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Quality Railroad Books and Magazines Printed by: 124 East ector Street P.O. Box 735 Conshohocken, PA 19428 (215) 825-1223 We are commercial printers specializing in railroad hobby printing. Products: Services: Customers: • Newsletters • Single & Multi-Color e NRHS Chapters • Flyers & Tickets • Small & Large Quantities • Historical Societies • Books & Booklets • Typesetting & Design • Book Publishers • Magazines • Bookbinding • Hobby Businessmen President Gerald Squier Vice-President - Executive Eli Bail Vice President-Library& Research John P. Hoschek MOlORCOACH Vice-President-Admin. & Finance Donald M. Coffin Vice-President-Education Brian Sullivan AGE Vice-President- Publications Albert E. Meier Reg. Vice -President-At Large M.R. Castellanos Reg. Vice-President-New England Robert G. Hussey Reg. Vice-President-East Donald L. Weiss VOL.XXXIX NO. I Reg. Vice -President- Midwest Jack Rh oqes Reg. Vice-President-Pacific Coast .John McKane 1987 Reg. Vice -President-Southwest Ron M a ha ff ey Reg. Vice President- Southeast Ron Van Kleek ISSN O739-ll 7X Reg. Vice-President-Canada Chris Prentice Secretary Fred McGullam Published by the Motor Bus Society. Treasurer Donald M. Coffin Vintage Coach News Murray S. Kramer Conventions & MCA Advertising StephenMGoldmann Dues are $ 25, per year. Legal Jonathan Goodman Publication Sales Donald L. Weiss $4. when sold as single copies. Directors: Tom Dorsey Charles Sullivan Bruce Korusek George M. Howe ll Michael Glikin James Penning ADDRESSFORCORRESPONDENCE Nicholas Lang Ed Buckley Harold Geissenheimer All right you mugs, MOTOR BUS SOCIETY, INC. Trustees: who forgot to renew P.O. BOX 7058 Stephen M. Goldmann Murray S. Kramer my subscription to West Trenton, New Jersey 08628 John P. Hoschek Donald M. Coffin Jeff Miller Paul Semendinger MOTOR COACH AGE Since its founding in 1948, the Society has had as its main purpose the collection and publication of information about FRONT COVER: the history and progress of the bus business in the United States and Canada. Motor Coach Age this month begins coverage of transit Its membership includes representation in Salt Lake City and vicinity. This smart looking of many phases of the industry as well Utility Coach was one of 14 used to convert the busy as students and members of the general Sandy suburban line when street paving requirements public with an interest in buses. forced track removal. --Collection of Warren Miller Page 2 Motor Coach Age SALT LAKE C ITV PART I UTAH LIGHT & TRACTION CO. Salt Lake City was laid out in 1848 by Mormon pioneers jitney competition. led by Brigham Young. The city was conceived on a grand scale, with city blocks of ten acres and streets up to By 1918 the maximum trackage of 146 miles was reached, and 132 feet wide. The latter would prove very inviting to a period of consolidation and retrenchment began. Post the automobile 75 years later. World War 1 economic conditions led the company during the 1920's to rebuild its cars to one-man configuration. Some In 1872 the city had a population of 15,000 and was ripe new car bodies were purchased and other cars extensively for public transit. The Salt Lake Railroad Company, with rebuilt. In the process cars were renumbered, and persons Brigham Young as President, was formed in that year and interested in such matters still have not been able to built a street railway equipped with bob-tail cars pul reconstruct exactly what happened. led by Missouri mules. The line was generally considered a great success, although cynics held that walking was In October of 1923 the company began to experiment with quicker. the motor bus. A 12-passenger White was leased, and over the next two years trials of feeder services were conduct The first electric car ran on August 8, 1889, when five ed at various points in the city. The earliest route of miles of electricfied track were placed in service. A which there is any record is one along South 13th East rival appeared the following year in the form of the Salt Street between East 9th South and East 21st South Streets Lake Rapid Transit Company. feeding street car route 5. Some early documents refer to a new route in the Mill Creek section; it is still unde This set off a period of intense competition, with clas termined if the line described above and the Mill Creek sic confrontations between rival construction crews. route are one and the same. Tracks were torn up and relaid, and routes were laid on parallel streets in efforts to serve the same areas. The Street numberings in Salt Lake City can be confusing. In resulting network was overbuilt - a situation that was to all but the northeast quadrant of the city, both north come home to roost in later years. south and east-west streets are numbered. Numbering starts from Temple Square in downtown. East-west streets lying Recognizing that the competition was not in the best in south of Temple Square are designated South Temple, 1st terest of the two companies, they merged to form the South, 2nd South, etc. In the southeast quadrant of the Consolidated Railway & Power Company in 1901. Several city they are prefixed with "East," and in the southwest independent short lines were also included. Extension of quadrant with "West." Thus West 2nd South would be that lines into surrounding communities some distance from the part of 2nd South lying in the southwest quadrant, and city continued. East 2nd South would be in the southeast quadrant. CR&P was merged in 1904 with the local power company to North of Temple Square lie North Temple, 1st North, 2nd form the Utah Light & Railway Company. This firm then North, etc., with the appropriate prefix. North-south passed to the control of E. H. Harriman, President of the streets follow a similar system. West of Temple Square Union Pacific Railroad, who announced his intention to are West Temple, 1st West, 2nd West, etc. East of the create a model transportation system in Salt Lake City. Square are Main, State, 2nd East, 3rd East, etc. For these streets the prefix is "North" or "South." Note that there This he preceeded to do. Eighty miles of track was re is no East Temple or 1st East; these are replaced with built, new cars ordered, and power facilities modernized. Main and State, respectively. These are the principal New car barns were built to provide the most up to date business streets in the downtown. In the northeast quad maintenance facilities. Since the city was isolated from rant a different system is used. Numbered streets run east other manufacturing centers, the shops were equipped to and west: 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue, etc., and north-south do virtually any kind of work, including the construc streets are lettered: A Street, B Street, etc. First tion of new cars. The buildings still exist today, con Avenue and A Street are closest to Temple Square. The sys verted to the popular "Trolley Square," a collection of tem is further complicated by the current practice in restaurants, shops and theaters, with a number of restor which, for example, East 9th becomes East 900, and South ed streetcars for atmosphere. 21st become South 2100. This modernization at a relatively early date was to have The first substitution of buses for street cars was made a significant impact on later transit developments. At in 1926 when eight miles of route 25 were abandonned from this point, the power and transit operations were run as just north of the city limits to Bountiful and Centerville. a single enterprise, and it was decided to separate them. The side-of-the-road trolley had the much faster Bamberger In 1914 the transportation operations became the Utah Railroad interurbans for competition and its demise was to Light & Traction Company, and electric power facilities be expected. The replacement bus ran to Centerville, but passed to Utah Power & Light Co. by 1934 (and perhaps earlier) was cut back to Bountiful, leaving Centerville to be served by the Bamberger. At first UL&T had considerable political influence, An attempt in the bus connected with Route 22 -- Center Street trolleys 1914 by the Five-cent Street Automobile Company to estab at the new end of track. In 1932 Route 22 was converted lish Jitney service was nipped in the bud. A city ordin to bus, and the Bountiful service combined with it. By ance effective April 1, 1915 required that the autos op the end of 1926 the White was gone, and one 25-passenger erate on schedules over fixed routes and provide service and two 29-passenger Mack model AB buses were on hand. from 6 a .m. to midnip.ht. The .i itneys disappeared and were never to be a threat to the street cars. UL&T's financial The following year saw cutbacks of the two remaining sub situation was greatly aided by this early removal of the urban trolleys. The 6.4 miles of single track of Route 12 January, 1987 To Centerville UT AH LIGHT & TRACTION CO. ~ 20 N O R T H ..c:... -4" ~ ..c: 4th No, ... City ....... 9th Ave. "' Cem • .... 18 ~ ~ 19 ... ~ C/l ..c: 6th Ave. ,. 't:l . State ... ... ... z Fair "' C""I C/l Grounds ... 3rd Ave. 3 C/l .,, N. Temple fzl South Temple .... 4 c:: ... 1st So. 1st So. .... Ft. Douglas "' 5 ...l>O QJ 2nd So. 2nd So, .... OIi 6 > .,,r:: Univ. ... 11 3rd So. 7 fzl o_ ..c: of 4th So. 8 ... fzl 15 0 Utah 5th So. g .... ..c: 0 ... .,, .... C""I .... ~ .... <> ~ Mt, c:: So, QJ ..c: 7th c:: 7th So • 6 Olivet .....,, ....... .....,, i □ 5 Cem. > .... ~ 6 Indiana Ave.16 9 E.