Springfield Clear Lake & Rochester
by Stephen M. Scalzo
Headline image: SCL&R car 4 is shown on Main Street at John Street in Rochester. Cars 3 and 4 were built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1908 on order #785. Astute readers will notice that these cars were largely identical to the "Matchboxes" that ran in Chicago, including IRM's own car 1374. This was a stock SLCC design that was built for at least a dozen different systems. All photos from the Stephen Scalzo Collection of the Illinois Railway Museum.
John E. Melick planned a huge utility empire around Springfield and Hillsboro, Illinois. He began by incorporating the Sangamon Valley Railway on June 23, 1905, with $2,500 capital (which was later increased to $30,000) for a projected interurban railway between Springfield and Hillsboro. On April 30, 1906, ground was broken in Rochester, Illinois (located east of Springfield) for the construction of the line. However, the route was then sold to the Springfield Clear Lake & Rochester Railway, which was incorporated on May 10, 1906, with $120,000 of capital. At the organizational meeting, Mr. Melick was elected president of the new company.
The U.S. Construction Company of Springfield was in charge of building the railway. By the end of June 1906 most of the right-of-way had been graded, and in July, tracklaying began east of Springfield, with construction progressing slowly. In January of 1907 the company received a franchise to operate on Main Street in Rochester. Finally, on March 30, 1907, borrowed equipment from the Springfield streetcar system made up the first streetcars operated over the 4.63 miles of trackage that had been completed. Trackage reached Sugar Creek on July 15th. By January 1, 1908, trackage had been completed across the South Fork Bridge, with about two miles remaining to connect with the trackage that had previously been built in Rochester.
On June 10, 1908, the first streetcar was operated in Rochester. That streetcar was shipped to Springfield over the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad because about two miles of trackage remained to be built on the line although the overhead trolley wire had been erected previously. A streetcar had to be operated by that date to save the franchise for operating on Main Street in Rochester. On September 16th, an inaugural streetcar operated over the entire line for invited guests and company officials. Regular service began on September 19th over the completed 10.5 miles of trackage from White City in Springfield to Rochester, including a 2.5-mile branch to Clear Lake. At White City, passengers had to change to Springfield streetcars. By that time, the company's name had been changed to the Springfield Suburban.
A crowd gathers around Springfield Consolidated Railway 48, a single-truck American Car Company product on loan from the Springfield city system. The location is Main Street in Rochester; both buildings visible are still there.
The railway in large measure was designed for traffic between Springfield and the resort of Clear Lake. Trolley travel initially was a favorite pastime, and the streetcars were filled Sundays and holidays during the summer with families and young men and their sweethearts bound for picnics at Clear Lake. The streetcars would stop any place along the way to pick up passengers and packages.
The railway initially operated two double-truck streetcars, numbers 3 and 4, from the Springfield city limits to Rochester and Clear Lake. On September 24, 1908, the Springfield City Council granted the company a franchise that permitted operation of streetcars into downtown Springfield over the Capital Avenue route of the Springfield Consolidated Railway from the eastern city limits. Streetcars then operated to Sixth and Monroe Streets in Springfield, looping at Washington and Fifth Streets. The company eventually used its streetcars (and two borrowed Springfield streetcars as spares) to operate seven daily round trips over the line. The streetcar from Springfield had a motorman and conductor, but at the old Johnson family grounds where the tracks branched, the conductor would get off and operate the Clear Lake shuttle streetcar for passengers while the motorman would continue on to Rochester in the other streetcar. Electricity for the overhead was purchased and carbarn facilities were leased from the Springfield Consolidated Railway.
On February 3, 1908, Mr. Melick incorporated the Mississippi Valley Interurban Railway (MVI) as the holding company for the Springfield Clear Lake & Rochester line and the Hillsboro streetcar lines. The MVI was to furnish funds to construct an interurban railway from Rochester to Hillsboro. By 1910, the MVI had absorbed the Springfield Suburban, and the MVI soon became allied with the Sangamon Valley Railroad and the Hillsboro Railway. Construction plans were developed calling for trackage to be built from Rochester southeast six miles to New City, and then south 35 miles to Hillsboro. However, financing of that plan never materialized.
SCL&R car 3 is pictured in an advertisement that lists departure times and promotes the annual Chautauqua at Clear Lake. Cars 3 and 4 were sold in 1914 to the Gary Hobart & Eastern, where they became 2 (later renumbered 5) and 3. In 1925 they became Gary Railways 26 and 25, respectively. They were retired in 1926-1927.
The seasonal traffic for the Springfield Suburban soon proved inadequate to keep the company operating. The line had been poorly constructed and even more poorly maintained. Most of the trackage consisted of secondhand 50- or 60-pound rail, with 12-14 ties per 30-foot rail section and dirt ballast. On frosty early morning runs in the fall, passengers (mostly workmen and high school students) sometimes found it necessary to get out and push the streetcars up Bell Hill (adjacent to Glenwood Park) because of insufficient electric power and wet tracks. In fair weather, it took 50 minutes for a streetcar to operate between Springfield and Rochester, but in bad weather that trip took from one to two hours. There were seven bridges, four with I-beams as stringers and the others with timbers, all poorly constructed. A grade crossing with the Illinois Traction System's Springfield Belt Line was interlocked, but the Cincinnati Hamilton & Dayton Railroad (later C&IW) overpass near Bergen Park had extremely close clearances. In addition, the track alignment ranged from poor to very poor.
The company earned only $11,368 (-$3,687 net) in 1911, while the allied Sangamon Valley earned $9,500 (-$9,800 net). After an inspection of the trackage conditions on July 1, 1912, by the Illinois Railroad Commission, all service was ordered suspended on July 18th pending repairs, and the last streetcar operated on July 19th. In September of 1912, the Springfield Clear Lake & Southern Railway was incorporated to acquire the property and rehabilitate the trackage. However, the money for the project was never raised, and service never resumed.
On August 2, 1913, the company was sold at foreclosure as junk for $12,650 to Abraham Barker of Springfield, who scrapped the system. About $6,650 was distributed to the bondholders. On October 13th, the two streetcars were awarded to W.G. Brown of Rochester, the largest stockholder of the company, who had moved the streetcars to Decatur after service was suspended. The streetcars were overhauled, repainted, and sold to the Gary Hobart & Eastern Traction Company.
This article was edited and laid out by Frank Hicks. Thanks to Ray and Julie Piesciuk and to Richard Schauer for making available the materials from the Stephen Scalzo Collection that were used to publish this history.
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