clemson university professor roger grant talks about the history of american historytation and the of interurban electric rail at the end of the 19th century. they were similar to trolleys. for the rise of the personal automobile these local systems allowed people from rural areas to get to city centers and a cheap reliable way. he talks about them as precursors to the light rail of today his class is about an hour and 10 minutes. >> we are going to begin a three-part study. it is certainly one of the least studied aspects of american transportation history. the overall theme and one that i want you to keep in mind is that we can make the argument that the electric trolley is the linkage between's team railroad.

perhaps we would not have the interurban area. also we can make a case that the interurban is the transition between steam railroads freight and the coming of the motor truck. to begin, the inner-city road system was awful. we did talk about it that continued into the 20th century. to begin, the inner-city road system was awful. we did talk about it that continued into the 20th century.

we had that national road that was financed by the federal government in the 1840's. it will not be there until the 1890's that there was this bicycle craze. communities were being pressured to have better roads. only going up into the suburbs. we have places like cleveland and philadelphia. there is a movement, and all weather road system prior to the coming of the automobile which is really from 1900 to 1905.

most american roads were my holes during the wet season and extremely dusty during the dry season. it was estimated that only about 5% of america's 2.2 million miles of roads were actually all weather. in other words, they were covered with broken stone or in florida with seashells. to make a long story short, the road system was abysmal.

only 2% were improved or semi-all weather. here is a comment that was made at his time. this week a farmer walked for miles to town. most everyone in town heard of this because it was the only country better received here in the past week. the explanation was quite simple. they have cut the country from the town and the town from the country. this community was a kind of island community.

you could have delicious country better. with that in mind, it is quite obvious that we needed some better mouth -- mouse traps. i call this the kayak area. there would be these branch lines and independent lines that were built that needless to say they are were areas that simply needed something more as in a branch line or passenger and freight train. considering the conditions of the roads, this was one reason

why we have this new replacement technology. you may ask what is an interuan? i know you all took baby latin in high school. perhaps it is time for me to give you some visual images of an interurban. this is a brochure that was sold to travelers in the greater new england area. this is going to be the heartland of what we call rural trolleys.

they have extended their lives out into the suburbs and nearby villages are perhaps to an amusement park or to a cemetery. this is the kind of early interurban car that was so the ubiquitous. you have these sweet summer breezes and it is a way to certainly see the landscape.

there were trolleys constructed mostly in new england but mostly scattered throughout the country. this is the view taken in april of 1925. this was supposedly their routes movement was moving at a rapid pace. here we have a car that resembles a real trolley. here is the sense of a typical country road as they said in the 19th century and apparently into the 20th century. choose it and stay with it. we would all agree that taking this interurban car because he didn't connect the cities that were a dozen miles apart.

what we are seeing is we start out small. it is perhaps not that different. 80's somewhat modern. it is one that dates from 19-seven. we have the motorman. he is certainly well dressed and we have the various passengers gazing out the window and the conductor who is guarding the rear. what we have is a large railroad car if you will and that is self-propelled. it is not all that different from some of the electric cars

that were being introduced at the same time. later we have rail diesel cars that are more modern and more sophisticated. if you have been to new orleans and wrote on the st. charles street or even in charleston with its recent rail system. you can see the similarities.

>> here is another typical urban car. from the cincinnati georgetown railway. here is where the promoters were hoping to get to portsmouth. they did not go further than georgetown. this railroad was originally built and would be standardized and converted to electricity.

here is a somewhat smaller car dating from 1910. here he have one more urban car and we are operating in multiple sections. this is on the northern railway and it was taken not to far. this was built by the duke power interest. it was one of the most profitable of all railroads. it developed a substantial freight business. cars can be interchanged with. this is a special excursion if you are a railfan, you would notice this immediately.

jim crow laws are being enforced. the railroad would operate in various colored only excursions. there was a north carolina division and then we have some south carolina operation from

spartanburg to greenville and then down to greenwood. somewhat later. it would last for many years and we will talk later about the twilight. a good working definition of an interurban is probably appropriated at this time. earlier in the century, a new york investment banker came up with what i consider to be the best definition.

he said that a bona fide interurban was one that was more than 15 miles in length and distinguishing it from a roll trolley. this had at least two thirds of the track outside of municipal limits. it operates cars at a maximum speed of not less than 20 miles an hour. we are talking about an interurban that is no longer than 15 miles. thoughts be able to operate at 20 miles an hour or faster. the federal government, bless its heart could never come up with a real definition.

for a while the department of commerce and labor suggested that -- what the government did was we sent out this questionnaire. it is up to you to decide. we will make you the ultimate judge of what you happen to be. for most of the history of the interurban it was up to a corporate entity. let me explain the technology. even though i wrote a book, i am not unskilled in explaining

interurban technology. we saw that the earliest urban cars were just somewhat larger and perhaps small sturdy -- city street cars. it would be operated by the motorman. we are talking about a two-person crew. it comes after the overhead line. it was a problem in the state of washington where livestock -- they mostly kill dogs more than

anything else. there was a lot of concern about third rail. perhaps you have been in new york city in the subway and you don't want to touch the third rail. it is not a good idea unless you are planning suicide. we find the use of direct current. earlier in the 20th century they introduced alternating current. this might be 25 cycle power.

westinghouse engineers argued that you didn't have line drop like you did with d.c. current. you had to use a number of substations that added more juice to the current. also westinghouse suggested that less copper wire was needed. at least less quality copper prior -- wire and the limitations involved that it had to be heavier and there were issues with the motor.

you have to use more expensive copper prior. the bottom line was that they were hired with ac. cars using ac could not accelerate as fast as those that used d.c.. there was this conflict and there were municipalities that said we did not want these lines in our street.

they would have to then convert when they had street runnings. if we are interested in electricity, we would say that the majority used direct current. when we look at the beginnings of electric power transportation we see that there were people that electricity was a kind of magical power and there were a variety of efforts to put it to use on track vehicles. there is no single inventor of the automobile.

one individual who gets a high praise is frank julian spring. he was a graduate of the united states naval academy and after he completed his mandatory tour of duty. he went to work for thomas edison. well working with edison, he became fascinated with the possible application of electricity to transportation. he then left in the early 1880's and created his own manufacturing concern that focused on building electric trolleys. that's a dead end. spring was successful in honoring a contract with private investors to electrify the richmond union passenger railway.

he built or had his company construct 40 motorized cars. what spring did was how to figure out the motor of the car. spring has a system of reporting springs that are used for the traction motors. the jarring that occurs as a result is no more. discover that the motors failed or is there were constant adjustments necessary. spring has a system of reporting springs that are used for the traction motors.

the jarring that occurs as a result is no more. also he worked on motor components making them more useful using carbon brushes for example. some inventors don't do that well but he was very cautious about patents. he is friends with legal connections and perhaps pick it up from thomas edison. almost immediately i pointed this out. we find that city street cars that are electrified become all the rage.

from cable car to trolley. from 1900, you were hard-pressed to find an animal car line left in the united states. in anderson, the electric city. did have one of the early systems in place. we always have problems that something was the first.

i would argue that the prototype would be found in ohio. this is a great place to build. communities were not that far apart. the prototype was an electric interurban that was built to granville, ohio. it has a regionally famous university. here we have the county and this college community which is seven miles away.

they are incredibly profitable. it had a reputation for solutions and brothels. it was a rough town, a railroad town in it: mining center. free at last.

the administration was not happy and wanted to see what these students when the last car brand. we're not talking dwi. rural trolley. it does connect two cities and apparently at least two thirds of its mileage was outside of corporate limits. certainly one of the first truly interurban and i would argue the first major interurban also appeared in ohio. it connected that municipality in its corporate name. it opened high-speed, double trap line in 1895. it was during the depression.

and that was a bad year because it was during the depression of 1893-1897 a local syndicate -- 1897. a local syndicate paid for it and it was a moneymaker. cleveland, which was not a mistake on the lake, a lot of smart money and smart people anxious to live there and stay put. and now the craze was on.

we will start to see interurban madness. let me add parenthetically, that when we look at the canals, the most prosperous ones were built in the best areas. like the new york area can now -- erie canal. and when they were building the canal from lisbon, that was not the best location to have a profitable ditch operation. so, it was realized, certainly by 1905 or so that maybe in some localities the best routes had been selected and interurbans built and maybe we cannot build more in that immediate vicinity. the big question, why were they

popular? we have an inkling by looking at those god-awful roads. we had that much -- mud. first of all, these interurbans are clinking. no sender -- cinder, no dirt, no smoke. when you compare that to the typical steam operated passenger train you look like you had been in a coal mine, perhaps. or perhaps, your hat, whether you are female or male had pock marks in it, occasions when sparks with -- would that coaches on fire.

a vertical integration if you will. but interurbans like to point out that they were clean and if you have your good sunday clothes on, you appreciated that. the lackawanna in the early part of the century had an advertising campaign that was in some ways remarkably successful. they selected the young woman, a

mythical woman, very sexy for the time. her name was phoebe snow. and there were a number of jingles that the company used in advertisements, newspapers, magazines and public timetables. the most common one says, phoebe snow about to go upon a trip to buffalo, my down -- gown stays white upon the road of after fight -- she had a white hat, white skirt, and usually had a white parasol. she was white, unlike other people in the room who had all of their colors black, like we have all orange. and they created the traction system, and they thought that

phoebe snow would really enjoy writing on one of -- riding on one of that interurban's cars. his later becomes the terminal company. it was long, about 400 miles and it connected places like springfield, decatur, peoria, with st. louis. in fact, the company builds a bridge over the mississippi. it was a moneymaker and it was

after a ride of the day and night, over the road of anthracite, phoebe snow and her five sisters scrubbed until they had blisters. the roads -- steam roads are out of date, said they. we will have to travel another way. it is hard to beat an electric line. the car was claimed, the woodwork right. the porter treated them right. no dust, no dirt, all of which shows there was not a speck on the sisters' clothes they arrived quite clean, not feeling tired, dirty and mean

said phoebe snow, this meets the road of anthracite -- beats the road of anthracite. also, they were very quiet. the steam locomotive makes a lot of sounds, like your stomach before a meal. there is clinking whatever. but with an interurban car, you had the home of the motor -- hum of the motor and every so often a noise from the air pumps. so it is quiet. i think that we are thinking interurban, good news, they are clean. more important than that, from a public perspective, the fact that they were convenient.

interurban companies commonly operated on hourly schedules, sometimes every 30 minutes. it was during the day and into the evening. perhaps the first car would leave at 5:00 a.m., the last around 11:00 p.m. or midnight. on steam railroads, certain companies were very proud of their double daily service, maybe not on sunday, but at least during the weekend, during the weekdays and on saturday. so you know, you have two chances to go east, west, or whatever direction. on these mainlines like the pennsylvania, the new york central, the illinois central, whatever, you may only have 6-7 trains. admittedly, these were not all local. some of them are expressed trains my like -- express trains.

maybe not everywhere, but out in the rural areas. at shelters that were built trackside, or public road crossings. it was easy to get on these cars. you would use a hand signal. during the day. or a lantern or a lighted match or even burning newspapers at night. and the motorman would stop and pick you up. here is what the lakeshore electric told readers of the public timetables in 1911, and this was one of these well-positioned interurban lines that connected cleveland with toledo, with about 100 plus miles.

passengers wishing to stop with cigna with arm extended horizontally across the track by david and -- by day. a farmer will not have to make arrangements, perhaps, for a

family member to get a part for machinery. he can go on the hour to a trackside shelter or a public road nearby, signal a car going to town or the hardware store, get the part and come home. it is wonderful. another attractive aspect would be for the traveling salesman. i want to spend more time talking about them on thursday.

but interurbans went from the heart of a community, to the heart of a community. and when steam railroads were built, oftentimes they were forced to build their station on the outskirts or some distance from center city. and if you were a traveling salesperson, you may have to walk to the downtown. if you had a sample case, you needed to make arrangements to ride with it, but the interurban car would likely stop in front of the hotel.

many hotels served as interurban stations. and there would be somebody who would offload the sample case. in the hotels, you had sample rooms where you would show your wares, jewelry, hardware, whatever. how convenient. this is terrific. so one of the sources of traffic for interurban companies would be the traveling salesman. also, cheap. you do not have to be a marxist to have an economic interpretation of human behavior. in other words, i think that is why people today buy, if they can get it online, the one dollar ticket on mega bus. or maybe they go to spirit airlines, where everything is extra, except using the restroom. although, transportation is at a low-fare. right? have any of you gone on spirit? well, it is a memorable way to travel. just like make a bus. we will talk about buses later.

recently, in the travel section of linear times, they talked about a student on megabus and it caught on fire and the interurbans charged $.02 a mile, with the competitors charging maybe three cents a mile. if you are a salesman, you can buy coupon books, so the cost of fares might be a penny per mile. so, needless to say the cost of tickets almost always less.

and in a few cases, the interurban could charge more than a steam railroad, but we find that the sales man preferred it because they saved interurban cars that we saw a really benign. by that i mean, what a traveler said in 1903, "there are a good many elderly men and women who are still afraid of the locomotive, compared with an engine and a train of coaches, the interurban car is an innocent looking a fair." -- affair." and then we have real estate appreciation.

i would argue, if we wanted to construct a statute in the most representative american, maybe it would be a politician, maybe a military leader, i think it would be a real estate promoter. well, you have an electric line that is clean. that is convenient, cheap for passage my right? -- passage, right? and what is he want to live nearby? here is what in ohio businessman said, "real estate all intertwined in -- electric lines in ohio have nearly doubled in value.

often, these suppliers are producing parts for city trolleys, but you find different types of headlights that are needed, for instance, on the interurban cars. and then a story of urban growth. that communities are wanting to have greater control over their land. and if you have a community as an interurban hub, you can't expect people from -- can expect people from villages coming to town and spending money. also, if your community, probably a small community, had been missed by a steam railroad, this is a second chance.

just as the building of u.s. highways would be a third chance for communities. so, we are talking a variety of attractive features and that explains interurban madness. so, when where they built and how many miles? we had several boom periods. we have a nasty, albeit short recession through 1903-1904, and it will not be until 1905 when there is another boom. and that goes into a time of a more severe wall street disruption, the panic of 1907.

and another 3000 miles constructed. and we find that in this time from 1908-1909, through the first world war, additional mileage. so the peak comes in 1916 with almost 16,000 miles. that is overshadowed by steam road miles, which is in excess of a quarter of a million miles. in 1916, that is the peak for interurban mileage, the peak for steam mileage, and that is when

congress and the president make a model for the first highways and financing program. so in other words, 1916 is kind of a watershed year, a tipping point, and it will be downhill for interurbans, and especially for steam railroads. the average length of -- to economists -- two economists figured out that it is about 45 miles, the standard. we are not talking long interurbans. in some states they averaged greater length. in texas, about 70 miles. everything is bigger in texas. and texas is going to be a state that has the second-largest interurban network west of the mississippi. california, more mileage. iowa is a close third.

so, just keep in mind that interurbans are not massive in length. the illinois traction system is a long one. and piedmont northern had 127 miles. but we do have a numerous paper urban -- interurban story. and this in some ways not home -- knocks home the point of this intensity, this excitement, the interurbans are the wave of the future. ohio is the heartland, no state had more mileage than ohio. it was close to 3000 miles. indiana is the next in terms of greatest mileage, about 2000 miles.

now, if you take the county seat town of tippin, which is located in north-central ohio. there was 11 different interurban projects projected to go to or through the town. the only one, the eastern, was ever completed. so that is not unusual. we have these paper railroads, some of them actually incorporated and in some cases there would be some actual construction. there were a lot of projects in texas, in the lone star state. back in the early 1980's, when i had too much time on my hands, i did an article on unbilled -- unbuilt railroads in texas and after a lot of work i concluded there were about 22,000 miles of interurbans projected in texas, but only about a hundred of them

most of them were in the greater dallas and fort worth area, although there was a high-speed rail connecting houston and galveston. you come up with 500 miles, yet you projected more than 20,000. so there was a lot of paper interurbans. now, let's deal with the lunatic fringe. there are some examples of grandiose projects, paper interurbans.

although the one i am selecting this morning, the one highlighted, actually did not turn a wheel. in 1895, at the time that the akron-bedford, cleveland was opening, there is a serious proposal to build a high-speed electric line between chicago and st. louis. but it went nowhere. probably because the technology was still iffy. although, the abc roots -- route did operate successfully.

so at the dawn, the very dawn of the interurban era, there were promoters with hunches thinking, let's have a high speed railroad that will be twice as fast as the chicago and alton, which is the major steam road connector between chicago and st. louis. about the time the chicago and new york airline was proposed,

we are the only people considering alexander miller, this is part of his 15 minutes of fame. so who was alexander miller? alexander miller was a farm boy from ohio who fell in love with railroads. sounds like a sensible thing to do. and he got a job as a brake man for his hometown railroad and in time he learns morse code and he becomes a calligrapher for the railroad. and he goes up the ladder, becoming a dispatcher in illinois.

so he is a minor railroad official. he also decides that his future is not with the burlington and with some friends and partners, the organizers a bank at this time that a bank -- a bank, and at this time it is not hard to become a bank. he also is an inventor at heart and he comes up with an electric signaling system and will be the founder and president of the miller electric signal company. well, he goes out on the road. the bank can operate on its own. and when he does it is to spend

time in new york city, and spending time with investors and trying to interest corporate executives in the big apple to buy his system. he does not have a lot of success. back home in illinois, they do by his -- buy his signal. the point is, miller is commuting between new york and chicago, maybe not commuting, but he does make frequent trips. one day i guess he is bored, he goes onto a new york central passenger train in the city and he realizes that the first 150 miles or so, he is going in the wrong direction. he is going on the hudson river. you have seen north by northwest, when he is in albany, he is further from the windy city then when he left gotham. got it? the new york central goes west on the erie canal and eventually to chicago. so my guess is does not take a genius to think, maybe there is

a better route.