2003 Photo Album

Page Updated
4/119/2008

Let's Talk Traction
General Notices
Big Four Depot
Railroad Stations
Towers and
Block Stations
Breakup Of
Conrail

Selected Slides
Photo Pages Index
Loram Rail Grinder
FRA T-2000
High and Wide
ISP Safety Video

Memory Pages
Lewman Photos

Big Four (NYC)
'Bee Line'
Michigan Div.
NYC Power

PCC&StL (PRR)
Columbus Div.
Delco Tower
DOW Tower
Elwood
EA&L RR
Indian Creek

The Circus
Circus Trains
RB&BB Train

CI Rwy & CIW

Nickel Plate

Traction (IRR)

Bibliography
Maps
Indiana Sites
and NYC Links

Contact the
Webmaster:
Roger Hensley

Railroads of Madison County
Traction Photo Page

Click on the thumbnail for the photo.

Anderson Street Railway circa 1900 (Postcards)

Early 1900s
Union Traction depot at Orestes.

The interurban ran directly down the middle of this street. At the end of Broadway it curved slightly to the north then straightened out as it made its way to West Orestes and the Powell Brick and Tile factory. The interurban made stops at Young's Crossing, Republican Hall, the depot, and the Brick works. If the trolleys weren't too full they would make other stops in between those stops.

Union Traction Shops - 1905 (postcard)
View of the Indiana Union Traction shops in Anderson, Indiana. Several sets of train tracks run along side of the building. Various train cars sit on the tracks in front of the shops. Note the two yellow city cars and the several green interurban cars to the left of them. An American flag tops the building.

1) UTC Shops 2) Wye NE of 5th and Main

Pictured with an eary Elwood Car is 'Red' Maley, Motorman and Clarence 'Bud' Powell, Conductor.
Elwood Public Library Collection

1907

Union Traction #273 stands beside train order semaphore. Built by Cincinnati Car Co 1903, original name "Peru", renamed "Ingalls", out of service 1932

1910

Bob Trueblood supplied me with this 1910 postcard showing a UTC car on its way into Pendleton from Anderson. It had just passed Falls Park heading south. It was pretty faded, but I think that it came out pretty well.

Middletown, IN station, 1910. This was a short branch of the U.T.C. system from Anderson to Middletown, about 10 miles southeast. Abandoned just before the Indiana Railroad takeover in 1930.

September 21, 1910 - Kingsland
A wreck occured on the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley's Bluffton Division just north of Kingsland. The heavy metal WV car ran about half way through the lighter wooden UTC car, and all of the 42 people killed were on the UTC car. The crews of both cars survived.

Circa 1908-1912

This is one of the trolleys that serviced the Alex-Elwood & Tipton Line in Madison and Tipton counties. This is a rare photo. I have only seen two with the names of these towns. I have the other one also as the trolley is parked at the Union Traction office in Alexandria.
Dave Dwiggins Collection.

General Railway Signal Company
Catalog showing AP Block System of Indiana Union Traction
1912

UTC Box Motor #607 with Trailer

1924

At Alfont just west of Ingalls, 21 die in the firey collision of two UTC cars on Feb 2, 1924
"Run, boy, run!" said the Motorman to the young boy standing beside him. The boy ran and lived. The Motorman didn't. It is said that the wreck train was called as soon as the dispatcher in Anderson realized that one of the cars had passed a 'Stop Signal'. However, they had no way to contact either car.

UTC Car on the way to Indianapolis circa 1925. (Postcard)

UTC Box Motor #150 with Freightcar

The ROW at night.
Absolutely striking isn't it!

IRR High Speed Car Blueprint
Here are a couple of shots of a blueprint of an Indiana Railroad High Speed Car that was offered for bid on e-Bay. It was hoped that the High Speed Car would save the IRR.

1930s

UTC #439 (just becoming IRR #439 has a Sleeping car) ca. 1931

UTC #432, now IRR #432 has Parlor Cars "Purdue" and "Indiana" in 1933

Power House and generators at Anderson

It's 1935 and you can travel to Indy for $0.76 one way. In fact, from 5 AM to Midnight, there was a car in each direction every hour.
(Click on the Price list at left for the Travel by Ingterurban Ad.)

IRR CAR 377 at Anderson Shops
Anderson was the proud home of the Union Traction Company before it became a part of the Indiana Railroad. The facilities here were excellent with the car barns and power plant. The power plant drew it's water from the Kilbuck Creek behind it. A Mill Race had been cut directing water flow from the creek for use by the power plant and shops.

1937
Roy E. Shultz said:

Here is a picture of the Interurban repair crew taken inside the old Interurban building on Broadway in Anderson. My great grandfather, Cosby Scott Louderback, is the middle row, forth from the left with the sweater on. On the bottom of the picture it reads; "Car Dept, Indiana Railroad, Repair Shop, Feb. 22, 1937, Anderson, Indiana.

1937 - 1965

Kennard IN - 1965
The traction depot at Kennard after conversion to a home when the traction line closed in 1937.
Maurice Lewman Collection.

1938

January 1938
Passengers board car 67

ca 1938
Highspeed 63 crosses the Anderson Belt coming in from Indy.

1939

Indiana Railroad Interurban car stops for passengers at the Anderson depot. Date: ca. 1939.

May 1939 - The end of the IRR was near as this Fan Trip crossed the White River at Anderson. This posed photo was taken in May of 1939 crossing the White River on a fan trip near Anderson, IN. The name Union Traction can still be made out on the bridge, About 1930, the combine, from the former Indiana Public Service line, was converted to an RPO car and painted Orange for the IRR. The car is #376, which, at the end of IRR operations just before World War II, was sold to the South Shore where it was converted to 1500v. DC and made into the famous South Shore line car, #1100. This car's ultimate disposition may be to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL.

1940

Number 57 stops to phone the dispatcher before heading east.
This stop was mandatory.

1) Dixie Flyer leaves the Indianapolis Terminal as an Interstate awaits passengers. mid '20s
2) IRR 375 loads mail under Car Shed (Indy?)
3) IRR Traction Car on Main between 8th and 9th (corner of 9th and Main) '37-'38
4) Traction Car stopped on main street in Yorktown - '39-'40
5) '39-'40? Work train on city street with flatcar and trailer.
6) IRR #38's time is short as she awaits her fate at the Anderson Power Plant - Shops. '40-'41

1)
2) 3) 4)
5) 6)

Roger Hensley Collection

January 18,1941

This is the last interurban out of New Castle, Jan. 18,1941.

January 2, 2002
On January 2, 2002, Bob Trueblood and I went to the Indiana Transportation Museum in search of Union Traction all steel car number 429. We found it.

Marvin Crim writes:

You may have seen this photo from the Bill Volkmer Collection on Dave's Rail Pix web site (http://www.davesrailpix.com/). It's the interurban overpass over the PRR railroad just north of New Castle. On a closer look, this would appear to be the Elwood car on the overpass. It appears to be IRR 1150 and that was UTC 443 and IRR 443, both the "ELWOOD" car .

Here's 2 views of the overpass from later years.
1) from the winter of 1962, PRR's Train 70 passes EB under the former UTC overpass.
2) from the mid '80s, the overpass was still standing. This view is from the same direction but a little closer. (Marvin Crim is in the photo - rph)

Marvin Crim Photos.

Lastly, Marvin sent over this scan of the UTC/IRR Parlor Car, Purdue.

Marvin Crim Collection.

Steve Long was kind enough to lend me his traction collection for scanning. As the Indiana Railroad (IRR) was the successor to the UTC, I have included those photos from his collection here.

Here is a scan of the freighthouses that sat behind the Indianapolis traction terminal.

...and a scan of THI&E interurban # 55 "Wabash"

Picture of historical marker in downtown Alexandria.

A rural shelter that the UTC used where the rail line crossed a road. One could flag down an interurban car with any thing available such as a lantern, burning newspaper or other light source. This shelter is preserved in Beulah Park in Alexandria.

John Reehling Collection

Picture Credits:
Many of these photos are from the collections of a variety of sources including Martin Denale, Joe Lance , Lew Shapiro, Bill Volkmer and others.
Anderson Street Railway Postcards - submitter unknown*
UTC at Pendleton - 1910 postcard, southbound from Anderson - Bob Trueblood Collection
Indiana RR at Union Traction Power Plant - 1935-38 from the Ron Buser Collection
UTC 429 at ITM - Roger Hensley Photo
UTC car at Indianapolis - submitter unknown*
IRR High Speed Blueprint - e-Bay - Photographer unknown
IRR 376 Fan Trip - 1939 Photographer unknown
IRR Series - Steve Long Collection
[* I offer my apologies to the folks who have sent me scans of postcards. At the time, I did not intend to use them. However, good photos are hard to find. Therefore... ]

For more information on Traction in Madison County, see Let's Talk Traction

Let's Talk Traction - Streets - Interchange - Dalevile UTC

Back to Photo Index Page

Return to Top of Page