The Interurban

   The Wright Brothers are flying out at Huffman Prairie today.  You live in downtown Dayton which is quite a hike if you want to walk. You don’t have a car and even if you did trying to take it along the country lanes is an accident waiting to happen. A horse and buggy would take far too long. A train won’t come in time or get you close enough. How do the Brothers manage this trip nearly every day?

   Why of course! They take the interurban! Running every half hour there’s guaranteed to be one at a station near you soon. As a matter of fact if you pass by the one you need on the way there you can probably hop aboard. As an electric run system of 600 Volt DC power unless the city receives a blackout it will keep working. You’ve heard it called the “slow and unreliable” once but even so it’s smoother than a buggy and the less said about canal travel the better.

   In fact you should consider taking it more often. By paying for a one seat trip you can make it to Columbus or Cincinnati without having to change lines once. Now you just need to figure out which line to take. It can be a little confusing considering how many companies have set up lines. Not counting the number that have changed hands. Let’s see there’s the Dayton-Xenia, the Miamisburg and Germantown Traction Company, the Dayton Western Traction Company, the Covington and Piqua Traction Company, and a few more.

    The one you want to get to Huffman Prairie is the Springfield-Urbana Electric Company line. You overheard one of the workers say that the conductor tries to time his rides so that he can watch the Brothers fly too. Maybe you’ll get to see a flight on the way there too.

Work Cited
http://www.daytontrolleys.net/history/interurbans/interurbangraphicalchanges.htm
The Bishop Boys by Tom Crouch