 A surviving former WCF&N interurban car | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Waterloo, Iowa |
| Locale | Iowa |
| Dates of operation | 1896–1958 |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Electrification | Overhead line, 650V and 1300V DC, [1] abandoned 1957-1958 |
The Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern Railway (WCF&N) was an electric interurban railway that operated in the US state of Iowa.
The Waterloo and Cedar Falls Rapid Transit was organized in 1895 to build an 8-mile line from Waterloo to nearby Cedar Falls, Iowa, which it completed in 1897. [2] In 1904 the company renamed itself Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern Railway and began expanding outward, completing a 22-mile line from Waterloo north to Waverly in 1910 and a 60-mile line south to Cedar Rapids, where connection was made with the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City interurban, in 1914. [2] In the 1920s it operated eight passenger trains per weekday to Cedar Rapids, four to Waverly, and every half hour from Waterloo to Cedar Falls. [3] It also operated a belt line for freight trains around Waterloo, [3] as well as local streetcar service in Waterloo (1896-1939) and Cedar Falls (1898-1941). [2] Passenger service to Waverly ended in 1955, to Cedar Rapids in 1956, and to Cedar Falls in 1958, [2] making it the last interurban west of Chicago and east of California. [4]
In 1956 the railway was jointly purchased by the Illinois Central and Rock Island railroads, who renamed it Waterloo Railroad and converted its freight operations to diesel power. Illinois Central became sole owner in 1968 and abandoned most of the Waterloo Railroad in the 1970s. [1]
A section of former WCF&N track near Waterloo remains in use for freight service by Illinois Central's successor Canadian National. [1] Since the 1980s most of the right-of-way between Waterloo and Cedar Rapids has been used for the Cedar Valley Nature Trail. [5] The former depot in Center Point (on the Waterloo-Cedar Rapids line) is used as a museum and rest stop.
The Interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. The concept spread to countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Poland. Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, their cars that ran on the rails, and their service. In the United States, the early 1900s interurban was a valuable economic institution. Most roads between towns and many town streets were unpaved. Transportation and haulage was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided reliable transportation, particularly in winter weather, between the town and countryside. In 1915, 15,500 miles (24,900 km) of interurban railways were operating in the United States and, for a few years, interurban railways, including the numerous manufacturers of cars and equipment, were the fifth-largest industry in the country. By 1930, most interurbans in North America were gone with a few surviving into the 1950s.
The Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, also known as the South Shore Line, is a Class III freight railroad operating between Chicago, Illinois, and South Bend, Indiana. The railroad serves as a link between Class I railroads and local industries in northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana. It built the South Shore Line electric interurban and operated it until 1990, when it transferred it to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. The railroad is owned by the Anacostia Rail Holdings Company.
The Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway, also known as the CRANDIC, is a Class III railroad operating in the US state of Iowa.
Cedar Valley (Nature) Trail is a rail trail running 52 miles (84 km) from Hiawatha, Iowa to Waterloo, Iowa.
Central Station was an intercity passenger terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois, at the southern end of Grant Park near Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue. Owned by the Illinois Central Railroad, it also served other companies via trackage rights. It opened in 1893, replacing Great Central Station, and closed in 1972 when Amtrak rerouted services to Union Station. The station building was demolished in 1974. It is now the site of a redevelopment called Central Station, Chicago.
The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, also known as the North Shore Line, was an interurban railroad that operated passenger and freight service over an 88.9-mile (143.1 km) route between the Chicago Loop and downtown Milwaukee, as well as an 8.6-mile (13.8 km) branch line between the villages of Lake Bluff and Mundelein, Illinois. The North Shore Line also provided streetcar, city bus and motor coach services along its interurban route.
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 Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&StL) was an American Class I railroad that built and operated lines radiating south and west from Minneapolis, Minnesota for 90 years from 1870 to 1960. The railway never reached St. Louis but its North Star Limited passenger train ran to that city via the Wabash Railroad.
The Sacramento Northern Railway was a 183-mile (295 km) electric interurban railway that connected Chico in northern California with Oakland via the California capital, Sacramento. In its operation it ran directly on the streets of Oakland, Sacramento, Yuba City, Chico, and Woodland and ran interurban passenger service until 1941 and freight service into the 1960s.
The Indiana Railroad (IR) was the last of the typical Midwestern United States interurban lines. It was formed in 1930–31 by combining the operations of the five major interurban systems in central Indiana into one entity. The predecessor companies came under the control of Midland Utilities, owned by Samuel Insull. His plan was to modernize the profitable routes and abandon the unprofitable ones. With the onset of the Great Depression, the Insull empire collapsed and the Indiana Railroad was left with a decaying infrastructure and little hope of overcoming the growing competition of the automobile for passenger business and the truck for freight business. The IR faced bankruptcy in 1933, and Bowman Elder was designated as the receiver to run the company. Payments on bonded debt were suspended. Elder was able to keep the system virtually intact for four years, and IR operated about 600 miles (970 km) of interurban lines throughout Indiana during this period. During the late 1930s, the routes were abandoned one by one until a 1941 wreck with fatalities south of Indianapolis put an abrupt end to the Indiana Railroad's last passenger operations.
The Iowa Northern Railway is a Class III shortline railroad operating in the U.S. state of Iowa.
The San Francisco, Napa and Calistoga Railway, later briefly reorganized as the San Francisco and Napa Valley Railroad, was an electric interurban railroad in the U.S. state of California.
The Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric (AE&FRE), was an interurban railroad that operated freight and passenger service on its line paralleling the Fox River. It served the communities of Carpentersville, Dundee, Elgin, South Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, North Aurora, Aurora, Montgomery, and Yorkville in Illinois. It also operated local streetcar lines in both Aurora and Elgin.
The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway (BCR&N) was a railroad that operated in the United States from 1876 to 1903. It was formed to take over the operations of the bankrupt Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway, which was, in turn, the result of merging several predecessor lines, the construction of which began in 1869. The corporate headquarters were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and it had operations in Iowa and in Minnesota. It was succeeded by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway.
The Midwest Electric Railway is a non-profit trolley operation located on the grounds of the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, United States. It is home to 10 pieces of trolley history that are regularly operated on a 2.5 mile loop surrounding the organization's campgrounds.
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.
The La Porte City Station, also known as the La Porte City Hall, is a historic building located in La Porte City, Iowa, United States. It was built as a depot for the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railroad, an interurban system. The system began in 1885 as the Waterloo Street Railway Co., and grew to include routes to Cedar Falls (1897), Denver, Iowa (1901), and Waverly (1906). In 1912 it was expanded to Cedar Rapids, and this building was constructed at that time. It is a single-story, brick, Georgian Revival structure. It served as a depot until 1928, when it was replaced by a new building that was more freight focused rather than passenger focused as this depot was. This building was acquired by La Porte City at that time for use as a city hall. The community's public library was organized in 1945, and it was located here as well. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The library has subsequently been moved to a different building on Main Street.
The Chicago Great Western Railroad-Waterloo Freight Depot is a historic building located in Waterloo, Iowa, United States. In 1887 the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railroad (CSP&KC) was the third system to enter the city, after the Illinois Central (1870) and the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway (1876). The CSP&KC was the first of the three to put its depots in the downtown area. Initially it built two depots in Waterloo, one on the west side of the Cedar River and one on the east side. By 1892 it had built separate passenger and freight depots along East Sixth Street. That was the same year that the CSP&KC became known as the Chicago Great Western Railroad. In 1903 the railroad built new passenger and freight depots a block south, moving them closer to the city's wholesale houses. The two-story concrete block freight depot was built on a rough limestone foundation. It features round arch freight doors and a simple wood cornice. The concrete block addition on the southeast side replaced a frame gabled structure, but its construction date is unknown. The old brick passenger depot was torn down in 1973, and the freight depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. In 2001 the building, which is owned by the City of Waterloo, was leased to the University of Northern Iowa for its Center for Urban Education (UNI-CUE).
The WCF & N Center Point Depot and Substation, also known as the Center Point Depot Museum, is a historic building located in Center Point, Iowa, United States. The Mission Revival building was constructed in 1914 by the Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern Railway, an interurban line that ran between the Waterloo – Cedar Falls area and Cedar Rapids. Passenger service ended here in 1956, and rail freight was discontinued in 1973. The station sat empty until it was renovated beginning in 1983. Other renovation projects were carried out 1998 to 1999 and 2013. The building was acquired by the Linn County Conservation Board in the early 1980s and turned into a museum and rest stop along the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, which follows the former rail bed. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.