Trolley Thursday 10/21/21 - Milwaukee's NMRA Speedrail Wreck

In the context of railroad history, no company is more synonymous with the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, than the famous Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, otherwise known as "the Milwaukee Road". Unfortunately for you, foolish reader, today is not a day to talk about the famous Route of the Hiawatha, as Beer City is home to more than just a famous streamliner. For the purposes of this blog, we'll be discussing the city's lesser-known system of local interurban and streetcar lines operated by the Milwaukee Rapid Transit & Speedrail Lines (also known as "Speedrail" going forward) and how one man's dreams were destroyed on a weekend meant to boost this fading, failing interurban. On today's Trolley Thursday, we look back on the tragic NMRA Speedrail Labor Day Wreck of 1950 and why it's important to remember today.

 

The Players

The letterhead of the Milwaukee Electric, as it appeared in the early 1900s.
(WEC Energy Group)

A "West Side Street Railway Co." streetcar with a destination
herald for the "C&NW Depot" is photographed in 1890.
(Milwaukee County Historical Society)

Prior to 1950, The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company (TMER&L) was one of many midwestern electric railway and utility companies operated to sell transportation and electrical power. Its influence spread far and wide across Wisconsin, sharing tracks with Samuel Insull's North Shore Line between Kenosha and Milwaukee before splitting off in the heart of downtown to serve branches in East Troy, Watertown, and Sheboygan. Much of this system dated back between 1890 and 1897, when Milwaukee got its first electric streetcar and its first interurban line, respectively. Despite its size, reach, and importance to the citizens it served, the TMER&L's finances floundered after World War II; this was due to a mass abandonment of the system during the Great Depression (when operating costs were too great to justify a large system) and the loss of artificially-inflated ridership (through gasoline rationing) during the war. 

A map of the TMER&L Interurban system at its height.
(WERHS)

Maeder also brought Cleveland streetcars to the streets of Milwaukee,
as seen by this ex-Cleveland curve-sided lightweight streetcar, 1950.
(Larry Sakar, The Trolley Dodger)

The man to save the day ended up being Cleveland-based railfan Jay Maeder, who led a group of Milwaukee and Cleveland-based investors that purchased the TMER&L by December 2, 1949. A dream come true for traction fanatic Maeder, he reorganized the "Railway & Light Company" into the Milwaukee Rapid Transit & Speedrail Lines and now had full control of the Milwaukee-Waukesha and Hales Corners lines. Maeder's plans for Speedrail were very simple: to have it be profitable and to be able to host highly-profitable railfan excursions and railway conventions as well as the usual freight and passenger service. On September 2, 1950, Maeder finally got his chance to fulfill his dream. The National Model Railroad Association (or NMRA) was holding its 15th Anniversary convention in Milwaukee (where it was founded in 1935) between September 1st and the 4th, and it just so happened to coincide with Speedrail's 1-year anniversary as a reorganized interurban company.

Jay Maeder poses on the steps of Car No. 39 on that fateful day, with the dash sign
heralding the "NMRA Special". The motorman in the photograph is George Wolters.
Notably, No. 39-40 was the only set to wear this scheme.
(Larry Sakar, the Trolley Dodger)

Speedrail No. 41-42 demonstrates the normal appearance
for the "duplex lightweights" at Clybourn, Milwaukee, 1951.
(Don Ross)

The stage was now set for Maeder to impress everyone attending, considering he felt like he was seen as the ultimate railfan living the dream by running his own real railroad. For the convention, which was being held at the Schroeder Hotel and attended by 660 people, Maeder organized a special excursion train made up of a rebuilt set of two 1930 ex-TMER&L St. Louis Car Company lightweights, Nos. 1039 and 1040. In 1942, these two cars were rebuilt into articulated set No. 39-40. Inside, the cars had comfortable bucket seats and their light construction and powerful motors meant they could easily hit interurban speeds of 50 miles an hour. As a downside, the light construction on these cars also made them susceptible to nasty head-on collisions, lacking a strong steel frame to reinforce their construction. For the convention, No. 39-40 received a swanky striped livery the day before, intended to advertise Speedrail as the upper Midwest's best interurban. Unfortunately, the events that transpired proved Maeder's railroad to be anything but.

A Speedrail "heavyweight" car, still wearing its old TMER&L herald above the windows,
hustles a freight train across a bridge at an unknown location.
(Radio Milwaukee)

The Disaster

Saturday, September 2, 1950.

TMER&L "Heavyweight" No. 1121 paces the North Shore's famous
"Electroliner" near Rancine in 1949, during an Electroliner fantrip.
(Don Ross, the Trolley Dodger)

Even before the convention started, there were rumors going around that Jay Maeder's enthusiasm may have gotten the better of him. Speedrail, at the time, rostered a motley group of old heavyweight and lightweight interurban cars, with the newest being the St. Louis lightweights he was providing for the convention. Much of this prior equipment had been in various wrecks before and even during Speedrail's existence, and Maeder himself knew of this, but he intended that today wouldn't be the day for such tragic trivialities. The day started off well, with Maeder serving as motorman on a 9AM trip to Hales Corners from Milwaukee, overseen by conductor Chester George and motorman George Wolters. The line to Hales Corners from West Junction was run on a single-tracks, as this line was normally lightly-populated. Today, however, Maeder and his dispatchers planned five excursions over the course of the day, which only meant trouble for some of the regular trains. This also meant that extra security was placed at both ends of the single-track section to guard against oncoming trains.

TMER&L No. 1192-1193 at the Public Service Building in 
Milwaukee, which was the interurban's main terminal.
At this time, in 1949, the Milwaukee Electric was owned by the 
Kenosha Motor Coach Lines.
(Don Ross)

One of these trains was a 9:20AM service from Milwaukee to Hales Corner, run by heavyweight articulated interurban cars No. 1192-1193. Normally, these cars were reserved for rush-hour use, but their appearance also made an impression on the NMRA crowds, being able to see veteran cars in action. No. 39-40 left Hales Corner at 9:25AM, behind schedule for a still-unknown reason. To this day, no-one knows exactly how the accident took place. Some say that Maeder, in his haste to make up time to clear the 9:20AM heavyweight and enthusiasm to be driving a high-speed interurban, misread a signal; others claim there was a signal malfunction that allowed both heavyweight and lightweight trains to occupy the same block. Nevertheless, at 9:45AM, just south of National Avenue in Greenfield, Wisconsin, the unimaginable happened.

No. 39 is rendered into steel shavings by the much larger, heavier No. 1192.
(Dan Monighan, Bell Becwar)

No. 39 rolled down an embankment and needed to be scrapped on site.
(The Transport Company Web Station)

The wrecked front end of No. 1192 once it was pulled away from the wreck.
The cars were never rebuilt and both were scrapped by 1952.
(Transport Company Web Station)

No. 40, tipped on its side, prepares to be scrapped on-site.
(Transport Company Web Station)

Brakes were applied at full speed and passengers in both trains surged to the rear cars. Jay Maeder was pushed to safety by Wolters and leapt from the train, landing on the ground in a bloody heap. As he lifted his head, though, he saw No. 1192 telescope itself into the lightweight No. 39, shredding the lightweight car to 1/3rd its length and forcing it down into the adjacent embankment. 1192's front windshield and brow were destroyed, killing its motorman, Gerald Greer (aged 32), but remained solidly on the rails. After the groaning mass of steel and iron came to a stop, there was only the wails of sirens and survivors as everyone tried to comprehend what just happened. A nearby taxi driver quickly radioed his dispatcher for help, and word spread fast all over Milwaukee that a deadly wreck occurred, with word reaching the Schroeder Hotel 45 minutes later. A sign posted at the hotel's bulletin board read solemnly,:

"Please do not go home. There are fellow model railroaders who need our help."

Cleanup and Investigation

Al Kalmbach in a lighter mood.
(Kalmbach Publishing)

Investigations from all sides began as the injured and the dead were accounted for, with ten people sadly losing their lives over the following days. Eight were pronounced dead at the scene, including No. 1192's motorman Greer and William A. Wright, associate editor of Model Railroader and a native of Milwaukee. Two others died from injury complications, five were critically injured, and forty-one sustained some sort of injury. That Saturday evening, what was supposed to be a grand banquet for the NMRA turned into somber discussion, while most of Sunday's activities and dinner was cancelled out of respect for the dead. Al Kalmbach, a railroad magazine baron whom you might have heard of if you've ever picked up a copy of Model Railroader or Trains Magazine, was also chairman of Milwaukee's Transportation Committee and he put together an NMRA investigation of the wreck to see if they were liable for damages. As it turned out, Speedrail only carried $500,000 in liability insurance and the excursion tickets were purchased directly from the interurban company without re-selling them. Had the NMRA resold the Speedrail tickets after purchasing them, they would have been liable in any lawsuit.

Speedrail No. 64 on a dead line, awaiting scrapping.
(Stuart Kurth, Don Ross)

Four other investigations, including from Speedrail themselves, were also in progress at this time, and no cause was ever determined by all involved. Jay Maeder, the driver of No. 39 and the owner of Speedrail, was acquitted of all charges of neglect and manslaughter by way of indeterminate cause. It was theorized by some members, at the time, that Maeder was driving distracted either by his own enthusiasm or by members of the NMRA badgering him with questions as he was operating, but nothing conclusive ever came up, and no personal narratives ever corroborated the same story. Speedrail was forced to pay thousands in damage claims to the families of those who died or were injured, further sinking its financial situation. As if that wasn't bad enough, the accident repeated itself when freight motor No. 1121 collided with Car No. 64 at almost the same spot, resulting in one bruised passenger. By the end of the year, Speedrail lost its insurance provider and ridership had dropped severely, and it seemed all the wind in Maeder's sails was robbed over a senseless and freak tragedy.

What Happened After

The initial round of scrapping is underway at the
Waukesha Gravel Pit in 1948.
(Don Ross)

Given that the story is still up for debate 72 years later, there were no real lessons learned in the wake of the 1950 NMRA Wreck. The company continued operating, with even more wrecks occurring such as derailments, but none as catastrophic as 1950. By mid-1951, all Speedrail operations were halted due to the company losing all of its postwar ridership; by the next year, Jay Maeder watched as the trolleys he was so enthusiastic to save and operate were scrapped. With the trolleys went the promise of an expanded Speedrail service to Lake Geneva, Madison, and Delavan, but all of that wasn't meant to be. Jay Maeder remained haunted by the accident until his death from cancer in 1975, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at the time of the incident, "Somebody must have missed a signal. That's the only way I can explain it." Today, the NMRA remains a vital component and overseer of model railroading in the United States, whose standards and conventions keep the hobby alive and thriving into the 21st Century. 

Little streetcar No. 846, a "Double Birney" adaptation,
is seen operating at the East Troy Railroad Museum.
(East Troy Railroad Museum)

As for Speedrail, the only extant portion remaining is now the East Troy Electric Railroad in East Troy, Wisconsin. Having purchased the rail line in 1939, the town maintained an operating lease with the TMER&L until 1949 and ran it as a municipal line afterwards as the Municipality of East Troy Wisconsin Railroad (METW). In 1967, the Wisconsin Electric Railway Society decided to call the place home and began running preserved South Shore Line cars. In 1985, the city of East Troy asked the Society to take over the line and move the Wisconsin Trolley Museum out of North Freedom, WI. Today, the East Troy Electric continues to operate their fleet of historic South Shore and North Shore cars on the 7 mile run between East Troy and Indianhead Park and, rather appropriately, hosts five ex-TMER&L equipment in their collection, two electric locomotives, a crane car, a line car, and streetcar No. 846. To this day, the 1950 Speedrail wreck remains the deadliest train wreck in Wisconsin history.

 

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included Joe Russ' retelling of the 1950 Speedrail Disaster, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal's article commemorating the disaster, D.K. Nelson's Model Railroader thread of the disaster, and Frank Hicks of the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, along with the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum of East Troy, Wisconsin, and the photo credits in each caption. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Tuesday, we hit the West Coast to look at the Pacific Northwest's worst streetcar disaster. For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!