Railroads Past and Present : Electric Pullman : a History of the Niles

The Electric Pullman The electric

Railroads Past & Present • George M. Smerk, editor A list of books in the series appears at the end of this volume. Pullman

Indiana University Press • Bloomington & Indianapolis The Lawrence A. Brough } } elecTric A HISTORY OF THE NILES CAR &

MANUFACTURING Pullman COMPANY

herBerT h. harwood, Jr.

Indiana University Press ◉ Bloomington & Indianapolis This book is a publication of The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the Indiana University Press American National Standard for Information 601 North Morton Street Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. iupress.indiana.edu Manufactured in the United States of America

Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Library of Congress Fax orders 812-855-7931 Cataloging-in-Publication Data

© 2013 by Lawrence A. Brough Brough, Lawrence A. The electric Pullman : a history All rights reserved of the Niles Car & Manufacturing No part of this book may be reproduced or Company / Lawrence A. Brough. utilized in any form or by any means, electronic pages cm. — (Railroads past and present) or mechanical, including photocopying and Includes bibliographical references and index. recording, or by any information storage ISBN 978-0-253-00790-2 (cloth : alk. paper) and retrieval system, without permission in — ISBN 978-0-253-00799-5 (ebook) 1. Niles writing from the publisher. The Association of Car & Manufacturing Company. 2. Electric American University Presses’ Resolution on railroads—Cars—United States—History. 3. Permissions constitutes the only exception Railroad cars—United States—History. I. Title. to this prohibition. TF920.B77 2013 338.7'62523—dc23 2012042356

1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13 This story is dedicated to the volunteers in traction and railroad museums across the country, whose dedication to the preservation of equipment and artifacts allows the rest of us to enjoy and learn railroad history. } } Contents preface • ix Acknowledgments • xi

Introduction • 1 1 The Curtain Rises • 3 2 The Catalog • 7 3 The Cars Roll Out • 15 4 The Slow Decline • 31 5 A Look Back • 48 6 Observations • 70 7 The Survivors • 84 Epilogue • 89

appendix • 91 References • 105 Index • 109

Preface

High Voltage. Pullman. Two words that imply high energy, quality, excitement. While not widely adopted in the traction industry, the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company participated in building high-voltage cars for electric railways in several states. Although the electrical specification for the cars was developed by others, the cars completed in 1907 for the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway came to be called “Electric Pullmans” due to their heavy weight and quiet, comfortable operation. The designation stuck and was ever after associated with Niles cars. A latecomer to the party that was the interurban era was the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company, of Niles, Ohio, a car builder that didn’t build its first trolley car until 1902 and was gone by 1917, a mere fifteen years of activity. Although its life was short, the Niles company left an indelible mark on the industry it served. Even nearly one hundred years after the firm’s demise, Niles cars are still regarded as some of the finest products of the car builder’s art and expertise and many survive in trolley museums around the country. Historical research is like an archeological excavation, a process that seems to have no end. It may reach a stopping point but that may not be the end of the story. There comes a time, however, when diminishing returns do not justify the expenditure of additional effort. Such is the case with this account of the life of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company. While many years and count- less hours have gone into this work, there is more to be told, if only the history

ix can be recovered from wherever it is hidden. It is hoped that future historians may use this account as a basis for further digging. This volume is intended to be a history of the company, and to that end will only report on cars as delivered to the original buyer, although it is known that many of the cars ran on successive traction lines. Hopefully this story will aid the reader in learning about the history of this firm and the scope of its influence on the industry it served. While the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company is long gone, it was a valued member of the community, creating jobs and excitement wherever the Niles name appeared, either in the factory in Niles, Ohio, or on the many traction lines that operated its cars.

Lawrence A. Brough

x Preface A cknowledgments

Historical research is seldom a solo effort, and this account is certainly not. Uncovering the life of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company would not have been possible without the generous assistance of a number of individuals, including members of many traction museums throughout the United States. Among those who graciously shared their knowledge of traction history was P. Allen Copeland of El Cajon, California, whose knowledge of western traction lines, his review of this story, and suggestions for enhancement have been especially appreciated. In addition, Norman Krentel added much information about the traction lines in Michigan and William Fronzcek about lines in Pennsylvania, both states that received significant numbers of Niles cars. Audrey John, curator of the Niles Historical Society, got me started on this project and shared a wealth of material in the form of photographs and the previous research of the late Grace Allison, whose passion for Niles history seemed to have no bounds. I must also mention Bob Korach, Bill Vigrass, the late LeRoy O. King Jr., and Craig Berndt for their contributions. To all of those mentioned the author extends a big thank you.

xi This page intentionally left blank The Electric Pullman Figures 0.1 (above) and 0.2 (below). Picture postcards of New Haven, Ohio, typical of the isolated country towns awaiting rail service at the turn of the twentieth century. Introduction

By 1901, the year that the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company was formed, the interurban era was well on its way, although its greatest growth still lay ahead. The Niles company was entering the industry at the right time. Why interurbans were so quickly and widely accepted can best be understood from studying the photo postcards of a wide place in an otherwise dusty country road known as New Haven, Ohio (Figs. 0.1 and 0.2). You can sense the remoteness of the place when you realize that it has no contact with the outside world except via a long, slow wagon ride to the near- est town, which may have been hours, perhaps days, away. It would appear that visitors to the place were few and far between, as evidenced by children playing in the road without fear of being trampled by a horse or run over by a horse-drawn wagon. At the turn of the twentieth century, there were hundreds of New Havens across the country that were denied access to steam railroads and eagerly welcomed the electric interurban that could whisk residents away in comfort and with speed unmatched by their horse-drawn buggies. Progress came quickly to New Haven, Ohio, because shortly the Sandusky Norwalk & Mansfield Electric Railway found its way into town, bringing not only a connection to the outside world, but also electricity and perhaps even the telephone. Children no longer played in the middle of the road but stared starry- eyed at the big, handsome Niles coach as it swept into town, wondering what it would be like to ride in it or even to be the motorman in the front, driving the car speeding down the rails. For too brief a time, until it was supplanted by the automobile that was rapidly developing elsewhere, the interurban was the lifeline for these small towns, and Niles cars played a significant role in transporting people and merchandise quickly and conveniently over electric railways like the Sandusky Norwalk & Mansfield.

1 While not the largest manufacturer in the industry, Niles became one of the most respected, producing interurban, suburban, and street railway cars of the highest quality for railways throughout the United States, Canada, Cuba, and reportedly the Philippines. A testament to their high standards of construction are numerous Niles cars still operating in railway museums across the country nearly one hundred years after their manufacture.

2 The Electric Pullman 1} } The Curtain Rises

The year was 1901. William McKinley, the favorite son of Niles, Ohio, began his second term in office as president of the United States. National unemploy- ment was at 4 percent, and Marconi demonstrated his wireless by sending messages through the air from England to Newfoundland. The electric railway era was well along and, like the steam railroads before, electric lines were springing up all over the country in an attempt to connect nearly every town and hamlet. Did this look like an opportunity to invest in America’s future? It did to a group of Niles businessmen, and on May 3, 1901, they incorporated the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company, which, according to its Articles of Incorporation, intended to “manufacture and deal in all kinds of street and railway cars, motors, steam engines, water tanks, and acid tanks and for manufacturing and dealing in railway supplies and appliances of all kinds.” The company was capitalized at $200,000. The inclusion of the manufacture of water and acid tanks was no doubt influenced by the fact that Niles was located in what was then the heart of industrial America and was home to steel mills, rolling mills, and plants that produced glass, pottery, and firebrick—businesses that would require such equipment—and these tanks were made out of wood, as would be the trolley car bodies. Among the investors were F. J. Roller, superintendent of schools; B. F. Pew, a prominent Niles grocer; G. B. Robbins, director of the Dollar Savings Bank (whose brother, Frank Robbins, became President of Niles); and W. C. Allison, president of the Allison and Company planing mill, whose property would soon become the site of the Niles car factory. By June 1901, the planing mill had been removed and construction of the Niles factory was well under way. It occupied four and a half acres and was to be a substantial facility consisting of two erecting shops each about 130 × 200 feet, and each capable of holding over forty cars; a paint shop for twenty-five

3 cars; and a two-story mill of 130 × 200 feet, with the second floor holding cabi- net, upholstering, varnish, and headlining operations connected by an electric elevator. The buildings also included a dry kiln, a blacksmith shop, a machine shop, and a two-story office with drafting on the second floor. The facilities were equipped with the latest electrically operated machinery and a transfer table capable of holding an 80-foot car to move cars between buildings. The buildings were so arranged that lumber entered the mill directly from the dry kiln and then passed directly to the erecting shop. From there, the car, in the rough, passed into the paint shop. Great care was taken in arranging the shops so material would be handled only once in each department. It was estimated that the completed works would cost seventy-five thousand dollars and would employ about three hundred men. The new endeavor so excited city officials that they immediately authorized the construction of fifty new homes to house the employees. The incorporators wisely hired men with car-building experience to com- mence operations. A. W. Scholl, assistant superintendent, had eleven years with the Jackson & Sharp car company and eleven with the Pullman Com- pany. Fred McBrien, mill foreman, had four years with the Pullman and Amer- ican Car companies. A. L. Jacobs, superintendent, and George Pratt, general superintendent of the works and contracting agent, both had a number of years at car-building factories. Their contacts in the industry would be invaluable. The company made it very clear that it was going to build a substantial product and supply the very best equipment with the latest and newest designs, and that it would depart from the antiquated horse-car type of construction and substitute the most modern construction to withstand severe service. By September, it was announced that orders had been received for twenty-four 18-foot cars complete with motors and trucks (undoubtedly single-truck city cars), and for rebuilds of sixteen other cars. It was anticipated that the factory would be ready for operation by mid-November, but that proved to be optimistic. However, by early the following year, things were humming. In mid-February, the plant was working full time and had orders in hand from six more traction lines, for a total of nearly one hundred cars. So confident was the firm that it immediately began building for stock a number of ten-and twelve-bench open cars for early spring delivery. The main office of the company was located in the two-story portion of the building, in the northwest corner facing Erie Street, with the machine shop, dry lumber storage, and lumber drying kiln in the adjacent part of the building. The boiler room was in the southwest corner. The westernmost large

4 The Electric Pullman Figure 1.1. The Niles Car & Manufacturing Company factory as it appeared in 1902. Sanborn Fire Map.

Figure 1.2. Postcard view of the Erie Street side of the Niles factory. The office was located in the two-story part of the facility on the left.Author’s collection. building was the mill and was used for bench work, gluing, and so on, while the center building was an erection hall. The easternmost building was the paint shop. A transfer table moved the cars sideways between the erection hall and the paint shop.

The Curtain Rises 5 Figure 1.3. Boiler room and Erie Railroad siding. Niles Historical Society.

The shop was completely sprinkled and the mill equipped with a dust col- lector that delivered the dust to the boilers, where it was burned and the steam used to dry lumber in the kiln located in the room next to the boiler.

6 The Electric Pullman 2 } } The Catalog

The Niles Car & Manufacturing Company entered a business that was already crowded with well-established car builders, many of which had evolved from carriage-, horse-, and cable-car building. There were three other large car builders in Ohio alone, which was not surprising because there were soon to be more miles of electric railways in Ohio than in any other state. Therefore, Niles had to offer something the others did not. The company management decided at the outset to adopt robust steam railroad car construction, and nothing epitomized that better than the products of the Pullman Car Company. By the early twentieth century the name Pullman usually meant a sleeping car owned and staffed by the Pullman Company but operated by the railroad. Pullman also built other types of cars for the steam railroads as well as cars for electric railways. Niles succeeded in building interurbans that were so highly regarded that many traction lines began to refer to them as “Electric Pullmans.” No higher praise could have been bestowed on the cars. The early Niles products were almost entirely wood in construction, the standard at the time for other car builders as well. Cabinetmaking was an art that flourished at that time and was well-adapted to car building, as the cars were elaborately decorated inside with inlaid woods. The process was similar to building a house: first the framework was built, then the car was finished inside and out. In addition to fancy woods, pinstriping was used extensively inside and out to impress the rider with a sense of luxury. Cars were identified as having been built by Niles by a sign over the door at one end, usually the front of the car leading to the motorman’s cab. There could be no doubt where the car came from. In Niles’s own words as published in the Street Railway Journal, the company’s designs “consist of all styles and sizes of electric railway cars, heavy interurban, medium size suburban and city service cars of closed, open and

7 Figure 2.1. Left. Door to the motorman’s compartment with sign overhead identifying the car builder.

Figure 2.2. Below. Sign over the motorman’s compartment door, detail. Author’s collection.

8 The Electric Pullman convertible types, but the company’s specialty is large cars for fast interurban service and electric parlor cars for limited extra fare service.” The company offered the following types of cars:

Interurban Passenger Cars “This company follows the standard method of steam railroad coach construction wherever practical in its interurban cars, it having been proven in actual service that the lighter cars which are the outgrowth of street cars are not sufficiently strong or steady riding for high speed service on interurban lines.” The company believed “that interurban passengers should receive equal comforts and smooth noiseless transportation as on steam railways.” It was Niles’s building to “steam railroad standards” that was to set it apart from the other car builders.

Figure 2.3. Stark Electric Railway No. 2, one of six coaches made in 1902 for this line during Niles’s first year of operation.Reproduced with permission from the Rodman Public Library and Alliance Memory, Alliance, Ohio.

The Catalog 9 Figure 2.4. Postcard view of the Columbus Delaware & Marion Railway parlor car “Glenna,” exhibited at the Central Electric Railroad Association convention in Columbus, Ohio, in 1906. This and a sister car, “Mary,” were not long in Ohio but went the following year to the Illinois Traction Company, where they ran for many years. The sign in the rear doorway says, “This car heated by the Peter Smith Heater,” a hot water system popular at that time. Author’s collection.

Limited Service Extra Fare Parlor Cars “It is becoming recognized among interurban railway managers that a cer- tain portion of their patrons are not only willing but anxious to pay extra for extra service and that an individual parlor car chair in a richly finished and carpeted car with lavatory, observation windows, etc. is an inducement to electric railway traffic as well as a paying investment and advertisement for the road.” Maybe the patron could not afford the parlor seat but was comforted by knowing it was available.

Open Cars Niles open cars “are usually built with 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16 transverse benches or seats full width of car with a folding step or running board full length of car on each side and with sliding guards on post grab handles so either or both sides of car can be closed as desired. A transverse bulkhead with drop sash at each end of car separates two end seats which have stationary backs, all other seats have reversible backs. The ten bench car is the standard size for single

10 The Electric Pullman Figure 2.5. Open cars (often referred to as breezers, for obvious reasons) were very popular during summer months for trips to amusement parks and Niles listed them in its catalog of of- ferings, but it is doubtful if they made very many. In 1906 the firm did make four fifteen-bench open cars for the Chautauqua Traction Company of western New York numbered 200–203. Car No. 203 is seen here, probably on the day it was delivered. Western New York Railroad Archive. trucks, while the longer cars are carried on double trucks.” While open cars might have been more comfortable during the heat of summer, they must have subjected the passengers to all the dust kicked up by the car when in motion.

Construction Cars “An open platform for hauling rough freight and construction material such as ties, rails, gravel, poles, coal and other supplies, but with cabs for housing electric and brake controlling apparatus and supporting trolley stand, has proven a very important part of the auxiliary equipment of electric railways. These cars are usually equipped with powerful motors and two or more styles of draw- bar for use as switching locomotives, snow plows, and sometimes fitted with hinged sides and jib cranes. They are carried on heavy diamond frame motor

The Catalog 11 Figure 2.6. Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway construction car shipped in 1908. Street Railway Review.

trucks designed for strength rather than easy riding.” Every railroad needed at least one but they were often made in company shops out of older cars.

Express and Baggage Cars “As this company makes a specialty of interurban cars and each order for passenger cars is usually accompanied by an order for one or two express cars, it has designs for a large variety of cars of this class. The same outside dimensions as passenger cars of the same road are considered advisable, resulting in more uniform equipment. Two large doors on each side and a door in each end for loading poles, scenery, rails, etc. form the usual plan. These cars are framed and built in the general manner as express and baggage cars of steam railroads.” These were the real moneymakers for the railroad.

Standard Closed City Cars “Usually 20 ft. body for single truck or 30 ft. body for double trucks, vestibuled at each end with step and folding door at each corner, longitudinal seats and spring rattan with backs against sides of car, quartered oak interior finish, bronze trimmings, spring curtains, gongs and bells, monitor deck roof with separable hoods. If single end cars, a vestibule at front end and Detroit style platform (an unusually large rear platform) at rear end are preferable. Niles radial drawbars, ratchet brake handles, veneer ceilings, best double strength car glass, trolley plant on roof, etc. are standard. Cross seats with reversible backs if specified.” One of the advantages of the interurban railway was its ability to deliver the passenger and freight right to the center of town. As a result, nearly all

12 The Electric Pullman Figure 2.7. Niles catalog illustration of Southern Michigan Railway No. 2, a 52-foot baggage and freight motor. The catalog noted that the car could be supplied with Baldwin Class 78-30-A trucks installed at the factory at cost plus 10 percent. Author’s collection.

Figure 2.8. A catalog illustration of an Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad single truck city car. Five of these cars numbered 250–258 (even) were delivered in 1910 for use in Aurora, Illinois. Author’s collection.

The Catalog 13 interurban railways had to use the tracks of the town’s own city railway, if one existed, and it usually did. The standard width of a steam railroad passenger car was 10 feet, but interurban cars were limited in width by track conditions in cities through which they ran. Where city railways were built to accommodate small cars, the track for passing sidings or even areas where double track was laid was often not spaced sufficiently far apart to permit the use of wider cars. Consequently, many interurban cars were only eight feet in width. This loss of two feet made transverse seats narrower and less comfortable. So initially wherever they could, traction managers tended toward wider cars, which were also heavier and rode more smoothly. Most electric railways were built to operate on direct current (DC), which required the installation of substations at intervals along the road to provide sufficient power to run the cars. The use of alternating current (AC) was desirable because it eliminated substations and was much more economical to install, but it led to operating problems, and many lines that began with AC eventually converted to DC. Railways that began with AC received cars from Niles with heavy sheet copper roofs grounded by copper cables to the car bol- sters so as to short-circuit the current in case the heavily charged trolley wires should come in contact with the roof, thus protecting the car and passenger. The copper roof was also considered to be practically indestructible and the best kind of protection against the weather.

14 The Electric Pullman 3 } } The Cars Roll Out

No company records have survived the more than one hundred years since the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company began producing railway cars, so newspapers, trade journals, and traction line histories have been relied upon to determine what cars were built, and when. Often orders would be placed and reported in the trade journals but a few months later the order would be reduced or even canceled. And the date the cars were delivered was frequently not the same year in which they were ordered or built. Nevertheless the information reported here will give the reader a fairly good idea of the activity at the plant. Niles was best known for its big interurban cars, and those were what the company preferred to concentrate on. However, the company was not about to turn down orders for smaller city cars that would keep the plant busy, and the Niles catalog included illustrations of several small single-truck car designs for city use. It was decided not to embark on the construction of motors or trucks (Baldwin trucks were preferred), but Niles would supply those components with the car bodies to give the buyer a ready-to-run product, if so desired. But in the interest of economy, traction lines frequently purchased only car bodies, to which they added trucks, motors, and other finishing materials in their own shops to complete the car, saving the markup (usually 10 percent above cost) that Niles would have applied to those components. The interurban era was characterized by boom-and-bust cycles, and fortu- nately Niles commenced operations at the beginning of one of the early bursts of activity. Business was very good for the first couple of years. In February 1902, the Street Railway Review reported, “The Niles Car & Manufacturing Company of Niles, Ohio now has its plant in operation and announces that it is prepared to bid upon and furnish all classes of rolling stock for electric and steam railways. . . . Among the orders the company now has in hand are the following: Aurora Elgin & Chicago RR, 30 motor cars; Western Ohio Railway,

15 20 motor cars and four work cars; Wisconsin Construction Co., 6; Alliance (O.) Electric Ry., 6; Toledo Railways and Light Co., 20; Detroit United Rail- way, 45; Louisville Anchorage & Pewee Valley Electric Railway, 15 ten- and twelve-bench open cars, for early spring delivery.” By the end of its first year of operation, Niles had produced or rebuilt well over one hundred cars. Although 1903 was a recession year in the United States, Niles orders carried it through to a record of nearly 150 cars. In March the company reported having recently shipped ten 20-foot car bodies to Cuba’s Havana Electric Railway Company, with an order for twenty-five more. These car bodies were to be equipped with trucks and motors in Cuba and were unusual due to the fact that the Havana system used dual overhead wires, requiring the cars to have two trolley poles. The Des Moines City Railway was soon to receive twenty 28-foot vestibuled cars, and the United Power Company of East Liverpool another four. Three more car bodies went to the Pennsylvania & Mahoning Valley Railway, and interurban cars were also shipped to the Western Ohio Railway. Unfor- tunately, details of these cars have faded into obscurity. Steam railroads were not overlooked. Shipped from Niles to the Seaboard Air Line Railway of Richmond, Virginia, were ten 62-foot passenger coaches, fully vestibuled, running on six-wheel trucks. The coaches were finished in quartered oak, inlaid, with full empire decks for the run between New Jersey and Florida. Sent to the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad (an adjunct of the Pennsylvania Railroad) were twelve six-wheel-trucked 78-foot passenger coaches and four combination coaches for use between Jersey City and St. Louis. These cars had Hale & Kilburn walkover plush upholstered seats in the coaches and horsehide in the combinations. All of these early cars made by Niles were wood, however, the railroads were soon converting all their passenger equipment to steel cars, largely for safety reasons, so it is likely that these railroad cars did not last very long in revenue service. The interurban railroads were a bit slower to adopt steel cars, but they finally did; the delay was due mostly to their being strapped financially and already having a roster sufficient to handle the traffic. Niles did build some steel cars in its later years. Production in 1904 plummeted as a result of a national financial crisis that occurred the previous year. The panic caught many overextended traction syndicates, and money to finance railway building was very difficult to obtain. Many properties that had begun construction on a promise found themselves in big trouble and lines that had been proposed were put on hold, many permanently. This affected Niles’s business to a marked degree, but the company directors were confident of a later rebound and went ahead with an

16 The Electric Pullman Figure 3.1. Niles factory after the 1904 expansion. A storage building and machine shop were added to the north along Allison Avenue and a building extension added on the east. Outside material storage was also added north and south of the buildings. Sanborn Fire Map.

expansion to be ready for the next wave of construction. Capitalization was increased to $500,000 and a new storage building and machine shop were built on the north side of the factory. Sales had been almost too easy to come by during the earlier boom and Niles management decided it needed better representation in the current tough time. Accordingly, in 1904 James B. Ludlow, who had been secretary of the Ludlow Supply Company, a Cleveland electric railway supply house, was hired as general sales agent. Ludlow apparently did not live up to expectations, for a year later, Joe A. Hanna was tapped to handle sales for the car company’s entire output from his Cleveland office. Hanna’s credentials were impeccable. In 1892, after working a number of years for the J. G. Brill Car Company, Hanna accepted the position as traveling sales agent for the McGuire Manufacturing Company, a builder of railway cars and trucks. Subsequent to that position, he joined in partnership with W. H. Gray to form the Hanna and Gray Company,

The Cars Roll Out 17 a marketing firm in Chicago. When Gray retired, Hannah moved to Cleveland to continue in his own marketing activities as western sales agent for Peckham Manufacturing Company, another railway truck manufacturer. As the electric railway industry blossomed in the 1890s, the J. A. Hanna Company was formed representing the Brill, Jewett, and Stephenson car companies in various parts of the country. Hanna was well liked and it was expected that with his wide acquaintances in the industry he would be effective in promoting Niles’s cars. A notable car built during the year 1904 was the $12,000 buffet dining car, “Carolyn,” for the Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad. This 42-ton car was equipped with Peckham trucks with extra heavy springs, giving the car a ride “as steady as a Pullman car and even the roughest part of the roadbed did not cause water to spill from the glasses,” according to the Street Railway Journal. The four 125-horsepower GE No. 66 motors geared for seventy miles per hour easily had the car traveling sixty miles per hour. The 55-foot-long car was finished in Flemish oak inlaid with Chippendale lines and divided into two compartments, separated by a six-foot pantry. Both compartments were equipped with wicker chairs with cushioned seats, and when tables were in place twenty-eight people could be served at one time. Although only a light buffet was served, it was believed that this car represented the first attempt to feed passengers on an electric railway. Among the orders received in 1905 was one for ten large interurbans for service on the Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Railway, numbered 130–

18 The Electric Pullman Figure 3.2. Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad parlor/ buffet car “Carolyn,” set up for parlor car service between meals. Street Railway Review.

Figure 3.3. Factory photo of Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Railway No. 134, combination passenger, baggage, smoker. Author’s collection.

139. These cars were 51 feet over buffers in length, and 8 feet 6 inches in extreme width. They had three compartments, a combined baggage/vestibule placed at the forward end having a 40-inch baggage door at each side. Next was a smoking compartment covering four side windows, then the main passenger compartment with a toilet room. The cars were furnished with MCB trucks fitted with four 75-horsepower motors. By year’s end, Niles production had climbed back up to around eighty cars. The Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Railway was one of the more substantial traction lines in Ohio and operated over two hundred miles of

The Cars Roll Out 19 Figure 3.4. Looking a bit weathered, one of three coaches Niles produced in 1906 for the Fort Wayne & Springfield Railway in Indiana slows for a stop so the passengers on the rear platform can alight. These cars ran on 6600-volt alternating current (AC) and had copper roofs.Author’s collection.

railway between Cleveland and Norwalk, Bucyrus, and Wooster, making, with connections at Bucyrus, a complete electric railway line between Cleveland and Columbus. Eventually, the line purchased twenty-four passenger and four freight motors from Niles. The confidence the directors and managers of the Niles Car & Manufac- turing Company had in the future of the electric railway industry paid off as business improved, and Niles had a great year in 1906 when nearly 140 cars were shipped. Early in the year the company stated that one half of their annual output had been booked before the end of 1905.

Figure 3.5. Jersey Shore & Antes Fort Railroad No. 1, one of three cars (numbered 1–3) built in 1906 for this short line in Pennsylvania. The body of car No. 3 is preserved at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Washington, Pennsylvania. LeRoy O. King Jr. Collection.

Figure 3.6. Toledo Fostoria & Findlay Railway wood combination No. 19 of 1907 was one of four numbered 17–20 and was 40 feet 31/2 inches overall length (OAL), 8 feet 4 inches wide, and seated forty-five.Bill Volkmer Collection.

Figure 3.7. Lake Shore Electric Railway wood coach of 1906, rode on Baldwin 84-30-A trucks with four WH 121SA 85 motors for fast trips across northern Ohio between Cleveland and Toledo. Van Dusen-Zillmer Photo, M. D. McCarter Photo (N 27614).

20 The Electric Pullman

The vast majority of cars Niles produced were wood, but as the industry advanced, steel cars became the preferred choice and Niles had no choice but to adapt. As early as 1907 Niles received inquiries for steel cars and, although no record could be found that it did build any then, Niles engineered the cars in such a way that only standard structural steel shapes would be used—a fact that Niles stressed in its advertising, stating, “When buying cars ask yourself this question, can I repair and maintain all parts at once in our own shops? If pressings or forgings from special dies are offered, insist on getting standard commercial shapes and sheets which are always on the market. This is Niles standard practice.” The Choctaw Railway & Light Company of McAlester, Oklahoma, placed in service in 1908 two single-end combination Niles passenger cars. These cars were 46 feet 4 inches long over buffers and 8 feet 8 inches wide, included a smoker/baggage compartment separate from the passenger compartment, and in total seated forty-eight passengers. The cars were equipped with four 50-horsepower 600-volt DC motors and weighed almost 27 tons. Although the cars were designed by the Knox Engineering Company of Chicago, they were included in the Niles catalog. They were finished inside in quarter saw oak, with the passenger compartment golden oak and the baggage smoker compartment dark Flemish oak. Seats were Hale & Kilburn walkover type, except those against the bulkhead between compartments and the bench seats. Three of the bench seats in the baggage compartment folded up to provide additional baggage space when necessary. These cars were of semi-steel frame construction and had No. 14 steel sheathing on the outside below the window sash, giving passengers the illusion of a steel car. The exteriors of the cars were painted in olive green and orange. Perhaps the most famous car produced by Niles was the private car “North- ern,” built for the Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company to replace a previous officials’ car that had burned. This handsome wood parlor car was built in 1909 and included a kitchen and stateroom for overnight accommodation as well as two observation parlors.

Figure 3.8. Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company officials’ car “Northern” and crew.Niles Historical Society.

Figure 3.9. Front observation lounge of the private car “Northern.” The car was 53 feet long, 8 feet 6 inches wide, and weighed 54,900 pounds. It was equipped with Baldwin 78-25-A trucks and four GE-73 motors. Behind the motorman’s cab was this deluxe observation parlor followed by a private stateroom with bath. A kitchen led to a dining room and at the rear was another observation parlor. The car body still exists in Connecticut awaiting restoration. Electric Railway Review.

22 The Electric Pullman The Cars Roll Out 23 Figure 3.10. Pittsburgh & Butler Railway officials’ car “Marsonia” on the transfer table at the Niles factory with the proud builders in 1906. This broad-gauge railway, also referred to as the “Short Line,” initially ran on 6600-volt AC but later converted to 1200-volt DC. Author’s collection.

The Northern was not the only fancy officials’ car that Niles produced over the years. Among others, in 1906 the company built the “Marsonia” for the Pittsburgh & Butler Street Railway, one of a dozen interurbans built for this line. These cars were 51 feet 3 inches in length, 8 feet 11/2 inches in width, and 9 feet 5 inches high, and ran on 5-foot-21/2-inch gauge track adopted to conform to the track of the Pittsburgh Railways Company for entry into Pittsburgh. These cars had copper roofs and carried two trolley poles and a pantograph because they operated on 6600-volt AC power outside Butler and Pittsburgh but on DC within those cities. The cars were quite heavy due to the electrical equipment needed for both voltages. Power consumption was high and, like many of the early AC traction systems, was converted to 1200-volt DC within a few years. Joe Hanna’s contacts in the traction industry certainly paid off for Niles and Hanna and by 1907 he was a director of the company. Before long he was made vice president in charge of sales. Niles advertisements frequently listed the company’s sales offices in Cleveland, Ohio, a location that was at the time a major traction and railroad center, while the works remained in Niles, which was better known as being in the heart of America’s steel producers. Completed cars were shipped from the Niles factory in one of three ways. They could be run out under their own power over the existing streetcar tracks of the Mahoning Valley Railway that ran through Niles and connected to the traction lines in the area. Cars could also be shipped on flat cars of steam railroads either as complete cars or when car bodies alone were furnished.

24 The Electric Pullman Figure 3.11. Mahoning Valley Railway No. 140, a 1904 interurban, undoubtedly delivered at the factory and run out under its own power for limited service between Leavitsburg, Niles, Girard, and Youngstown, Ohio, and New Castle, Pennsylvania. The double end car was 45 feet 4 inches long and 8 feet 6 inches wide. In view of the fact that many of the riders were mill men riding in their work clothes, the seats were upholstered in white woven rattan and the smoking compartment was kept entirely separate. Niles Historical Society.

Figure 3.12. In 1905, Niles shipped ten coaches numbered 22–31 (Nos. 28, 30, and 31 seen here) to the Akron Bedford & Cleveland Railroad (later part of the Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company) by railroad flat cars complete with trucks that were installed later by the traction company. Clearance problems may have been responsible for the trucks not being installed, as that might have made the cars too high to clear bridges along the railroad. Author’s collection.

The Cars Roll Out 25 Figure 3.13. An eleven-car order shipped on their own wheels in 1907 to the Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern Railway shortly after arrival to Iowa. Freight motor No. 84 and passenger cars 64–82 (even) had traction motors, controls, etc., added later by the traction line. These cars were 53 feet 35/8 inches long, 9 feet 10 inches wide, and seated fifty passengers. The cars were divided into main, smoking, and baggage compartments and finished inside in mahogany. The seats were leather in the main compartment and rattan in the smoking section. Trucks were Baldwin Class 84-25 and ready for the owner to install four Westinghouse 75-horsepower motors. Ames Historical Society.

The third method involved shipping cars on their own wheels. In an Oc- tober 1907 article in the Street Railway Review it was reported that “The Niles Car & Manufacturing Company of Niles, Ohio is shipping a great many of its cars on their own wheels in regular steam trains. This is made possible by the use of MCB standard drawbars, wheels, journal boxes, air brakes, etc. many of the Niles cars being for operation under approximately steam railroad conditions. This company is shipping 25 large cars to the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway, Washington, D.C. in regular trains over the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad; ten 56-foot passenger cars to the Northern Electric Co. of Chico, California which are going the entire distance on track, and a short time ago delivered 17 [it was actually 11] cars to the Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern Railroad, Ft. Dodge, Iowa in this manner. It is building four 57' cars for the Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railroad which will be hauled in regular trains by the steam railroads.”

26 The Electric Pullman In a Street Railway Review article of October 1906, the journal reported, “Interurban cars are usually limited in width by track conditions in cities through which they run, but that the tendency is toward larger and wider cars rapidly approaching steam railway dimensions is evidenced by the widths submitted by the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company of Niles, Ohio covering recent orders for cars:

Washington Baltimore & Annapolis 9'3/4" Northern Electric 9'21/2" San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley 9'10" Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern 9'10"

Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway are the full steam railroad width of 10', yet all of these cars operate through cities.”

Figure 3.14. Catalog illustration of one of two cars numbered 27–28 shipped in 1906 to the Boise Valley Railway in Idaho. These cars were 42 feet long over buffers, 8 feet 6 inches wide, and weighed 23 tons. They were supplied with Baldwin 72-18-S trucks and Allis Chalmers 40-horsepower motors. Author’s collection.

Business held up reasonably well into 1907 with significant orders from the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad and the Lake Shore Electric Railway. Both of these railroads had significant ties to Cleveland, Ohio, where Joe Hanna maintained his office—which, no doubt, allowed him to obtain these orders. In New York State, the Hudson Valley Railway, a subsidiary of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, ordered three large interurbans for service up the Hudson River Valley to the resort areas of Saratoga Springs and Glens Falls.

The Cars Roll Out 27 Figure 3.15. New York State’s Hudson Valley Railway No. 50, 51, and 52 carried vacationers to historic locations in the lower Adirondacks courtesy of these 1907 Niles coaches. These 51-foot cars were mounted on Baldwin high-speed trucks with four Westinghouse 93A motors. Author’s collection.

Figure 3.16. The local Mahoning Valley Railway received ten of these single-truck city cars in 1907 equipped with Brill 21 E trucks and two Westinghouse 101 motors. These little cars were 31 feet 4 inches long and 7 feet 9 inches wide.Author’s collection.

Figure 3.17. Facing top. Eventually purchasing eighty-two new or rebuilt cars, the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway in 1910 had three of the first four 1907 cars (one had been destroyed) rebuilt to switch them from 6600-volt AC to 1200-volt DC. No. 74, seen above from a Niles catalog illustration, was one of those cars. Running between Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., the cars had to be able to operate in Washington at 600 volts with either the underground conduit system or double overhead trolley wire (hence the two trolley poles on one end) in addition to the 1200 volts used in the country. It was the cars of this line that earned the title “Electric Pullmans.” Author’s collection.

28 The Electric Pullman Figure 3.18. The interiors of the cars were nicely finished with Greenwich inlaid linoleum floors, dark green leather Hale & Kilburn reversible seats, plate glass windows with iron guards, and a toilet room. This interior finish contributed to the “Electric Pullman” description awarded to the 1907 order. Author’s collection.

The Cars Roll Out 29 Figure 4.1. In Southern California, Point Loma Railroad No. 402, formerly No. 109 of the San Diego Southern Electric Railway, one of six cars delivered in 1908 from Niles. After service in San Diego, the cars were sold in 1918 to the Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, where some ran until 1941. With closed center and open-end sections, these “California”-style cars were popular in the days before air conditioning. Allen Copeland Collection.

Figure 4.2. In Washington state, the Twin City Light and Traction Company purchased, in 1910, four light suburban/interurban cars for service between Centralia and Chehalis. The 44-foot car seated forty-eight in passenger and smoking compartments. Niles stated in its catalog, “This is a very satisfactory car for suburban and short interurban traffic, but where it is desirable that it resemble street cars in general appearance.” Author’s collection. 4 } } The Slow Decline

After an auspicious start in 1902–1903, the next two years of very low production must have been somewhat disheartening. During the business slump after the 1903 financial crisis, car builders everywhere were hurting and a proposal surfaced in 1905 to combine twenty car builders, including Niles, into one gi- ant car-building syndicate. It came to naught but created a lot of excitement at the time. But looking ahead, the directors apparently had enough confidence that business would improve that they authorized an increase in capitalization and an enlargement of the factory. The years 1906–1907 were just the opposite of the previous two years and it looked like the traction industry was playing catch-up with the huge volume of orders for new cars. In January of 1908, Niles directors authorized the pay- ment of dividends on both common and preferred stock and predicted fair business for the coming year. Orders, however, fell off sharply, but the firm still managed to deliver nearly eighty cars to willing buyers. During the year, an order was received from California for six cars to be used in the San Diego area on the San Diego Southern Electric Railway, which had just changed its name from the National City and Otay Railroad. The cars cost $6,571.15 each ($3901.29 for the body and $2669.86 for the trucks and electrical equipment). The cars were 45 feet 10 inches long and of the California type peculiar to that state, with a closed center section and open sections on both ends. The center section held twenty-eight seats and the open ends twelve seats each. Orders rose slightly in 1909–1910, with another 80 to 120 cars leaving Niles. The Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad returned with a request for an additional twenty-eight cars. In the spring of 1909, the Pittsburgh Railway Company received from Niles, and placed in service, an experimental prepayment car designed by Charles B. Price, a former county commissioner and railroad inventor. The unusual features of this patented car, which was intended for city service, was

31 Figure 4.3. Pittsburgh Railway Company experimental Pay-As-You-Enter (PAYE) car No. 3550, also nicknamed the “Merry Widow” by trolley company employees. Electric Railway Journal.

Figure 4.4. Electric Railway Journal.

the elimination of platforms at each end and the presence of a side corridor through which passengers had to pass before paying the fare and entering either compartment. The center exit was believed to aid in unloading. This arrangement was obviously designed to thwart passengers who tried to cheat the trolley line out its fare as there was no way they could enter the car without encountering the conductor and paying up. The conductor was located to the side of the center door and at the end of the entrance passageway in a location that allowed him to control the exit door as well as collect fares from entering passengers. The car was designed for single-end operation, was 43 feet long and 8 feet 4 inches wide, and rode on trucks manufactured by the St. Louis Car Company, similar to those on other cars in the Pittsburgh fleet. It was reported to be 15–20 percent lighter than similarly sized cars with long platforms. At the annual meeting of the company in January 1911, C. E. Rose, secretary-treasurer, reported that in the previous year, 1910, Niles employed 225 men and shipped 121 new cars and 14 others that were remodeled. But the

32 The Electric Pullman Figure 4.5. Handsome Toledo & Western Railway No. 53, a 1905 combination coach-baggage car. At 51 feet 5 inches long, this car seated forty-six and rode on Dorner trucks with four LS 34, 50-horsepower motors. By the time it was delivered the line had been taken over by the Toledo Railways & Light Company and two more similar cars, No. 54 and No. 55, arrived two years later. Author’s collection. year 1911 turned out to be unusually hot, and the national economy unusually cold, and the works actually shut down for about six months, during which time some improvements were made in anticipation of a return to the good times. Niles production was very uneven and never again achieved the levels of the first few years. An ominous headline appeared in theNiles Daily News on May 11, 1911, that read “Constant Increase in Automobiles.” Together with a story about the state of Ohio passing the Good Roads Act in 1912, it was a sign of things to come. In February 1911, during the lull in business, Secretary Rose took a vacation to Oklahoma City, ostensibly to enjoy weather much better than a snowy Feb- ruary in Ohio. Indeed, he was very complimentary of the weather he enjoyed during his two-week visit. But there may have been another reason for his appearance in the state. Niles had, the year before, supplied thirteen big cars to the locale for city and interurban service in and out of Oklahoma City. In addition to ten steel-center entrance cars for city and suburban service, described later, three big wooden cars arrived for long-distance service. Oklahoma was the newest state in the union, having achieved statehood in 1907, and no doubt Rose felt there might be more business to be had. It didn’t turn out that way but at least he had a nice visit.

The Slow Decline 33 Figure 4.6. El Reno Interurban Company No. 1, one of three cars shipped to this Oklahoma line in 1910. This car, a standard coach, was 50 feet long and seated forty-eight. Cars No. 2 and 3 were 54 feet 7 inches long, seated fifty-six, and had a parlor/observation area at one end. All three later became part of the Oklahoma Railway. Bill Volkmer Collection.

Business in 1912 was no better than in the previous year, and was not exactly robust. The Mesaba Electric Railway, in northern Minnesota, placed an order for sixteen cars, six of which were destroyed in a car barn fire within a year when a hot water heater in a motor car exploded. The destroyed cars were replaced by Niles the following year, making a total of twenty-three cars supplied by Niles to this traction company. The company had planned to display the first sixteen at the American Electric Railway Association convention in Chicago in October 1912, hauled there in a special train, but was unable to complete them on time. The cars were of composite wood-steel construction and were 47 feet 2 inches long with a seating capacity of fifty in smoking and passenger compartments. Niles supplied their preferred Baldwin locomotive trucks equipped with four GE-201 motors rated at 50 horsepower. Fully assembled with trucks the cars weighed in at 27 tons. The cars were produced by Niles for local interurban service, medium speed and frequent stops. The most important consideration in the design was to provide protection against the extremely cold weather common to northern Minnesota. The cars had double sidewalls, sheathed outside with 1/8-inch steel plates, and the windows provided with removable storm sashes. Because a large percentage of the passengers were ore workers in soiled clothing, the seats were upholstered in rattan. In April of 1913, the state of Ohio was inundated with a flood that caused incalculable damage across the state. Many electric lines, which had been poorly planned and whose revenues hardly covered operating expenses, let

34 The Electric Pullman Figure 4.7. In 1912 Niles built five combines numbered 15–19 and four trailers numbered 1–4 for the Mesaba Electric Railway. These cars saw service in extreme conditions in the iron mining region of northern Minnesota. Iron Range Historical Society.

Figure 4.8. Included in the order were two freight motors, No. 101–102. Iron Range Historical Society. alone permitted retiring any bonded debt, terminated service for good. The largest traction railroad in Ohio, for example, the Ohio Electric Railroad, experienced damage totaling $1,500,000 from which it could not recover, and it was eventually forced into bankruptcy. Most of the lines that had made up the Ohio Electric were returned to previous owners and continued to limp along. The city of Niles did not escape the flood and theNiles Daily News reported,

The Slow Decline 35 Figure 4.9. Niles advertisement illustration of the suburban cars built in 1913 for the city of Toronto, Ontario. Author’s collection.

“The City of Niles is slowly arising from the effects of the calamity which overwhelmed it for three days of last week, when a flood of unprecedented proportions swept down upon it, overflowing the channels of the rivers and creeks, submerging many of the residence streets, destroying the contents of

36 The Electric Pullman Figure 4.10. Ten cars of a shipment to Manitoba for the Brandon Municipal Railway. Car No. 6 of this lot survives at the Edmonton Radial Railway Museum in Edmonton, Alberta. The single-truck cars were 31 feet OAL, 8 feet 6 inches wide, and seated thirty-two passengers, and the interior was finished in cherry. Equipped with two 40-horsepower motors, the cars weighed about 131/2 tons. Note the sign on each flat car identifying the builder as the Niles Car & Mfg. Co. of Niles, Ohio. Niles Historical Society. many homes and rendering many of its people disheartened and discouraged aside from utterly closing down its industries with its great volume of water which rushed upon the employees, covering over machinery and rendered every effort useless in the face of the deluge.” While the car company was not affected by the floodwaters, production was interrupted for some time. Production in 1913 was about sixty cars and nearly one third of them were suburban cars for the city system in Toronto, Ontario. Numbered 100–119 as delivered, these cars ran for more than a quarter century, and were renumbered in later years. The activity in the Niles plant during 1914 was no better than in the previous year. Problems began to occur with material supplies and what was available was getting very expensive, due to the diversion of essentials to support World War I that was raging in Europe. Niles did not participate in building armaments, which might have helped the struggling firm. Among the cars it built was an order for the Brandon Municipal Railway for ten single-truck city cars, numbered 1 to 10, with insulated sidewalls for use in the cold winters of Manitoba. By 1916 electric railway car production in the United States and Canada had plummeted, dropping steadily from over 6,000 in 1907 to under 2,800 in

The Slow Decline 37 Figure 4.11. Niles occasionally did receive requests for steel cars, such as a 1910 order from the Oklahoma Railway for ten steel-center entrance cars seen here under construction in the shop. These cars were constructed in accordance with a design made by the engineering department of the railway under the direction of W. A. Haller, former general manager, were referred to as the “Haller Car,” and were carried in the Niles catalog. The main reason for adopting steel construction was steel’s light weight, which was estimated to save nearly five hundred dollars per year in power costs. Each car cost $7,000, about $1,000 more than a wood car, a cost that could be recovered in about two years. Furthermore, since they were steel it was expected they would have a longer life. Electric Railway Journal.

1915. The directors of the Niles Car and Manufacturing Company realized they need to go in another direction and by late 1915 had decided to embark upon the manufacture of motor trucks. The United States was supporting the war in Europe and automobiles and motor trucks were becoming more popular. Niles suspended its weekly advertising of railway cars in May 1916 and the company opened a motor truck sales office in Cleveland with E. M. Jones as manager. Two types of trucks, both with worm drive, were proposed. There is no record of how well these trucks sold but it is suspected that most of the modest sales

38 The Electric Pullman Figure 4.12. Steel-center entrance city cars, Nos. 301–302, shipped in 1914 to the West Side Electric Street Railway of Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Note the rattan seats typical of cars frequented by workmen from the steel mills that were a mainstay of the area. Niles referred to car designs in the catalog by car number, as seen here, or engraving number. Author’s collection.

The Slow Decline 39 Figure 4.13. Some of the less distinctive cars made by Niles were a group of line car bodies numbered 7263, 7284 (seen here), 7763, and 7773 for the Detroit United Railway in 1915. They were mounted on car frames and trucks from older and possibly wrecked cars already owned by the railway. Don Ross Collection.

were to businesses in the immediate area of eastern Ohio. Manufacturing, however, was hampered by a shortage of material due to the country’s support of the war. In September of that year, needing to downsize, the company fired twenty employees for what appeared to be a minor infraction. The men were accused of violation of a company rule, posted throughout the factory, forbidding the employees from exiting the plant through the front entrance. The handwriting was on the way in big bold letters. That same month, Joe Hanna resigned from the company to return to the J. G. Brill Company, where his career in electric railroading began. A few car orders were still to be completed but there was no need for a sales staff for railway cars. Indeed, on January 17, 1917, the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company announced its

40 The Electric Pullman Figure 4.14. June 1916 ad from the Automobile, a trade journal of the period. Detroit Public Library. decision to abandon the manufacture of electric railway cars and devote its energies exclusively to the manufacture of motor trucks. Niles joined a host of other companies building what was referred to as an assembled vehicle, that is, one constructed from components purchased from other manufacturers. It is doubtful if Niles manufactured any more of the vehicle than perhaps the

The Slow Decline 41 frame and in March 1917 manufacture of the trucks was suspended. But one railway car remained to be completed. The company tried hard to sell its new truck, but moving from the electric railway industry to motor vehicles proved to be more difficult than expected and, like a fish out of water, it floundered in its marketing efforts. Like so many other companies trying to capitalize on the popularity of motor vehicles, Niles found that it had entered a crowded market and had no experience to back up its advertising. The first mention of this last railway car was in the June 16, 1917, issue of the Electric Railway Journal, when it was reported that Niles was “testing out a self- propelled interurban car, having gas-electric drive with kerosene oil engine. It is reported that this car is being given a thorough tryout on a road in the State of Tennessee.” The car in question was so far ahead of its time that it was even featured in the December 1917 issue of Popular Mechanics. Niles completed the car body, which was shipped to the Electric Car & Locomotive Company of New York City (the only car it would ever produce), where a 150-horsepower marine-type diesel engine was installed. The engine, fueled by two 140-gal- lon kerosene fuel tanks, drove a 100-kilowatt, 250-volt generator that provided power to the traction motors as well as charged a set of storage batteries. The design for the car came from Ralph H. Beach, an associate of Thomas Edison who worked at the Federal Storage Battery Car Company, a firm that made battery-powered streetcars. It is interesting that now American freight railroads are again experimenting with diesel locomotives that include a set of storage batteries, the idea being that the extra energy stored in the batteries would assist the generator in taxing situations. The car was ordered by the Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad, a Tennessee steam railroad, and numbered 699. The steel car was 59 feet long and divided into four compartments: an engine room, baggage room, a compartment for African American passengers (then referred to as the Negro compartment), and a main passenger compartment. It weighed an amazing 113,000 pounds. The diesel engine was water-cooled and the hot water was used to heat the car in the winter. In summer, the water was circulated through roof-mounted radiators. The car was not a success, and in 1923 the car was sold to the Roby and Northern Railroad, a 4.4-mile line in West Texas, where it was converted to straight electric operation to run between Roby and North Roby. The final act of the directors of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company was played out on October 1, 1917, when they signed over the plant to the Engel Aircraft Company, a firm that had been formed two months prior, to build

42 The Electric Pullman Figures 4.15 and 4.16. Motor truck assembly in the Niles factory. Note the railway car in the background. Niles Historical Society.

The Slow Decline 43 Figure 4.17. Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad No. 699 with car body made by Niles in 1917. Dain Schult Collection.

aircraft spare parts in support of World War I. None of the principal officers of the new company had been associated with Niles. It was reported that $4–$5 million worth of parts were produced during the few months the firm operated before the armistice was signed, after which the company collapsed. During its fifteen years of production, Niles produced about 1,100 cars, of which about 60 percent were interurban, 34 percent were city cars, and 6 percent were work and express cars. The company published a loose-leaf catalog for which it periodically issued additional pages as designs were added, thereby keeping its name before traction managers. In the early twentieth century, there was no income tax in the United States, so there are no records of the firm’s sales for those years and none found for subsequent years. However, using car selling prices documented in individual traction line histories, it is estimated that over its lifetime Niles had revenues of nearly $6 million with a net income of perhaps $600,000 in 1917 dollars, an amount that would be many times that in current dollars. Ultimately, the features that made Niles cars so desirable in the early years—big, quiet, heavy, comfortable wood cars—worked against the company as traction lines realized the need for light, one-man steel cars, a specialty that Niles never really developed. The factory that the Niles Car & Manu- facturing Company erected in Niles, Ohio, still stands today, occupied over the years by the Engel Aircraft Company, the American Tire and Rubber Company, Stevens Metal Products Company, and today the Cleveland Steel Container Corporation, whose employees are surely aware of the ghosts of the big cars around them. Even though Niles continued to build big wood interurbans throughout its existence, the company realized that the industry had changed and was play-

44 The Electric Pullman Figure 4.18. Salt Lake & Utah Railroad work car No. 521, built in 1914. This 50-foot car weighed 36 tons, was equipped with W 334E6 motors on Baldwin B-90-40 trucks, and was part of the original equipment order of twenty-four cars for this line. Unfortunately it had a short life, as it was destroyed in a wreck a year after delivery.Author’s collection.

Figure 4.19. One of the last large orders leaving the Niles factory was a sixteen- car order for the Salt Lake & Ogden Electric Railway in 1913 (renamed Bamberger Electric Railway in 1917), four of which are seen here. At 56 feet OAL and 9 feet wide, they seated sixty-two and ran on Baldwin 78-30-A trucks with four GE 205, 100-horsepower motors. Many of these cars ran until 1952. Niles Historical Society. ing catch-up with its advertising emphasizing steel car construction for both one-man city cars and big interurbans. Figure 4.22, from the February 6, 1915, issue of Electric Railway Journal, shows a large steel-center entrance interurban and single-truck city cars under construction in the Niles erection hall. In the text, Niles again stressed, “There are absolutely no special pressings or forgings in this car. It can be repaired or replaced from warehouse stock by your own mechanics with ordinary tools.”

The Slow Decline 45 Figure 4.20. Niles Utah production was not all big interurban cars. The firm also built a pair of single-truck city cars such as this 1913 car for service in the city of Provo, Utah. Only one lone rider on this snowy day. Author’s collection.

Figure 4.21. One of Niles’s best customers was the Detroit United Railway, and in 1910 the traction line purchased nearly forty cars including a twenty-five-car order for double-truck city cars such as No. 1643, seen going about its chores. These Pay-As-You-Enter (PAYE) cars were the last ordered by the DUR with “Detroit Platforms” (extra long) on the rear. The cars were 42 feet 3 inches long and 8 feet 31/2 inches wide, and weighed 28,000 pounds with trucks. They seated forty-three riders. A young passenger can be seen boarding at the rear entrance where the conductor was stationed to collect the fare. Exit was from the front. Author’s collection.

46 The Electric Pullman Figure 4.22. A large steel interurban along with some single-truck city cars under construction in the Niles factory. Electric Railway Journal.

The Slow Decline 47 5 } } A Look Back

While the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company was a good civic booster and even fielded a works baseball team each year, it was not very generous in reporting to the public, or to the industry for that matter, about its financial -af fairs. Except for advertisements in industry trade journals and announcements of cars orders, very little was published about the company. The Niles Daily News carried articles about annual meetings and occasional car shipments but little else. No company records survived, so what is known about the company has been gleaned from newspapers, trade journals, and published traction line histories to create this account. There was a plethora of car builders operating at the beginning of the twentieth century, a great many having evolved from the construction of carriages and horse cars, which were generally small and lightweight. But the excitement in the electric railway industry at that time was in building interurbans for long distance, high-speed service that demanded cars more like railroad coaches. There were fewer builders of cars of this type and Ohio was in the middle of all this activity. And like the railroad-building boom of half a century earlier, there was plenty of business to share among suppliers to this frenzy (as in the gold rush of the previous decade, it wasn’t the miners who became wealthy but rather the merchants who sold them the picks and shovels). While Cleveland was already a railroad center, Niles seemed an unlikely place to establish a railroad-car-building concern of any type. But it was in the heart of industrial America at the time and skilled labor was easily available. The city of Niles was at this time experiencing a major change in its industrial makeup. The steel industry, which overshadowed everything else in Niles, was undergoing fundamental changes, with mergers and consolidations resulting in the closure of most of the small independent producers. Perhaps it was this forced look at the changes occurring in their industries that spurred local businessmen to form a Board of Trade and attempt to diversify the econ-

48 Graph 5.1. Niles started business with a bang, and although it had up and down years, they were mostly down until 1917 when they bowed out entirely. omy. Railroads at this time had no real cross-country transportation competition and anything connected to the railroad industry was considered a good investment. Electric railroads were then considered the wave of the future and there was often talk that eventually all railroads would electrify (although at the time no one expected it would be in the form of the diesel-electric). With the interurban building boom well under way, electric-car building looked like a good way to participate. To determine an exact number of cars produced by the Niles Car & Manu- facturing Company is impossible, but if all the cars reported in the media were produced, it would suggest the company produced nearly 1,300 cars. How- ever, it is well known that some orders would have been canceled or reduced and some orders completed but delivered to traction lines other that the one

A Look Back 49 Map 5.1. As the map indicates, nearly half of Niles’s entire output went to Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. Author’s collection.

that ordered the cars. If the cars reported in the trade journals that could not be verified through individual traction line histories were omitted, the total would have been closer to 1,100 cars. It is suspected that the actual number lies somewhere in between. Business began with a bang in 1902. Among the orders received during the inaugural year was one from the Peoples Traction Company in Galesburg, Illinois, for two new forty-four-passenger combination/smoker/baggage/passenger cars and the rebuild of two 32-foot used cars from East St. Louis. The new car builder apparently struggled somewhat to “get it all together” as it began and was unable to complete the new cars by the June 1, 1902, contract deadline, and didn’t even work on the used cars before shipping everything back to Illinois in November. As a result, the traction line refused to pay for the cars and a legal battle ensued. A settlement was finally reached in 1903 just as the bottom fell out of the economy and car orders took a nosedive. Orders in hand carried the Niles factory through the year, but the following year, 1904, was terrible, with the lowest production until the last year of operation. Orders began to climb in 1905, but peaked in 1906, after which it was mostly downhill. By far, traction lines in Ohio received the most cars, about 30 percent, followed

50 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.1. A 1907 Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway coach No. 12. This car was part of the original twenty-four ordered for the opening of this high-voltage AC line in northern Indiana. Don Ross Collection. by Michigan with 14 percent, and Maryland with about 7 percent, with the other 50 percent spread out over the other eighteen states, Canada, and Cuba. Looking at the company’s output another way, Map 5.1 shows the states known to have received cars made in Niles. It is no surprise that the bulk of the cars went to traction lines in the Midwest because that was where most of the railways were located. New England was not represented largely due to the fact that the traction lines there did not need the big interurban-type cars in which Niles specialized, and that region was well covered by car builders long established in the region. The South, with the exception of Tennessee, received no known cars and the one in Tennessee was a diesel-electric for a steam railroad. The western states received a surprising number, possibly because there were few car builders west of the Mississippi River and Niles marketed aggressively in those states. The central states had few to no electric railroads, and therefore no receipts. The Niles Daily News never reported any labor trouble at the car factory until close to the end, however, the company must have had a problem with some of the workers getting a little tipsy at lunch time. The Anti-Saloon League of America was prominently active in the United States at this time and apparently was having some effect in Niles. In June of 1909, A. W. Scholl, general superintendent, reported, “We are one hundred percent better off than when we had the saloons across the street.” Niles participated in expositions of the Railway Manufacturers Associa- tion as they were held and, along with other car builders, displayed one of their

A Look Back 51 Figure 5.2. Niles had plenty of competition for the attention of traction officials, as seen in this full-page ad from the Street Railway Journal. Author’s collection.

52 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.3. Top. In 1906 Chautauqua Traction Company received four large Niles interurbans numbered 115–118 to carry visitors to the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. Western New York Railroad Archive.

Figure 5.4. Toledo Port Clinton & Lakeside Railway No. 6 poses for its birthday photo on the transfer table at the Niles factory in 1906. This fifty-four-passenger car was 51 feet long and 9 feet wide, was equipped with Peckham 40 trucks and Bullock R-50 motors, and weighed 60,500 pounds. This car remained in service until the end of passenger operations in 1936 and then, like a lot of trolley cars, the body became a residence near Lake Erie. Author’s collection.

Figure 5.5. Below. Cleveland Electric Railway No. 188 of 1903. The car builder set something of a record when it shipped twenty-five of these cars to Cleveland twenty- eight days after receipt of the order, or so it seemed. In fact, the cars were already under construction for Detroit when a disastrous fire in Cleveland created a critical car shortage that Detroit was happy to remedy, but that fact was unreported. Author’s collection.

A Look Back 53 Figure 5.6. Rochester Syracuse & Eastern No. 110, one of three coaches numbered 110–112, shipped in 1906 to this exceptionally well-built line in upstate New York. The cars were rebuilt in 1926–1927 by the railroad into handsome chair cars that were named for the cities along the line. No. 110 was named “Lyons” after rebuilding.Author’s collection.

Figure 5.7. Galesburg & Kewanee Electric Railway No. 52, one of two Niles coaches delivered to this Illinois line in 1906. These cars were 50 feet 3 inches in length, 8 feet 7 inches wide, and equipped with Baldwin trucks with four GE No. 87 motors and GER K-14 controls. Author’s collection.

creations. The local newspaper reported in October 1909 that “Mr. Scholl and Mr. Robbins of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company are in New York City attending the exhibition of the Railway Manufacturers Association where they have entered one of the finest interurban cars ever built. The car is one of twenty the company is building for the Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend

54 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.8. Niles advertisement from October, 1912. Electric Railway Journal.

A Look Back 55 Figure 5.9. More emphasis on one-man cars in an Electric Railway Journal ad from May 6, 1916. The company suspended advertising railway cars this month as it recognized that the toll being exacted by the automobile on the traction industry was irreversible. Electric Railway Journal.

56 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.10. A big day in the life of the folks in Edensburg, Pennsylvania, as the inaugural run of the big Niles coach No. 104 of the Southern Cambria Railway arrived in 1912. The line ran twenty-three miles between Johnstown and Ebensburg. Midway between the principal towns was South Fork, Pennsylvania, where a dam failure caused the famous Johnstown flood of 1889.Bill Volkmer Collection.

Figure 5.11. Elmira Water & Light Railroad No. 204, one of two cars shipped to Elmira, New York, in 1906. Author’s collection.

A Look Back 57 Figure 5.12. Late in its life, Niles demonstrated it could build large, handsome steel interurbans such as the four Nos. 20–23 in 1914 for the Toledo Fostoria & Findlay Railway, and in 1915, Nos. 25–26 for the Tiffen Fostoria & Eastern Railway (later part of the TF&F) in northern Ohio. These cars, 56 feet 91/2 inches long, had baggage, smoking, and passenger compartments and seated sixty. Author’s collection.

Figure 5.13. Stark Electric Railway No. 3, part of a 1902 six-car (Nos. 1–6) order for this Ohio line. In 1913 all six—except for No. 1, which was quickly returned—went to the Cleveland Alliance & Mahoning Valley Railroad, where they ran for several years. Author’s collection.

58 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.14. A postcard view of a pair of Pittsburgh & Butler Street Railway Niles coaches of 1906. Built as 6600-volt AC cars, they did not run in trains on this 5-foot-21/2-inch broad-gauge line for entrance into Pittsburgh but were posed this way for publicity purposes.Author’s collection.

Figure 5.15. In 1907 Indianapolis & Louisville Traction received from Niles nine 1200-volt DC combination cars and two freight motors that later became part of Interstate Public Service, a through route between the Indiana capital and Louisville, Kentucky. Although only forty-one miles of the route, the 1200 volts was incompatible with the rest of the route and was converted to 600 volts when merged into the larger system. Van Dusen-Zillmer Photo, M. D. McCarter Photo (N 520). interurban railway company, the finish being the best ever put on an interurban car anywhere.” Niles produced a wide variety of cars as can be seen from the advertisement (Fig. 5.8) from 1912 and, as can be seen in the ad, in addition to the Cleve- land sales office Niles had agents on the west coast in San Francisco, Portland, and Los Angeles. By 1916, traction officials realized that big heavy cars were costing them dearly, not only in labor, as they usually required two employees (a

A Look Back 59 Figure 5.16. Northwestern Pennsylvania Railway No. 104, “Edinmere,” of 1913. Niles constructed a pair of two-car trains for this line that featured a baggage/smoker that was permanently connected to a parlor/smoker car. An unusual feature of this train was the fact that the parlor/ smoker rode on powered trucks but had no motorman’s cab, and therefore could not be operated independently. They were designed by C. M. Hatch, general manager of the railway, and had center entrance of the train only at the rear of the first and the front of the second cars. The cars were 50 feet 101/4 inches long, 8 feet 6 inches wide, and rode on Baldwin A-type trucks with Westinghouse No. 306 motors. These cars ran between Erie and Meadville, PA, a sparsely settled area that hardly warranted a single car let alone a train of two. The line was foreclosed in 1919 and was abandoned by 1928. From the October 11, 1913 Electric Railway Journal.

Figure 5.17. Facing top. Niles’s early advertising was very modest, as seen in this ad from 1903. Note the reference to the steam railroad passenger cars built in 1903. Street Railway Journal.

Figure 5.18. Facing bottom. In 1904, Niles’s ads were more descriptive, featuring cars constructed in 1902 such as these that Niles delivered to the Rockford Beloit & Janesville Railroad, numbered 1–8. The financial conditions of 1904, however, were anything but good and it appears that some orders were canceled during construction, resulting in cars on hand for which there were no ready buyers. Street Railway Journal.

60 The Electric Pullman motorman and conductor), but also in electricity and the high maintenance caused by wear and tear on track. By this time also, the big cars often ran nearly empty of passengers and were simply not needed. As a result, Niles attempted to garner some business for its light one-man cars seen in Figure 5.9. The campaign was unsuccessful, however, and Niles suspended all advertising by midyear. The description of the factory as it was constructed in 1901 would indicate that the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company had excess car-building capac-

A Look Back 61 Figure 5.19. 1913 steel-center entrance, double ended, South Fork & Portage Railway No. 1 (one half of the line’s roster) at the end of the line where the conductor pulls down the trolley pole on one end and puts it up on the other for the return trip. These cars were 47 feet 7 inches OAL and 8 feet 6 inches wide, seated fifty-six, and rode on Baldwin Class 78-22-A trucks with four WH 75-horsepower 1200-volt DC motors. They were considered lightweight at 29 tons.Author’s collection.

62 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.22. Among the many cars Niles supplied to Ohio traction lines were five large single-end combination cars for the Sandusky Norwalk & Mansfield Electric Railway in 1905. This is No. 3 of cars numbered 1–5.Bill Volkmer Collection. ity during most of its existence. That unused capacity allowed the company to promise very optimistic delivery dates that resulted in orders to Niles that other car builders may have otherwise obtained. In fact, Niles received an order in 1912 for two motor and two trailer cars from the London & Lake Erie Railway, a Canadian line that would have otherwise purchased from a Cana- dian car builder, even though they cost more, simply because they were able to deliver them faster. This speedy delivery may have compensated for the fact that unlike competitor Jewett Car Company of nearby Newark, Ohio, whose president, William Wright, was a prolific inventor of railcar improvements,

Figures 5.20 and 5.21. Opposite. Take off a board here and there and pretty soon you convert a freight motor into an airy stock motor. Originally carrying freight, Interstate Public Service No. 424 (top) went on to carry cattle, sheep, and pigs in Indiana after an unusual remodeling of an Indianapolis Columbus & Southern Railway 1906 Niles freight motor into a stock motor. In 1922, a record of nearly 8,500 cars of livestock moved to Indianapolis by interurban. This service started during World War I when transportation facilities were taxed to the limit and not only required stock motors like No. 424 but also trains like the one below with railroad stock cars. Van Dusen-Zillmer, M. D. McCarter Photo (N25480) (top) and Author’s collection (bottom).

A Look Back 63 Figure 5.23. The Sandusky Norwalk & Mansfield Electric Railway was one of Ohio’s weaker lines largely because it served a territory that was sparsely settled and never did connect Sandusky and Mansfield.Bill Volkmer Collection.

Figure 5.24. At a time when most traction lines were switching to steel cars, in 1914 the St. Paul Southern Electric Railway received four wood cars from Niles: two passenger, Nos. 51–52, and two combination baggage/passenger, Nos. 1–2. These cars cost almost $8,500 each, were 51 feet long, and were equipped with four Westinghouse 306CA2, 70-horsepower, 1200-volt motors. Minnesota Streetcar Museum Collection.

64 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.25. To say that Niles wood cars were robust and well made would be an understatement when you consider the kind of environment in which they were forced to operate in Minnesota winters. Here, St. Paul Southern Electric Railway No. 2 arrives in Hastings after plowing through unbelievable snowdrifts, which made it necessary to board up some of the front windows to protect them from breakage as the snow flew up over the car.Minnesota Streetcar Museum Collection.

Figure 5.26. As one salesman, sample case in hand, waits in Ames, Iowa, to board the big Niles Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern Railway coach, another heads off to his appointments. The interurban was a godsend to traveling salesmen, who could travel from town to town with ease and comfort and be delivered practically to the door of their next prospect. Author’s collection.

A Look Back 65 Figure 5.27. Davenport & Muscatine Railway No. 404, one of six 50-foot passenger/ baggage cars shipped in 1912 to this Iowa line. They were equipped with Standard C50 trucks, four GE 217 motors, and K42A controls, and seated fifty-two.Author’s collection.

Figure 5.28. No. 102 of the Chicago New York Air Line Railroad. Of all the traction lines proposed during the electric railway era, none was more grandiose than this one, which was proposed to build in a straight line between Chicago and New York, with the cars appropriately labeled “New York” on one end and “Chicago” on the other. The two 1907 cars that Niles built for this company, Nos. 101–102, were 49 feet 6 inches in length and seated fifty passengers.Bill Volkmer Collection.

66 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.29. British Columbia Electric Railway baggage-express motor No. 1706, one of four that Niles produced for this Canadian line, seen in what appears to be about 1950, based upon the Chrysler product going in the opposite direction. After thirty-seven years of service the car still looks pretty good.Van Dusen-Zillmer, M. D. McCarter Photo (N22621).

Niles had no employees who received such recognition. In the end, however, quality construction and speedy delivery were no help in a car market that had largely disappeared as traction lines called it quits due to the ever-increasing use of private automobiles. Niles’s last Electric Railway Journal advertisement appeared in the June 3, 1916, issue (TheERJ was a weekly publication) and was a full page (Fig. 5.30). In the ad, the firm seemed somewhat apologetic when it stated, “The order now seems to be safety first, comfort second, utility third, economy fourth and beauty last.” In other words, the car business had been turned on its head from what Niles had experienced in its earlier years. Practicality was now the watchword. But, unfortunately, it was too late. The electric railway expansion boom was over and the weak lines were ending their affairs and dumping used cars on the market, competing with new car manufacturing.

A Look Back 67 Figure 5.30. The last Niles advertisement to appear in theElectric Railway Journal, June 3, 1916.

68 The Electric Pullman Figure 5.31. A Southern Ontario line, the London & Lake Erie Railway & Traction Company, purchased motor cars No. 97 and 99 and trailers No. 93 and 95 from Niles in 1912. The trailers were featured in a 1912 Niles ad where they were described as inexpensive, 50-foot, two- compartment (smoker/passenger) cars without bulkheads. Canadian lines usually preferred to buy from domestic car builders but Niles received the order because it was able to deliver the cars sooner than any Canadian firm, even though they cost more.C. A. Andreae Collection.

In a few months the country would be at war and the company that had made such a favorable impression just a decade and a half earlier would be gone, departing without so much as a line in the trade journals of the electric railway industry. But its impact on the industry remained in the form of well over a thousand cars still operating around the country proudly carrying the name “Niles Car & Manufacturing Company, Niles, Ohio” above the motorman’s door.

A Look Back 69 6 } } Observations

The cars Niles built were used in a variety of service modes: city, suburban, and interurban, as well as freight. In some cases they were called upon to run almost constantly, particularly in city and suburban service, but in others only at night, which became the rule for freight service when cities balked at having them on the streets in daylight. The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Railway, for example, ran its Niles passenger cars as a boat train that met, in Grand Haven, boats from Chicago and carried the passengers and their baggage to Muskegon. Their freight motors, in season, carried large quantities of fresh fruit from western Michigan to Grand Haven for shipment to Chicago. Although Niles produced an extensive catalog of car body designs, there is no evidence that Niles had a significant design department. Rather, throughout its existence it was, to a great extent, a contract builder of railway car bodies, and the Niles catalog features numerous cars known to have been designed by others. Niles did not participate in the Master Car Builders organization but preferred to remain independent. Trucks, brakes, and hardware were purchased from other manufacturers and the catalog featured Baldwin trucks. In some cases the cars were designed by the railway companies themselves. Many of the larger traction systems maintained well-staffed engineering de- partments that were perfectly equipped to design cars and had a better understanding of the requirements for their systems than an independent designer might have had. Additionally, there were several well-known and respected engineering firms that railway companies called upon to design power plants, track, and cars—firms such as J. G. White & Company, Ford Bacon & Davis, and premier among them, Stone & Webster Incorporated, all of New York. Stone & Webster became involved with electric railways at an early date, initially through the design of power plants. Its expertise in engineering soon led to the outright management and ownership of electric street railways across the country. The firm introduced many innovations in car development

70 designed to reduce weight and increase strength and safety while reducing overall operating cost. Unfortunately, the automobile matured along with the traction industry and soon motors cars operating as jitney buses were taking away traction riders, often illegally. This prompted the industry to realize that a car was needed that promoted low-cost operation as well as safety, and a Stone & Webster employee named Charles O. Birney, an experienced car designer, came up with what became known as the Birney one-man car. This single-truck, twenty-nine-passenger car weighed in at just 13,000 pounds and cut energy consumption in half. Working with the American Car Company of St. Louis (a Brill subsidiary), the Birney car quickly became the primary competition to the jitney bus that, together with legislation, put jitneys out of business. Niles did produce a single-truck, one-man car similar to the Birney car but could not use the Birney name, which undoubtedly limited sales. The undisputed leader in the electric railway car industry was the J. G. Brill Company of Philadelphia. Brill and its subsidiaries outproduced everyone and in one year built more cars than Niles did in its entire existence. Addi- tionally, Brill manufactured nearly everything on the car except the electrical equipment. This economy of scale gave Brill a decided advantage over other car builders in pricing. Niles’s advantage came in having capacity to spare, enabling it to promise fast delivery to anxious buyers. While extreme departures from the norm were tried, however, some engineering advances in which Niles participated were less than successful. In 1907, the firm produced the famous “Electric Pullmans” for the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Railway that incorporated a 6600-volt, single-phase, alternating current (AC) electrical system initially developed by the Westing- house Electric & Manufacturing Company in 1902 but built for the WB&A by the General Electric Company. This system was largely untested but it did suggest significant savings in construction of the power system for the railroad. Because of a need to operate in city streets utilizing the 600-volt DC available there, the cars had an electrical system that was incredibly complex and ex- cessive in weight (the cars had copper sheeting on the roofs), which increased power consumption and ran up operating costs significantly. Very soon, Gen- eral Electric was requested to convert the railway to 1200-volt direct current (DC), necessitating a considerable expense and ultimately leading the railway to receivership. Even after converting the cars to DC operation, their excess weight (they weighed 109,000 pounds) resulted in high power consumption, and by 1910 many of the cars were sold to other railroads. It wasn’t Niles’s fault that the AC system was a failure but it benefited when the railway came back in 1909 with an order for twenty-seven replacement cars that were slightly smaller

Observations 71 Figure 6.1. Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway Niles motor car No. 6 and train in South Bend, Indiana. The 6600-volt AC system and four Westinghouse No. 148 motors rated at 125 horsepower and gearing for 75 miles per hour made these cars very powerful, able to pull long trains at high speeds. All except two of the 1907 cars in this series numbered 1–15 remained in service until 1929. Bill Volkmer Collection.

and lighter (at about 80,000 pounds) to operate with the conventional DC system that did not include unnecessary heavy electric equipment. The cars were designed by the engineering firm Roberts & Abbot Company. At about the same time, however, Niles participated in another 6600- volt AC installation that was a much greater success. In Indiana the Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway initiated service with its fleet of Niles cars equipped to run with the same Westinghouse AC system proposed for the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Railway. Built to steam railroad standards, the cars weighed in at 55 tons fully equipped and experienced the same operating problems in cities as the Maryland line. However, the need to switch to low-voltage DC in the cities was discontinued in 1913, enabling the South Shore to operate entirely on 6600-volt AC, often running trains of as many as twenty cars. The Niles cars were powerful and fast. But here, too, the AC system was discarded in favor of conventional DC in 1925 when the South Shore was taken over by Samuel Insull, who completely rebuilt the railway. Unfortunately, by this time Niles was out of business and unable to participate in the ensuing replacement of cars.

72 The Electric Pullman Figure 6.2. The Rapid Railway was an interurban division of the Detroit United Railway, which ran from Detroit to Port Huron, Michigan. Newly arrived from Niles in 1916 were Nos. 7311 and 7312. Don Ross Collection.

Figure 6.3. In 1902 Niles supplied eight cars, Nos. 1–8, to the Rockford Beloit & Janesville Railroad for cross-border service between Illinois and Wisconsin. They were later passed on, through mergers, to the Rockford & Interurban Railroad, which rebuilt and renumbered them in the 700 series. Author’s collection.

Observations 73 Niles supplied large numbers of cars to a number of traction lines but none exceeded the properties of the Detroit United Railway system, which received over one hundred Niles products, most of them cars for city service. Elsewhere, the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis took delivery of eighty- two cars, Lake Shore Electric over twenty, Chicago Lake Shore and South Bend twenty-four, Aurora Elgin and Chicago twenty-five, Mesaba Electric twenty-two, Toronto Civic twenty, and the Salt Lake & Utah over thirty cars, to mention only a few. Other historians, in writing about the Niles Car & Manufacturing Com- pany, have suggested that the firm produced a range of machinery for sugar mills. It seems highly unlikely that this was the case, since the manufacturing processes needed to build such equipment would not have been possible with the equipment Niles utilized for wood-car building, and no evidence of such activity has been found. Indeed, in later years Niles took great pains to point out that its steel cars did not have any specially formed parts but were constructed with readily available structural shapes. However, in the mid- nineteenth century, the Niles Tool Works, a firm formed in Cincinnati, Ohio, by the brothers James and Jonathan Niles to repair steamboats, did manufacture steam-powered sugar mill machinery that was shipped to the Louisiana plantations via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The firm later became well- known as a maker of large machine tools for the railroad industry. In looking at the production levels over the life of the Niles Car & Manu- facturing Company it appears that the firm’s leadership must have gotten very nervous when the bottom fell out in 1904. They realized that Niles needed more than a few ads in the trade journals of the day, and one attempt at im- provement was made when it hired James Ludlow, who unfortunately did not achieve the results the firm was after. Things got markedly better, however, after Ludlow was replaced by Joe Hanna, and Hanna apparently was responsible for bringing along the west coast agent Eccles & Smith Company. This latter company was a manufacturers’ representative for a great many industrial firms that produced machine tools, heavy industrial cranes, and railway equipment, and had offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. It was a member of the Railway Business Association, an organization of railway supply companies, and ultimately landed orders for over one hundred cars for Niles in several western states. The question remains as to how Niles was able to compete in the crowded field of car builders, given that aside from the car body itself, there was little about the cars that was unique and could not be duplicated by other builders. We will never really know. Suffice it to say that Niles electric railway cars

74 The Electric Pullman Figure 6.4. Waiting for a call to service in 1940, near the end of its service life, Sacramento Northern 1908 Niles trailer, formerly Northern Electric No. 225. Author’s collection.

Figure 6.5. The Trenton New Brunswick Railroad, also called the New Jersey Fast Line, was an early customer, purchasing six cars from Niles in 1902. Nos. 10–11 were combinations and Nos. 25–28 (No. 25 above) were coaches. Equipped with Peckham No. 26 high-speed trucks and four GE No. 67 motors, the Fast Line was a link in a trolley route from New York City to Philadelphia. North Jersey Chapter NRHS.

Observations 75 Figure 6.6. Lake Shore Electric Railway No. 151, a 1906 wood coach seen here in the late 1930s, shortly before service on the Lake Shore was terminated. Author’s collection.

Figure 6.7. Galesburg & Kewanee Electric Railway 1906 Niles interurban cars Nos. 51–52 snuggled in with the trolley line’s Birney cars. The single-truckers were purchased used from Detroit and the one double-truck Birney, in front of the Niles coach, was bought new. Kewanee Historical Society.

76 The Electric Pullman Figure 6.8. A pair of handsome Niles coaches from the sprawling Michigan United Railway system, Nos. 33 and 35 from the Saginaw & Flint Division, part of a 1908 order for six cars. These 40-foot-2-inch OAL cars were equipped with Baldwin Class 78-25-A trucks and four 75-horsepower motors and were capable of 60 miles per hour. GHI Alumni Historical Collection.

Figure 6.9. Youngstown & Southern Railway No. 2, one of four Niles coaches ordered in 1906. Incredibly, the traction line lasted until 1948; it was the last interurban line in Ohio. Niles Historical Society.

Observations 77 Figure 6.10. Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway motor car No. 106 and trailer No. 151 from the Niles catalog. These cars were to be permanently coupled with a diaphragm between them for sheltered passage. Author’s collection.

Figure 6.11. Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway Niles motor car No. 106 and trailer No. 151 seen shortly after delivery in 1909.George Krambles Collection.

Figure 6.12. Catalog photo of El Reno Interurban Company No. 3, one of three Niles cars shipped to Oklahoma in 1910. Author’s collection.

78 The Electric Pullman Figure 6.13. Plan view of the Niles Oklahoma Type passenger-baggage-smoker- observation car from the catalog. El Reno Interurban Company cars No. 2–3 were twins that contained parlor observations at the rear. Bill Volkmer Collection.

Figure 6.14. In 1908 the Mahoning & Shenango Railway, a line that served eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, received six passenger cars, Nos. 150–155, to be followed in 1909 with six more, Nos. 156–161. Here, No. 155, just into the barn from its run, stops for a quick photo. These cars were 50 feet 91/2 inches OAL and 8 feet 81/2 inches wide, and ran on Standard C-60 trucks with four WH 317 motors. They were scrapped in 1926.Author’s collection.

Observations 79 Figure 6.15. In 1905, apparently impressed with the quality of an earlier freight motor, Green Bay Traction Company received four single-truck cars for city service that included open “Detroit Platforms” at the rear that were later enclosed, as seen here. They rode on Taylor trucks and carried two WH 12A motors. The little 31-feet-3-inch cars weighed a scant 18,000 pounds and carried twenty-four passengers. Bill Volkmer Collection.

Figure 6.16. One of fifteen cars, Nos. 800–814, delivered in less than a month to the Cleveland Electric Railway. The cars were 38 feet 7 inches long, 8 feet 2 inches wide, and ran on Brill 27F trucks with two WH 101 motors. Bill Vigrass Collection.

80 The Electric Pullman Figure 6.17. Not exactly passing in the night, but Salt Lake & Utah Railroad No. 606 with a freight trailer, one of three steel combinations Niles built for the line in 1916, approaches a SL&U coach headed in the opposite direction. These big cars were 61 feet 8 inches long and 9 feet 6 inches wide and seated sixty-six passengers. Baldwin 84035AA trucks with four WH 334-E6, 110-horsepower motors made these cars capable of 60 miles per hour. Niles cars were evidently very popular in the state, with forty-two cars delivered there between 1911 and 1916. Bill Volkmer Collection.

Figure 6.18. While the motorman and conductor scan the track ahead, Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern Railway No. 76, a 1907 Niles product, creeps past a derailed Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad wood boxcar near Fort Dodge, Iowa, at a place called Shady Oak. Author’s collection.

Observations 81 Figure 6.19. Buffalo Lockport & Rochester Railroad No. 207 heads up a train of Niles cars, two of fifteen passenger cars made for the western New York traction line in 1908.Author’s collection.

were quality products that were reliable and comfortable and performed as advertised. Unfortunately, like the buggy whip, the need for both of them disappeared. One of the unusual orders Niles completed was a two-car order for the Ce- dar Rapids and Iowa City Railway (CRANDIC) in 1909. It consisted of motor car 106 and trailer 151, and included a diaphragm between them for passage be-

Figure 6.20. Salt Lake & Utah Railroad freight motor No. 802, one of two delivered in 1914. These cars were 50 feet OAL, 9 feet 6 inches wide, weighed about 38 tons, and were equipped with Baldwin 84-33-AA trucks and operated on 750–1500 volts DC. The cars departed from the usual clerestory roof of previous years and were built with more a modern- looking arch roof. They ran until the line quit in March 1946.Don Ross Collection.

82 The Electric Pullman Figure 6.21. Milwaukee Northern Railway purchased a number of cars from Niles between 1906 and 1912, including eight interurbans, Nos. 1–8, delivered in 1907. These 50-foot-10-inch cars were 8 feet 10 inches wide and rode on Alco MCB trucks with four WH-112-B motors. Don Ross Collection. tween cars, protected from the elements (Figs. 6.10, 6.11). It also permitted the train to run with one conductor servicing both cars. Both cars were over 58 feet long and standard steam-railroad width of 9 feet 10 inches. The motor-car was equipped with Baldwin Class 84-30-A trucks and four Westinghouse No. 112-B 75-horsepower motors capable of speeds up to 65 miles per hour. The CRANDIC operated a twenty-seven-mile line between the cities of its name and was quite successful in it early years due to the many colleges along the line. After rebuilding by the American Car Company in 1928, the motor car ran until 1950. The interurban boom did not miss Oklahoma, which until 1907 was an Indian territory. One of the traction lines was the El Reno Interurban, a line from Oklahoma City due west to El Reno, a distance of twenty-nine miles. The line was sold to the Oklahoma Railway during construction and the three Niles cars the line had ordered were part of the deal. Car No. 1 was a standard double-end Niles coach, 50 feet long and 9 feet 81/2 inches wide, and seated forty-eight passengers. Nos. 2 and 3 were single-end cars, 54 feet 7 inches long, and seated fifty-six passengers in three compartments: forward baggage, center passenger, and rear smoker/observation. The rear sections had removable windows that converted the smoker into open observation. All three cars were distinctive to the Oklahoma system, with their arched windows and clerestory roofs. Niles referred to this plan as the Oklahoma Type.

Observations 83 7} } The Survivors

A number of cars produced by the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company have survived into the twenty-first century in various conditions, from derelict car bodies to fully functional cars. They are located in trolley museums from coast to coast.

Figure 7.1. Seattle Everett Traction Company No. 55, as delivered in 1910, is now preserved in Lynwood, Washington. Niles Historical Society.

84 Figure 7.2. Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad No. 20, preserved and operating at the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin, Illinois. Built in 1902, it is believed to be the oldest operating interurban car in the United States. It has been modernized by replacing the original arch windows, a common rebuild practice with these old wood cars. Fox River Trolley Museum.

Figure 7.3. Rochester & Eastern Railway No. 157 of 1914, preserved inoperable in Rochester, New York. New York Museum of Transportation.

The Survivors 85 Figure 7.4. A “One Owner” car operating in Washington since it was built in 1909, on the traction line of the original purchaser, Yakima Valley Transportation Company, work car “A.” Author’s collection.

Figure 7.5. Oregon Electric Railway No. 1001, together with what appears to be a Niles coach, seen in service in Oregon. This train was called the Salem Express and the unusually spacious observation platform included the area inside the large rear windows. The car is now safely preserved inoperable at the Western Railway Museum in California. Western New York Railroad Archive.

86 The Electric Pullman Figure 7.6. Salt Lake & Utah Railroad steel observation trailer No. 751, built in 1916, seen here in service in Utah. It is now at the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, California, where it sees occasional service on tracks of the former Sacramento Northern Railway. Note the significant design differences between the two cars.Western New York Railroad Archive.

The Western Railway Museum, of Rio Vista, California, just north of San Francisco, is located along the right of way of the Sacramento Northern Railway and is fortunate to have two Niles observation cars in its collection: Oregon Electric Railway No. 1001, “Champoeg,” stored inoperative, and Salt Lake & Utah Railroad No. 751, used on special occasions. On the following pages is a listing of all known and discovered existent Niles cars or car bodies, the original traction line owner of each, and the year it was built. Many are only derelict car bodies awaiting an angel to appear to finance restoration.

The Survivors 87 Location Lynwood, Washington, Heritage Park Connecticut Trolley Museum, East Windsor, CT Connecticut Trolley Museum, East Windsor, CT East (Wisconsin) Troy Trolley Museum Edmonton Radial Railway Society, Edmonton, Manitoba Fox River (Wisconsin) Trolley Museum Illinois Railroad Museum, Union, IL Illinois Railroad Museum, Union, IL Mad River and NKP Museum, Bellevue, OH Minnesota Streetcar Museum, Minneapolis, MN MuseumNew York of Transportation, Rush, NY Northern Ohio Railway Museum, Medina, OH Northern Ohio Railway Museum, Medina, OH Northern Ohio Railway Museum, Medina, OH Ohio Railway Museum, Columbus, OH Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Washington, PA Rail Foundation, Michigan City, IN MuseumNew York of Transportation, Rush, NY Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista, CA Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista, CA Yakima Valley Electric Railway Museum, Yakima, WA Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista, CA 1910 1906 1909 1903 1914 1902 1907 1906 1907 1912 1914 1907 1907 1907 1905 1906 1908 1908 1910 1911 1909 1916 Year Built ompany Type Coach Coach Parlor (Northern) Coach S.T. Coach Coach Coach Coach Express Coach Coach Coach Coach Freight Motor Combine Coach Combine Coach Parlor Observation Trailer Work Parlor Observation 55 303 1500 103 6 20 150 308 46 10 157 149 151 42 21 73 208 1001 400 A 751 Car No. Seattle & Everett Interurban Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Northern Ohio Traction & Light Green Bay Traction Brandon Municipal Railway Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Lake Shore Electric Railway Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Lake Shore Electric Railway Mesaba Electric Railway Rochester & Eastern Rapid Railway Lake Shore Electric Railway Lake Shore Electric Railway Lake Shore Electric Railway PortToledo Clinton & Lakeside Railway Jersey Shore & Antes Fort RailroadChicago Lake Shore & South Bend Buffalo Lockport& Rochester Railroad Oregon Electric Railway 3 Salt Lake & Ogden Electric Railway Traction Valley Yakima Salt Lake & Utah Railroad Table 7.1. Surviving 7.1. Table Cars Built by the Niles Car & Manufacturing C Traction Line

88 The Electric Pullman Epilogue

Among traction enthusiasts, the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company seems to have developed a kind of cult following. Yes, the cars were certainly handsome and many of them provided long dependable service. They were found on rails from New Jersey to California and from Canada to Cuba. But the fact that Niles had a very short life as a manufacturing concern suggests that the founders struggled with the firm’s future. Although late in life the company attempted to initiate motor truck manufacturing, as did its competitor the Jewett Car Company, neither had any success in those endeavors. Joe Hanna’s influence was clearly in the traction car field and he had no connections in other areas. Niles’s best opportunity to reach out into other activities was through its west coast agent, Eccles & Smith Company, which represented a number of manufacturers outside the traction industry. But it didn’t happen. There is no evidence that Niles introduced anything new or unusual in either traction car design, or of any patents assigned to the company or its employees. It appears that most of the car designs originated outside the company as it had a very small drafting department. Most if not all of the appliances required to complete the cars, such as trucks, motors, controllers, seats, brakes, sanders, and lights, were purchased from other manufacturers. Indeed, when examining old street railway journals one can’t help but be struck by the wide fragmentation of the car-building industry. Perhaps it was this distance from car design that gave Niles an advantage, in that the firm was agreeable to building what the customer wanted as opposed to what the car builder thought it should have. In any case, the firm led an uneventful, and short, life. About the only excitement reported about the firm was found, strangely, not in the Niles newspaper but in the nearby Massillon Independent on April 29, 1915: “After holding up and disarming Officer Richard Whitaker and stealing his watch early in the morning, four men broke into and robbed the grocery stores of W. L. Rider and Frank Rock. They made away with $25.00

89 in cash, some cigars and candy, attempted to enter two other shops, and after jimmying their way into the factory of the Niles Car & Manufacturing Com- pany held up the night watchman, George Cauffeld. They searched the plant but secured no booty.” In the final analysis, it was our independence that brought an end to car building, not only for Niles but for all the traction car builders. The ability to travel by automobile exactly where we wanted to go and when, rather than where the trolley went, was too much for them to overcome. As the soldiers and sailors began to return home after World War I, their first thoughts were to get a job, an automobile, and a girl. But their ever-wise parents cautioned them with this advice:

A girl can be gay in a fancy coupé, In a taxicab all can be jolly. But the girl worth your while, Is the one who can still smile, When you take her home on the trolley!

90 The Electric Pullman Appendix

In the following table is a list of cars made by the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company indicating the ordering traction line, quantity, car numbers (where known), car type, and a brief reference to the source of the information. The trade journals of the period annually reported on orders received by the manufacturers, including Niles, but ordered cars were not always completed or, if completed, delivered to the ordering traction line. Therefore, some cars listed as having been ordered are not included in the list, as they could not be verified through other sources. Care has been taken to provide as accurate a list as possible, but the passage of time and the lack of any company records may have resulted in some unwarranted omissions or inclusions. The list, however, should give the reader a good understanding of the scope of Niles’s participa- tion in the traction era.

91 ozum Notes ERR 1906 order list; Int. Sp 32; Groff ERR 1907 order list; Copeland ERR order list; Copeland ERR 1908 order list; Copeland ERR 1906 order list; Groff ERR 1907; Int. Sp. 32; Groff Copeland; ERJ order list; Niles catalog Copeland; newspaper Copeland; newspaper; ERJ 4/10/09 ERJ Order list; Copeland CERA Bulletin 114; Ames H.S. photo CERA Bulletin 114; Ames H.S. photo CERA Bulletin Niles114; catalog; newspaper CERA Bulletin Niles114; catalog; newspaper CERA Bulletin114 CERA Bulletin114 Niles catalog; Copeland Copeland ERHS Bulletin 22 CERA Bulletin5; Electric Railway Dictionary photo CERA Bulletin5; The Railway9/2/04 Age Type Interurban Combination Interurban Interurban Passenger Interurban Trailer Interurban Express ERR 1907 order list; Copeland Closed Interurban Interurban Coach Interurban Trailer California California Interurban Trailer Combination Interurban Trailer 28Vestibuled ft. City CERA Bulletin114; SRR Freight Motor Interurban Trailer Interurban Combination Interurban Combination Express Light Interurban Combination Express 44 ft. 6 in. Closed Interurban order ERJ1913 list 42-1/2 ft. 42-1/2 DT Combination PeoplesTraction Company; R Interurban Passenger Passenger Café Parlor Car Numbers Car 100–102 40–42 43–44 100 45–46 200–202 220–229 105–110 50 51 52–53 ? 64–82 (even) Interurban Passenger 84 151 106 401–406 451 27–28 100 1–8 10–28 (even) 10–28 pany No 3 3 10 2 20 10 1 1 6 1 2 1 1 10 1 Carolyn (later 209) Railroad Northern Electric Ry San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Ry 3 San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Ry 2 San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Ry 1 San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Ry 2 Northern Electric Ry Northern Electric Ry (Sacramento Northern) San Diego Southern (National City and Otay) 6 San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Ry 1 San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Ry 1 San Francisco Napa & Calistoga Ry Des Moines Railway Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern Ry Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern Ry 1 Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway Davenport & Muscatine Railway Davenport & Muscatine Railway Boise Valley Railway Caldwell Traction Company Caldwell Traction Company Peoples Traction Company (Galesburg) 2 6, 8 Rockford Beloit & Janesville Railroad Co. 8 Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad 1906 1907 1907 1907 1908 1908 1908 1908 1909 1909 1913 1903 1907 1907 1909 1909 1912 1912 1911 1910 1913 1902 1902 1902 1904 Table AppendixTable 1. Cars Built by Niles Car & Manufacturing Com State Date CA CA CA CA CA CA CA CA CA CA CA IA IA IA IA IA IA IA ID ID ID IL IL IL IL

92 Appendix . CERA Bulletin 5 CERA Bulletin 5 CERA roster The Great Third Rail ERR 1906 order list; Rozum The Great Third Rail ERR 1907 order list; Ross ERR 1907 order list; Ross Newspaper; Niles catalog; ERJ 5/1/09 30; TH 12 No. Vol. 4 ERJ May 1914 16, CERA Bulletin102 ERR 10/15/06 ERR 1906 order list ERR 1906 order list; CERA photo ERR 2/27/07; NilesERR catalog; 2/27/07; photo Electric Railway Review; Berndt Electric Railway Review; Berndt Electric Railway Review; Berndt CERA Bulletin 139; ERR4/27/07 ERR CERA Bulletin 2/23/07, 101 ERR CERA 2/23/07; Bulletin101 Electric Railway Review; Middleton Electric Railway Review; Middleton Electric Railway Review, photo CERA Bulletin102 Trolley Sparks 84; CERA Bulletin No. TH 3 14 137; Vol. Interurban Passenger Café Parlor D.T. Interurban Interurban Passenger Freight Express Interurban Express 50-Passenger Trailer Single-Truck PAYE City Niles Cars, ERHS Bulletin No Single-Truck City Interurban Interurban Express CERA Bulletin102;1905 ERJ order list Work 50 ft. Express Interurban Passenger Freight Motor Interurban Combination Interurban 52 ft.52 Express 45 ft.DE Cars Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Freight Motor Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Work Interurban Passenger Interurban Coach 201–207 (odd)201–207 Interurban Passenger 300–308 200, 202 200, 51–52 208–209 101 301–304 250–258 (even) 50 21–23 3–8 50–51 1–2 101–102 201–209 901–902 1–15 70–77 (2nd) 279 4 9 1 Florence (later 600) 2 1 9 2 1 4 5 4 2 1 3 3 & ? 6 2 2 15 1 2 2, 4 Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Aurora Elgin & Fox River Electric Ry Galesburg & Kewanee Electric Railway 2 Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad Elgin & Belvidere Electric Railway Elgin & Belvidere Electric Railway Chicago & Southern Traction Co. Aurora Elgin & Fox River Electric Ry Rockford & Interurban Railway Co. Muncie Hartford & Ft. Wayne Ry Marion Bluffton & Eastern Traction Co. 1 Marion Bluffton & Eastern Traction Co. 1 Ft. Wayne & Springfield Ry Ft. Wayne & Springfield Ry Indianapolis Columbus & Southern Traction 3 Toledo & ChicagoToledo Interurban Ry Toledo & ChicagoToledo Interurban Ry Toledo & ChicagoToledo Interurban Ry Chicago NY Electric Air Line Railroad 2 Indianapolis & Louisville Traction Co. 9 Indianapolis & Louisville Traction Co. 2 Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Ry Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Ry 8 Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Ry 1 Union Traction Company Gary & Southern Traction Company 1905 1906 1906 1906 1906 1907 1907 1907 1909 1910 1914 1903 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1905 1907 1907 1907 1907 1908 1908 1912 1912 IL IL IL IL IL IL IL IL IL IL IL IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN IN

Appendix 93 n Notes Trolley Sparks 84; CERA Bulletin; No. TH 3 14 Vol. SRR Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken Every Hour on the Hour, Merriken When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails ERR 1906 order list; Krentel When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails ERR 1908 order list; Niles catalog ERR 1908 order list; Krentel; Niles catalog Bradley; CERA Bulletin104 When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails; ERJ 4/10/09 When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails CERA Bulletin Detroit Street117, Railways ERHS Bulletin 29; Niles catalog Type Interurban Combination Interurban 10- & 12-Bench Open Interurban Combination Interurban Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Freight Motor Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Freight Motor Interurban Passenger Interurban Special Parlor Every Hour on the Hour, Merrike Express Trailers Express Express Motor Express Motor Official Car Official Interurban Coach ST City ST City Interurban Closed Interurban Express ERJ 1909 order list; Krentel Interurban Express Northern Indiana Railway, Interurban Closed D.T. City D.T. D.T. Suburban D.T. Car Numbers Car 20–23 50–68 77–79 (rebuilds) 77–79 1–2 40–56 67–76 57–65 100 4–6 8–9 7500 42–43, 205–206 42–43, 7758–7759 103 33–38 1–2 39–40 7063–7072 Interurban Closed 1625–1649 7106–7109 No 2 6, 8 15 19 17 10 1 4 2 6 1 2 2 10 25 4 Railroad Gary & Southern Traction Company Louisville Anchorage & Pewee Valley Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 4 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 3 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 2 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 1 3 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 9 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 1 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 3 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 1 7 Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Elec. Ry 2 Detroit United Ry Michigan United Ry Ann Arbor City Lines Marquette County Gas & Electric Co. 1 Saginaw & Flint Ry Saginaw & Flint Ry Southern Michigan Ry Saginaw & Flint Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry 1912 1902 1907 1907 1910 1907 1909 1909 1909 1910 1910 1912 1912 1914 1906 1906 Pre 1907 1908 1908 1909 1909 1910 1910 1910 1910 Table AppendixTable 1. (continued) State Date IN KY MD MD MD MD MD MD MD MD MD MD MD MD MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI

94 Appendix a et al. CERA Bull.When 117, Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails ERJ order 1912 list; Bajema et al. ERJ order 1912 list; Bajema et al. Newspaper When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails ERJ 6/12/15; WhenERJ 6/12/15; Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails Hilton; cars never operated electrically ERJ order 1912 list; TH 3 No. 2; Vol. Olson ERJ order 1912 list; Olson ERJ order 1912 list; Olson TH 3 No. 2; Vol. Olson Electric Railways of Minnesota, Olson Electric Railways of MN, Olson Electric Railways of MN, Olson Interurban Coach D.T. City D.T. Interurban Interurban Closed Interurban Combination Interurban Interurban Express ERJ order 1912 list; newspaper; Bajem Work Interurban Closed Interurban Closed Interurban Closed Interurban Closed Interurban Closed Line Car Steel InterurbanSteel Interurban Closed Interurban Closed Steel InterurbanSteel Interurban Coach Trailer Express Combination Interurban Coach Combination Combination 7123–7126 1610–1624 7073–7076 7077–7083 Interurban Closed 7084–7093 Interurban Closed 19 18 110–112 7127–7128 7308 7094 7129–7131 7309–7310 7763, 7773 7763, 7095–7096 Interurban 7520–7521 7595–7596 7311–7312 10–14 1–4 101–102 15–19 (2nd) 13 (2nd) 15–18 (2nd) 12 4 15 4 7 10 1 2 1 1 3 2 4 7263, 7284, 2 2 2 2 2 5 4 2 5 1 4 1 Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Grand Rapids Grand Haven & Muskegon Ry 1 Grand Rapids Grand Haven & Muskegon Ry 1 Grand Rapids Grand Haven & Muskegon Ry 3 Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Detroit United Ry Toledo & DetroitToledo Railroad Mesaba Electric Ry Mesaba Electric Ry Mesaba Electric Ry Mesaba Electric Ry Mesaba Electric Ry Mesaba Electric Ry Mesaba Electric Ry 1910 1911 1912 1912 1912 1912 1912 1912 1912 1912 1912 1913 1913 1915 1915 1916 1916 1916 1916 1916 1912 1912 1912 1912 1914 1914 1914 MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MI MN MN MN MN MN MN MN

Appendix 95 Notes ERJ May 9, 1914; ElectricERJ May 1914; 9, Railways of Minnesota, Olson ERJ May 9, 1914; ElectricERJ May 1914; 9, Railways of Minnesota, Olson Electric Railways of Minnesota, Olson Niles Cars, ERHS Bulletin No. 30 ERJ 1916 orderERJ list 1916 Lines in NJ, Hamm, Jr. SRR; Public Service Trolley Lines In NJ, Hamm, Jr. Rochester Syracuse & Eastern, Gordon and McFarlane Niles catalog; Gordon and McFarlane Rochester Syracuse & Eastern, Gordon and McFarlane ERR 1906 order list; Niles Catalog, Fenton H.S. ERR 1906 order list, Fenton H.S. Jamestown and Chautauqua Lake Trolleys, Fenton H.S. ERJ/ERR 1906 order list; Gordon CERA Bulletin143; McFarlane Rochester Syracuse & Eastern, Gordon and McFarlane ERR 1906 order list; Rochester Syracuse & Eastern ERR 1906 order list; Rochester Syracuse & Eastern Type Interurban Coach Interurban Combination Interurban Express Center Entrance City Open Bench 45 ft. Interurban Coach SRR; Public ServiceTrolley Combination Coach Combination Coach Interurban Closed 50 ft. Express 15-Bench Open15-Bench Passenger Work Express Express Combination Car Numbers Car 51–52 1–2 (2nd) 101 65–68 25–28 10–11 97–99 100–101 110–112 115–118 110 200–203 204–205 50 61 67 68 No 2 2 1 4 4 4 2 3 2 3 4 1 4 2 1 1 1 1 Railroad St. Paul Southern Electric Ry St. Paul Southern Electric Ry Mesaba Electric Ry Butte Electric Railway Butte Electric Railway Trenton & New Brunswick Railroad Trenton & New Brunswick Railroad Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Chautauqua Traction Co. Chautauqua Traction Co. Chautauqua Traction Co. Elmira Water Lt & Railroad Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Rochester & Syracuse Railroad 1914 1914 1915 1914 1916 1902 1902 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 Table AppendixTable 1. (continued) State Date MN MN MN MT MT NJ NJ NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY

96 Appendix 07 CERA Bulletin143; McFarlane CERA Bulletin143 Rochester Syracuse & Eastern, Gordon and McFarlane Niles Cars, ERHS Bulletin No. 30; Gordon ERJ July 15, 1916 Christiansen CERA Bulletin108; Korach SRR CERA Bulletin108 CERA Bulletin108 CERA Bulletin108 CERA Bulletin108 CERA Bulletin109 CERA Bulletin109 SRR SRR The Southwestern Lines, Brashares Christiansen; Street Railway Review CERA Bulletin109; NOT&L Story; photo CERA Bulletin109; NOT&L Story; photo CERA Bulletin109; NOT&L Story SRJ 4/29/05 SRJ 4/29/05 Toledo & WesternToledo Railway, Hague and Hise Toledo PortToledo Clinton & Lakeside, Hilton; Niles factory photo New Northern Ohio’s Christiansen Interurbans, Line Car 51 ft.51 Interurban Coach CERA Bulletin No. 12; ERR 19 May Combination Express Interurban Coach ST City Interurban Coach City (Rebuilds) Work MaintenanceWork D.T. City D.T. D.T. City D.T. D.T. City D.T. D.T. City D.T. Interurban Combination Interurban Work FreightWork Motor 28 ft. Car Body 28 ft. Coach Baggage Combination Interurban Coach Interurban Coach Funeral CarFuneral City Interurban Combination Interurban Passenger Combination 50 50–52 201–215 301–302 157 104–109 124–129 808–814 800–807 188, 193, 197 106–112 1–6 56–59 20–27 30–31 27, 29 28 53 1–5 1 3 15 2 1 2 6 2 7 8 3 7 6 1 7 10 8 2 2 1 20 1 1 4 5, 6, 20, 21 Rochester & Syracuse Railroad Hudson Valley Railway Buffalo Lockport& Rochester Railroad Buffalo Lockport& Rochester Railroad Rochester & Eastern Rapid Railway Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville RR Toledo BowlingToledo Green & Southern Traction 6 Mahoning Valley Ry Western Ohio Railway Cleveland Electric Railway Cleveland Electric Railway Cleveland Electric Railway Cleveland Electric Railway Stark Electric Railway Stark Electric Railway United Power Co. (East Liverpool, OH) 4 Toledo RailwaysToledo & Light Company Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Ry 4 Western Ohio Ry Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co. Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co. Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co. Youngstown Steubenville Traction & Light Co. Toledo & WesternToledo Ry Toledo PortToledo Clinton & Lakeside Ry Sandusky Norwalk & Mansfield Elec. Ry 5 1906 1907 1908 1908 1914 1916 1902 1902 1903 1903 1903 1903 1903 1903 1903 1903 1903 1903 1903 1904 1904 1904 1905 1905 1905 1905 1905 NY NY NY NY NY NY OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH

Appendix 97 Notes Niles factory photo; Niles ad; CERA Bulletin108 The Southwestern Lines, Brashares Toledo PortToledo Clinton & Lakeside, Hilton The Railway 5/4/06 Age Brashares; sold to Illinois Terminal as 270–271 Toledo PortToledo Clinton & Lakeside, Hilton ERJ 1906 order list ERR 1906 order list; CERA Bulletin108; CERA Bulletin108; SRR Sept.1906 LSE Railway Story, Harwood Toledo & WesternToledo Railway, Hague and Hise Korach; photo of 142 Niles factory photo; Bulletin CERA 108 ERR 1907 order list; Christiansen; Niles catalog The Southwestern Lines, Brashares LSE Railway Story, Harwood ERR 1907 order list CERA Bulletin108 ERR 1907 order list; letter; Bulletin CERA 108 ERR 1907 order list; letter; Bulletin CERA 108 ERR 1907 order list; letter CERA Bulletin108 Brashares Type Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Freight Motor 50 ft. Express Passenger Express Interurban 39 ft.39 City Interurban Passenger Combination Interurban Coach ST City Interurban Interurban Passenger Combination Interurban Passenger Combination Interurban Combination Interurban Freight Combination Interurban Passenger a, Mary 68 ft. 4 in. Parlor Car Numbers Car 22–31 130–139 40–41 22–23 2–8 (even) 50–73 150–159 54–55 140–149 40–49 17–20 140–149 160–164 1–9 (odd)1–9 Interurban Passenger 11–15 (odd) 11–15 99 12 (2nd) No 10 10 2 1 2 1 4 24 10 2 10 10 4 10 5 2 & ? 57 2 6, 8 5 3 1 1 2 C, E Railroad Akron Bedford & Cleveland Railroad Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Ry Toledo PortToledo Clinton & Lakeside Ry Dayton Northern & Traction Co. Columbus Delaware & Marion Railway 2 Glenn Toledo PortToledo Clinton & Lakeside Ry Dayton Northern & Traction Youngstown & Southern Ry Mahoning Valley Ry Lake Shore Electric Ry Toledo & WesternToledo Ry Lake Shore Electric Ry Mahoning Valley Railway Toledo FostoriaToledo & Findlay Ry Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Ry Lake Shore Electric Ry Eastern Ohio Traction Co. Youngstown & Southern Ry Youngstown & Ohio River Railroad Youngstown & Ohio River Railroad Youngstown & Ohio River Railroad Youngstown & Southern Ry Columbus Marion and Bucyrus RR 1905 1905 1905 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1906 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1907 1908 Table AppendixTable 1. (continued) State Date OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH

98 Appendix Christiansen CERA Bulletin108 ERR 1908 order list; Niles catalog Newspaper CERA Bulletin108 CERA Bulletin108 ERJ Order List Order ERJ The Southwestern Lines, Brashares CERA Bulletin109; NOT&L Story CERA Bulletin108 Christensen; Niles Catalog; Brashares CERA Bulletin108; newspaper Brashares CERA Bulletin108; newspaper Christiansen CERA Bulletin109; NOT&L Story CERA Bulletin109 CERA Bulletin109 CERA Bulletin109 ERHS Bulletin No. 30; Niles catalog; Christiansen Niles ad; ERJ ERJ 6/26/15; order list Conneaut & Erie Traction, Rohrbeck Christensen; CERA Bulletin108 Bulletin CERA 108 Christiansen Christiansen CERA Bulletin108 CERA Bulletin108 CERA Bulletin108; Korach Interurban Passenger Interurban Passenger Freight Trailer Coach City Interurban Passenger Freight Interurban Passenger Business Car Express Parlor Freight Motor Interurban Passenger City Interurban Coach Freight Motor City Line Car City Steel Coach ST City Center Entrance Int. Steel Coach City Steel Coach Interurban Express Center Entrance Trailer Line Car Freight Trailer 18, 21 150–155 15 74–85 156–161 160–162 Northern 103 Alvesta (200) 1005–1007 86–97 96–98 301–315 800–801 316–317 20–23 207, 208 207, 57 501–520 25–26 55 526–530 801 1008–1011 2 6 3 8 & ? 1 12 6 2 1 1 3 1 B 12 1 4 15 2 2 4 4 & ? 115 2 1 20 2 1 5 1 4 Cleveland & Eastern Traction Co. Mahoning & Shenango Ry Toledo UrbanToledo & Interurban Ry Youngstown & Ohio River Railroad Mahoning & Shenango Ry Mahoning & Shenango Ry Mahoning & Shenango Ry Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Ry 3 Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co. Cleveland & Erie Ry Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Ry 1 Mahoning & Shenango Ry Columbus Marion and Bucyrus RR Mahoning Valley Ry Cleveland Painesville & Ashtabula RR 3 Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co. Mahoning & Shenango Ry Pennsylvania & Ohio Electric Co. Mahoning & Shenango Ry Toledo FostoriaToledo & Findlay Ry East Liverpool Traction & Light Co. Conneaut & Erie Traction Co. Eastern Ohio Traction Co. Pennsylvania & Ohio Electric Co. Tiffin Fostoria & Eastern Electric Ry Cleveland & Eastern Traction Co. Pennsylvania & Ohio Electric Co. Mahoning & Shenango Ry Pennsylvania & Ohio Electric Co. 1908 1908 1908 1909 1909 1909 1909 1909 1909 1909 1909 1909 1910 1910 1910 1911 1913 1914 1914 1914 1915 1915 1915 1915 1915 1915? 1916 1917 1917 OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH

Appendix 99 Notes ERR 1907 order list; Niles catalog; ERR 11/9/07 ERR 1908 order list Elec. Trac. Quarterly, 2 No. 2 1963 Vol. Elec. Trac. Quarterly, 2 No. Vol. 2 1963, TH 12 No. Vol. 4 Elec. Trac. Quarterly, 2 No. Vol. 2 1963, TH 12 No. Vol. 4 Korach ERR 1908 order list; Niles catalog; Bonn ERR 1908 order list; Bonn Bonn ERJ 1910 orderERJ list; 1910 Niles catalog; Bonn ERJ 1910 orderERJ list; 1910 Niles catalog; Copeland Newspaper; BonnNewspaper; Newspaper; Copeland ERJ order list; Niles ERJ 1915 ad (Portland Ry & Lt) ERJ order list; Niles ERJ 1915 ad (Portland Ry & Lt) CERA BulletinWest Penn110; Traction Pennsylvania Trolley Museum; photos; CERA142 Niles factory photo ERR 1906 order list; TH 4 No. 4;Vol. Fronczek ERR 1906 order list; TH 4 No. 4;Vol. Fronczek Type Int Coach Interurban Trailer Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Steel Center Entrance Interurban Trailer Interurban Coach Trailer Interurban Combination Interurban Parlor Observation Coach Steel PassengerSteel Steel CladSteel Interurban Combination Combination Parlor Interurban Coach Interurban Combination Interurban Car Numbers Car 30–31 121–130 57–58 100–102 103–105 150–151 Motor Baggage 106–109 58–60 1000–1001 10 11–14 1–2 608–609 1–3 Marsonia 100, 103, 107–110 101–102, 104–106 No 2 2 1 1 2 2, 3 10 3 3 2 4 3 2 1 4 2 2 3 1 6 5 Railroad Choctaw Railway & Lighting Co. Choctaw Railway & Lighting Co. El Reno Interurban Co. El Reno Interurban Co. Oklahoma Railway Oregon Water Power & Light Company 2 Oregon Electric Ry Oregon Electric Ry Oregon Electric Ry Oregon Electric Ry Oregon Electric Ry Oregon Electric Ry Portland Eugene & Eastern Ry WillametteValley Southern Ry WillametteValley Southern Ry West Penn Railways Jersey Shore & Antes Fort Railroad Pittsburgh & Butler Street Ry Pittsburgh & Butler Street Ry Pittsburgh & Butler Street Ry 1907 1908 1910 1910 1910 1904 1908 1908 1908 1910 1910 1910 1912 1914 1914 1904 1906 1906 1906 1906 Table AppendixTable 1. (continued) State Date OK OK OK OK OK OR OR OR OR OR OR OR OR OR OR PA PA PA PA PA

100 Appendix ERR 6/27/07; York County York ERR 6/27/07; Trolleys, Rohrbeck ERJ 4/17/09 ERJ ERJ 5/29/09; THERJ 12 No.4; Vol. Niles 5/29/09; catalog ERJ 5/29/09; NilesERJ 5/29/09; catalog ERJ order 1912 list ERJ Oct.Copeland 1913; 11, ERJ Oct.Copeland 1913; 11, ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars; TH No. 1 16 Vol. ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars (Charleroi, PA) ERJ, 5/13/16 Factory photo; later No. 6 of the Roby & Northern RR ERJ 1911 orderERJ list; 1911 TH Vol. WRM2 No. 1, photo ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars; Copeland ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars; Copeland ERJ order1913 list; newspaper; Niles catalog ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars; Copeland ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars; Copeland ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars; Copeland Interurbans of Utah, Swett; ERHS Bulletin No. 30 ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars; Copeland Utah Rails.net; Swett Utah Rails.net; Swett Interurban Passenger Interurban Express ERR 1908 order list; Fronczek Experimental PAYE Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Interurban Passenger Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Center Entrance Coach Center Entrance City 50 ft. Interurban Passenger Gas-Electric Combination Trailer S.T. City S.T. Interurban Coach Closed Combination Steel Combine Steel Freight Motor Locomotive Steel Combination Steel Trailer Observation Trailer 500–503 201–202 3550 101–102 201–202 103–106 103–104 101–102 1–2 301–302 699 400–405 11–12 Washakie 310–312, 314–318 601–605 801–802 51 606–609 701–702 751–752 4 1 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 2 6 2 2 Pinecrest & 8 404, 405, 406, & ? 8 5 2 1 4 2 2 Hanover Railway & York Pittsburgh Harmony Butler & New Castle Ry 2 Pittsburgh Rys Co. Southern Cambria Ry Southern Cambria Ry Southern Cambria Ry Northwestern Pennsylvania Ry Northwestern Pennsylvania Ry South Fork-Portage Railway West Side Electric Street Railway Southern Cambria Railway Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad 1 Salt Lake & Ogden Electric Ry Provo City Lines Emigration Canyon RR Salt Lake & Ogden Electric Ry Salt Lake & Ogden Electric Ry Salt Lake & Utah Railroad Salt Lake & Utah Railroad Salt Lake & Utah Railroad Salt Lake & Utah Railroad Salt Lake & Utah Railroad Salt Lake & Utah Railroad 1907 1908 1909 1909 1909 1912 1913 1913 1913 1914 1916 1916 1911 1913 1913 1913 1913 1914 1914 1914 1916 1916 1916 PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA TN UT UT UT UT UT UT UT UT UT UT UT

Appendix 101 er list Notes ERJ 1909 order list ERJ 1909 order list; Johnsen; Niles catalog ERJ 1909 order list; Johnsen ERJ 1909 order list; Johnsen; Niles catalog ERJ 1910 orderERJ list, 1910 ad; ERHS Bulletin 29 ERJ 1909 order list; Seattle To by Trolley, Wing; Paper CERA Bulletin BadgerTraction111; Traction & Trolleys No. 62; Bulletin CERA,111 BadgerTraction CERA Bulletin BadgerTraction111; CERA Bulletin SRJ Dec.97, 1907 ERHS Bulletin 29 CERA Bulletin 97 CERA Bulletin 97 Bulletin CERA, 111 Badger Traction; newspaper ERHS Bull. No. 30; Bulletin 111 CERA; BadgerTraction CERA BulletinWest Penn110; Traction; 1906 order list ERHS Bulletin No. 30, Niles Cars SRR 3/20/03 ERJ 1911 orderERJ list; 1911 MacKellar Type City Interurban Combination Interurban Express Work Interurban Closed Interurban Closed Interurban Coach Freight Motor S.T. City S.T. 41 ft.,41 8'5" wide City SRJ Dec.1907; ERR1906 ord Interurban Passenger Interurban Combination Interurban Work Interurban Passenger City Coach 43 ft. 6 in., 8'6" wide City CERA Bulletin 97 Single-Truck City Freight Motor 47 ft.47 8 in.,52-Passenger order 3/2/07; ERJ list; Niles catalog Special Coach 20 ft. Car Bodies Int. Baggage Express ERJ order 1912 list; Ashton Interurban Coach Car Numbers Car 100 300 101–104 50–55 102–107 201 16–19 101–108 1–8 9–10 11–12? 102 109–110 560 31–32 1706–1709 97, 99 2 1 1 1 A 4 6 6 1 4 8 8 2 1 O 2 1 2 4 23, 21, 25, 27 No 1 8 120 & ? 2 35 4 2 Yakima Valley Transportation Co. Yakima Valley Transportation Co. Yakima Valley Transportation Co. Yakima Valley Transportation Co. Twin Cities Light & Traction Co. Seattle & Everett Interurban Ry Green Bay Traction Co. Green Bay Traction Co. Green Bay Traction Co. Milwaukee Northern Ry Milwaukee Northern Ry Milwaukee Northern Ry Milwaukee Northern Ry Milwaukee Northern Ry Wausau Street Ry Milwaukee Northern Ry Janesville Street Railway Railroad Wheeling Traction Co. Camden Interstate Ry Newell Bridge & Railway Havana Electric Railway British Columbia Electric Ry London & Lake Erie Ry 1909 1909 1909 1909 1910 1910 1903 1903 1905 1906 1907 1908 1907 1908 1909 1912 1914 1906 1907 1914 1903 1912 1912 WA WA WA WA WA WA WI WI WI WI WI WI WI WI WI WI WI Table AppendixTable 1. (continued) State Date W.Va W.Va W.Va Cuba BC Ont

102 Appendix ERJ 1911 orderERJ list; 1911 MacKellar ERJ order 1912 list; MacKellar ERHS Bulletin No. 30; Niles Cars ERHS Bulletin No. 30; Niles Cars; photo Railway SRR Age 4/18/02; 3/20/03 Railway SRR Age 4/18/02; 3/20/03 Railway SRR Age 2/7/02; 3/20/03 Interurban Trailer Interurban Baggage City & Suburban Single-Truck City 78 ft. Coach Combination Coach Combination 62 ft.62 Coach (2nd) 27 100–119 1–10 511–520 2 93, 95 1 20 10 12 4 10 London & Lake Erie Ry London & Lake Erie Ry Toronto Civic RailwayToronto Brandon Municipal Railway Terre HauteTerre & Indianapolis RR Terre HauteTerre & Indianapolis RR Seaboard Air Line Railway 1912 1912 1913 1914 1903 1903 1903 Ont Ont Ont Man Rail- roads

Appendix 103 This page intentionally left blank Refe rences

Ahlstrom, Harold J. Jamestown and Chautauqua Lake Trolleys. Jamestown, NY: Fenton Historical Society, 1974. Bajema, Carl, Dave Kindem, and Jim Budzynski. The Lake Line: The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and Muskegon Railway. Bulletin 144. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 2010. Berndt, Craig J. The Toledo & Chicago Interurban Railway Company: Its Predecessors and Successors. Fort Wayne, IN: published by author, 2007. Bianculli, Anthony J. Iron Rails in the Garden State: Tales of New Jersey Railroading. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. Blower, James M., and Robert S. Korach. The N.O.T.L. Story. Bulletin 109. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association. Bradley, George. Northern Indiana Railway. Bulletin 132. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1998. Brashares, Jeffrey R.The Southwestern Lines. Worthington, OH: Ohio Interurban Memories, 1982. ——— . Through the Heart of Ohio: The Story of the Columbus, Delaware & Marion Electric Company. Cincinnati, OH: Terminal Press Division, ALDIX International Corporation, 1973. Brill, Debra. History of the J. G. Brill Company. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. Buckley, James J. Gary Railways. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1949. Bullard, Thomas, and William Henning.Faster Than the Limiteds. Bulletin 137. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 2003. Canfield, Joseph M.West Penn Traction. Bulletin 110. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1968. Carlson, Norman, and Robert Leves. Iowa Trolleys. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1975. Central Electric Railfans’ Association. Badger Traction. Bulletin 111. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1969. ——— . Electric Railways of Indiana. Bulletins 101–102. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1958. ——— . Electric Railways of Indiana. Bulletin 104. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1960. ——— . Electric Railways of Northeastern Ohio. Bulletin 108. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1965. Christiansen, Harry. Lake Shore Electric. Cleveland, OH: published by author, 1963. ——— . New Northern Ohio’s Interurbans and Rapid Transit Railways. Cleveland, OH: Trolleyville USA, 1983. ——— . Ohio Trolley Trails. Cleveland, OH: published by author, 1971. Diers, John W., and Aaron Isaacs. Twin Cities by Trolley: The Streetcar Era in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. Dodge, Richard V. San Diego Southern Railway. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books, 1975.

105 Electric Railway History Society. The Niles Car and Manufacturing Company. Bulletin 29. Chicago, IL: Electric Railway Historical Society, 1958. The Electric Railway Journal. McGraw, 1908–1917. The Electric Railway Review. Wilson, 1907–1908. Gordon, William R. The Route of the Orange Limited: The Story of the Canandaigua Street Railway Company, The Canandaigua Electric Light and Railway Company, Ontario Light and Traction Company and The Rochester and Eastern Rapid Railway. Interlaken, NY: Heart of the Lakes, 1986. ——— . Elmira and Chemung Valley Trolleys in the Southern Tier. Rochester, NY: published by author, 1970. Gordon, William R., and James R. McFarlane. The Rochester Syracuse & Eastern: “Travelectric” 1906–1931. Rochester, NY: published by authors, 1961. Grace Allison Collection. Niles Historical Society, Niles, OH. Hague, Wilbur E., and Kirk F. Hise. The Toledo and Western Railway Company: 1930–1935. Forty Fort, PA: Harold Cox, 2000. Hamm, Edward, Jr. The Public Service Trolley Lines in New Jersey. Rev. ed. Polo, IL: Transportation Trails, 1997. Harwood, Herbert H., and Robert S. Korach. The Lake Shore Electric Railway Story. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. Hilton, George W. The Toledo Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway. Publication 42. Chicago, IL: Electric Railway Historical Society, 1964. Hilton, George W., and John Due. The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964. Hitt, Rodney.Electric Railway Dictionary. McGraw, 1911. Reprint, Los Angeles, CA: Periscope Film, 2008. Ibata, David. “Too Far Ahead of its Time.” NC&StL Railway Preservation Society Newsletter, August 2009, 10–14. Keller, David N. Stone & Webster, 1889–1989: A Century of Integrity and Service. Dover, DE: Dover Litho, 1989. Krambles, George, ed. The Great Third Rail. Bulletin 105. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1961. MacKellar, Dan. “Southwestern Traction Company/London and Lake Erie Railway.” Last modified May 8, 2011. http://www.trainweb.org/swtractionco/equipment/swtroster.html. Martin, John E. On a Streak of Lightning: Electric Railways in Canada. Delta, BC: Studio E, 1994. McFarlane, James R. Travelectric: The Story of the Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern Railroad and Associated Lines. Bulletin 143. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 2009. Merriken, John E. Every Hour on the Hour: A Chronicle of the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad. Dallas, TX: Taylor, 1993. Middleton, William D. North Shore: America’s Fastest Interurban. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books, 1964. ——— . South Shore: The Last Interurban. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books, 1977. Moedinger, William M. The Trolley: Triumph of Transport. Lebanon, PA: Applied Arts, 1971. The Niles Car and Manufacturing Company: Interurban and Suburban Motorcars, Trolley Cars & Passenger Cars; 1910 Catalog. Reprint, Los Angeles, CA: Periscope Film, 2010. Niles Cars. Catalog reprint. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Press, 1982. The Niles Daily News. Niles, OH. January 1908–December 1917. Niles Historical Society. A Pictorial History of Niles, Ohio. Bicentennial ed. Niles, OH: Niles Historical Society, 1976. Oklahoma Railway Company. Electric Traction Quarterly 2, no. 2 (Winter 1963–1964). Olson, Russell L. Electric Railways of Minnesota. Hopkins, MN: Minnesota Transportation Museum, 1976. The Railway Age. Simmons-Boardman, 1901–1917. “Railway Uses New Motor Car for Branch Line.” Popular Mechanics, December 1917, 835.

106 References Rohrbeck, Benson W. York County Trolleys: An Illustrated History of the Street Railway in York County, Pennsylvania. West Chester, PA: published by author, 1978. Rozum, Fred A. Streetcars in Kewanee and Galva, Illinois. Kewanee, IL: Kewanee Historical Society, 2008. Schramm, Jack E., and William Henning. Detroit Street Railways. Bulletin 117. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 1978. ——— . When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails. Book 2, Interurban Special 105. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press, 1986. Schramm, Jack E., William H. Henning, and Richard R. Andrews. When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails. Book 1, Interurban Special 94. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press, 1984. ——— . When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails. Book 3, Interurban Special 109. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press, 1988. The Street Railway Journal. McGraw, 1901–1907. The Street Railway Review. Windsor & Kendfield, 1901–1906. ——— . Cars of the Sacramento Northern. Interurban Special 32. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press, 1963. Swett, Ira L.Interurbans of Utah. Interurban Special 15. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press, 1954. ——— . Sacramento Northern. Interurban Special 26. Glendale, CA: Interurban Press, 1962. “Thugs Hold Up Officer, Disarm Policeman, Steal His Watch and then Rob Grocery Stores.” Massillon Independent, April 29, 1915. Tobin, Edward. Before the North Shore. Bulletin 141. Chicago, IL: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 2007. Traction and Trolleys Quarterly, Nos. 46, 48, 51–65 (1996–2008). Vanishing Traction Products. Traction Heritage, vols. 1–16 (1961–1982), miscellaneous issues. Reprints of issues of The Street Railway Journal and Electric Railway Journal, 1888–1919. Wing, Warren. To Seattle by Trolley. Edmonds, WA: Pacific Fast Mail, 1988.

Correspondence with:

Ashton, Robert, Frazier Valley Heritage Railway Berndt, Craig, author, traction historian Bonn, Roy, traction historian, Oregon Electric Railroad Historical Society Bosan-Bruno, Don, traction historian Copeland, P. Allen, traction historian Fronczek, William, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum Graebner, James, author, traction consultant Groff, Garth C., author, traction historian Kindem, David, Coopersville Area Historical Museum King, Leroy O., Jr., author, traction historian Korach, Bob, author, traction historian Krentel, Norman, Illinois Railway Museum Morrison, Allen, traction historian Schult, Dain, railroad author Vigrass, Bill, author, traction historian

References 107 And kind assistance from:

Automotive Collections, Detroit Public Library The Cleveland Public Library Cleveland State University Library Iron Range Historical Society Kewanee (Illinois) Historical Society Niles (Ohio) Historical Society Ohio Historical Society Oxford, Ohio, Library

108 References I ndex

Note: Page numbers in italics indicate Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 26 photographs and captions. Beach, Ralph H., 42 Birney, Charles O., 71 accidents, 34, 81 Birney cars, 71, 76 acid tanks, 3 Board of Trade, 48–49 advertising: car illustrations, 36; and competi- Boise Valley Railway, 27 tion, 42; Electric Railway Journal, 67, 68; one- boom-and-bust economic cycles, 15 man cars, 56; and primary source on Niles, brakes, 11, 12, 26, 70, 89 48; and quality of Niles cars, 74; and sales Brandon Municipal Railway, 37, 37, 88 office location, 24; steam railroad references, breezers, 11. See also open cars 60; and steel cars, 22, 45; suspension of, 61; Brill Car Company, 18, 28, 80 variety of cars, 55, 59 British Columbia Electric Railway, 67 African American passengers, 42 Buffalo Lockport & Rochester Railroad,82, 88 Akron Bedford & Cleveland Railroad, 25 builder’s sign, 7–8, 8 Alliance (O.) Electric Railway, 16 Bullock R-50 motors, 53 Allis Chalmers motors, 27 Allison, W. C., 3 cabinetry, 4, 7 Allison and Company, 3 California-style cars, 29, 31 alternating current (AC), 14, 24, 24, 28, 59, 71–72, Canada, 2 72 capitalization of Niles, 3, 17, 31 American Car Company, 4, 71, 83 car numbers, 39 American Electric Railway Association, 34 “Carolyn” dining car, 18, 19 American Tire and Rubber Company, 44 Cauffeld, George, 89 Anti-Saloon League of America, 51 Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway arched roofs, 82 (CRANDIC),78, 82–83 arched windows, 83, 85 Central Electric Railroad Association, 10 assembled vehicles, 41 chair cars, 54 Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad: “Carolyn” “Champoeg” observation car, 87 dining car, 18, 19; Niles cars in service, 74; and Chautauqua Traction Company, 11, 53 the Niles catalog, 15; single-truck city cars, 13; Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 81 surviving Niles cars, 85, 88 Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railway: Automobile, 41 construction cars, 12; interurban cars, 54–59; automobiles, 33, 41, 56, 71, 82, 89 Niles cars in service, 26, 51, 72, 72, 74; surviving Niles cars, 88; width of cars, 27 baggage cars, 12, 13, 19, 22, 26 Chicago New York Air Line Railroad, 66 Baldwin trucks: cost of, 13; and high-speed cars, Choctaw Railway & Light Company, 22 81, 83; Niles’s preference for, 15, 34, 70; on city cars: Aurora Elgin & Chicago Railroad, 13; work cars, 45 Brandon Municipal Railway, 37; construction

109 of, 47; described, 12–14; Detroit United Eccles & Smith Company, 74, 89 Railway, 46, 74; and early Niles products, 4, economic crises, 15–16, 31, 50, 60 13; frequency of use, 70; Green Bay Traction Edensburg, PA, 57 Company, 80; Mahoning Valley Railway, 28; “Edinmere” two-car train, 60 in Provo, Utah, 46; seating arrangements, 39; Edison, Thomas, 42 and total Niles production run, 44–45 Edmonton Radial Railway Museum, 37 clerestory roofs, 82, 83 El Reno Interurban Company, 34, 78, 79, 83 Cleveland Alliance & Mahoning Valley Railroad, 58 Electric Car & Locomotive Company of New Cleveland Electric Railway, 53, 80 York City, 42 Cleveland Southwestern & Columbus Railway, “Electric Pullman” term, 7, 28, 29, 71 18–20, 19 Electric Railway Journal, 42, 45, 56, 67 Cleveland Steel Container Corporation, 44 electrical service, 1, 3–4. See also alternating Columbus Delaware & Marion Railway, 10 current (AC); direct current (DC) combination cars: Choctaw Railway & Light Elmira Water & Light Railroad, 57 Company, 22; Cleveland Southwestern & employee housing, 4 Columbus Railway, 19, 19; Indianapolis & Engel Aircraft Company, 42–44 Louisville Traction Co., 59; Mesaba Electric engineering firms, 70–71 Railway, 35; Peoples Traction Company, engraving numbers, 39 50; Salt Lake & Utah Railroad, 81; St. Paul express cars, 12, 44, 67, 86 Southern Electric Railway, 64; and stock cars, 63; Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad, Federal Storage Battery Car Company, 42 16; Toledo & Western Railway, 33; Toledo financial crises, 15–16, 31, 50,60 Fostoria & Findlay Railway, 20; Trenton New floods, 34–37 Brunswick Railroad, 75 Ford Bacon & Davis, 70 company records, 15, 48, 91 Fort Wayne & Springfield Railway,20 construction cars, 11–12, 12 Fox River Trolley Museum, 85 copper roofs, 14, 20, 24, 71 freight motors and cars: Cleveland Southwestern Cuba, 2, 16 & Columbus Railway, 20; and construction cult following of Niles cars, 89 cars, 11; conversion to stock motor, 63; and diesel locomotives, 42; Ft. Dodge Des Moines Davenport & Muscatine Railway, 66 & Southern Railway, 26; Green Bay Traction Delaware & Hudson Railroad, 27 Company, 80; Indianapolis & Louisville delivery of cars, 24–26, 25, 26, 63, 69 Traction, 59; Mesaba Electric Railway, 35; derailments, 81 Salt Lake & Utah Railroad, 81, 82; Southern Des Moines City Railway, 16 Michigan Railway, 13; and urban service design of railway cars: and climate, 34; modes, 12–13, 70 “Edinmere” car, 60; experimental designs, Ft. Dodge Des Moines & Southern Railway, 26, 31–32; and founding of Niles, 4; “Haller 26, 27, 65, 81 Cars,” 38; and the Niles catalog, 7–14, 15, 22, 39, 44; outsourcing of, 22, 70–72, 89; and Galesburg & Kewanee Electric Railway, 54, 76 self-propelled interurban cars, 42; Stone & General Electric Company, 18, 22, 34, 45, 54, 66, Webster, 70–71 71, 75 “Detroit Platforms,” 12, 46, 80 “Glenna” parlor car, 10 Detroit United Railway, 16, 40, 46, 73, 74 Good Roads Act, 33 diesel engines, 42, 49 “Gothics,” 68 direct current (DC), 14, 24, 24, 28, 59, 71–72 Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon dividends, 31 Railway, 70 Dollar Savings Bank, 3 Gray, W. H., 17 double-truck cars, 11, 12, 33, 46, 76 Green Bay Traction Company, 80, 88 downsizing, 39 drafting department, 89.See also design of Hale & Kilburn, 16, 22, 29 railway cars Haller, W. A., 38 drawbars, 11 “Haller Cars,” 38

110 Index Hanna, Joe A.: background in rail industry, Louisville Anchorage & Pewee Valley Electric 17–18; Cleveland office, 27; promoted to Railway, 16 director, 24; resignation, 40; west coast con- Ludlow, James B., 17, 74 nections, 74, 89 Ludlow Supply Company, 17 Hanna and Gray Company, 17 lumber for manufacturing, 4, 6 Hatch, C. M., 60 luxury services, 10 Havana Electric Railway Company, 16 “Lyons” chair car, 54 heating systems, 10 high-speed service, 9, 28, 48, 72, 75, 83 machine tools, 74 Hudson Valley Railway, 27, 28 Mahoning & Shenango Railway, 79 Mahoning Valley Railway, 24, 25, 28 Illinois Traction Company, 10 manufacturing shop, 3–4, 44 Indianapolis & Louisville Traction, 59 Marconi, Guglielmo, 3 Indianapolis Columbus & Southern Railway, 63 marketing, 17–18 information sources about Niles, 48 “Marsonia” parlor car, 24, 24 Insull, Samuel, 72 “Mary” parlor car, 10 interior finish, 12,28, 29, 37 Massillon Independent, 89 Interstate Public Service, 59, 63 Master Car Builders, 70 interurban cars: Chautauqua Traction Company, material supplies, 4, 6, 37, 39 53; and “Electric Pullman” term, 7; express MCB trucks, 19 and baggage cars, 12; as focus of Niles’s McBrien, Fred, 4 business model, 15; Galesburg & Kewanee McGuire Manufacturing Company, 17 Electric Railway, 76; and growth of electric McKinley, William, 3 railroads, 49; and high-speed service, 48; and “Merry Widow” Pay-As-You-Enter car, 32 the Niles catalog, 9; passenger cars, 9; promo- Mesaba Electric Railway, 34, 35, 74, 88 tion of, 9; Rapid Railway, 73; regard for Niles Michigan United Railway, 77 cars, 2, 7–9, 54–58; steel cars, 47, 58; and stock Milwaukee Northern Railway, 83 cars, 63; surviving Niles cars, 85; total Niles Mississippi River, 74 production run, 44; and traveling salesmen, motor trucks, 38, 43, 43, 89 65; variety of Niles cars, 7–9 motorman’s compartment, 8 Interurban Passenger Cars, 9 interurban railways, 1, 9, 10, 12–14, 48 Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad, 42, 44 J. A. Hanna Company, 18 National City and Otay Railroad, 31 J. G. Brill Car Company, 17, 40, 71 New Haven, Ohio, xiv, 1 J. G. White & Company, 70 New Jersey Fast Line, 75 Jackson & Sharp car company, 4 nighttime service, 70 Jacobs, A. L., 4 Niles, James, 74 Jersey Shore & Antes Fort Railroad, 20, 88 Niles, Jonathan, 74 Jewett Car Company, 18, 63, 89 Niles, Ohio, 3–4, 35–36 jitney buses, 71 Niles Car & Manufacturing Company: advertis- Johnstown flood,57 ing, 24, 36, 42, 48, 55, 59, 60, 61, 67, 74; Articles Jones, E. M., 38 of Incorporation, 3; catalog of cars, 7–14, 15, 16, 22, 39, 44; and changes in the industry, kiln, 6 44–45; company records, 15; competitors, Knox Engineering Company, 22 7, 48–49; decline of, 31–47; discontinuation of electric railway car manufacture, 40–41; labor, 51, 59–61 dividends, 31; downsizing, 39; early produc- Lake Shore Electric Railway, 20, 27, 74, 76, 88 tion, 15; employees, 32–33; expansion of fac- legal battles, 50 tory, 17, 17, 31; founding of, 1, 3; influence on Limited Service Extra Fare Parlor Cars, 10 industry, ix–x; and interurban cars, 15; main London & Lake Erie Railway, 63, 69 office, 4–5; manufacturing capacity, 61–63;

Index 111 manufacturing shop, 3–4, 5; production by Railway Manufacturers Association, 51–54 year, 49; quality of manufacturing, 2; states Rapid Railway, 73 with Niles cars in service, 50, 51; surviving regional distribution of Niles cars, 51 Niles cars, 84–87, 85, 86, 87, 88; total cars Rider, W. L., 89 produced, 44, 49–50 Robbins, Frank, 3, 54 Niles Daily News, 33, 35, 48, 51 Robbins, G. B., 3 Niles Tool Works, 74 Roberts & Abbot Company, 72 Northern Electric Co., 26, 27, 75 Roby and Northern Railroad, 42 Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company, 22, Rochester & Eastern Rapid Railway, 85, 88 22, 88 Rochester Syracuse & Eastern Railroad, 54 “Northern” private car, 22, 22 Rock, Frank, 89 Northwestern Pennsylvania Railway, 60 Rockford & Interurban Railroad, 73 Rockford Beloit & Janesville Railroad, 60, 73 observation platforms, 79, 83, 86, 87, 87. See also Roller, F. J., 3 parlor cars Rose, C. E., 32, 33 Ohio, 7 Ohio Electric Railroad, 35 Sacramento Northern Railway, 75, 87, 87 Ohio River, 74 Saginaw & Flint Division, 77 Oklahoma, 33, 83 Salem Express, 86 Oklahoma Railway, 34, 38, 83 Salt Lake & Ogden Electric Railway, 45, 88 Oklahoma Type cars, 79, 83 Salt Lake & Utah Railroad: freight motors, 81, 82; one-man cars, 56, 60 Niles cars in service, 45, 74; steel combination open cars, 4, 10–11, 11 cars, 81; surviving Niles cars, 87, 87, 88 Oregon Electric Railway, 86, 87, 88 San Diego Southern Electric Railway, 29, 31 San Francisco Vallejo & Napa Valley Railway, 27 Pacific Electric Railway,29 Sandusky Norwalk & Mansfield Electric paint shop, 3–5 Railway, 1, 63, 64 parlor cars: “Carolyn,” 19; “Edinmere,” 60; El Scholl, A. W., 4, 51, 54 Reno Interurban Company, 34; and extra fare Seaboard Air Line Railway, 16 service, 9, 10; “Glenna,” 10; “Marsonia” parlor Seattle & Everett Interurban Railway,84, 88 car, 24, 24; “Mary” parlor car, 10; “Northern,” self-propelled cars, 42 22, 22; Oklahoma Type cars, 79, 83 service modes, 70 Pay-As-You-Enter (PAYE) cars, 32, 46 shipping of cars, 24–26, 25, 26 Peckham Manufacturing Company, 18, 53, 75 single-end cars, 12 Pennsylvania & Mahoning Valley Railway, 16 single-truck cars, 12, 13, 15, 28, 46, 47, 71, 76 Peoples Traction Company, 50 six-wheel trucks, 16 Peter Smith Heater, 10 size of cars: and city track conditions, 14, 27; and Pew, B. F., 3 operating costs, 59–61; and truck configura- Philippines, 2 tions, 10–11; and weight reduction, 32, 38, 71, pinstriping, 7 80 Pittsburgh & Butler Street Railway, 24,24, 59 skilled labor, 48 Pittsburgh Railways Company, 24, 31–32,32 smokers, 19, 22, 25, 26, 29 Point Loma Railroad, 29 snow, 65 Popular Mechanics, 42 South Fork & Portage Railway, 62 Pratt, George, 4 Southern Cambria Railway, 57 Price, Charles B., 31–32 Southern Michigan Railway No. 2, 13 private cars, 22, 22, 24, 24 St. Louis Car Company, 32 Pullman Car Company, 4, 7 St. Paul Southern Electric Railway, 64, 65 standard closed city cars, 12–14 racial segregation, 42 Standard trucks, 66, 79 radio, 3 Stark Electric Railway, 9, 58 Railway Business Association, 74 states with Niles cars in service, 50, 51

112 Index steam engines and railroads: and car-construc- Twin City Light and Traction Company, 29 tion standards, 3, 9; expansion of, 3; and two-car trains, 60 founding of Niles, 3; limited reach of, 1, 42; and Niles advertising, 60; Niles cars for, 16; United Power Company, 16 and Pullman cars, 7 steel cars: center entrance city cars, 39; and diesel vestibules, 12, 16, 19 locomotives, 42; “Haller Cars,” 38; interurban cars, 47, 58; and manufacturing standardiza- wagon travel, 1 tion, 22, 74; and Niles advertising, 22, 45; wartime production, 37, 39 one-man cars, 44; and safety issues, 16; Salt Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Lake & Utah Railroad No. 606, 81; surviving Railway: and AC systems, 72; and “Electric Niles cars, 87 Pullmans,” ix, 71; and Niles car orders, 26, steel industry, 3 27, 31, 74; and rebuilt Niles cars, 28; width of Stephenson Car Company, 18 cars, 27 Stevens Metal Products Company, 44 water tanks, 3 stock motors, 63 West Side Electric Street Railway, 39 Stone & Webster Incorporated, 70–71 Western Ohio Railway, 15, 16 Street Railway Journal, 7–8, 18, 52 Western Railway Museum, 86, 87, 87 Street Railway Review, 15 Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing suburban cars, 36, 70 Company, 26, 28, 60, 64, 71–72, 72, 83 sugar mills, 74 Whitaker, Richard, 89 surviving Niles cars, 84–87, 85, 86, 87, 88 width restrictions on cars, 14, 27 syndicate plans, 31 winter weather, 65 Wisconsin Construction Co., 16 Taylor trucks, 80 wooden cars: boxcars, 81; and climate, 65; telephone service, 1 coaches, 76; combination cars, 20; early Niles Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad, 16 catalog, 7, 16, 20, 22; and incorporation of Tiffen Fostoria & Eastern Railway,58 Niles, 3; interior finishing, 7; long-distance Toledo & Western Railway, 33 cars, 33; “Northern” car, 22, 22; weight con- Toledo Fostoria & Findlay Railway, 20, 58 siderations, 38, 44–45, 64; window replace- Toledo Port Clinton & Lakeside Railway, 53, 88 ments, 85; wood-steel composites, 34 Toledo Railways & Light Company, 16, 33 work cars, 44, 86 Toronto Civic Railway, 74 World War I, 37, 39, 44, 63, 69 transverse seating, 10, 14 Wright, William, 63 traveling salesmen, 65 Trenton & New Brunswick Railroad, 75 Yakima Valley Transportation Company, 86, 88 trolley poles, 16, 24, 28, 62 Youngstown & Southern Railway, 77

Index 113 Books in the Railroads Past and Present Series

Landmarks on the Iron Road: Two Centuries of From Small Town to Downtown: A History of the North American Railroad Engineering by Jewett Car Company, 1893–1919 by Lawrence William D. Middleton A. Brough and James H. Graebner South Shore: The Last Interurban (revised second Limiteds, Locals, and Expresses in Indiana, edition) by William D. Middleton 1838–1971 by Craig Sanders Katy Northwest: The Story of a Branch Line Steel Trails of Hawkeyeland: Iowa’s Railroad Railroad by Don L. Hofsommer Experience by Don L. Hofsommer “Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take”: Railway Amtrak in the Heartland by Craig Sanders Journeys by William D. Middleton by William When the Steam Railroads Electrified (revised D. Middleton second edition) by William D. Middleton The Pennsylvania Railroad in Indiana by William The GrandLuxe Express:Traveling in High Style J. Watt by Karl Zimmermann In the Traces: Railroad Paintings of Ted Rose by Still Standing: A Century of Urban Train Station Ted Rose Design by Christopher Brown A Sampling of Penn Central: Southern Region on The Indiana Rail Road Company: America’s New Display by Jerry Taylor Regional Railroad by Christopher Rund The Lake Shore Electric Railway Story by Herbert Evolution of the American Diesel Locomotive by H. Harwood Jr. and Robert S. Korach J. Parker Lamb The Pennsylvania Railroad at Bay: William Riley The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men McKeen and the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry Railroad by Richard T. Wallis by Rush Loving Jr. The Bridge at Québec by William D. Middleton The Train of Tomorrow by Ric Morgan History of the J. G. Brill Company by Debra Brill Built to Move Millions: Streetcar Building in Ohio Uncle Sam’s Locomotives: The USRA and the by Craig R. Semsel Nation’s Railroads by Eugene L. Huddleston The CSX Clinchfield Route in the 21st Century by Metropolitan Railways: Rapid Transit in America Jerry Taylor and Ray Poteat by William D. Middleton The New York, Westchester & Boston Railway: J. P. Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive by Morgan’s Magnificent Mistake by Herbert H. J. Parker Lamb Harwood Jr. Iron Rails in the Garden State: Tales of New Jersey Boomer: Railroad Memoirs by Linda Grant Railroading by Anthony J. Bianculli Niemann Visionary Railroader: Jervis Langdon Jr. and the Indiana Railroad Lines by Graydon M. Meints Transportation Revolution by H. Roger Grant The Indiana Rail Road Company: America’s New The Duluth South Shore & Atlantic Railway: Regional Railroad (revised and expanded edi- A History of the Lake Superior District’s tion) by Christopher Rund, Fred W. Frailey, Pioneer Iron Ore Hauler by John Gaertner and Eric Powell Iowa’s Railroads: An Album by H. Roger Grant The CSX Clinchfield Route in the 21st Century and Don L. Hofsommer (now in paperback) by Jerry Taylor and Ray Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Poteat Engineer by William D. Middleton and Wet Britches and Muddy Boots: A History of Travel William D. Middleton III in Victorian America by John H. White Jr. Twilight of the Great Trains (expanded edition) Landmarks on the Iron Road: Two Centuries of by Fred W. Frailey North American Railroad Engineering (now in Little Trains to Faraway Places by Karl paperback) by William D. Middleton Zimmermann On Railways Far Away by William D. Middleton Railroad Noir: The American West at the End Railroads of Meridian by J. Parker Lamb, with of the Twentieth Century by Linda Grant contributions by David H. Bridges and Niemann David S. Price From Telegrapher to Titan: The Life of William C. Railroads and the American People by H. Roger Van Horne by Valerie Knowles Grant The Railroad That Never Was: Vanderbilt, Morgan, and the South Pennsylvania Railroad by Herbert H. Harwood Jr. Lawrence A. Brough is a retired metallurgical engineer. He belongs to the Society of Automotive Historians and has written several articles for auto history publications as well as the books Autos on the Water and, with James H. Graebner, From Small Town to Downtown: A History of the Jewett Car Company, 1893–1919 (IUP, 2003). He lives in Newark, Ohio.