Trolley Thursday 5/28/20 - A Utahn Reflection by Josh B.

To close off this month's discussion of Utah streetcars, trolleys, and mostly interurbans, I've asked my Utah expert this month, Josh B., to write up a guest piece. This is going to be a regular practice considering I have friends with an interest in streetcars all over the United States, and possibly even the world. I'll probably think up a better name than "Guest Piece" though. Without further ado, take it way, Josh!

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Bamberger No. 353, southbound leaving Kaysville
(Gordon Cardall)

In his book, "Interurbans of Utah", Ira Swett described the territory that Utah's interurban railways traversed as the “hinterland.” In its strictest sense, a hinterland is a landlocked area far distanced from the ocean. In the case of Utah's interurbans, the term is symbolic of its rural isolation, away from the dense urban centers that their counterparts elsewhere in the country served.

Magna, Utah in 1937, with a Salt Lake & Utah train
in the distance.
(Don Strack)

Until the urbanization that exploded in the late 1980s, most of Utah was extremely rural. While the Salt Lake Valley today is a vast suburb of Salt Lake City, with homes and businesses swelling from wall to mountain wall, not 50 years ago it was mostly fields and marshes dotted by small communities. There were few suburban commuters; in spite of being built to transport humans, Utah's interurbans could only survive by transporting freight along the almost 170 miles that span Preston Idaho to Payson. Hence, passenger rosters in some cases paled in comparison to the freight rosters.

Salt Lake & Utah steeplecab No. 101 switches
freight cars as parlor car 751 passes by on the main.
(Gordon Cardall)

In a previous post, your Motorman highlighted a boxcar that was purchased by the Salt Lake & Utah, but diverted to the Salt Lake Garfield & Western when payment was not forthcoming. This is a single example of the SL&U's extensive freight roster of refrigerator cars, drop bottom gondolas, boxcars, and flatcars. The Utah-Idaho Central boasted a similarly sized selection of freight cars, largely utilized for the sugar beet and fruit traffic originating on its far-flung agricultural branches to Plain City and North Ogden. The Bamberger had a smaller freight roster, but its 50-foot paper service boxcars could be seen as far away as Denver, where they drove the Denver & Rio Grande Western employees mad due to deferred maintenance and constant malfunctions.

The new Frontrunner heavy-rail commuter service at
Provo Station, formerly served by the Bamberger Railroad.
(Ricardo63)

From a modern standpoint, we remember the interurban railways as the predecessors to modern commuter rail services; UTA's FrontRunner system was lauded by some as a “new Bamberger,” replacing the valuable community resources that were lost when the automobile and pavement made them obsolete. However, Utah's interurbans were far more important for their freight services, providing fast and local service between the farms and factories.

 Their position paralleling the D&RGW and the Union Pacific along the Wasatch Front forced the larger steam railroads to offer competitive pricing for local traffic, a pleasant side effect that assisted the economic advancement of the otherwise isolated rural populations. North Ogden residents still fondly remember the “Dummy Line,” the UIC's branch up to the North Ogden Bench, but visit the North Ogden Historical Museum and the narrative focuses on its importance in developing the orchards that thrived at the base of Mount Ben Lomond, not the streetcar services it also provided.

Ogden City Railway No. 100, year unknown but a perfect example of a steam dummy
(Don Strack)

A Utah-Idaho Central interurban unloads in the middle of the street at Logan,
UT, heading Northbound, 1947.
(Gordon Cardall)

In fact, all four interurbans (counting the Saltair) would not have survived into the 1940s were it not for the valuable services they provided to the war effort. The Bamberger was strategically positioned as the only rail access to Hill Field (now Hill Air Force Base); the Utah-Idaho Central served Defense Depot Ogden and its Plain City Branch accessed gravel pits that provided building materials for the Prisoner of War camp nearby. The Saltair ran commuter trains with military-owned passenger equipment. The Salt Lake & Utah delivered fuel from its connections with the coal-hauling Utah Railway to the factories and smelters producing war materials. Once the war ended, the prisoners went home and the defense facilities downsized, there was no longer any freight to supplant the already abysmal passenger income, and the electric railroads folded one by one, surrendering to semi trucks and buses.

The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Gary Herbert speaks as UTA celebrates its 50th birthday with a news conference at the state Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. At left is Carolyn Gonot, executive director of UTA.
(Trent Nelson, Utah Tribune)

This year Utah Transit Authority is celebrating its 50th year; the anniversary stickers adorning all Frontrunner and Trax cars represents that the state is slowly remembering the importance of a publicly accessible passenger rail system. As we acknowledge the interurban renaissance, remember that the interurbans also built the state's industry just as much as its public transport, and look forward to a day when, as urban planners and futurist dreamers predict, an electrified rail network once again stretches from the Idaho border to southern Utah County, and perhaps this time beyond.

UTA's Trax Light Rail service, continuing the legacy of electric mass transit.
(Bond Buyer)

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Thank you for reading this month's Trolleyposts! I'd like to thank Josh B. for today's writeup, Don Strack for his wonderful photo resources, UtahRails for making this niche information readily available online, and John Smatlak for his photo resources as well as saving our Bamberger car at the Southern California Railroad Museum. If you would like to follow Josh B. on his numerous adventures, hit up his Facebook here on the Tintic Range Railway. Next month, we hop right into the Lone Star State and look at the interurbans all over Texas! Until then, you can follow myself or my editor on twitter if you wanna support us, and maybe buy a shirt as well! Ride safe!