Indiana Railroad
The Indiana Railroad was the last of the typical Midwestern United States interurban lines. It was formed in 1930–31 by combining the operations of the five major interurban systems in central Indiana into one entity. The predecessor companies came under the control of Midland Utilities, owned by Samuel Insull. His plan was to modernize the profitable routes and abandon the unprofitable ones. With the onset of the Great Depression, the Insull empire collapsed and the Indiana Railroad was left with a decaying infrastructure and little hope of overcoming the growing competition of the automobile for passenger business and the truck for freight business. The IR faced bankruptcy in 1933, and Bowman Elder was designated as the receiver to run the company. Payments on bonded debt were suspended. Elder was able to keep the system virtually intact for four years, and IR operated about of interurban lines throughout Indiana during this period. During the late 1930s, the routes were abandoned one by one until a 1941 wreck with fatalities south of Indianapolis put an abrupt end to the Indiana Railroad's last passenger operations.
Predecessor interurban companies
The late 1890s was a time of horse-drawn carriages and wagons pulled along unpaved streets and roads, so the arrival of the town streetcar was appreciated. Some of these trolley lines eventually expanded into the countryside and, by 1911, had grown into hundreds of miles of interurban lines networked across Indiana. "When before we had moved by horse and carriage, we now rode on plush seats to places,, even distant."Union Traction Company
The Indiana Railroad was created on July 2, 1930, when Midland Utilities purchased the Union Traction Company of Indiana and transferred ownership to the IR. Union Traction was the largest interurban system in Indiana with of interurban trackage and of streetcar lines in Anderson, Elwood, Marion and Muncie. UTC had been created in 1897 to operate an initial line between Anderson and Alexandria, and came under the control of the Schoepf-McGowan Syndicate in 1902. UTC purchased or leased several neighboring interurban lines in short order: the Elwood and Alexandria was bought in 1903, the Indiana Northern in 1905, and the Indiana Muncie Hartford and Fort Wayne was leased in 1906. In 1906, UTC also purchased all of the Dayton and Muncie's trackage in Indiana.UTC absorbed the Indianapolis, New Castle, and Toledo in 1912 and extended its trackage from New Castle to Muncie, but it did not reach Toledo. Although it attempted a passenger revival with the purchase of new equipment, UTC went into decline in the 1920s along with the other Indiana interurban systems. In 1925, it entered receivership whereby it continued operating by delaying paying interest on its bonded debt. It survived this bankruptcy whole and passed intact into IR control in 1930.
Interstate Public Service
At the same time that UTC was acquired, three other systems already owned by Midland Utilities were put under the control of IR. The largest was the Interstate Public Service Company, which was reorganized as an independent company known as Public Service Company of Indiana, but was operated under the auspices of IR. The IPS operated the line from Indianapolis to Louisville that had been built between 1896 and 1907 under a variety of small independent lines. Through service between Indianapolis and Louisville was inaugurated over these separate lines in 1908, but it was not until 1912 that ownership of the different segments was consolidated and IPS was created.During the 1920s, IPS modernized its fleet of cars extensively. It operated frequent passenger services between Indianapolis and Louisville and operated suburban services around Louisville. By 1930, it was one of the strongest of the Indiana interurban lines. IPS operated three-car overnight sleeper trains each way between Indianapolis and Louisville during the years before the Great Depression. The all-steel interurban sleeper cars, with traction controls and motors removed, were purchased and used into the 1960s by British Columbia Railway.
Indiana Service Corporation
The Indiana Service Corporation became part of IR at the same time as the IPS. ISC was the successor to the Fort Wayne and Wabash Valley Traction Company, a system that had been assembled from smaller predecessors around 1902.In 1910, FW&WV had a very bad wreck near Kingsland, Indiana. Two wood bodied cars impacted head on, with one "telescoping" into the other, resulting in 41 fatalities. This is considered the worst accident in the history of interurban transit and forced the FW&WV into bankruptcy.
FW&WV reorganized as the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana, but failed in 1919 and was purchased by ISC. ISC had also acquired two other lines, the Fort Wayne and Northwestern and the Marion and Bluffton Traction Company, in 1924 and 1926, respectively. In the 1920s, IPS purchased a group of heavy steel combines and coaches from St. Louis Car Company. ISC was absorbed into IR essentially intact, with only the Battle Ground branch having been previously abandoned. The 400 class ISC cars were operated by Indiana Railroad along with IR's new high speed cars until abandonment. One of the combines was eventually purchased by the CSS&SB South Shore Line, where it still operates today as a catenary maintenance car.
Northern Indiana Power
Absorbed into IR along with ISC and IPS was the Northern Indiana Power Company, a successor to the Kokomo Marion and Western Traction Company. This line was the smallest and weakest of the companies that were folded into IR.Terre Haute Indianapolis and Eastern
A year later, on June 23, 1931, the final piece of the IR system was added when the Terre Haute Indianapolis and Eastern was purchased at auction. The THI&E was the second-largest interurban system in Indiana, operating just over of interurban lines as well as streetcar service in several western Indiana cities. It operated branches out of Indianapolis west to Terre Haute and Brazil, to the university town of Lafayette, and east to Richmond. It stretched nearly from the eastern to the western boundaries of the state. Due to lack of operating revenue and funds, it had never modernized, and was financially among the weakest of the Indiana lines. As a power utility it had profits, but the interurban division had been losing money for a decade. It fell into receivership in 1930, and several major branches, including lines to Danville, Martinsville, Lafayette, Crawfordsville, Sullivan, and Clinton were abandoned prior to absorption by IR in 1931. Its Indianapolis–Richmond Line connecting with the Dayton and Western Traction Company was an important IR link to the Ohio interurbans for interchange of freight. IR quickly retired the very dated THI&E arch-windowed wood combines.The essential Dayton and Western connection
The Indiana Railroad was able to interchange passengers and considerable freight with the Cincinnati and Lake Erie interurban in Ohio, but the financially very weak Dayton and Western interurban was the essential rail link between the two companies. The D&W tied into IR tracks at its west end at Richmond, Indiana, and into C&LE tracks at its eastern end at Dayton, Ohio. The D&W connection allowed the IR to ship freight from Indiana to Dayton, and from there on the C&LE north to Toledo and Cleveland, south to Cincinnati, and east to Columbus. Like many interurbans, the Dayton and Western struggled financially into the 1930s. Its track ran adjacent to the new U.S. Route 40 highway between Richmond and Dayton, and as the 1920s passed, the Dayton and Western crews apprehensively watched as more and more of their business moved onto that highway in the form of cars, trucks, and buses. From 1931 to 1933, the Cincinnati & Lake Erie leased the D&W to prop it up. In 1936, the IR took over the lease, but in May 1937 it had to drop the lease for lack of funds, forcing the D&W to abandon operations. The resulting loss of revenue business to Ohio wounded the IR.Inherited rolling stock
IR inherited a large fleet of interurban cars from its various predecessor companies, totaling perhaps 100–150 interurban cars, probably 200 or so streetcars, around 50 pieces of freight equipment and about 55 work cars of various types.The interurban cars varied considerably in age and design. A number of pre-1910 very large arch-windowed wooden combines that had survived in service on ISC and THI&E were disposed of within the first couple of years of IR's existence, leaving a fleet made up predominantly of heavy steel single-ended combines. There were about half a dozen 400 class ISC combines, 30 UTC steel combines, and nine of Interstate IPS's heavyweight combines, parlor, and sleeping cars. A few of these former Interstate cars were still operated by a British Columbia railroad in the 1990s.
The city cars, excluding earlier wooden types that were scrapped, consisted mainly of single-truck Birney cars inherited from UTC and THI&E. The only exceptions were a handful of double-truck cars left over from UTC and from IPS's suburban Louisville operations.
The freight and work equipment was a hodgepodge of mainly home-built designs, outdated passenger cars converted for alternate use, and secondhand equipment. Most of this equipment was quite old, but even some equipment dating to before 1905 remained in IR's employ for years. Some of the retired passenger coaches that were in better condition were rebuilt into box motors and utility cars.
New rolling stock
IR purchased two series of modern interurban cars during its life, and it was the first series — the famed Indiana Railroad High-Speeds — that always symbolized the railroad. When IR was created, its owners knew that they would have to modernize their fleet of interurban cars if they hoped to prevent further erosion of their ridership. In 1930 and 1931, IR designed a series of lightweight, low center of gravity, high-speed interurban cars that could operate quickly and economically on the far-flung IR network. The new cars owed much to the Cincinnati and Lake Erie lightweight cars built a year before. They were single-ended, low-floor cars designed for operation by a single man and were built largely of aluminum to save weight and, therefore, require less power to operate. The biggest difference from the C&LE cars was in the trucks: whereas the C&LE cars had smaller arch-bar trucks, the IR cars were designed with heavy Commonwealth cast steel trucks designed specifically for high-speed service and to cope with poor light rail track.A total of 35 cars was ordered. The first 14, cars 50–63, came from the American Car and Foundry and were deluxe cars with coach seating at the front and parlor car chairs at the back. The remaining 21 cars, numbered 64–84, came from Pullman and had all coach seating with a small baggage section at the rear. Delivery of the new high-speeds began in July 1931 and they were an immediate success, making it possible for IR to reduce running times on some of its routes and economize on its operations.
The second series of new cars was a group of ten Cummings-built lightweight cars that were bought in 1935. They were not brand new; they had been constructed in 1930 for the Northern Indiana Railway but had been seized by Cummings when the Northern Indiana couldn't pay for them. These cars were numbered 90–99.