The Harvey Transit Company
by Stephen M. Scalzo
One of the smallest streetcar lines in the state of Illinois was that of the Harvey Transit Company. Harvey, founded in August 1890, was divided by several stretches of prairie which gave it a rather spread-out appearance, and to help bridge the one to two-mile gap between the center town business on the east side and manufacturing clusters on the west side, an electric railway was deemed a necessity.
With the idea in mind that Harvey was destined to grow and expand, on July 17, 1891, the Harvey Transit Company was organized by the Harvey Land Association to help develop the community, which had only 246 people in 1890. After receiving a franchise from the city council, about $150,000 worth of stock was sold to finance the company. A three-mile line, using 40-pound T rail, was built the following year from 151st Street and Columbia Avenue, via Columbia, 156th Street, Marshfield Avenue to 147th Street, and over to Spaulding Avenue. At that time none of the streets were paved, so the tracks were laid on top of the ground. Three double-truck 35-foot long Laclede streetcars, numbers 5, 10, and 15, with McGuire trucks and two Short 15 HP electric motors each, were purchased to carry passengers. In conjunction with the west side water works on Page Avenue between 148th and 149th Streets, a carbarn and electric powerplant operated by a 100 HP engine were constructed to serve the new line.
The company began operating at the beginning of 1892. However, there was insufficient patronage on the line and by the summer of 1894, the company was losing $20 a day. Service was discontinued in the fall of 1894, and on January 9, 1895, the company went into the hands of a receiver. During the reorganization, it was determined that the company's stock was worthless.
In the fall of 1895, the city council wanted to revoke the franchise of the company if they did not operate the line. Thinking that the company, then a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Harvey Water and Light Company, might be valuable later on, two local citizens, Mr. W.J. McCorkindale (already in charge of the company's office) and Mr. Tommy Talbot purchased a four-wheel horsecar and three horses from the West Chicago Street Railway Company, calling themselves the West Harvey Street Railway. With the consent of the receiver, the Chicago Title and Trust Company, service was resumed using horsepower instead of electricity to save the franchise.
The reason that the electric cars were not used was because they cost more to operate than what was collected in fares, so the receiver found it cheaper to lease the trackage for the horsecar operation. Several people were hired to drive the horsecar, and they were paid on a sharing basis, in that everything taken in up to $45 was theirs, and one-half of the excess (which was very little) went to the two owners. A local real estate developer paid the company $25 a month for operating the line to his west side subdivision, so that it could be advertised that there was street railway transportation to the subdivision. However, the new venture did not pay for even operating expenses, so the operation of the line was turned over to Mr. Tromley to run, with the understanding that he was to pay for the feed of the horses out of the receipts, with the balance being his.
In 1896, a tornado demolished the carbarn, destroying the three stored electric cars and killing two of the three horses. Additional horses were bought to replace those killed to continue the operation of the line. Horsecar service continued into 1898 when the wrecked electric cars, the horsecar, and horses were sold to the Chicago Electric Traction Company. The new owner dismantled the system, and the tracks were later used to build the electric storage battery line from Blue Island to Harvey in 1899.
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.
Headline image: Ornate, antiquated Harvey Transit car 1 is pictured during its brief operational career. The location is uncertain, but given the presence of the angled street, this could be 156th and Columbia (today Central) looking north. Photo from the Stephen Scalzo Collection of the Illinois Railway Museum.
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