When the remaining interurban operations of the Milwaukee Electric system were about to be abandoned in the late 40's, an investor from Cleveland named Jay Maeder bought them from the Greyhound bus line which had purchased the railway, and tried to keep the trains running under the name "Speedrail". Maeder was a railfan as well as a businessman, and it would appear that perhaps the company was founded more to give him a full-sized electric railroad to operate than to make a profit. During its brief existence, Speedrail acquired a large and interesting roster of historic equipment, mostly from TM but from several other railways as well. Operations started in September 1949.
It did not last long, and the tragic end is well known. On Labor Day weekend of 1950, Maeder was running a special train over the system for the NMRA, with himself as motorman. A mixup in orders resulted in a head-on collision between the special and a regular service train. Ten people were killed and many more badly injured. This caused a drop in ridership as well as huge damage claims, and the company never recovered. Operation continued, with more wrecks, until mid-1951, and in early 1952 the entire remaining roster was scrapped. There was no organized museum movement in this area at that time to save anything, and the list of the ones that got away is another sad example of missed opportunities.
Speedrail in general seems to have been a disaster in terms of safety. Several pieces of equipment were wrecked at various times. I've heard people say that Maeder tried to run a rapid transit line like a museum, but that's not fair to most museums. IRM certainly has a far superior operation in terms of safety to anything like this.
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| A badly-dented wreck victim in regular operation |
Photos courtesy of the Mewhinney and Don Ross sites.
Summarizing the Speedrail roster, from the CERA TM book (B-112):
Passenger Equipment:
1) Ten light-weight articulated trains, built by St. Louis in 1930 for TM. Two were wrecked during 1950, and one was the NMRA special.
2) Seven single-end lightweights from Shaker Heights, originally Indianapolis and Southeastern (see above)
3) Two double-end lightweights from Shaker Heights, originally Aurora Elgin and Fox River 300 and 301
4) Two single-end lightweights from Lehigh Valley Transit, originally Dayton and Troy
5) Sixteen of the TM 1100's (Kuhlman 1909, rblt 1924). Three were wrecked at various times and scrapped; only one remained in service by the end.
6) Ten of the TM 1100's (St. Louis 1907, rblt c. 1924) One was wrecked.
7) Eight articulated trains built by TM from Indianapolis and Southeastern heavyweight cars. One was heavily damaged in the NMRA collision and scrapped.
8) One single-truck Birney from KCPS, probably purchased by Maeder privately, never used. See below.
Work Equipment, all from TM:
1) Two snow plows
2) Two line cars
3) A ditcher
4) Two snow sweepers
5) A box motor, miscellaneous freight cars, etc.
6) Update: A "tank motor" or sprinkler
And two of the 1100's were used as freight motors at various times.
Only two pieces on this roster escaped scrapping. The most interesting is the Kansas City Birney 1545.
It's unlikely that Maeder intended to use it in regular service, of course. When Speedrail came to an end in 1952, the nearest operating electric railway museum was ORM, and he donated it to them. It was moved to Worthington in June of 1953. ORM was one of the earliest operating trolley museums and 1545 was soon repainted and operational; for a time, before ORM built its bridge over Route 161, 1545 ran on an isolated stretch of track south of Route 161. After ORM began its long decline in the mid-1970's, 1545 was heavily vandalized and damaged by arsonists.
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| KCPS 1545 as of May 1980, in sickening condition. :( |
In December 1982 the car was sold to the Fort Smith Trolley Museum, which stripped it of its truck, motors and control equipment to restore Fort Smith Birney 224. The body has been retained intact and is in storage.
The second is line car D22, which was returned to the Lakeside power plant before the end of Speedrail. Like most of the remaining TM work equipment, it became part of the TWERHS collection at East Troy, and was acquired by IRM in 1988. It's in storage, in poor condition.
The body of car 1138 was shipped to Maeder's home in Ohio after the end of Speedrail, but without the trucks and motors, which were scrapped by mistake. Maeder had intended to preserve it, but when it was found that he didn't get the complete car, the body was eventually scrapped.
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| Scrapping cars at the Waukesha gravel pit |
From the standpoint of 70 years later, we can only speculate on what might have been available for preservation if Speedrail had lasted longer with a better safety record. First of all, we'd want one or more of the 1100's with their original trucks, motors, and electrical equipment. Only two TM interurbans survived, and they were both heavily modified by the London & Port Stanley. And the articulated trains, both the heavyweight and lightweight versions, were unique to TM, and nothing like them has been preserved. (Well, apart from the Key System bridge units. Insert smiley.) Then there are the Cincinnati curved-side cars, which are very rare. And nothing from either the Dayton and Troy or Indianapolis & Cincinnati has survived. On the other hand, a good selection of TM work equipment was preserved, independent of Speedrail.
Well, we could go into greater detail on everything, but that's enough for now. Corrections, as always, are welcome.
I knew LeRoy Equitz very well in the 80s. He was the other motorman involved in the labor day 1950 wreck. He lost a leg then. Incidentally he was also the motorman on the car that rear ended another at Soldiers home in 1949 under KMCL. I miss him.
ReplyDeleteRandy Stahl
Many of us will also remember John Andresen, a member and generous contributor to IRM, who was on the NMRA special but was not injured.
ReplyDeleteI think that there was also a motorized tank car which I remember in dead storage on the Rapid Transit at about 9th St. Did your account of the 1100's include those that were stored unserivceable at the Oakland car station? I hadn't realized that Speedrail had that much equipment in service.
ReplyDeleteC Kronenwetter
Ah yes, the J2, a "tank motor" or sprinkler, acquired from TM. I didn't get around to listing all of the work equipment in detail. Maybe I can find a picture of it.
ReplyDeleteWhich I did, easily enough. Don Ross has everything. And to answer your previous question, the roster does include a lot of equipment that Speedrail never put into service. That's all before my time, and we're just going by what the books say.
ReplyDeleteSpeedrail also had the three/two 1927 built St Louis cars 1143-1145. 1143 was wrecked at Soldiers home in 1949 but I don't know if it was immediately scrapped. I know that many of the ex TMER&L interurbans were out of service because of wheel issues. I know they wrecked nearly every car that was used in freight service. First the M14 was wrecked, 1120 and the last motor was 1121.
ReplyDeleteI know they used the heavy duplex interurbans, I can only surmise they had good wheels.
I also know that Speedrail literally ran the wheels off the lightweight cars and had to buy 28' wheels from the transport company. I have no information proving that speedrail bought any new 34" wheels for the heavy cars, obviously the transport company had no use for larger wheels making it impossible for Speedrail to buy them from that source.
I am glad I never had the opportunity to work for Speedrail, I agree that they had a horrid safety record and if not for that, the company would have lasted into the preservation era.
Speedrail did turn a small profit in the first year of operation so at least part of the Maeder plan was working up until the cancellation of the primary insurance. It was only later through much effort that Bitner was able to get insurance for the carrier. It's hard to imagine the Maeder plan of self insuring..
Randy
What was the relationship between Frank Sherwin and IRM? Obviously we owe a debt of gratitude to him for preserving significant rolling stock. Pity he didn't grab the 300...
ReplyDeleteRandy
I do not know when Frank Sherwin became involved in any way with railway preservation, or how he met Howard Odinius, or when he started or took over Chicago Hardware Foundry, for that matter. In most IRM histories, he first appears on stage in 1953 when Howard was trying to acquire the 65 and needed a place to store it. So those are all good questions.
ReplyDelete