| Locale | northern Indiana, USA |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1901 (chartered) – |
| Length | 21 mi (34 km) |
The Garrett, Auburn and Northern Electric Railroad (GA&N) was organized by Frank L. Welsheimer [1] and incorporated on March 28, 1901, in the U.S. state of Indiana. It was formed to build an interurban railway from Garrett to Hamilton via Auburn and Waterloo, [1] [2] and had hoped to have completed construction by the end of Summer 1901. [3] The initial cost estimate to construct 21 miles (34 km) of line was between $300,000 and $500,000. [4] It was proposed that the railroad would form part of a continuous interurban line in conjunction with the Toledo and Western Railroad, Indiana Railway and Chicago and Indiana Air Line Railway that would connect Toledo to Chicago, with the GA&N also building a branch from Waterloo to Fort Wayne, [5] [6] [7] which would enable connections on other lines to Indianapolis. [8] The combined line was known as the Toledo & Chicago Interurban Railway, with Welsheimer working as secretary of the system. [9] [10]
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.
Indiana is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U.S. state on December 11, 1816. Indiana borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, Kentucky to the south and southeast, and Illinois to the west.
The interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. They were prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Limited examples existed in Europe and Asia. Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, and the cars that ran on the rails.
The last of the right-of-way acquisitions to start construction was completed in Auburn in late July 1901. [11] [12] Although the Waterloo city council granted a franchise to build on the city streets there in April 1901, [13] the city council of Garrett finally approved the franchise to build the line on city streets in Garrett on December 23, 1902. [14] Some reports of the time considered the plan foolish and claimed that it would not be built. [15] [16] [17] Steel was ordered and construction began in Spring 1903. [8] [18] Construction of the line was contested in 1903 by the Wabash Railroad who initiated a frog war when the GA&N attempted to build across its line at Montpelier, Ohio. [19] [note 1] Construction continued into 1905 with the first trains expected between Garrett and Auburn by November. [9] The first regular trains on the route, operating as Toledo & Chicago trains, ran between Auburn and Garrett on February 22, 1906. [21]
A right-of-way (ROW) is a right to make a way over a piece of land, usually to and from another piece of land. A right of way is a type of easement granted or reserved over the land for transportation purposes, such as a highway, public footpath, rail transport, canal, as well as electrical transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines. A right-of-way can be used to build a bike trail. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way. In the case of an easement, it may revert to its original owners if the facility is abandoned.
The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Buffalo, New York; St. Louis, Missouri; and Toledo, Ohio.
In American railroading, a frog war occurs when a private railroad company attempts to cross the tracks of another, and this results in hostilities, with the courts usually getting involved, but often long after companies have taken the matter in their own hands and settled, with hordes of workers battling each other. It is named after the frog, the piece of track that allows the two tracks to join or cross and is usually part of a level junction or railroad switch.
