Texas Electric Railway | |
---|---|
Overview | |
Status | Defunct |
Locale | Dallas, Texas |
Service | |
Type | Interurban |
Services | 3 |
History | |
Opened | 1908 |
Closed | 1948 |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Electrification | Trolley wire |
The Texas Electric Railway is a historic interurban railroad that operated from Dallas, Texas, to Denison, Corsicana, and Waco. It began operation in 1908 and through the merger of several companies became the largest interurban railway operator in the South before its demise in 1948. [1]
In 1901 the Denison and Sherman Railway opened as the first interurban rail line in Texas, connecting the towns of Denison and Sherman with ten miles of track. This line was purchased in 1911 by the Texas Traction Company, who had constructed a sixty-five-mile line of their own from Dallas to Sherman and began operation in 1908. While not connected to Sherman yet, shortly after, Dallas and Fort Worth built an interurban connecting the two cities. Seeing a need to expand in other directions, the owners of the Texas Traction Company purchased a twenty-eight-mile line from Dallas to Waxahachie in 1912. Built by the Dallas Southern Traction Company, the company became known as the Southern Traction Company and the rail line extended to Waco in 1913. A separate fifty-six-mile line from Dallas to Corsicana was also completed. In 1917 the Texas Traction Company and the Southern Traction Company merged to form the Texas Electric Railway Company and became the largest interurban railway in the South with more than 200 miles of track. The interurban became a vital link for communities until the increasing usage of the automobile caused a decline in revenue. The Dallas-Corsicana branch was discontinued in 1941 and the Dallas-Waco and Dallas-Denison branches closed in 1948. [2]
Throughout these years, interurban was a lifeline shipping farm products and mail as mail was sorted inside the interurban car.
The central train station in Dallas was converted into the Interurban Building Apartments. The former train yard of this station is now the apartment's parking complex.
Today several pieces of infrastructure still remain. The Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail system utilizes the right-of-way of the Texas Electric Railway for several parts of its lines, including the Red Line.
The wood frame passenger depot in downtown Plano and its attached brick electric transformer section remained in use until December 31, 1948. The Plano Station building now hosts the Interurban Railway Museum where a restored Texas Electric Railway car may be seen, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Monroe Shops (1914), once the maintenance facility for Texas Electric's vehicles, was restored in 2011 and now serves as headquarters to the DART Police Department. [3]
The Dallas Interurban Building (1916), once serving as the main Dallas depot, now houses residents and retail. [4]
The Texas Electric Railway Allen Station still stands at 105 South Butler Drive. [5]
Sherman is a city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas, United States. The city's population in 2020 was 43,645. It is one of the two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan statistical area, and is the largest city in the Texoma region of North Texas and southern Oklahoma.
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas.
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
The Red Line is a light rail line in Dallas, Texas operated by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system. It began operations in June 1996, and is one of two inaugural light rail lines in the DART light rail system alongside the Blue Line.
Parker Road station is an intermodal transit facility in Plano, Texas. The station is located near North Central Expressway (US 75) between Parker Road and Park Boulevard. Operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the station services DART light rail, four bus routes, and five on-demand service zones.
Downtown Plano station is a DART light rail station in Plano, Texas. The station is located in Plano's historic downtown district on the eastern side of Haggard Park. It serves the Red Line and, during peak periods, the Orange Line.
This article contains a timeline of major events in the history of Dallas, Texas (US). It serves as an abridged supplement to the main history article for the city and its several subarticles on periods in the city's history.
The Illinois Terminal Railroad Company, known as the Illinois Traction System until 1937, was a heavy duty interurban electric railroad with extensive passenger and freight business in central and southern Illinois from 1896 to 1956. When Depression era Illinois Traction was in financial distress and had to reorganize, the Illinois Terminal name was adopted to reflect the line's primary money making role as a freight interchange link to major steam railroads at its terminal ends, Peoria, Danville, and St. Louis. Interurban passenger service slowly was reduced, ending in 1956. Freight operation continued but was hobbled by tight street running in some towns requiring very sharp radius turns. In 1956, ITC was absorbed by a consortium of connecting railroads.
The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local services which complemented the Pacific Electric "Red Car" system's largely commuter-based interurban routes. The company carried many more passengers than the Red Cars, which served a larger and sparser area of Los Angeles.
The Dallas, Garland & Northeastern Railroad is a short-line railroad headquartered in Garland, Texas. The railroad operates over 161 miles (259 km) of track in the North Texas region. It is a subsidiary of short-line operator Genesee & Wyoming.
The Piedmont & Northern Railway was a heavy electric interurban company operating over two disconnected divisions in North and South Carolina. Tracks spanned 128 miles (206 km) total between the two segments, with the northern division running 24 miles (39 km) from Charlotte, to Gastonia, North Carolina, including a three-mile (5 km) spur to Belmont. The southern division main line ran 89 miles (143 km) from Greenwood to Spartanburg, South Carolina, with a 12 mi (19 km) spur to Anderson. Initially the railroad was electrified at 1500 volts DC, however, much of the electrification was abandoned when dieselisation was completed in 1954.
U.S. Highway 75 (US 75) is a part of the U.S. Highway System that travels from Interstate 345 (I-345) in Dallas, Texas northward to the Canadian border in Noyes, Minnesota. In the state of Texas it runs from I-345 in Dallas and heads north to the Oklahoma state line, a distance of about 75.3 miles (121.2 km).
The Texas Northeastern Railroad is a Class III railroad operating in the United States state of Texas that began operations in 1990. It consists of 104 miles (167 km) of track on two lines.
The Southern Pacific Red Electric Lines, also known simply as the Red Electric, was a network of interurban passenger train services operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the Willamette Valley of the U.S. state of Oregon from 1914 to 1929. The service got its name from the bright red color of its cars. Despite its short history, among West Coast interurbans it was unique, and it was considered the finest such system in the Pacific Northwest. It was the only major electric interurban railroad converted from steam to electric passenger use. It was also one of few systems using all-steel equipment, and one of the largest 1500-volt systems in the country.
Plano Station, Texas Electric Railway, now known as the Interurban Railway Museum, is a historic train station at 901 E 15th Street in Plano, Texas. It is still served by the Downtown Plano station of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail, which reutilized the right of way of the interurban.
The Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC) was an 872-mile (1403-km) railway system chartered in Texas in 1848, with construction beginning in 1856. The line eventually stretched from Houston northward to Dallas and Denison, Texas, with branches to Austin and Waco.
The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad (1896−1911) (LAP) was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had 230 miles (370 km) of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, and the South Bay towns along Santa Monica Bay.
Allen station was established as a wood frame farmhouse servicing the Texas Electric Railway interurban rail line from Dallas, Texas to Sherman, Texas in 1908. The Texas Interurban Railway routed hourly passenger railcars or streetcars for access to the Dallas business district and Dallas Farmers Market district. The electric rail supported two freight delivery services transporting mail, parcel post packages, and produce from the 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. hours incorporating the North Texas vicinity.
Streetcars in Redlands transported people across the city and region from 1889 until 1936. The city's network of street railways peaked around 1908 before the patchwork of separate companies was consolidated under the Pacific Electric.