Trolley Thursday 8/13/20 - The Big and the Small of the Indiana Electrics

Streetcar systems, interurban railways, and indeed any electric railroad is going to have some kind of elaborate idea that anyone can see is absolutely impossible. As it was the early days of mass rapid transit, damn near anything was possible and people thought the wire could stretch from sea to shining sea. However, reality has a way of putting things into perspective, and more often than not these elaborate plans ended up consigned to the drawing board, or worse, never being built beyond a small town. On the flipside, plenty of tiny electric industrial installations ensured both a business' reliable connection to another railroad, and of course plenty of adorable rolling stock. On today's Trolley Thursday, we look at what made these two types of railroads so special, and so infamous in Indiana, as we look at the Chicago-New York Air Line and the Singer Manufacturing Electric Railway!