Woeber Electric Streetcar, D&I M103. Fort Collins, Street location unknown, c. 1909.
A little track can go a long way
By Rob Carrigan. robcarrigan1@gmail.com
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Street cars and interurban railway in Fort Collins, started and survived, stumbled, perished, and then, came back on a small scale. For much of the 20th, and on into the 21st Century, the town was the smallest municipality in the United States to operate a street car system.
"The city issued a franchise to the Denver Inter-Urban Railway late in in 1906.That company began laying tracks the next spring. The system went into operation shortly after Christmas that year with five miles of track. Service provided residents on both sides of College Avenue with an excellent means of reaching either the downtown business district or the campus of the Agricultural College. In 1908, service was extended to the sugar factory on East Vine Drive, and out to Lindenmeir Lake. The lake was and important recreation area for the town's people with it's facilities. By the close of the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the railway operated nearly nine miles of standard guage track," writes Wayne Sundberg, in "Historic Fort Collins."
"The Denver and Interurban Railroad (D&I), a subsidiary of the Colorado and Southern (C&S), built a three-legged streetcar line in Fort Collins in 1907 as part of their expansion along Colorado's Front Range. The plan was to develop electric feeder or "collector" lines to connect with the C&S, the major transportation artery up and down the Front Range," according to the current site of FortCollinsTrolley.Org.
"The street car operated on electricity from overhead cables. The most important track intersection was the corner of Mountain Avenue and College. Every twenty minutes, three of the cars would converge for a fancy three-way turn on a four-way wye. Safety was the key word of the line, and there were few major accidents. One spectacular accident di occur when a steam shovel collided with one fo the cars, practically demolishing the the wooden street car," says Sundberg.
Fort Collins streetcar lines fanned out from the intersection of Mountain Ave. and College Ave. in downtown Fort Collins:
West on Mountain Ave. to the cemetery (later thru City Park)
South to the (then new) high school on Pitkin
Northeast on Linden, then East to Lindenmeier Lake
"The first line to open was on West Mountain Ave. and served the annual Race Meet and Stock Show at the county fairgrounds, now part of the City Park complex. Because the power plant was not yet in operation, the C&S used a small steam switcher and old coaches to provide service from downtown to the fairgrounds. The fare for this three-day operation was five cents per ride, the same basic fare that would stick with the system throughout its life," notes FortCollinsTrolley.Org.
Four new Woeber double-truck streetcars arrived from Denver in the fall and began operating on all three lines on December 29, 1907. The cars were numbered 101-104. Two additional pair of Jewett motors and trailers were added later, says FortCollinsTrolley.Org.
Four D&I Streetcars at College and Mountain Avenues, c. 1909
Daily operation consisted of three cars running on the three lines. Each car had a two-man crew. All cars meet at the wye at Mountain and College every 20 minutes, then departed in a different direction. Cars ran from 5 AM through midnight, serving most of the businesses in the City, plus students at the high school on Pitkin and Colorado A&M College along College Ave.
"After only a few years of operation, the D&I cut back on service by eliminating the conductor on each car. From then until the end in 1951, the motorman assumed the additional task of collecting fares and issuing transfers,"FortCollinsTrolley.Org. said.
Over the years, other economies were made to improve operation or save money, including dropping the stub line from Mountain and College to the C&S depot, and extending the College Ave. line East to Remington and Whedbee to form a loop though that southeastern residental area.
"The D&I also built an interurban line between Denver and Boulder, and planned to extend the interurban north through Longmont and Loveland to the Fort. By 1918, however, the automobile had made a permanent dent in interurban and streetcar revenues. The D&I was loosing money on all its operations and fell into recievership. The Fort Collins system stopped running without warning on July 10, 1918," says FortCollinsTrolley.Org.
The city took over operation of the line in 1919. The Woeber electric cars were junked, and smaller, more efficient, Birney cars went into operation. The "Birneys" continued to serve the city's growing population. The fare never exceeded five cents, with monthly tickets or school fare offered at even a lower rate. The Fort Collins Municipal Railway lost money on its street care operation for a number of years. Service was finally abandoned in 1952.
D&I Streetcar at Linden and Walnut Streets, 1912.
With Fort Collins out of the street car business, then, the era of electric railways had ended in Colorado.
"A small group of volunteers began restoring Car 21 in 1977. They first moved the car to the old barn on North Howes St. and carefully dismantled it. While the restoration was taking place, the Fort Collins Municipal Railway Society organized in 1980 to complete the restoration and rebuild part of the original Mountain Ave. line to run Car 21. With help from many members and organizations, plus generous support from local businesses, we built a new two-stall barn on West Mountain Ave. and rebuilt most of the west Mountain Ave. line," says FortCollinsTrolley.Org.
"The first part of rebuilding was complete by the end of 1984, allowing restored Car 21 to run once again to City Park. The rest of the line was completed over the following two summers and turned over to the City in August 1986," according to FortCollinsTrolley.Org.
Recent street car ride in Fort Collins.
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