[PRCo] Re: Politics of Traction Thread

[Carl Zager]

Some time back I posted a list of "traction" and "Pittsburgh" books that I
have in my home stacks. I wish I were at home, now, because I also have a
paperbound, 8 1/2 x 11" copy of a book that I believe is called _Indiana
Railroads_, published by CERA (?-I think) out of Chicago. Very on-topic
for these two comments ...

On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, Fred W. Schneider III wrote:
> Jim Shuman once mentioned that a history that he read in school (he was
> born in 1914 and would have graduated from high school in 1932) credited
> the interurbans for developing the state of Indiana. While the industry
> only had a real impact for 20 years or so, in many areas (and Lancaster
> County, Pa. was one of them), real estate development continued along
> transit corridors well into the 1950s.  It was in the 1960s before the
> developers began to chew up farms along other roads.
>
> "Vigrass, Bill" wrote:
> > There were many interurbans in the midwest that paralleled steam railroads.
> > The interurbans offered frequent (usually hourly, sometimes less frequent)
> > service whereas typical railroad "accommodation" trains ran once daily in
> > each direction, division point to division point, serving local stops.  If
> > you really HAD to go somewhere, you could, spending lots of time to do so.
> > But the interurban really opened up travel possibilities in rural areas,
> > provided that you lived proximate to the line.
> >
> > I recall reminiscing with a CRI&P railroad traveling freight agent during
> > the 1950's about his traveling about Indiana on the Indiana Railroad
> > "carrying my 25 pound Gladstone Bag full of Jack Daniels from the car stop
> > to the elevators" which he handed out to grain elevator shippers.  That was
> > salesmanship in the 1930's.   But he did a lot of walking carrying his
> > Gladstone Bag.  He was pleased when he got a car.
> >

---
 Carl Zager						KB9RVB
 czager at bloomington.in.us         http://www.mccsc.edu/~czager