Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana Railroad History
Interurban Railways
Interurbans were intercity electric railways popular 100 years ago - and, believe it or not, the Hoosier state had one of the most extensive systems in the entire country. The first interurban line in Indiana opened in 1898, from Anderson to Alexandria. The first interurban to Indy opened on New Year's Day in 1900 and brought passengers from Franklin and Greenwood to the Hoosier capital. Interurban lines connected small towns with most of Indiana's big cities and the cities with each other. Lines radiated from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne, Louisville, Lafayette, Peru, Terre Haute and Richmond (and six other routes). These interurbans then connected with others, reaching Chicago, Toledo, Columbus, and even farther. A separate hub centered on Evansville. Copied from Interurbans: Their rise and fall across Indiana posted September 28, 2013 on Archives of Hoosier History Live podcast on Saturdays, noon to 1 p.m. ET on WICR 88.7 FM. Includes Craig J. Berndt who has written 3 books on railroads and interurbans and was mentioned as the local expert on interurbans.
The real story behind the demise of America's once-mighty streetcars Joseph Stromberg May 7, 2015 in Vox.com.
During the research for this publication the names of thirty interurban companies that either actually served this community, or proposed to do so were listed. Sixteen of these ventures came into the former category and fourteen fell to the latter group.
Phantom Lines of Allen County, Indiana
1. Fort Wayne, Bluffton and Richmond Traction Co.
2. Fort Wayne and Bryan Interurban Railway Co.
3. Fort Wayne, Lake Everett and Columbia City Railway Co.
4. Fort Wayne and Northern Traction Co.
5. Fort Wayne and South Bend Air Line Traction Co.
6. Fort Wayne and South Bend Traction Co.
7. Fort Wayne and Southern Traction Co.
8. Fort Wayne, Toledo and Detroit Traction Co.
9. Fort Wayne and Toledo Electric Railway
10. Hicksville-Marion Inter urban Railway
11. Indiana and Ohio Traction Co.
12. Lima, Delphos, Van Wert and Fort Wayne Traction Co.
13. Northern Ohio Traction Co.
14. Oil Belt Traction Co.
It is quite a different story with the listing of our county’s active companies. Most of these names will be remembered with a degree of nostalgia for it seems only yesterday that the cars of these companies were seen ambling down our streets on their way to distant cities. The wheel flanges screaming in making shortcorner turns and the sparks flying when the trolley pole was transmitting a difficult overhead pattern.
Active Lines of Allen County, Indiana
1. Fort Wayne, Bluffton and Marion Traction Co.
2. Fort Wayne and Decatur Traction Co.
3. Fort Wayne-Lima Railroad Co.
4. Fort Wayne, Logansport, Lafayette and Lima Traction Co.
5. Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Co.
6. Fort Wayne and Northwestern Railway Co.
7. Fort Wayne and Southwestern Traction Co.
8. Fort Wayne and Springfield Railway Co.
9. Fort Wayne, Van Wert and Lima Traction Co.
10. Fort Wayne and Wabash Valley Traction Co.
11. Indiana Railroad
12. Indiana Service Corporation (Indiana Central Lines)
13. Lima and Toledo Traction Co.
14. Ohio Electric Railway Co.
15. Toledo and Chicago Interurban Railway
16. Union Traction Co. of Indiana
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. Check our Facebook page on Thursday for the conclusion of the story on Fort Wayne's Transit System. #sociallyhistory
Today we share the final part in the story of Fort Wayne’s Public Transit System. Getting around Fort Wayne was...
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. #sociallyhistory
Seven railroads enter the city, and this service is supplemented by four interurban electric railway companies carrying both freight and passengers. These are the Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Division of the Ohio Electric System, Fort Wayne & Northern Indiana Traction Company, Fort Wayne & Northwestern Railway and the Fort Wayne & Springfield Railway Company. Good freight rates — especially in transcontinental shipments — are enjoyed by the city, and these of course encourage development of manufacture. from Page 226-237, Interurban Centers and Interurban Cars Fort Wayne in Brill magazine Publication date 1907 on Archive.org.
Was discussed February 6, 2024 on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook.
Motorman Marshall, of Interurban, Stopped Just In Time.
Motorman George Marshall, in charge of an incoming Fort Wayne and Wabash Valley Traction company interurban due here at 2:00 o'clock Thursday afternoon, was horrified when a few miles west of the city to see sitting exactly in the center of the track and only few feet ahead of him, a small child nbout a year and a half old. The child Marshall was crying vociferously and Mr. Marshall shut-off the power and put on the emergency brakes, stopping just a few feet away from and the crying baby. George Frost and passengers on the car, startled by the sudden stop, jumped off and picked up the baby.
There was no way of telling to whom the child belonged, and it was decided to bring it to this city. Accordingly the car resumed its journey, but had not gone far, when Mr. Marshall perceived a woman running down the track and calling for her baby. It was found that the woman was the mother of the child, who had run away and who sat down in the track to enjoy itself but found the surroundings rather uncomfortable. The name of the woman was not obtained although she rained her thanks upon Mr. Marshall and departed, with the baby clinging tightly to her.
The last day of service was February 19, 1952. Indiana & Michigan Co.'s interurban rail service had its last run. The locomotives had provided freight service between I & M and the city filtration plant, the Fort Wayne State School and Centlivre Brewery. The line had been in service since 1906 and was the last remaining interurban rail line in the state. Copied from THIS DAY IN HISTORY: February 19 in photos published February 19, 2018 by The News-Sentinel newspaper.
A comment December 23, 2022 about a Map Of Fort Wayne Street Car Lines. Someone on an earlier post asked if there were a map of the where the Fort Wayne street cars ran. Attached is a 1931 map of Fort Wayne with street car lines in red. Courtesy of train/interurban/street car historian and pal, C. Berndt. receiving many comments was posted on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook.
Interurban - Relic of the Interurban bridge on Spy Run Creek shown in a photo posted April 28, 2015 on Facebook by Daniel Baker. Caption says the route was out of service by 1938.
The “Interurban” system of electric railways in Indiana was arguably one of the finest large area transportation systems in the world in the early part of the twentieth century. Steam railway passenger service provided more comforts and faster travel between major cities, but the Interurban Cars served thousands of small towns and villages that had no other public transportation available.
The Interurban system linked virtually every city and many towns and hamlets in Indiana with a fast and efficient means of getting people and goods from one place to another.
You can learn more about the history of the Interurban system here in Indiana by watching the short video below! #IndianaTransportation
The music from the video was a snippet from this song below:
Southbound Train Feb 21, 2015 Birmingham Jubilee Singers - Topicon YouTube.
Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises, Southbound Train · Birmingham Jubilee Singers, Birmingham Jubilee Singers Vol. 1 (1926-1927), ℗ 1995 Document Records, Released on: 2005-06-28, Auto-generated by YouTube.
Relic of the Interurban 2015 by Daniel Baker on flickr. "Relic of the Interurban" Hidden away from view, this old interurban bridge has become part of the natural landscape crossing the Spy Run Creek north of downtown Fort Wayne. This particular route took the electric cars along Lima Road (Highway 3) to Garrett, Auburn, Kendallville and Waterloo. An aerial photograph shows it out of use by 1938, but the route is visible. 4.28.2015 posted with map location on Toledo & Chicago - Spy Run Bridge at BridgeHunter.com.
This was posted once before, but I thought it would be nice to see again this time of year.
This was the old Interurban Depot that was located at 303 West South Street near Washington Street Monroeville, Indiana. It seems as though it snowed like this every year in the 70s and 80s.
The tracks ran in front of the building. People would travel to Fort Wayne and various small towns in Ohio during the early 1900s to early 1930s.
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A Street View photo from Google maps shows a gravel parking lot at 303 West South Street with a different brick building.
Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Traction Co. in New Haven, Indiana Aug 13, 2022 Mike Fromholt on YouTube
Short video on the history and route of the Fort Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Traction Company railway, an inturban railroad that was built in 1905 and operated until 1932 when it was abandoned. I will be pointing out signs of the railway, with some relics of it as well. Special thanks to Craig Berndt for the photos of the depot from when it was still standing. This is the second of what I hope to be multiple videos on the histroy of New Haven, Indiana. I hope to produce about one per month, so please come back, or better yet, subscribe. I am a 40-year resident of New Haven, 31 years of that delivering mail for the USPS here in New Haven (retired).
Three sets of railroad tracks are visible in this old postcard of the FtWVW&L/PRR Bridge of the 102 bridges in Allen County under Allen County, IN at BridgeHunter.com stating it was a Lost Pratt through truss bridge over Pennsylvania Railroad on Ft. Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Traction Co. Built 1905; Removed in the 1940s.
Only one set of railroad tracks remain along Wyburn Road at Sampson Road in the current Street View from Google Maps
It says Monroeville is located in eastern Allen County on the RailAmerica Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad (ex-Pennsy). There is a large co-op building located on the south side of the tracks and is serviced by the RailAmerica. This section of the Fort Wayne Line is 40 mph jointed rail which is quite a rarity these days. Historical Aspects lists the Fort Wayne, Van Wert, & Lima Traction Co. stating: Just west of town at the corner of Wyburn and Sampson Rd. there are two concrete bridge abutments on either side of the tracks. They are the remnants of an interurban line, the Ft. Wayne, Van Wert & Lima Traction Co., that once passed through here. It used to cross the Pennsylvania Railroad here on a very long trestle and girder bridge, which was completed in mid-1905. There was a station stop in Monroeville. The interurban line ended service sometime in the 1940's. The following are some old photos taken of the interurban overhead that were published in the Monroeville News.
Indiana had one of the country's most extensive interurban systems, connecting towns large and small in 68 of our 92 counties. The convenient electric railway mass transportation system operated in the Hoosier state from 1898 until the early 1940s. The South Shore, one of the few remaining interurban lines, still runs today between South Bend and Chicago.
Source - The Indiana Album: Patrick Walter Collection.
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To answer the question does it still stand, no: The stations erected along the line by the original company were nearly all constructed from the same plans. They were one-story brick buildings with red tile roofs. The walls at each end of the buildings were three sided. The stations at Monroeville and Convoy still stand. The one at New Haven was demolished about three years ago. from page 30 in the book Interurban railways of Allen County, Indiana by Bates, Roy M. published in 1958.
October 15, 2024 post on New Haven Area Heritage Association stated: Photo of the interurban station at the NW corner of Broadway and Lincoln Highway, c1910. After the interurban was abandoned in the 1930's, it served as a mechanic's garage, as well as a Chevrolet dealership, before being torn down c1954.
March 1, 2023 post with photos on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook asking: Does anyone know what occupied this corner at one time? Osage and Burgess. Comment include: Used to be a railroad roundhouse if this is the southeast corner and nickel plate west Wayne yard , ft Wayne Jackson, Lake Erie and western and Grand Rapids indiana railroad all crossed and interchanging and before all that was the wabash and Erie Canal passed through and the feeder canal that fed additional water to the canal where Rumsey st stops at the railroad tracks.
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.
