Description From Fort Wayne Public Transportation Corporation poster, 'One hundred years of transit in Fort Wayne and then some'(1977). Photos courtesy of Bradley Harnish collection and Fort Wayne Public Library, halftones by Lincoln Lithographic Service, typesetting by Qualitype, printing by Lincoln Printing Corporation. Other photographs from this poster numbered 00003368-00003394.
Fort Wayne's trolley car system can be traced all the way back to 1872, when the first horse-drawn cars were pressed into service. Electric cars began operation in 1892, and the trolley's golden age began in 1920, when the Indiana Service Corp. was incorporated. From Riding city's trolley car not like going coach by Kevin Leininger onCityscapes - People & Places series of articles from the archives of
The News-Sentinel newspaper.
INDIANAPOLIS. (AP) The petition of the Indiana Service corporation for authority to substitute trackless trolley and bus service for 21 of the 58 miles of Fort Wayne's streetcar system was taken under advisement Tuesday by the Indiana Public Service commission.
The interurban service of Indiana Railroad was discontinued in 1942 with the last streetcar being replaced with electric trolley buses in 1947 from Fort Wayne Citilink on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
By the peak of Fort Wayne's ELECTRIC streetcar services in the early 1900's, the Poplar Neighborhood was served on four sides - Fairfield (partial), Taylor, Broadway and Creighton.
The Broadway line was also an interurban connecting with Bluffton, Indiana, and the Taylor line connecting with Lafayette, Indiana. Add to these streetcar and interurban connections, the Wabash Railroad crossed the neighborhood's north side, making the Poplar Neighborhood arguably the number one neighborhood in Fort Wayne history for rail services coverage outside of the downtown business district. www.3riversweb.org/PoplarNeighbors/Historic
First Picture of Traction Co.'s Prepayment, -Side City Cars
Exterior View of the New Cars.
Interior View of the New City Cars.
The first pictures of the new prepayment, near-side cars which the Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction today, and the pictures will shortly be today, and the pictures will shortly be followed by the cars themselves, as they have been shipped from the factory and will probably arrive here within a few weeks.
The cars combine a number of features which are new to Fort Wayne. The prepayment portion of the cars is, of course, the most striking of these features. Passengers entering the cars will do so through a door nearest the front of the car. They will be led by a railing past the motorman to the conductor, who will stand on the other side of the car near the motorman. Passengers will not be permitted to go further into the cars until their fares have been paid.
Passengers leaving the cars will go out by the front also. The exit will be by the door which is situated just back of the entrance door. Both of these doors will be operated by the motorman. There is an exit door in rear of the car which will be used only in ease of emergencies.
The cars will be single truck affairs and will be a foot longer than most of the cars now in use on the local lines. They will be nineteen in number and with the other closed cars by the traction company will bring the total number of closed cars in Fort Wayne up to seventy-one.
Hot Air Heater.
Another new feature of the cars will be hot air heaters. All the local cars have up to the present time been heated by electricity and the change in the mode of heating is expected to prove a happy innovation. The air is operated by a fan which can be seen at the rear of the car to the right. The air is sent to all parts of the car by pipes.
Signs inside the cars will tell their destinations as will the usual signs in the front. Each one of the cars will accommodate six passengers seated. The first cars to arrive will be placed in service on the South Wayne and Broadway line. Then they will go into service on the Lakeside and Pontiac line and the East Creighton and West Main line.
Getting around Fort Wayne was extremely difficult and time intensive in the first 100 years of our existence. The populace either relied on horses and wagons or just their two feet. 1872 saw the introduction of Fort Wayne’s public transportation company, the Citizen’s Street Railway. This company relied on horse drawn street cars and the first route went north along Calhoun Street from the Pennsylvania Railroad to the Aveline Hotel on the corner of Main and Calhoun. In 1887, the company was in foreclosure and its property was sold to the Fort Wayne Street Railroad Company. During the operation of this streetcar provider, two other companies were established in Fort Wayne, the C.L. Centlivre Street Railway Company and the Lakeside Street Railway Company. The Centlivre line ran from the corner of Superior and Calhoun to the brewery and the other company serviced the Lakeside neighborhood. In 1892 the Fort Wayne Electric Railway Company was established to take over the Fort Wayne Street Railroad Company and convert it to an electrically run system. By 1894, the company had acquired the Centlivre line and was succeeded by the Fort Wayne Consolidated Railway, which in 1899 gave way to the Fort Wayne Traction Company. In 1900, the Lakeside line was brought into the company and in 1904 became the Fort Wayne and Wabash Valley Traction Company and eventually the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company in 1911. Starting in 1901, the Fort Wayne Traction Company and its successors began interurban service to Huntington and in 1906 to Bluffton. By the end of the decade, the company had lines to Ohio and Decatur, all emanating from Fort Wayne. In 1920, the company was sold to the Indiana Service Corporation, who replaced the trolleys with electric trolley buses. During this time at Transfer Corner (Calhoun & Main) one could take a bus to any part of the city. The Indiana Service Corporation continued interurban service that shuttled people between different communities until the service was discontinued in 1942.
Interurban Ticket
John Martin Smith Miscellaneous Collection
This is a used, color ticket for the Fort Wayne and...
This is a used, color ticket for the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company. This was the interurban line from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Bluffton, Indiana. The ticket is punched for January 17 but the year is unknown.
Part two: Today we share the final part in the story of Fort Wayne’s Public Transit System. Getting around Fort Wayne was extremely difficult and time intensive in the first 100 years of our existence. The populace either relied on horses and wagons or just their two feet. 1872 saw the introduction of Fort Wayne’s public transportation company, the Citizen’s Street Railway. Through several mergers and purchases it eventually became the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company in 1911. In 1920, the company was sold to the Indiana Service Corporation, who replaced the trolleys with electric trolley buses. During this time at Transfer Corner (Calhoun & Main) one could take a bus to any part of the city. In 1948, the Indiana Service Corporation sold the service to Fort Wayne Transit and by 1960 the last trolley bus was replaced with motor buses. The City of Fort Wayne established the Fort Wayne Public Transit Corporation (today it does business as Citilink) as a public utility and purchased the assets of the private Fort Wayne Transit company in 1968.
It's #waybackwednesday! We are nearing the close of Women's History Month. Take a look at this picture showing the Indiana Service Corporation's first female streetcar operators! Pictured in 1943-1944 (l-r) are Alice Clevenger, Edna Rentfrow, Ruth Newville.
Equipment Information Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley 504, named the “Talisman,” was one of the most opulent interurban cars ever built when constructed in 1906. The single-ended car included a baggage compartment, coach seating, buffet for serving snacks and light meals, a parlor seating area, and huge curved-glass solarium windows at the rear of the car. It operated between Fort Wayne and Lafayette for years, later being converted to all coach seating. It was retired in 1932 and its body made into a house; rescued by IRM in 1993, its exterior has been completely restored to its appearance when new.
FUN FACT: The Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley’s parlor cars were all named after poems by Sir Walter Scott. When purchasing the body of car 504, it was at first thought to be the “Woodstock” and was only later found to have been named the “Talisman.”
It's #waybackwednesday! Take a look at this Fort Wayne snapshot showing Calhoun Street on a wet night, showing the electric streetcar in the center of the picture and Meyer's Drug Store, Beverley's, Lerner, Richman's, and Sherman's.
January 26, 2017 post by Hofer and Davis, Inc. Land Surveyors on Facebook :
For "Throwback Thursday" we share this picture taken last week on Calhoun Street outside of Riegel's Pipe and Tobacco Shop. Who remembers the streetcars that ran on the rails seen in this picture? If you look there is one set on either side of the double yellow line, and the other pair about 5 feet closer!
Indiana’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan received federal approval today!
The plan approval clears the way for the state to work with private and public partners to begin investing nearly $100 million over the next five years to bolster the availability of fast, reliable EV charging infrastructure across the state.
Featuring over 90 illustrations and featuring contemporary accounts and newspaper articles from the period, Electric Indiana is a biographical study of the rise and fall of a onetime important transportation technology that achieved its most impressive development within the Hoosier state.
Page 14 states: The first suggestion of an electric railway in Allen County, outside the city of Ft. Wayne, was announced August 21, 1895. The Ft. Wayne, Lake Everett and Columbia City Street Railway Company was organized with a capitalization of $300, 000. C. E. Everett lead the project as President. Twenty-five men were engaged to do preliminary work for the road which was to connect Ft. Wayne with Lake Everett. There a summer resort was to be developed. Eventually, the line was to be extended to Columbia City.
The Everett Railroad Secures an Entrance Into This City.
Board of Public Works Grants a Franchise for a Double Track on Harrison Street.
C. E. Everett will get an inlet into the city for his electric railroad if he is satisfied with what the board of public works is willing to offer. The board met this morning and instructed the city attorney to draw up a contract giving the Fort Wayne, Lake Everett And Columbia City Electric railway an entrance into the city and a franchise for a double track line down Harrison street from Pearl street to the Pittsburg railroad tracks. All the other lines on other streets are held in abeyance for the present to be acted upon later. Mr. Everett is out of the city and The Sentinel could not learn whether this franchise will be accepted by him or not.
Pictured in 1943-1944 (l-r) are Alice Clevenger, Edna Rentfrow, Ruth Newville.
