Hillsboro Railway Company

Hillsboro Railway Company

by Stephen M. Scalzo

Headline image: Arley and Ernest Johnson are pictured with Hillsboro Railway 4, a homely product of the McGuire-Cummings company built in 1912. All photos are from the Stephen Scalzo Collection of the Illinois Railway Museum except where noted.

Ed. Note: Hillsboro, Illinois, is a city near the center of the state, about 50 miles northeast of St. Louis. It was the terminus of a branch line of the Illinois Traction System interurban network and in 1910 it had a population of about 3,400 people.

The Hillsboro Street Railway, incorporated in 1903, and the Hillsboro Electric Railway, incorporated in February 1903 with $15,000 of capital, were allied with the local power company, but neither company ever built anything. On June 23, 1905, the Sangamon Valley Electric Railroad Company was incorporated to construct a streetcar line from the Hillsboro Hotel in the Public Square to Union Station; the company was controlled by the Mississippi Valley Interurban Railway, which had been incorporated in May 1905.

The line was built to furnish transportation to employees of the Schram Automatic Fruit Jar Company and the residents of the villages of Hillsboro and Schram City, and to carry passengers to and from the Big Four and Frisco combined railroad depot. Schram City was established as a village on May 11, 1907, and the depot was built in 1905. Construction began in early 1907, and on October 16, 1907, the inaugural streetcar run was operated on the line carrying Mr. J.E. Melich, president of the line, and 40 invited guests.

The Hillsboro Railway, a company chartered on May 22 to operate the line, began regular streetcar service on November 6 using one streetcar on the 1.5 miles of trackage, operating every 20 minutes with a five-cent fare (or 7 tickets for 25 cents, or 30 for $1.00). The carbarn was located at the north end of King Street. By 1910, Hillsboro had a population of 3,424.

Hillsboro Railway 1 is standing in front of the Hillsboro Hotel, which was - and still is - located at the northeast corner of the courthouse square. The courthouse itself is just out of frame to the left. Car 1's lineage is uncertain but it strongly resembles St. Louis 300-series streetcars and may have been one of the original two cars acquired in 1907.

Surveying began on a new line from Hillsboro to Taylor Springs in August 1911. However, Mr. Melick's empire, which also included the Hillsboro Electric Light & Power Company, collapsed during the early part of 1912, and the Southern Illinois Light & Power Company (which was formed by the consolidation of a number of utility companies in the area) purchased the company on April 1, 1912. The company announced that it would spend $110,000 to extend trackage to Taylor Springs, which had become a boom town. Taylor Springs had come into existence with the sinking of a coal mine in 1908, and became a thriving community after the American Smelter located there in 1911. A connection track was built in May 1912 with the Illinois Traction System at Hillsboro to service customers and to handle carloads of material for construction of the line.

Little is known of car 2. It appears to be a McGuire-Cummings product but its date of construction is unknown. It's also unknown whether any other cars of this type ran in Hillsboro.

Construction of the line to Taylor Springs began in July 1912 after the contract was awarded to Driscoll and McCalman of Decatur in March. New streetcars were ordered at a cost of $20,000 each to operate on the new line. Hourly streetcar service initially began between Hillsboro and the city limits of Taylor Springs on November 1 using one streetcar; a delay by the city of Taylor Springs in granting a franchise held up construction of the southern end of the line for a short period. In November, the company entered into an agreement with the Big Four Railroad to construct trackage on the railroad right-of-way into Taylor Springs. Streetcar service over the entire 1.87-mile into Taylor Springs from the Hillsboro courthouse finally began on December 6, operating on the hour and half hour with a six-cent fare. The entire system then consisted of 3.29 miles of track operated by four streetcars between 5:00am and midnight.

By the end of 1913, the company had a surplus of $50,490 out of an operating income of $80,490. The SIL&P purchased the Sangamon Valley Railway on December 31, 1913. During the latter part of 1916, construction began on a half-mile trackage extension in Taylor Springs to the American Zinc Company smelter. The streetcar system eventually consisted of 4.21 miles of track operated with five streetcars.

Car 4 is on the east side of the courthouse square in Hillsboro, signed for a trip to the Big Four/Frisco depot on the east side of town. In the left background can be seen St. Paul's Lutheran Church, which still stands on the north side of the square just west of what was once the Hillsboro Hotel.

As the years went by, both the Taylor Springs and Kortkamp mines were closed, employment dropped at the remaining industries, and the automobile became the popular means of transportation. The Illinois Power & Light Corporation acquired the system in May of 1923. The streetcar system soon became unprofitable, and nothing was done to repair or rebuild the facilities. By 1927 the utility contended that the streetcars were losing money at the rate of $500-700 a month, and that the system was no longer serving the purpose for which it was established. On September 27, 1927, authority was received to abandon the system and run replacement bus service, and on October 4, the last streetcar operated.

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

Information on the Hillsboro roster is extremely sketchy. This information comes from James Buckley.

Cars 1 and 2 (two cars) - acquired secondhand in 1907 from St. Louis Rail & Equipment on an installment plan, probably ex-United Railway of St. Louis - reclaimed by SLR&E in 1909 for nonpayment

Car 2 (one car, ST DR) - McGuire-Cummings? - only information from photos, not sure how many cars there were in this series

Car 3 (one car, DT DR) - St. Louis Car Company, 1908 (order #785) - built for Springfield Clear Lake & Rochester but used instead in Hillsboro from 1908 until 1911, then returned to the SCL&R

Cars 3 and 4 (two cars, ST AR) - McGuire-Cummings, 1912 - 32' long, 32 seats, McGuire Columbian truck, GE 80 motors

Hillsboro car 2 is shown in a builder's photo at McGuire-Cummings in Paris, Illinois.

Route Map

Click here for a route map of the Hillsboro streetcar system

The carbarn in Hillsboro is visible at center-right in this 1912 Sanborn fire insurance map, though it's erroneously described as "stables." Dearborn is today known as Church Street (the church visible on the Sanborn map is still there) but dead-ends at Broad Street.

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