Interurban Railroad
Cincinnati & Lake Erie Interurban Railroad
One of the Midwest's busiest and longest-lasting interurban railroads was the Cincinnati and Lake Erie. Passengers rode the C&LE line for over 40 years between Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton, and all the way to Detroit. The company offered quality service and had a large and loyal customer base. The photograph, taken in 1932, shows C&LE car 104 parked at Court Street.
Photograph Source: Cincinnati On The Go: History of Mass Transit; Singer, Allen J.; Arcadia Publishing; 2004.
One of the Midwest's busiest and longest-lasting interurban railroads was the Cincinnati and Lake Erie. Passengers rode the C&LE line for over 40 years between Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton, and all the way to Detroit. The company offered quality service and had a large and loyal customer base. The photograph, taken in 1932, shows C&LE car 104 parked at Court Street.
Photograph Source: Cincinnati On The Go: History of Mass Transit; Singer, Allen J.; Arcadia Publishing; 2004.
Above shows railroad, not traction car
The Interurban
Below: 1915 map shows traction car map
Above: Removing the street car rails and repairing the street on North Third Street in Hamilton, Ohio, ca. 1935. Photo from the Butler County Historical Society, Hamilton, Ohio.
Above: Traction Car with Court House written on the side. Mt. Pleasant Pike-Lindenwald to Hamilton Route, ca. 1895. From the George C. Cummins “Remember When” Photograph Collection. Donated by the family of George C. Cummins. Photo used courtesy of the George C. Cummins "Remember When" Collection at the Hamilton Lane Library, Hamilton, Ohio.
Above: 1906 ~ LINDENWALD CAR BARNS
Williams and Pleasant Avenues
Left to Right: Bert Siebold, George Swearingen, Fred Burke, Carl Robolt, Julius Raul, William Wilhott, Al Middleton, ____ Sears (young boy), Bert Sears, August Glens
Source: Butler County Pictorial History 1800-1940s, Thomson Southwest Ohio, 1999.
Williams and Pleasant Avenues
Left to Right: Bert Siebold, George Swearingen, Fred Burke, Carl Robolt, Julius Raul, William Wilhott, Al Middleton, ____ Sears (young boy), Bert Sears, August Glens
Source: Butler County Pictorial History 1800-1940s, Thomson Southwest Ohio, 1999.
Above: Lindenwald Car Barn, Pleasant and Williams Avenues, Lindenwald, Hamilton, Ohio, ca. 1930. Pictured are Joe Stecher, Fred Bunker, John Davis, George Stoeling and Joe Wagner.
Above: A traction car on High Street at Seventh Street, looking east, ca. 1919. The term "traction car" means 'electric traction'. Any company so described uses electric cars and locomotives, usually with overhead wire. Photo from the George C. Cummins “Remember When” Photograph Collection. Donated by the family of George C. Cummins. Photo used courtesy of the George C. Cummins "Remember When" Collection at the Hamilton Lane Library, Hamilton, Ohio.
1913 - Raging floodwaters on High St looking west towards the monument.
Between 1901 and 1932 there was mass transit from Cincinnati to Dayton. The Interurban Electric Railway carried 4.4 million passengers a year. Hamilton was the hub in the middle where passengers had to switch from the the Millcreek Valley Line to the Cincinnati Lake Erie Line. From Dayton you could travel to Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago and hundreds of smaller towns all around.
The trains were slow, noisy and clunky and people began using bus services or their own vehicles. So the Interurban couldn’t meet it’s financial obligations and sold everything off.
The trains were slow, noisy and clunky and people began using bus services or their own vehicles. So the Interurban couldn’t meet it’s financial obligations and sold everything off.
Below 1896 Railway Map
More in depth...
Interurban and traction are terms that require explanation today, but for more than 40 years they were familiar, everyday words here.
The interurban era ended in Hamilton 50 years ago — at about 11:10 p.m. Saturday, May 13. That's when the last electrically powered passenger car — often called "the traction" by its patrons — left here for its northbound trip to Dayton.
The interurban era began at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, July 25, 1897, when a car arrived along North B Street from Dayton over the line of the Cincinnati & Miami Valley Traction Co.
For about 25 years Hamilton was on two interurban lines:
*1. The Millcreek Valley Line — once known as the Ohio Traction Co. — operated from Hamilton south to Glendale, Hartwell and Cincinnati, following the route of Ohio 4 much of the way. It was the only line of seven serving the Queen City that extended directly into downtown Cincinnati.
*2. The Cincinnati & Lake Erie originally ran north to Trenton, Middletown, Franklin, Miamisburg, West Carrollton, Moraine and Dayton, and later to Toledo and Detroit.
Its 18-mile route south of Hamilton — which opened in 1898 — was along the present U. S. 127 through Symmes Corner (now part of Fairfield), Pleasant Run, New Burlington, Mount Healthy and College Hill to a station on Spring Grove Avenue in Cincinnati. The remainder of the trip to downtown Cincinnati had to be completed via streetcar.
Power for the local traction cars came from a 33,000-volt generating station at the west end of Williams Avenue (now the Powerhouse softball-tennis recreation area).
Some of the red C&LE cars were housed at a nearby car barn on the north side of Williams Avenue between Pleasant and Benninghofen avenues (now the site of Linden Lanes).
The two local lines were among more than 65 companies operating in the state before World War I when Ohio led the nation in interurban mileage (2,798).
The electric railways started declining in the mid 1920s as automobile sales boomed and as Midwest rural roads were paved. The Great Depression hastened their death. By the early 1930s service was rapidly disappearing.
The Millcreek Valley had abandoned service between Hamilton and Glendale July 11, 1926. leaving only the C&LE here.
The Cincinnati & Lake Erie was then an expanding system connecting many cities in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan with Dayton as its hub.
It changed its name from the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Interurban Co. to C&LE in 1928 when it acquired three other companies. New rolling stock — faster, safer and more luxurious - was acquired, and promotions and advertising campaigns were mounted to increase ridership.
Despite these efforts, the C&LE was forced into receivership Jan. 28, 1932, and its dismantling began.
Its last Cincinnati-Detroit limited operated Oct. 4.1932.
Service between Cincinnati and Mount Healthy ended June 17. 1938.
The last C&LE freight train through here was June 3, 1938, an event welcomed by many. A newspaper report said "the creeping and squeaking" freights were considered "a daily aggravation" as they proceeded "over principal streets in Hamilton," including a portion of High Street.
Nov. 1. 1938, the C&LE's Dayton-Columbus line was abandoned, leaving only the 36.7-mile Hamilton-Dayton and 12-mile Hamilton-Mount Healthy routes as survivors of a 276-mile system that once stretched from the Ohio Rivers to Lake Erie.
Saturday, Jan. 7, 1939, Hamilton-Mount Healthy service ended. William Steelman, 68, of Hamilton, was at the controls of that last northbound car.
Four months later, May 13, Harry Bell, a Hamiltonian with 27 years of service at the controls of the C&LE "Red Devils" (as the cars were called), guided the last interurban out of Hamilton. The next morning, 32 inter-city passenger buses began operating over the interurban route.
636. July 5, 2000 -- Interurban won race with plane:
Journal-News, Wednesday, July 5, 2000
Interurban won 1930 race with plane
By Jim Blount
An airplane shouldn’t lose a race with an electric-powered interurban car, but it did in June 1930 when the recently-formed Cincinnati & Lake Erie showcased its new lightweight high-speed passenger cars. The land-air contest was just eight months after the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.
Ohio’s interurban network -- also called "the traction line" -- had been bleeding red ink for several years before the Depression. In the affluent 1920s, many people became former interurban passengers, opting, instead, to drive their own automobiles from city to city.
The first interurban reached Hamilton, Trenton and Middletown July 25, 1897, from Dayton. By 1903, two lines also extended south from Hamilton to Cincinnati -- one via Mount Healthy and College Hill, the other through Glendale, Wyoming and Hartwell.
Northbound, Butler County passengers could reach Dayton, Lima, Toledo and Detroit, and connections to other points in Ohio and the Midwest.
The C&LE organized Dec. 31, 1929, combining three older interurban lines that had encountered financial problems and declining ridership. The company operated 347 miles of interurban lines and 218 miles of bus routes. It also claimed "the longest, straight main electric interurban line in the world," highlighting its 220-mile link between Cincinnati and Toledo.
C&LE advertising in 1930 promised "better service, greater operating efficiencies and economies, and improved schedules."
The new owners ordered 20 new 44-foot cars from the Cincinnati Car Co. to replace aged equipment. Ten coaches had a baggage compartment in the rear. The other ten were described as deluxe coaches, including a lounge section. The C&LE said the new cars would "set a new standard for high speed, luxurious passenger service in America."
To the company’s advantage, only one person was required to operate the new vehicles, not two as on earlier cars.
To the public, C&LE executives emphasized the speed and comfort of the steel and aluminum cars -- designed to approach 100 miles an hour. They launched a traditional advertising campaign to win back riders. They also organized an unconventional promotional event -- the 48,300-pound interurban car against an open cockpit biplane.
The C&LE hired motion picture and still photographers to record the well-publicized event designed to show off the speed of the new 38-passenger cars, which came to be called "Red Devils" because of their dark maroon bodies with gold lettering.
The improbable race was set for July 7, 1930, over a straight, double-tracked course near Moraine between Dayton and Miamisburg. More than 100 newsmen accepted invitations to attend the preliminaries in Dayton and the main event.
For stability, the floor of the interurban car was weighted down with sand bags. All switches along the route were spiked in the proper position for safety.
Car 126 was chosen for the run against the biplane piloted by a Dayton man. Another new Red Devil, No. 127, was designated to follow No. 126. The trailing unit hauled newsreel photographers and writers who were recording the contest.
The new interurban car reached 97 miles an hour in besting the plane, but that wasn’t the end of the C&LE publicity campaign.
The show moved to C&LE’s Springfield-Columbus line with No. 122 challenging "an Indianapolis Speedway racing car" while the film whirled in car No. 123 that followed the action. The race car sped over the old National Road (U. S. 40) that paralleled the interurban track near Lafayette.
Again, the Red Devil won, this time attaining 92 mph.
The Red Devils, although popular with the public, couldn’t staunch the corporate bleeding. Because of frequent, unpredictable stops and traffic conditions, the cars had few chances to reach high speeds.
With ridership still falling, the C&LE went into receivership in 1932, but survived for nine years.
Service between Hamilton and Mount Healthy ended Jan. 7, 1939. The last car between Hamilton, Middletown and Dayton started its route May 13, 1939. The company’s last run, from Dayton to the C&LE car barn in Moraine, was Sept. 27, 1941.
Journal-News, Wednesday, July 5, 2000
Interurban won 1930 race with plane
By Jim Blount
An airplane shouldn’t lose a race with an electric-powered interurban car, but it did in June 1930 when the recently-formed Cincinnati & Lake Erie showcased its new lightweight high-speed passenger cars. The land-air contest was just eight months after the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.
Ohio’s interurban network -- also called "the traction line" -- had been bleeding red ink for several years before the Depression. In the affluent 1920s, many people became former interurban passengers, opting, instead, to drive their own automobiles from city to city.
The first interurban reached Hamilton, Trenton and Middletown July 25, 1897, from Dayton. By 1903, two lines also extended south from Hamilton to Cincinnati -- one via Mount Healthy and College Hill, the other through Glendale, Wyoming and Hartwell.
Northbound, Butler County passengers could reach Dayton, Lima, Toledo and Detroit, and connections to other points in Ohio and the Midwest.
The C&LE organized Dec. 31, 1929, combining three older interurban lines that had encountered financial problems and declining ridership. The company operated 347 miles of interurban lines and 218 miles of bus routes. It also claimed "the longest, straight main electric interurban line in the world," highlighting its 220-mile link between Cincinnati and Toledo.
C&LE advertising in 1930 promised "better service, greater operating efficiencies and economies, and improved schedules."
The new owners ordered 20 new 44-foot cars from the Cincinnati Car Co. to replace aged equipment. Ten coaches had a baggage compartment in the rear. The other ten were described as deluxe coaches, including a lounge section. The C&LE said the new cars would "set a new standard for high speed, luxurious passenger service in America."
To the company’s advantage, only one person was required to operate the new vehicles, not two as on earlier cars.
To the public, C&LE executives emphasized the speed and comfort of the steel and aluminum cars -- designed to approach 100 miles an hour. They launched a traditional advertising campaign to win back riders. They also organized an unconventional promotional event -- the 48,300-pound interurban car against an open cockpit biplane.
The C&LE hired motion picture and still photographers to record the well-publicized event designed to show off the speed of the new 38-passenger cars, which came to be called "Red Devils" because of their dark maroon bodies with gold lettering.
The improbable race was set for July 7, 1930, over a straight, double-tracked course near Moraine between Dayton and Miamisburg. More than 100 newsmen accepted invitations to attend the preliminaries in Dayton and the main event.
For stability, the floor of the interurban car was weighted down with sand bags. All switches along the route were spiked in the proper position for safety.
Car 126 was chosen for the run against the biplane piloted by a Dayton man. Another new Red Devil, No. 127, was designated to follow No. 126. The trailing unit hauled newsreel photographers and writers who were recording the contest.
The new interurban car reached 97 miles an hour in besting the plane, but that wasn’t the end of the C&LE publicity campaign.
The show moved to C&LE’s Springfield-Columbus line with No. 122 challenging "an Indianapolis Speedway racing car" while the film whirled in car No. 123 that followed the action. The race car sped over the old National Road (U. S. 40) that paralleled the interurban track near Lafayette.
Again, the Red Devil won, this time attaining 92 mph.
The Red Devils, although popular with the public, couldn’t staunch the corporate bleeding. Because of frequent, unpredictable stops and traffic conditions, the cars had few chances to reach high speeds.
With ridership still falling, the C&LE went into receivership in 1932, but survived for nine years.
Service between Hamilton and Mount Healthy ended Jan. 7, 1939. The last car between Hamilton, Middletown and Dayton started its route May 13, 1939. The company’s last run, from Dayton to the C&LE car barn in Moraine, was Sept. 27, 1941.
The Subway
Recent studies to upgrade I-71 and I-75 in the Greater Cincinnati area recall earlier plans to improve transportation in the region. Those portals to the left as you travel south on I-75 near the Western Hills viaduct are reminders of a proposed Cincinnati subway that had as one of its original purposes encouraging residents in outlying areas, including Butler County, to work, shop, dine, relax and be entertained in downtown Cincinnati.
"The main reason Cincinnati needed rapid transit was to provide a method of quickly bringing interurban passengers downtown without running on the streetcar lines," writes Allen J. Singer in The Cincinnati Subway, History of Rapid Transit, published in 2003 by Arcadia Publishing ($19.99 in area book stores).
"Nine traction lines operated out of Cincinnati. They were controlled by seven different companies and extended in nine different directions to surrounding cities and towns," says Singer in the 128-page book that is loaded with photos, illustrations, diagrams and maps.
"The Cincinnati Traction Company owned a monopoly on the [streetcar] lines and stubbornly refused to allow any other company to use them on a permanent basis," he says, including five interurban companies that had the same gauge as the streetcar system.
The subway was first suggested in 1884 by the Graphic, a weekly magazine, that proposed converting the decaying Miami-Erie Canal into new transit system. It was part of a plan to relieve Cincinnati's narrow downtown streets that were congested with streetcars and horse-drawn vehicles.
The downtown situation worsened in the early 20th century as automobiles and electric-powered interurban cars complicated the traffic problem. By 1910, Cincinnati's streetcars operated more than 222 miles of track, some also carrying interurban lines. But sharing track wasn't practical. Mixing slow streetcars, making frequent stops, with high-speed interurban cars wasn't safe or workable.
"Concerned citizens . . . felt that the city must provide high-speed local passenger transport to connect with the outlying interurban service," Singer writes. "Some city official felt the same way," Singer writes.
In 1910, a new mayor, Henry Hunt "proposed that instead of commuters having to use the slow moving streetcars to travel from downtown to the edge of the city to reach the interurbans, a 15-mile belt railway could circle the city, which would be partly underground in a subway using the bed of the canal." Part of the plan included building Central Parkway over the subway.
Ten years later, Jan. 28, 1920, excavation started. Money ran out in 1925, and the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II in the early 1940s were two of several obstacles to resuming work. By the 1940s, the interurbans had shut down and roads for cars and trucks -- not a subway -- were in demand.
Interurban service had opened between Hamilton and Cincinnati Oct. 25, 1898, over an 18-mile line serving Symmes Corner, Pleasant Run, New Burlington, Mount Healthy and College Hill.
The Cincinnati & Hamilton Electric Street Railway Co. -- the first of many names -- ended at College Hill, requiring transfer to a streetcar to reach downtown Cincinnati. Later, the southern terminus was extended to Spring Grove Avenue, shortening the streetcar trip.
In its final years, the line over Pleasant and Hamilton avenues was part of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie system that closed between Cincinnati and Mount Healthy June 17, 1938.
A rival system between Cincinnati and Hamilton -- first called the Millcreek Valley Street Railway -- linked Carthage, Hartwell, Lockland, Wyoming, Glendale and Springdale, along the approximate route of present Ohio 4. It was part of a business complex that included the Cincinnati Street Railway Co. The Millcreek's 5-foot 2-inch track gauge matched that of the streetcar line, enabling passengers to travel to and from downtown Cincinnati without transferring to a streetcar.
The first Millcreek car rolled into Hamilton May 25, 1903 Service between Hamilton and Glendale ended July 11, 1926.
"Not much of the subway exists today," Singer explains -- "only about 2.2 miles of tunnels still lie beneath city streets," the longest under Central Parkway from between Walnut and Main streets downtown to near the Western Hills viaduct adjacent to I-75.
Inter-urban railway hello boy
You can see the electric cables above the roadway for the electric railcars
Horse-Drawn Street Car Ticket, ca. 1880. This ticket for a horse-drawn street car ride is from the 1880 era. The Hamilton Horse Railroad Company operated in Hamilton, Ohio from 1875 to 1891 when the switch was made to electric street cars. From the George C. Cummins “Remember When” Photograph Collection. Donated by the family of George C. Cummins. Photo used courtesy of the George C. Cummins "Remember When" Collection at the Hamilton Lane Library, Hamilton, Ohio.