Western State Normal Railroad

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The replica car, which sits in front of the Bernhard Center Western state normal railroad.jpg
The replica car, which sits in front of the Bernhard Center

The Western State Normal Railroad, also known as the Normal Railroad or Western Trolley, was a funicular which operated on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the United States from 1908–1949. It is the only known example of a private railroad operated by a university. [1]

Funicular an inclined railway in which a cable moves a pair of permanently attached cars couterbalancing each other along a steep slope

A funicular is one of the modes of transportation which uses a cable traction for movement on steep inclined slopes.

Western Michigan University public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States

Western Michigan University (WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo. Its enrollment, as of the Fall 2016 semester, was 23,252.

Kalamazoo, Michigan City in Michigan

Kalamazoo is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. As of the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 335,340 as of 2015. Kalamazoo is equidistant from the major American cities of Chicago and Detroit, each less than 150 miles away.

Contents

Operation and decline

In the early 1900s the primary campus of Western Michigan University, then known as Western State Normal School, was located on Prospect Hill (this area is now known as East Campus). To reach the buildings students and faculty faced a forbidding 150 step-climb, often in inclement weather. In an effort to address this problem, the school constructed a funicular along the northeast corner of the hill. The base of the line was at Davis Street, while the summit lay between East Hall and North Hall. There were two tracks, each with a cable-hauled car. [2] :115

East Campus (Western Michigan University)

East Campus is a collection of buildings and facilities situated on the 60-acre (240,000 m2) hilltop campus that is the original site of Western Michigan University. It includes some of WMU's athletic facilities including Waldo Stadium, Hyames Field, Ebert Field and the Donald Seelye Athletic Center. The campus sits on the top of Prospect Hill, which overlooks the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

At its peak the railroad carried 2,280 passengers daily, but rising maintenance costs combined with the growing popularity of the automobile hastened its demise, and it carried its last passenger in 1949. [1]

Restoration

In 2002 four senior engineering majors at WMU embarked on a project to build a replica of one of the trolleys. This proved no easy task: following the closure of the railroad in 1949, no effort was made to preserve the cars. The only physical remnant was a bench saved by a faculty member; while there were sketches and photographs for reference, no actual blueprints had survived. Commenting on the situation a WMU official remarked that "back then was a period in history so intent on the future, that everyone started forgetting about the past." [1]

Engineering applied science

Engineering is the application of knowledge in the form of science, mathematics, and empirical evidence, to the innovation, design, construction, operation and maintenance of structures, machines, materials, software, devices, systems, processes, and organizations. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied mathematics, applied science, and types of application. See glossary of engineering.

Despite these challenges, the students successfully completed their project, which was unveiled April 8, 2003, and currently occupies a prominent place in front of the Bernhard Center on Western's primary campus. Local residents and Western alumni who had ridden the trolley testified to the authenticity of the restoration. [1]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "President Bailey to dedicate replica of historic trolley". Western Michigan University. September 1, 2003. Retrieved November 20, 2007.
  2. ↑ Kohrman, David (2002). Kalamazoo, Michigan. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   0-7385-2048-9. OCLC   51996970.
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