rangement.
Connecticut Electric Railway
Association Inc., Warehouse Point,
founded in 1941, or its individual
members own 16 city cars, 1 interur-
ban, and 10 work or freight units.
Equipment is operated over a
mile of track laid on the roadbed of
the abandoned Rockville branch of
the Hartford & Springfield Street
Railway. In the future track will be
laid over 3 miles of right of way
owned by the group, and picnic fa-
cilities are planned at the site of
Piney Ridge Park, once operated by
the Hartford & Springfield.
Cars are operated Sunday and holi-
day afternoons from July through
October, with private charter opera-
tion by advance arrangement.
MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES
NEW YORK
Rail City Museum Inc., Sandy
Creek, opened in 1955, is principally
a steam railroad museum, which also
owns 2 streetcars and 2 electric
work cars. In addition, 2 wood
interurban cars from Ontario lines,
owned by the Syracuse Chapter,
NRHS, are located at the museum.
Steam equipment only is operated.
The museum is open daily during
July and August, and on week ends
during June, September, and October.
PENNSYLVANIA
Arden Short Line Electric
Railway, Washington, operated by
the Pittsburgh Electric Railway
Club, was founded in 1954. Car own-
ership includes 5 city cars, 3 interur-
bans, and a freight locomotive. Of
particular interest is former West
Penn Railways car No. 832, the only
intact surviving example of the fa-
mous Cincinnati Car Company
curved-side lightweight car.
The museum has completed 3700
feet of track, most of it on the right
of way of the abandoned Pittsburgh
Railways Washington interurban
line. Construction of an additional
600 feet is planned for 1961, and
operation of cars may begin late in
1961. Track is laid to the 5'-2>/2"
Pennsylvania broad gauge, with 500
feet of dual broad- and standard-
gauge track.
The museum is open to the public
on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES
Maryland Historical Society,
Baltimore, owns a collection of 8
historical Baltimore streetcars, do-
nated by the Baltimore Transit Co. At
present the cars are in storage but
attempts are being made to locate
a suitable site for permanent exhibi-
tion and, perhaps, operation of the
cars. An additional car is on display
at a city playground.
NORTH CENTRAL STATES
OHIO
Ohio Railway Museum, Wor-
thington, founded in 1948 by the
Central Ohio Railfans Association,
has been operating electric cars since
1952. Equipment includes 3 city cars,
3 interurbans, and a wide variety of
miscellaneous electric and steam rail-
road rolling stock. Interurban equip-
ment includes a 1905 Niles combine-
typical of the graceful wooden cars
of the early interurban years, and
one of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie
Railroad's famed lightweight, high-
speed cars of 1930.
One mile of track, laid on the road-
bed of the abandoned Columbus,
Delaware & Marion Electric Co., is
operated, and another mile will be
constructed in the future. A steam
locomotive is also operated.
The museum is open Saturday
afternoons and Sundays, and cars are
operated on Sundays from 2 p.m. to
5 p.m. from May 1 to November 1.
MICHIGAN
Ford Museum, Dearborn, has
3 streetcars, including a former
Fort Collins (Colo.) Birney car and
a Peter Witt car.
ILLINOIS
Illinois Electric Railway Mu-
seum Inc., North Chicago, was
founded in 1953- Six city cars, 5 in-
terurbans, and a variety of elevated
and work equipment are owned by
the museum. Notable among them
are a former Indiana Railroad light-
weight, high-speed car; a coach and
parlor car from the Milwaukee Elec-
tric; and several Illinois Terminal
cars. Equipment is temporarily stored
until a suitable site for an operating
museum is located.
The present storage site at the
Chicago Hardware Foundry, North
Chicago, is normally open on Satur-
days, and the cars may be seen Sun-
days by appointment.
Electric Railway Historical
Society, Chicago, founded in 1952,
owns 8 street railway cars from Chi-
cago which are temporarily stored
near Downers Grove, 111. Future
plans call for operating trackage, pos-
sibly in conjunction with the Illinois
Electric Railway Museum.
427
The cars may be seen Sunday after-
noons, and usually on Saturdays.
Illini Railroad Club, Cham-
paign, owns 2 former Illinois Trac-
tion System business cars built in
1910 for the use of Congressman Wil-
liam B. McKinley, founder and presi-
dent of the system. Not equipped
with motors, the cars are used for an-
nual club excursions behind diesel
power.
Stored at Champaign, they may be
inspected on appointment with club
members.
IOWA
Iowa Railway Historical Mu-
seum Inc., Centerville, was founded
in 1958 by the Iowa Chapter, NRHS.
The museum owns former Waterloo,
Cedar Falls & Northern parlor-buf-
fet-observation car No. 100, which is
stored at the carbarn of the Southern
Iowa Railway. Two annual trips, in
June and October, plus charter trips
during the summer, are operated by
the museum over approximately 16
miles of electrified SIRy track. In
addition, SIRy equipment, which in-
cludes a streetcar as well as electric
freight equipment, is operated on ex-
cursions.
Waterloo, Ia., has a former
Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern
streetcar on display in Cedar River
Park. The car originally operated in
Knoxville, Tenn.
MISSOURI
National Museum of Trans-
port, Barretts Station, St. Louis,
founded in 1945, owns an extensive
collection of steam and electric rail-
way equipment. Electric car owner-
ship includes 13 city and 8 interur-
ban cars, as well as 2 cable cars, a
Brooklyn rapid transit car, and an
interurban freight locomotive. Of
unusual historical significance among
the interurban car collection is the
famous test car Louisiana, originally
constructed in 1904 for high-speed
tests in Indiana and later operated as
a Purdue University test car. Also
noteworthy are 2 streamlined Il-
linois Terminal passenger units, and
a four-truck Illinois Terminal freight
locomotive.
Equipment is stored on track laid
on an abandoned Missouri Pacific
right of way which includes two
tunnels. Operation of equipment is
not contemplated, but the museum
will have displays of many forms of
transportation equipment and a large
transportation library.
The museum is open daily from
10 a.m. to 8 p.m., May 15 to Septem-
ber 15, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
September 15 to May 15.
NEBRASKA
Pioneer Museum, Minden, owns
a former Fort Collins (Colo.) four-
wheel Birney streetcar.
SOUTH CENTRAL STATES
KENTUCKY
Cincinnati Railway Historical
SOCIETY owns the former Cincinnati,
Newport & Covington single-truck
parlor car Kentucky, built in 1892,
which is on display at the William
Behringer Museum, Devou Park,
Covington, Ky.
The museum is open between 1
p.m. and 8 p.m. daily except Mon-
day, from Easter to October.
Kentucky Railway Museum
Inc., Louisville, was opened in Eva
Bandman Park in 1958. Devoted
largely to steam railroad equipment,
the museum's collection also includes
a Milwaukee streetcar.
The museum is open on week ends
from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
TEXAS
Witte Memorial Museum, San
Antonio, has a former San Antonio
streetcar on display.
MOUNTAIN STATES
COLORADO
Colorado Railroad Museum,
Golden, has a display of historical
narrow-gauge and standard-gauge
cars and locomotives from Colorado
railroads. Included in the collection
are a four-wheel Birney streetcar
from Fort Collins and a Denver &
Intermountain interurban car, both
preserved by the Rocky Mountain
Railroad Club. Future plans con-
template the construction of operat-
ing track and electrification.
The museum is open daily.
PACIFIC STATES
WASHINGTON
Puget Sound Railway Histori-
cal Association, Seattle, owns a
streetcar, a British Columbia Electric
interurban, and a line car, in addi-
tion to a variety of steam railroad
equipment. An operating museum is
under construction at Snoqualmie,
Wash.
OREGON
Glenwood Electric Railway,
Glenwood, operated by the Oregon
Electric Railway Historical Society,
was founded in 1957. Car owner-
ship includes two former Australian
streetcars, and a Key System articu-
lated Bay Bridge unit.
Located on the site of the yards of
an abandoned logging railroad, the
museum has an old depot, water tow-
er, and other buildings, among them
former enginehouses used to store
equipment. Cars will be operated
over both standard-gauge and 3'6"-
gauge divisions, to be constructed on
abandoned roadbeds of the logging
line and an SP&S branch.
The museum is open week ends
during the summer, and may be
viewed by appointment at other
times.
Willamette Valley Electric
Railway Association Inc., Port-
land, owns 2 streetcars and 4 in-
terurbans, among them the Oregon
Electric open-platform observation
car Cbampoeg and the British Colum-
bia Electric Duke of Connaught.
Equipment is stored at present and
may be seen only by prior arrange-
ment. Future plans call for operation.
CALIFORNIA
Orange Empire Trolley Mu-
seum, Perris, was founded in 1956.
Car ownership includes 43 streetcars,
interurbans, and miscellaneous pieces
of work, freight, and steam road
equipment, chiefly from the Pacific
Electric Railway and the Los Angeles
Railway. Notable among them are a
double-deck Irish tram, one of Pa-
cific Electric's famous 1000-class
wooden interurbans, an aluminum
car originally operated by the North-
western Pacific Railroad, and a Key
System articulated Bay Bridge unit.
The first 1000 feet of the museum's
operating track and overhead were
placed in operation during 1960, and
ultimate plans call for construction of
about 5 miles of track. All mainline
track will be dual-gauge to permit op-
eration of 3'6"-gauge Los Angeles
Railway cars.
The museum is open daily, and cars
are operated for the public on Sunday
afternoons.
Travel Town, located in Griffith
Park, Los Angeles, and owned by the
City of Los Angeles, has on display 2
city cars, a San Francisco cable car,
a Pacific Electric box motor, and his-
toric PE locomotive No. 1544, the
Electra, which was originally oper-
ated by the North Coast Railroad and
was employed in rubbish removal
service following the San Francisco
earthquake of 1906.
The exhibit is open daily.
Railway Historical Society of
San Diego owns a former San Diego
Electric Railway PCC car which is
428
located on the grounds of the South-
ern California Exposition and San
Diego County Fair at Del Mar. A
future operating museum is planned.
Pacific Railroad Society Inc.,
Los Angeles, owns a former Los An-
geles Railway funeral car, the Des-
canso, which is located at Summit, in
Cajon Pass north of San Bernardino.
Los Angeles County Fair
GROUNDS, Pomona, has on display the
Pacific Electric Railway's elegant
business car No. 1299. It may be
seen during the fair the last two weeks
in September.
Pacific Coast Chapter, Rail-
way & Locomotive Historical So-
ciety, San Francisco, owns a collec-
tion of historical railroad equipment,
including several San Francisco street-
cars, a two-car train of former New
York "El" cars, and a Key System
articulated Bay Bridge unit, which
will be displayed at the San Francis-
co Maritime Museum.
Bay Area Electric Railroad As-
sociation, Berkeley, or its members
own 9 city cars, 4 interurbans, and
5 pieces of work or freight equip-
ment. Among the interurban car
ownership are included a Salt Lake &
Utah observation trailer and a Sacra-
mento Northern combine. Equipment
is presently in storage but the organi-
zation plans to establish an operating
museum.
CANADA
QUEBEC
Canadian Railroad Historical
Association Inc., Montreal, owns
12 historical items of railway equip-
ment, among them 5 city streetcars, a
suburban car, 2 interurbans, and an
electric locomotive, from all parts of
Canada.
The group is participating in the
development of a Canadian transpor-
tation museum, which will include
both operating steam and electric
railway sections. A site was selected
at St. Constant, Que., and work
started late in 1960.
Montreal Transportation
Commission owns a collection of 14
historical electric railway cars, most
of them from the Montreal area, and
including the first streetcar to operate
in Montreal. This equipment will
probably be placed in the proposed
Canadian transportation museum
near Montreal.
ONTARIO
Halton County Radial Rail-
way, Rockwood, sponsored by the
Ontario Electric Railway Historical
Society, was founded in 1953. Equip-
ment includes two Toronto streetcars
and a Montreal & Southern Counties
interurban.
The museum is located on the road-
bed of the abandoned Toronto Sub-
urban Railway, and operating track
is planned for future years. The mu-
seum is normally open on week ends
during the summer. J.
Bibliography
1 HE following summary is derived largely from "The Literature of the Street
Railway," by Foster M. Palmer, which appeared in the Winter 1958 issue of the
Harvard Library Bulletin, and has been extracted with the kind permission of the
author.
Modern Types of City and In-
terurban Cars and Trucks, John
Stephenson Co., 1905, is an outstand-
ing example of the carbuilder's cata-
log which includes interior and ex-
terior photographs of representative
car types, freight equipment, car con-
struction details, and trucks.
Among the most important sources
of information concerning the history
of interurban railways are the several
trade periodicals which were pub-
lished throughout the interurban era.
Electric Railway Journal was
the leader among them. It began in
1884 as the Street Railway Journal,
then became Electric Railway Jour-
nal in 1908. The title Transit Jour-
nal was adopted in 1932 and con-
tinued until publication ended in
1942. The Journal is a voluminous
source of technical and historical mat-
ter concerning electric railways. Of
particular interest are its special is-
sues which were published on the
occasion of the annual American
Street Railway Association conven-
tion and contained detailed articles
devoted to the street and interurban
railways of the convention city or
special reports on electric railway
practices.
Electric Traction was second in
importance only to the Journal. First
published in 1905 as the Interurban
Railway Journal, it became the Elec-
tric Traction Weekly in 1906, and
finally just ELECTRIC TRACTION in
1912. During the '20's the magazine
sponsored the famous interurban
speed competition. Still published, it
is now known as Mass Transporta-
Street Railway Gazette, later
the Electric Railway Gazette, ap-
peared in 1886 and was published
for a decade before merging with
Electrical World.
Street Railway Review, founded
in 1891, became Electric Railway Re-
view in 1906 and was merged with
the Electric Railway Journal two
years later.
Catalogs and other promotional
literature published by carbuilders
and electric railway equipment sup-
pliers provide many details of cars
and equipment, as well as a consider-
able amount of general information.
Almost every builder issued periodic
catalogs which detailed representa-
tive cars in the company's line, and
such major suppliers as General Elec-
tric and Westinghouse issued special
publications devoted to modern cars
of many builders, in addition to
catalogs of their own lines of locomo-
tives and equipment.
Electric Railway Dictionary,
Rodney Hitt, McGraw Publishing
Company, 1911, is a comprehensive
encyclopedia of the equipment of
electric railways published near the
peak of the interurban era. It is
comparable in format to such steam
railroad publications as the Car
Builders' Cyclopedia. A reproduc-
tion of principal portions of the DIC-
TIONARY was published in I960 un-
der the title Street Cars and Inter-
urbans of Yesterday by Owen Davies,
Chicago.
Development & Progress of the
Electric Railway Industry, West-
inghouse, 1923, described modern
electric railway practices and offered
a brief outline of electric railway
history.
Brill Magazine, published for
promotional purposes from 190" to
1927 by the leading carbuilder, is a
rich source of interurban informa-
tion. In addition to giving details of
new Brill cars and equipment, the
magazine regularly featured articles
devoted to such topics as leading in-
terurban centers and systems, and
biographies of prominent electric
railway officials.
429
Throughout the several decades of
their prodigious growth, electric rail-
ways were considered to have an al-
most limitless future; and their de-
sign, construction, and operation were
the subject of a number of engineer-
ing texts, reports, and similar works,
which now constitute an excellent
source of information concerning the
technical details of interurban rail-
roading.
Electric Railway Transporta-
tion, Blake & Jackson, McGraw Hill,
1917, was typical of a number of elec-
tric railway engineering and opera-
tion textbooks.
Electric Traction for Railway
Trains, Edward P. Burch, McGraw-
Hill, 1911, was another typical text-
book, with a particularly good sum-
mary of electric railway history.
Report of the Electric Rail-
way Test Commission, 1904, pre-
sented the results and conclusions of
a group organized by the officials of
the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Ex-
position, which conducted a series of
high-speed tests on the Union Trac-
tion Company of Indiana.
Proceedings and other publica-
tions of the American Street Railway
Association, organized in 1882, are
an important source of technical in-
formation. The organization became
the American Street and Interurban
Railway Association in 1905, the
American Electric Railway Associa-
tion in 1910, and finally the Ameri-
can Transit Association in 1933. Be-
ginning in 1923, a committee of the
Association chose the recipients of the
Charles A. Coffin prize, awarded an-
nually to leading electric railways,
and the exhibits submitted by the
candidates were the basis for Electric
Railway Practices (1923-30/31).
These volumes constitute a valuable
source of information on leading in-
terurban railways during this period.
Reports and publications of the
Interstate Commerce Commission and
the many state regulatory bodies con-
tain statistical and other information
related to electric railways.
Special Reports: Street and
Electric Railways, issued by the
Bureau of the Census in 1902 and
1907, and later similar publications
are a source of economic and statis-
tical information concerning inter-
urban railways.
Poor's Manual of the Rail-
roads of the United States from
1868 to 1913 and Poor's Manual of
Public Utilities from 1913 to 1918
contained electric railway corporate
and financial information.
Moody's Manual included similar
information from 1901 until 1924,
when it was succeeded by Poor's,
which was merged in 1940 with the
Standard Corporation Records.
Moody's Analysis of Invest-
ments, which became Moody's Man-
ual of Investments in 1926, is still
another source of such information.
McGraw Transit Directory,
originally a section of the Street Rail-
way Journal, listed every street rail-
way in the U. S., its officers, and other
basic information.
Rand McNally's Commercial
Atlas, published annually from 1911
to date, is an excellent source of de-
tailed information on interurban
routes.
The Century Dictionary and
CYCLOPEDIA, forming The Century
Atlas, in its 1911 edition included
maps of electric railways in the New
England, Middle Atlantic, and Cen-
tral states.
Timetables and other promotional
literature published by individual in-
terurban companies often provide de-
tails of their operations. The elab-
orate timetable folders issued by
some of the larger systems often con-
tained considerable material about
the various services and equipment
offered, as well as schedules. In the
early years of the century, many in-
terurbans issued lithographed fold-
ers containing handsomely colored
panoramic maps, in addition to de-
scriptions of recreational, scenic, and
historical attractions along the way,
designed to stimulate traffic. Booklets
detailing the attractions available on
electric lines were another variation.
Among typical examples were:
Wayside Scenes, published by the
Philadelphia & Easton Electric Rail-
way;
A Little Trip Through History,
issued by the Lehigh Valley Traction
Company;
Summer Boarding & Tent Life
on the Butler Short Line, offered
by the Pittsburgh & Butler Street
Railway; and
Seeing Lancaster County from
a Trolley Window, which stimu-
lated tourist travel over Pennsyl-
vania's Conestoga Traction Company.
In areas where interconnected elec
trie networks existed, many trolley
touring guide books were published
More of them appeared in New Eng
land, perhaps, than in any other lo
cation.
Official Street Railway Guide
for New England was one of a
number of such guides published by
Robert H. Derrah of Boston.
Trolley Trips on a Bay State
Triangle was typical of the series
of guides published by Katherine M.
Abbott of Lowell, Mass.
Trolley Wayfinder, the "Of-
ficial Street Railway Guide of New
England," was issued by the New
England Street Railway Club.
Trolley Trips Through New
England, an offering of the Trolley
Press at Hartford, was one of still an-
other New England series.
The Eagle Trolley Exploring
Guide, which described many trolley
outings in the New York area, as well
as surrounding states, was published
annually for a number of years by
the Brooklyn Eagle.
Interurban Trolley Guide,
published at Chicago, outlined pos-
sible tours on Midwestern interurban
lines.
In recent years several books of
considerable interest concerning elec-
tric railways have appeared.
Fares, Please!, John A. Miller, D.
Appleton-Century Co., 1941, covered
all forms of local transportation. A
paperback reprint was published in
I960 by Dover Publications, Inc.
Trolley Car Treasury, Frank
Rowsome Jr. and Stephen D. Maguire,
McGraw-Hill, 1956, is a well-illus-
trated popular history of street and
interurban railways.
The Electric Interurban Rail-
ways in America, George W. Hilton
and John F. Due, Stanford University
Press, 1960, is a history of the in
terurbans with particularly good cov
erage of their economics, which in
eludes a complete set of maps of U. S
and Canadian interurbans and ind
vidual histories of over 300 com-
panies.
During the past quarter century, as
the electric railway has all but van-
ished from North America, a number
of railroad fan organizations have
been formed, which have helped to
assemble and preserve much of the
history of the electric railway, and
their great variety of periodicals and
historical publications have assumed
increasing importance.
Headlights, a monthly publica-
tion of the Electric Railroaders' As-
sociation at New York since 1939,
430
although devoted largely to news,
often contains much in the way of
historical matter.
Trolley Sparks has been pub-
lished since 1944 by the Central Elec-
tric Railfans' Association at Chicago.
In recent years it has taken the form
of a profusely illustrated annual al-
bum devoted to electric railways of
a particular Midwestern state.
INTERURBANS, published at Los
Angeles as a periodical from 1943 to
1948, has also issued an intermittent
series of Specials from 1944 to date
which are largely devoted to West
Coast electric lines but have occasion-
ally ventured as far afield as the
Midwest and Canada, and which rep-
resent some of the best of the rail-
road fan publications. Of particular
interest is the column "Tapping the
Field," by Felix E. Reifschneider,
which appeared in the monthly /«-
terurbans and discussed many of the
details of electric railway equipment.
Bulletins, published at Chicago
by the Electric Railway Historical So-
ciety, have included many excellent
histories of individual traction lines,
as well as reproductions of important
articles from Brill Magazine and cata-
logs of a number of car and equip-
ment manufacturers which are other-
wise almost unobtainable.
Pacific Railway Journal, San
Marino, Calif., has published in re-
cent years several issues devoted to
interurban railways, notable among
them a beautifully reproduced Pacific
Electric album by Donald Duke in
1958.
The Western Railroader, San
Mateo, Calif., has published a num-
ber of articles or special issues de-
voted to the electric interurbans of the
West.
A great many other individuals,
regional fan groups, and chapters
of such organizations as the National
Railway Historical Society have is-
sued many publications devoted to lo-
cal electric railways.
Transportation, issued since
1946 by the Connecticut Valley Chap-
ter of the NRHS at Warehouse Point,
Conn., which has covered in great
detail the histories of many New Eng-
land traction properties, is notable
among such publications.
Railroad Magazine, published at
New York, has contained occasional
electric railway news and feature arti-
cles since the late '30's, and has car-
ried a regular Electric Lines Depart-
ment, edited by Stephen D. Maguire,
since the early 1940's.
Trains Magazine, published at
Milwaukee, has also carried occasion-
al electric railway features since its
inception in 1940. i
431
KALMBACH PUBLISHING CO.
book editor / DAVID P. MORGAN
continuity / ROSEMARY ENTRINGER
design / DAVID A. STRASSMAN
layout / LA VERNE F. BLEIFUSS
sketches / GEORGE A. GLOFF
printing and binding / RAND MC NALLY & CO.
432
The interurban era is past but some of the more resourceful aficiona-
dos have acquired their own rolling stock. The Iowa Railway His-
torical Museum operates a former Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern
combine on tracks of the Southern Iowa Railway out of Centerville.
Camera stops are one of the most popular features of fan excursions.
William D. Middleton.
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