Part One: The 1800s Start-Ups
Richard D. L. Fulton
As far as the history of transportation is concerned, the period from the late 1800s through the early-to-mid 20th century has generally come to be termed/known as The Age of the Trolleys.
Prior to 1888, public transportation conveniences were powered—literally—by horsepower, such as horse-pulled carriages on tracks, to and from their destinations.
However, in 1888, Frank J. Sprague, of Richmond, Virginia, invented the electric-powered, motorized trolley (which operated off of overhead wires, and not by the previously attempted, dangerous, third-rail powered system), and within only a matter of a few years, electric trolley systems across the country were conveying passengers (as well as mail and freight) throughout all the many cities, small and large, (including countrysides).
Of course, trolleys (also known as streetcars by more modern jargon) derived their name from the fact that a mechanism on the vehicle called a “trolley wheel” drew electric current from an overhead wire, which it then redirected to the electric-powered engine within the vehicle.
In the wake of the invention of Sprague’s trolley system, in Maryland, as well as elsewhere, innumerable small, mainly short-line and short-lived, trolley companies quickly sprouted up, thereby developing even further into numerous mergers and consolidations.
The following are a few of the lesser-known Maryland trolley systems (and there were many).
United Railways & Electric Company
The United Railways & Electric Company (UREC) was formed in 1899, through the merger of a number of other pre-existing, smaller Baltimore and surrounding-area trolley companies.
The UREC had a pretty good run, compared to many others, and operated from its founding date in 1899 up through 1933. The company erected a power plant (known as the Pratt Street Power Plant) in 1900, mainly for the purpose of generating power for the rail line and community at Pier-4 at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The UREC declared bankruptcy in 1933 and was reorganized as the Baltimore Transit Company in 1935 (which, itself, had been absorbed in 1970 into the Maryland Transit Administration).
A public sale was held in 1935 for the purpose of disposing of a myriad of the UREC tracks and operational accessories (poles, wirings, transformers, etc.), buildings (ranging from car barns to terminal stations to shops, and even whatever other assets the transit company had owned within the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park), more than two dozen rail cars, and more than two dozen trucks and cars, according to the February 26, 1935, The (Baltimore) Sun.
The UREC’s Inner Harbor power plant still stands today, serving as “home” to two top-notch, local restaurants, those being Phillips Seafood and the Hard Rock Café, according to metro-photo.com.
Glen Echo Railroad Company
Marylanders normally associate the name Glen Echo with the name of the Glen Echo Amusement Park, but there also had been a Glen Echo Railroad, which operated in Southern Montgomery County.
The Glen Echo Railroad Company filed for incorporation during December 1889, describing one of its terminus points as being the boundary between Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County (near the village of “Tennallytown”) and the other “on a tract of land, presently known as Glen Echo Heights,” according to the December 14, 1889, issue of The (Baltimore) Sun.
The hard-luck, relatively short-lived, electric railway officially commenced its operation on June 17, 1891, following a period of eminent domain issues. The trolley line soon thereafter established a reputation of having poorly maintained right-of-way and equipment.
The Washington Star reported in 1895, “The condition of the road, and most of its equipment is exceedingly unattractive, the cars being old and dingy, and the tracks for nearly their entire length of three miles… overgrown with grass and weeds.”
But alas, the fiasco was not long-lived. In 1896, new owners acquired the Glen Echo Railroad Company, renaming it as being the Washington & Glen Echo Railroad. expanding and improving upon the line. However, that was also short-lived, and in 1900, the result of consolidation, the company was renamed as being the Washington Railway and Electric Company, which was subsequently, in 1933, merged with the Capital Traction Company, thus forming the Capital Transit Company.
Frederick & Middletown Electric Railway
Construction of the Frederick & Middletown Electric Railway got well under way as of January 1896, under a workforce of some several hundred men, according to the January 24, 1896, edition of The (Baltimore) Sun.
On August 18, 1896, the Frederick & Middletown Electric Railway officially commenced operations accompanied with considerable fanfare in Frederick City, The (Frederick) Citizen writing, in their August 21 edition, “Patrick Street was one bustling mass of humanity from one end to the other, drawn as if by an unseen power to the points of the magnet… the place… from which the car was to begin its journey.”
The debut run of the trolley proceeded only from Frederick City to Braddock Heights and back, as the route to Middletown had yet to be completed, but The Citizen noted, “All along the lines, crowds had gathered… farmers, their sons and daughters, and the hired men, all left their work to see the wonderful (maroon-colored) car speeding along without any visible motive power. Yet doing the work of a high-powered locomotive.”
The newspaper further noted that the rails were already being unloaded in order to complete the line to Middletown, a distance thereby remaining of only a quarter mile.
“The railway’s board of directors created the Braddock Heights Resort and Amusement Park on the mountaintop, chiefly as an attraction that would draw passengers from nearby cities, to ride the trolley,” According to frederickhistory.org.
The Frederick & Middletown Electric Railway ceased to be known as such, when in 1909, the railway system was re-named as being the Frederick Railroad, after their having acquired a steam railroad to Thurmont, also according to frederickhistory.org.
Edmondson Avenue, Catonsville & Ellicott City Electric Railway Company
Potentially vying for being one of Maryland’s longest trolley company names, the Edmondson Avenue, Catonsville & Ellicott City Electric Railway Company, mercifully going by the acronym EAC&ECERC, was incorporated in 1892.
The line as proposed in 1892 was to be eight miles in length (not including a proposed extension to Ellicott City), and with approval conditioned on raising the Edmondson Avenue bridge over Gwynn Falls by an additional 20 feet.
However, as work progressed on the proposed trolley line into 1894, the company repeatedly ran afoul of the law when it established rights of way along private property without securing the permission of the owners. This resulted in a number of lawsuits for thousands of dollars in damages against the company, to the point the courts noted the EAC&ECRC even stopped attending the court hearings.
On April 6, 1894, the Maryland General Assembly, apparently having had enough of the trolley company’s nonsense, ordered the EAC&ECRC to be merged with the Baltimore and Washington Transit Company, and thus create a new company operating under the name of the Baltimore and Washington Electric Transit Company.
Conclusion of Part One – The 1800s Start-ups
In the immediate wake of Sprague’s 1888 establishment of having electric vehicles powered by overhead wires, Maryland experienced a proverbial explosion of trolley companies from the bay to the mountains. Most of the lines established in the late 1800s were short lines, sometimes only a few miles in length, while a few attained the lengths of such lines as the Frederick & Middletown Electric Railway.
But the myriads of short lines that sometimes existed within a single county or city often required multiple transfer tickets to travel from one place to another or subjected the commuter to mid-course disruptions caused by failed trolley companies in between destinations, or further hamper commuting efforts by short lines that just ran out of money before completing the intended line.
The turn of the century witnessed efforts to eliminate the numbers of short lines through multi-line consolidations, which will be considered in Part II – The “End of the Line.
United Railways & Electric Company trolley passing under B&O Railroad bridge.
Capital Transit Company (CTC) Trolley at Glen Echo in 1939. The CTC had acquired the Glen Echo Raitroad through mergers.
