Ottawa Streetcars
by Stephen M. Scalzo
Headline image: This is the Ottawa city system's lone double-truck car, number 18, year and location unknown. The conductor is Arthur Defenbaugh. Tim McGuire Collection via David Sadowski / www.thetrolleydodger.com.
The Ottawa [Illinois] Horse Railway was organized on February 19, 1867, with $50,000 capitalization, and the Ottawa & South Ottawa Street Railway was organized in 1887. However, those two companies never built anything.
The Ottawa Electric Street Railway was organized in July 1888 with $100,000 of capital by Joseph Evans, and a short time later received a franchise to build a street railway. The company did very little until April 1889, when construction began on the power house and car barn by Sanders Brothers Construction. The power house for supplying electricity for the overhead had a 200 HP engine (and necessary boilers) and two 80 HP generators. During July, the rail arrived and construction of the trackage started.
On August 16, 1889, the company opened the state's first electric street railway system, operating over six miles of trackage with eight small four-wheel streetcars and four trailers. Built at a cost of $100,000 by the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, the single-track line with several passing tracks ran from the power house at Chestnut and Marquette Streets to the downtown business district, and from downtown to the County Fairgrounds on Norris Drive.
The company barely edged out the rival City Electric Railway that was formed in November 1888 with $125,000 of capital. In the fall of 1889, the west and south side lines were constructed and placed into service, and the company operated six miles of trackage with eight streetcars and four trailers. Total construction cost was about $150,000.
The entire 12-car original roster of the Ottawa system appears to be lined up in this early photo, possibly taken on opening day in August 1889. Car 3 prominently sports an early Sprague-style trolley pole, with the pivot atop a post and vertical springs. The location is Columbus and Jefferson looking north; First Methodist Church is still there. Stephen Scalzo Collection, Illinois Railway Museum.
The company operated until February 1895, when a series of strikes and the lack of funds forced the system to stop operating. On November 30, 1895, the property was sold at a foreclosure sale to the General Electric Company for $7,500. GE tried for several months to sell the system, and in June 1896, started to dismantle the trackage. The city's mayor, J.M. Smith, purchased the property shortly thereafter for $40,000, but nothing was done to restore service. On March 29, 1895, the franchise was forfeited, and service was not restored for another ten months. GE again purchased the system for $7,500 and sold it on January 15, 1897, for $100,000 to the Ottawa Street Railway Company, which had been organized on December 31, 1896.
The city immediately passed a franchise to rebuild the system, and it was reopened on July 1, 1897. Earnings again were low, and receivership occurred on January 18, 1898. On March 10, 1899, the Ottawa Railway Light & Power Company was organized with $150,000 of capital, and on July 15, purchased the property of the Ottawa Street Railway and the Thomas Electric Light and Power Company.
Car 6, one of the 1889 Pullman cars, is shown lettered for Ottawa Street Railway, which likely dates the photo to sometime in the late 1890s. Stephen Scalzo Collection, Illinois Railway Museum.
By 1900, the city had a population of 10,588, but earnings of the system were only $39,193, and another default occurred. On July 15, the property was sold to Rollins and Sons. On September 11, 1903, the Northern Illinois Light & Traction Company was organized and acquired the property. During 1906, a new car barn was built on South LaSalle Street at Webster Street to replace the original one on Chestnut near Marquette. In 1911, earnings had increased to $145,768. In April 1912, a hydroelectric plant had been constructed at Marseilles, with the power being sold to several area cities and the Chicago Ottawa & Peoria Railway electric interurban system.
On September 11, 1913, the McKinley Syndicate purchased the system. Within five years the streetcars were converted to one-man operation. On December 16, 1920, the company was authorized by the Illinois Commerce Commission to abandon the Lafayette and Chestnut Street tracks, which comprised a portion of a loop line in the downtown area that had two steam railroad crossings.
NIL&T 9 was built for the Ottawa system by the American Car Company in 1903. Date and location unknown. Stephen Scalzo Collection, Illinois Railway Museum.
In May 1923, the Illinois Power & Light Company took over the system. Automobile usage at that time was starting to take passengers away from the streetcars, and with street paving costs being assessed to the company for streets where the tracks were located, revenue started to decline. Finally, on August 15, 1927, the last streetcar operated, and buses took over. Other than the one short section of trackage abandoned in 1920, all of the trackage survived until final abandonment.
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.
Roster of Equipment
1-4 (four cars) - ST DR closed cars - built 1889 by Pullman (order #597) - Brill truck, 2 x T-H F20 motors
5-8 (four cars) - ST DR closed cars - built 1889 by Pullman (order #598) - Brill truck, 2 x T-H F20 motors
9-11 (three cars) - ST BR closed cars - bought secondhand 1897 - Brill truck
12? (one car) - ST closed car - motorized ex-horsecar, bought secondhand 1899, built by J.M. Jones - Peckham truck - ex-West End Street Railway [Boston] 1281
20-26 even (four cars) - ST DR 9-bench open trailers - built 1889 by Pullman (order #576)
28, 30? (two cars) - ST open trailers - ex-horsecars, bought secondhand 1899, built by Brill - ex-West End Street Railway 2100 and 2197
32? (one car) - ST open trailer - ex-horsecar, bought secondhand 1899, built by J.M. Jones - ex-West End Street Railway 2718
#s unknown (three cars) - ST closed cars - bought secondhand 1897
Much of the equipment listed above was scrapped or otherwise disposed of in 1903
9-12 (four cars) - ST DR closed cars - built 1903 by American (order #506) - Brill 21E truck, 2 x WH 12A motors, K-10 control
14-16 (three cars) - ST closed cars - bought secondhand 1903 - Brill 21E truck, 2 x WH 49 motors, K-11 control
17 (one car) - ST DR closed car - built 1904 by American (order #560) - Brill 21E truck, 2 x GE 1000 motors, K-6 control
18 (one car) - DT DR closed car - bought secondhand 1910 from Interurban Railway & Terminal, built 1902 by St. Louis (order #323) - St Louis 23MCB trucks - traded to CO&P in 1913 for car 103 (which see), later conveyed by the CO&P to Lincoln [Nebraska] Railway & Light
101 (one car) - ST closed car - acquired 1923 in trade, built 1902 by St. Louis (order #264) - Dupont truck, 2 x GE 67 motors, K-10 control
103 (one car) - ST closed car - acquired 1913 in trade, built 1902 by St. Louis (order #264) - Dupont truck, 2 x GE 67 motors, K-10 control - traded back to CO&P in 1923 for identical car 101
403 (one car) - ST closed car - bought secondhand 1908, built by Northern - McGuire A1 truck, 2 x WH 49 motors, K-10 control - ex-Minneapolis Street Railway 403
BR=Bombay Roof, DR=Deck Roof, DT=Double Truck, ST=Single Truck
Two of the original 1889 Pullman-built cars, car 7 and an unidentified open trailer, stand in front of the courthouse in this image from the January 1890 issue of Street Railway Journal.
Route Map
The Ottawa car barn is depicted here in a 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map. It was located on the southeast corner of LaSalle and Mill Street, today Lincoln Place. The site is today a parking lot.
Thank you for a well researched history of the system. It is my hometown. Edward Chase
ReplyDelete