The interurban era online

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