Common Specifications: Stone & Webster Interurban Cars

Common Specifications:

Stone & Webster Interurban Cars

by Art Peterson with Frank Hicks

All photos are from the Krambles-Peterson Archive

Chicago Surface Lines fans know that Brill, CSL’s West Shops and Cummings each built cars to the CSL’s common specification for the front entrance-center exit (“Sedan”) streetcars of 1928.  Likewise, in the period between 1909 and 1913, three of the properties under Stone & Webster’s management bought interurban passenger cars from four different builders that were identically dimensioned and similarly equipped.

It's no surprise that Stone & Webster would develop a “tight” specification and stick to it.  As Hilton & Due noted, Stone & Webster was much more interested in the management, supervision, and engineering development aspects of the business at each of the properties they controlled.  Stone & Webster had developed common specifications for city car design and construction on their urban transit properties, so following a similar path for interurban car design was entirely logical.

However, this didn’t happen across the board – for example, the common specification was not applied to car purchases at Stone & Webster’s Puget Sound Electric, even though the nearby Pacific Northwest Traction did buy cars to the common specification design.  The Boston-based firm controlled six interurban properties (with the real focus being on affiliated power companies), with small concentrations of these holdings in Texas and Washington.

Stone & Webster was formed in 1889 by Charles A. Stone and Edwin S. Webster, to serve as an electrical testing and consulting firm.  By 1906, the firm had established the Stone & Webster Engineering Company. Charles Birney (yes, THAT Birney) was an engineer in the employee of Stone & Webster when he and Joseph Bosenbury designed the Birney car in 1915.

The 1924 edition of the McGraw “Electric Railway Directory” included a section listing holding companies.  Under the listing, Stone & Webster owned all the capital stock of the Galveston Electric Company, the Galveston-Houston Electric Company, the Galveston-Houston Electric Railway (GHE) and the Houston Electric Company.  They also owned all the capital stock of the Northern Texas Electric Company, the Northern Texas Traction (NTT) Company and the Pacific Northwest Traction (PNT) Company.  There were numerous other holdings, but it’s the three interurban companies – GHER, NTT, and PNT – that are of interest to this story.  The images are presented in chronological order.

The Common Specification Cars

NTT grew out of the Fort Worth streetcar system, which was acquired in 1900 and renamed to NTT.  The 35-mile interurban line to Dallas began service on July 1, 1902.  Kuhlman-built passenger cars (which wouldn’t have looked entirely out of place on the Northern Ohio roster) were initially used on the interurban.  The line was successful enough to attract the attention of Stone & Webster, which in 1905 formed the Northern Texas Electric Company to secure all the NTT stock.

Under Stone & Webster control, NTT moved to improve the physical plant and rolling stock on the Dallas-Fort Worth line.  Four cars built to the common specification were delivered by Kuhlman in 1909.  The builder photographed the first car of that order.  Not surprisingly, with Kuhlman a Brill subsidiary, the car rides on Brill trucks.  Northern Texas Electric (all holdings – rail and otherwise) was doing well around this time – net income increased 22% from 1909 to 1910, totaling $420,000.  The following year, the company would post a 13% increase in net income.  Also in 1911, NTT turned to Cincinnati for construction of a single car built to the common specification.  Unlike the Kuhlmans, car 20 rode on Baldwin trucks, and would use GE73 motors with C36C control.

The Seattle-Everett Traction Company was begun by Fred Sander in 1906. Stone & Webster acquired the operation from Mr. Sander and completed the line’s construction to Everett. In late August 1910, the Electric Railway Journal commented favorably on the line’s construction, noting that the maximum grade was 2%, while no curve was tighter than 4%.  A long tangent cut through 12 miles of old-growth forest was illustrated in the article, which indicated the level of effort required to complete the line to Everett.  Seventy-pound rail was used with 6 to 12 inches of gravel ballast beneath each tie. Initially, the line used cars from Stone & Webster’s Everett Railway Light and Water, transitioning to the Niles-built cars as they were delivered.

Half of Seattle-Everett’s Niles car order from 1910 is shown in this view adjacent to the barn in Everett (at California & McDougal) around the time service began. Like the NTT cars built the previous year, these cars were each 52’-0” long, 13’-0” high and 9’-0” wide.  Unlike the NTT order, these cars rode on Baldwin 78-25A trucks. Once again, GE motors and control equipment were used. The initial schedule run with the Niles cars required four of the six for service. Multiple-car trains were operated in the peak periods.

Operation under the Seattle-Everett name lasted barely two years.  In its January 30, 1912 issue, the Electric Railway Journal reported on the merger of the Seattle-Everett and Bellingham-Skagit interurban lines (both under Stone & Webster control) to form the Pacific Northwest Traction. With this consolidation, the line to Everett became PNT’s Southern Division. Heavy ridership on the Southern Division during World War One was accommodated by transferring one of the Northern Division cars south, and by the acquisition of two parlor cars from the Spokane & Inland Empire line.

The third property to receive common specification interurban cars was the Galveston-Houston Electric.  Cincinnati built the ten cars for the GHE in 1911 (the same year Cincinnati delivered car 20 to NTT). GHE had been chartered on March 2, 1905. A little over a year later, the GHE (still under construction) was acquired by Stone & Webster. The last spike was driven on October 19, 1911. The long construction duration for the 50-mile line can be explained in part by marshy land near Texas City Junction, which was slow to construct and by the need to construct a 10,642-foot causeway to provide access to Galveston. This structure included a half-mile of reinforced concrete arch viaduct. The causeway was shared with several steam roads and a county highway.

Wearing the stunning Packard Blue and Ivory scheme, with silver striping and the Bluebird “speed with safety” logos, GHE 107 and train pose on Texas Street in Houston. The 1926-vintage Auditorium Hotel (at Texas and Louisiana) towers over the handsome train. GHE was the first recipient of Electric Traction’s Speed Trophy, capturing this award in 1925 and 1926. Their hottest trains were covering the 50 miles in 75 minutes. The North Shore Line would win the trophy in 1927 and 1928, while the South Shore took the speed crown in 1929 and 1930. The 107 was one of four cars rebuilt to provide parlor seating up-front. Riders on these trains could purchase a “Pleasure Limited” Combination Ticket, including a $2 round-trip interurban ticket, admission to one of Galveston’s bathhouses and a night of dancing. 

In common with the rest of the industry the double whammy of improved roads and the depression would do in all three of these properties. As Hilton & Due noted, it appeared that Stone & Webster saw the trouble coming, thanks to the early demise of the Puget Sound Electric (December 1928) and the PNT Northern Division operation (September 1931). All three roads continued to use the common specification cars as their front-line equipment until the end.

NTT’s strong traffic base allowed it to go back to St. Louis for two more orders of common specification cars – the first four arrived in 1913, while the final four had 1921 build dates. Both orders incorporated arched roofs in place of the traditional railroad roof. However, even by 1913 and definitively by 1921, these cars were behind the industry trends in still relying on wood-steel construction (see the portion of the truss rod to the left of the car operator).

In 1925, the marketing-savvy NTT (the road won the Coffin Award that year) remodeled a number of the newer St. Louis-built cars for the “Crimson Limited” service. Initially, these were motor-trailer two-car parlor-coach consists. An August 1926 article in “Electric Traction” reported that NTT’s interurban ridership was up 14.8% due to repair work on the paralleling highway. That “bump” didn’t last long and by the early 30s the Limiteds were reduced to single-car trains. 

The end of NTT rail service came on Christmas Eve 1934 – a new Twin Coach 30A bus stands ready to take over the service. This view was recorded at another landmark Stone & Webster project – the 1916, $1.5 million Dallas Interurban Terminal. As late as 1932, there had been three rail tenants of the facility. With NTT’s demise, only Texas Electric would remain. 

Texas Electric would acquire six of the former NTT arched-roof standard specification cars in 1935. Two of these cars were from the 1913 order, with the balance being members of the 1921 group. Their operation on Texas Electric was short-lived. All six were retired after the abandonment of the Corsicana line on February 4, 1941. As CERA Bulletin 121 noted, two of the ex-NTT cars were rebuilt into flat cars by the Texas Electric’s Monroe Shops.

Bob Mehlenbeck’s father was a contractor, and a job in the Houston area in September 1935 gave Bob the opportunity to spend some time around the GHE in its dying days. Two of the handsome common specification cars rest at the Houston barn (on Texas at Smith Street) on September 20, 1935. By the time of this photo, the “Bluebird” look had been replaced by a simplified paint job, though still including outlining on the side panels and the dash. GHE’s tight operating practices (headlight assigned to and carried by specific cars) identify the two cars as being the 109 (at right) and 113. Note the Stone & Webster logo cast into the barn facade. GHE’s rail service had been reduced to hourly service in the peak, with trains every two hours or so at other times. GHE would quit running on October 31, 1936, with the final car tying up in Galveston at 1 AM on November 1. In full disclosure, it’s the GHE cars that initially drew my interest to the fine design details of the Stone & Webster interurbans.

Harold Hill did an amazing job of recording the North Coast Line’s (NCL) rail operation, including this view at Phinney and 50th, circa 1939. Initially, NCL was created to consolidate all the Stone & Webster bus subsidiaries operating in the Seattle area. From June 1, 1930 the Southern Division interurban operation, along with PNT’s bus division, were merged into NCL. A clear indication of where the priority lay could be found in a November 1931 “Electric Traction” article about NCL which made no mention whatsoever about the rail service.

NCL cars were light green (the one preserved NCL car has been painted in a blue-gray color) below a maroon belt rail stripe, cream through the windows and had gray roofs and underbody. Operating an hourly service, NCL normally required only four of the Niles cars (the 50, 51, 53 and 55 were the “usual suspects”) for service at this time. Both handicapped by and dependent upon using the 21/Phinney car line to enter downtown Seattle, NCL’s final rail runs occurred on February 20, 1939, as Seattle was in the process of converting its car lines to trolley coaches. Car 51 was one of the cars used on that final run out of Everett, running as 1st Train 19.

After its passenger-carrying days were over, the body of NCL 51 ended up as a lunch stand in Lake Stevens, WA (thirty miles north-northeast of Seattle). Sister car 55 did time as the “Old 55” diner in Everett. In 1964 it was acquired by the Puget Sound Railway Historical Society. The City of Lynwood later bought the car and restored it, putting it on display under an open-sided pavilion circa 2004.

Several famous works were essential to the completion of this piece.  These include:  Ira Swett’s 1959 “Interurbans Special” No. 22 on the GHE; Hilton & Due’s 1960 book “The Electric Interurban Railway’s in America;” CERA Bulletin 121 of 1982 on the Texas Electric (including the NTT); and, Warren Wing’s 1988 book “To Seattle by Trolley.”  In addition, I’d like to thank Randy and Frank for allowing this piece to appear on their blog.