Overview of Interurban Railroads
An Introduction to Modeling Trains Under the Wire
by John Carty |
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What is an Interurban?
An Interurban railway, also called a radial railway in parts
of Canada, was a type of passenger railroad
that enjoyed widespread popularity at the turn of the
twentieth century in North America. Interurbans
often extended city streetcar lines to connect urban areas
or to stretch from urban to rural areas.
Companies started operations using cars drawn by draft
animals. With the advent of practical electrical
power, systems converted their lines to the new technology
in an era when steam railroads had not yet
adopted electricity to any large degree. Many companies also
owned electric utilities providing
electrical power in the cites in which they operated.
Clean, convenient, and efficient, Interurban lines faded
with the advent of the personal automobile.
Remnants remain as commuter railroads or as freight short
lines.
Types of Interurban Railroads
Several basic types of interurban exist. The first consists
of streetcar lines. Operators laid rails right
down the middle of streets after obtaining a franchise from
the municipality. This created the first
effective mass transit in the country. Lines connected
residential neighborhoods with commercial
districts. As bonus to the cities, the franchise often
required the streetcar company to spray the
streets during the summer months to keep down the dust
resulting from dirt streets.
The second type of company connected local communities. This
type of line often resulted from extensions
of streetcar lines. These companies operated regularly
scheduled transportation between communities.
Although tracks ran down streets, companies used private
rights of way between towns, which often
paralleled steam roads.
A third type of company moved freight. Although passenger
lines did provide parcel services within their
territory, freight lines specialized in bulk freight just
like many steam roads. These roads utilized
street running, private rights of way, or both. Such an
operation may switch a small area like a wharf. On
the other hand many companies created an operation of this
type to haul a particular commodity such as
coal. Motive power for freight operations consists of
"motors."
The last type of interurban consists of a combination of the
above types. Usually larger operations moved
both freight and passengers. One of these, the Illinois
Traction System or Illinois Terminal, became the
only class 1 electric railroad in the United States. From
the standpoint of the modeler, an interurban
providing common-carrier service provides the most
interesting opportunities.
Why Model an Interurban
So the question remains: What can an interurban add to my
layout? That depends on the approach taken. As
an adjunct to a model of a steam road, an interurban
provides contrast. First, by constructing a "mere"
loop, the cars provide animated "scenery." Next, stations
could provide additional destinations for
operators to provide connections for passengers and express
freight. Finally, interurban operations expand
the operating potential the layout as a whole. These options
stem from adding an interurban to a layout
featuring steam road(s).
If you wish to focus on the interurban in your layout, the
electric road provide other incentives. As
model railroaders, we constantly make compromises in our
creations. Selective compression, tight curves,
short trains, forced perspective, etc. dominate our attempts
to create in limited space. With the
interurban railway, however, tight spaces defined the
prototype. City buildings create man-made
canyons along the streets restricting the minimum radius for
street tracks to as little as thirty-five
feet (5 inches in HO scale). Also one or two cars often
constituted trains. Additionally, most car lengths
typically reached no more than 40 feet, with a few as long
as 50 feet. These restrictions dovetail nicely
into the constraints governing model railroading.
The opportunity to create unique models provides an
additional plus to modeling an interurban. Although
manufacturers market many excellent models, interurban
railroads often created many needed pieces of
equipment from older stock on hand. This allows the modeler
the impetus to kit bash or scratch build to
fill these niches. In addition requirements for the
Achievement Program of the NMRA beg to be fulfilled by
constructing an interurban layout with its resident
equipment.
General Practices of Interurban Railroads
Although every company followed their own policies, some
practices may be found in most companies.
Schedules for city systems authorized cars on close
headways. Sometimes cars followed one another by as
little as ten to twenty minutes similar to buses. Interurban
schedules reflected those of steam roads. The
one difference came from the greater frequency of trains on
electric systems. Additionally, loading and
unloading occurred at both station platforms and right in
the middle of streets. All electric systems
provided clean, quiet, and convenient service.
As mentioned earlier, the franchises allowing interurban and
streetcar systems to operate on streets often
required the companies to spray to control dust. Companies
used special cars for this consisting of a
water tank and spray apparatus. Additionally, just as steam
roads sprayed their rights of way for weeds,
electric railroads sprayed not only their own private lines
but also the city streets when required by
contract.
Tracks in the streets presented special challenges.
Vehicular traffic added wear and tear beyond that
created by the equipment of the railroad. Such traffic also
complicated maintenance, since the lines
occupied public space. Rails occupying a portion of public
space also created some advantages. Reversing
loops sometimes circled a block or blocks. Additionally,
some lines consisted entirely of a loop around a
particular area, which allowed cars to circulate around, for
example, an entire shopping district.
Systems rarely owned more cars than required by rush hour,
so only a minimum of units occupied storage and
barn tracks during peak times. Prior to the start of peak
traffic, systems staged cars where needed, such
as at a stadium or large factory prior to the end of a game
or shift respectively.
One problem facing interurban railroads stemmed from the
nature of their market. Passenger service catered
to the worker traveling to and from work. This provided
excellent density during the week but left the
weekends a bit thin. To generate traffic during the weekends
interurban railroads built venues. Among
these venues were amusement parks and piers (similar to Navy
Pier). The railroad companies did necessarily
build these attractions themselves but provided a connection
and/or location for a local entrepreneur,
municipality, or syndicate to finance and construct the
amusement. Other types of venues included parks
like Landsdown in East St. Louis and Creve Coeur Lake in St.
Louis County. The dance hall at Horseshoe
Lake near Collinsville, Illinois represents another
entertainment venue.
Local Interurban Railroads
A number of streetcar lines operated in St. Louis. The
Illinois side of the river boasted several lines as
well. The aforementioned Illinois Terminal operated from
Peoria and Danville across the Mississippi River
via the McKinley Bridge to St. Louis. This railroad holds
the record as the longest electric railway
system in the United States. Until switching to diesel
locomotives in the middle of the century, the
Illinois Terminal carried both passengers and freight. It
also operated a "steam division" in the Granite
City area switching local industries.
The other main interurban system on the east side of the
Mississippi River operated under the umbrella of
the East St. Louis & Suburban Railway, the "Great East Side
Electric Railway System." This interurban
system resembled an octopus stretching from Godfrey to
Waterloo, Illinois and from St. Louis, Missouri to
Lebanon, Edwardsville, and Freeburg in Illinois. Within this
system the St. Louis and Belleville Electric
Railway moved coal from mines in Belleville and Freeburg to
power plants in East St. Louis. In addition
passengers rode trains belonging to the East St. Louis &
Belleville Street Railway; East St. Louis,
Columbia, and Waterloo Railway; and the East St. Louis and
Alton Electric Railway. This company also
operated the cars traversing the upper deck of the Eads
Bridge. Formed by acquiring independent companies
and mergers, the East St. Louis & Suburban sold off lines
and abandoned other lines in the thirties
leaving only the St. Louis & Belleville Electric, which
became the Peabody Short Line.
Infrastructure of Interurban Railroads
Interurban railways ran on relatively light rail and
roadbed. Companies laid standard rails down the
middle of dirt streets and converted to girder rail, rail
with an integrated flange way, imbedded into the
pavement when cities began paving streets.
Track imbedded in the pavement required steel spacers to
maintain gauge. Single point turnouts served in
the streets to help minimize moving parts where abuse from
street traffic increased maintenance costs. On
private rights of way light rail with ties spaced further
apart than on roadbeds of class one steam roads
served to guide trains on their way. Interurban systems
built roadbed to a lower profile than that used by
steam roads, with the notable exception of the East St.
Louis & Suburban whose roadbed stood four feet all
as protection against washouts and flooding.
Regardless of the location of rights of way, clearances
remain close, especially on streets. Overhead wire
contributed to additional vertical restrictions, being only
twenty to twenty-two feet above the railhead.
Power distribution came in several forms. First, overhead
wire stands out as the most common and
stereotypical. As mentioned above this hung about twenty
feet above the railhead. This wire provided power
while the rails functioned as the ground. Poles with span
wire strung between them or metal poles with
arms suspended the overhead wire. Additionally, some systems
supported the overhead with centenary, which
gets its name from the logarithmic curve the hanging support
wire assumes. As common as this method
remains, maintaining the wire in the center of the tracks
required not only diligent maintenance but also
clever mathematics and engineering.
A second manner of powering cars and motors utilized a third
rail. Once again, the running rails provided
the ground leg. The Chicago Transit Authority remains the
most notable example of this kind of power
distribution. Although overhead wire remains vulnerable to
the elements, third rail power poses greater
danger to people and animals. Given this danger of contact,
third rail and street tracks do not go
together.
The last common method of providing power puts a wire in the
street. Streetcars carry a probe that passes
through a slot in the street between the rails, where it
makes contact with a wire. As in the previous
methods, the rails function as the ground leg. The streetcar
system in Washington, D.C. utilized this
system in some areas while using overhead in others. Cars in
D.C. often carried both types of equipment.
This method should not be confused with cable cars in which
the cable constantly moves and cars grab it in
order to travel down the street.
Every railroad uses stations and interurban utilized a
variety. Some built their own stations. The
Illinois Traction System built dedicated stations in many of
the towns they served. These structures often
included power substations. The East St. Louis and Suburban
built dedicated stations at either end of the
line over Eads Bridge. Both systems also utilized flag stops
between towns, which often consisted of a
simple lean-to. Many interurban companies used existing
structures to serve as stations. These stations
consisted of little more than a ticket counter in the lobby
of a bank or even at the counter of a drug
store or dime store.
Companies operating interurban systems watched every penny.
With little margin and small budgets, survival
depended on creative use of resources. Companies reused
virtually everything. Nothing was thrown away. In
the days when horses and mules pulled cars, even the animal
wastes could be sold. Cinders from powerhouses
provided ballast for the tracks. Additionally, retired cars
found new employment as maintenance of way
equipment, freight motors, or even cabooses. These practices
provided the infrastructure of interurban
railways considerable character.
Interurban Equipment
A variety of equipment plied the rails of interurban
systems. Passenger equipment took a variety of forms.
Streetcars varied considerably in size and styling. Early
cars rode on four wheels and featured either
open, closed, or convertible bodies of about twenty-five to
thirty feet in length. Longer cars riding on
two four-wheel trucks replaced these and featured windows,
which could be left open or closed as dictated
by the weather. Competition in the Thirties resulted in the
President’s Car Committee designing a
streamlined car body. Called "PCC Cars," the introduction of
these streetcars sported Art Deco styling
giving systems a modern look. Any of these types of cars
could be coupled together to run, although in
practice only similar cars were put together.
Interurban equipment also varied. Passenger motors handled
similarly to streetcars, except for being
heavier. Some motors strictly carried passengers, while
others contained a baggage compartment for baggage
and express freight. These motors also pulled trailers,
which were simply cars less traction motors.
Trailers functioned in a manner much like passenger cars on
steam roads and could be classed as coach,
baggage, sleeper, or even parlor cars. Sleeper and parlor
tickets required extra fares just like on the
steam roads. Although lighter and shorter, these cars
sported similar appearances to passenger cars of the
same period. In the years following World War II, some
companies, including the Illinois Terminal,
purchased streamlined sets as well as individual cars. The
number of passengers continued to decline
starting in the twenties and, despite innovations, resulted
in the demise of most interurban passenger systems.
Interurban railroads used many kinds of freight equipment.
Some companies like the Illinois Terminal and
Pacific Electric used standard freight cars of all kinds.
Most interurban systems, however, used
specialized equipment, which sported a number of distinctive
features. First radial ends allowed freight
cars to navigate tighter curves than straight ends.
Additionally, equipment rarely exceeded forty feet in
length. Swing couplers as opposed to fixed draft gear also
assisted the navigation of city streets.
Builders applied these features to most classes of cars:
box, flat, hopper, and gondola. As noted above
companies built cabooses from whatever was available.
In a similar manner maintenance of way cars usually began
life as something else. Old streetcars and
motors bought a new lease on life as line cars used to
maintain the overhead. Aged flats carried supplies
including rails, ties, and trucks as well as damaged cars.
Additionally, shops installed derricks on flats
or modified motors. Also, old streetcars entered the shops
to be reborn as snow sweepers. Finally, tool
and crew cars invested the bodies of old streetcars and
boxcars. Imagination provided the only limit to
what the interurban companies could create.
Products Available
To create an interurban system in miniature requires
material and equipment. In HO scale, which I model,
Bowser markets an extensive line of products. They carry
both PCC and Brill streetcars as well as kits to
repower older models. In addition Bowser carries a line of
interurban motors. For the model looking to
build his own models from scratch, they also sell motors,
power trucks, and trolley poles.
Orr sells a complete line of girder rail for installation on
the modeler's city streets. Also, Bachman
markets both PCC and Brill Streetcars. In contrast Precision
Scale Models provides a line of trolley
poles, trucks, springs, and castings. Alpine Scale Models
sells wire and line poles but has discontinued
quite a number of castings for hanging wire. Finally, Light
Rail Products also markets kits for both
streetcars and freight motors as well as wire and parts for
cars and poles. Kits for cars and motors as
well as brass cars many be found through Funero & Camerlengo,
LaBelle Woodworking, and MTS Imports.
Available Resources
An interested modeler can find many books and other
resources. Carsten's publishes both the "Traction Planbook" and
"Traction Handbook." For prototype photographs,
Morning Sun Publishing produces numerous books
on the Illinois Terminal in particular and traction systems
in general. Historical Societies such as the
Illinois Tractions Society produce magazines containing
excellent articles and photographs in addition to
their websites. The website Trolleyville.com provides an
excellent supply of links, articles, and
photographs. Also, the website of the National Model
Railroad Association contains a variety of
information including the standards and recommended
practices. Finally, local libraries maintain a variety
of resources in their collections including newspaper
articles, histories, photograph collections, as
well as maps.
Conclusion
Interurban and streetcar systems provide a fascinating
glimpse at a bygone era. From a modeling standpoint
they also provide a variety of modeling opportunities.
Enjoy.
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