The Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company is excited to announce that Electrify 429 has received a $3,000 grant from Tom E. Dailey Foundation. Electrify 429 is a capital campaign for the operational restoration of one of Indiana’s last interurbans – an intercity electric railway car. This grant will be applied towards the cosmetic restoration of the car’s smoking section as phase one of a four-phase restoration plan, which is already underway at a private facility near Indianapolis.
With the interurban system dissolving in 1941 and streetcar systems converting to buses in the 1950s, many alive today do not remember nor even know the state had one of the world’s greatest transportation networks. In the 1920s, the electric railway system peaked with more than 15,000 operating trolleys and more than 2 million passengers in a year. Cars would depart the traction terminal in Indianapolis (trolley station) nearly every minute for destinations across the state, once passing the steps of the Indiana Statehouse. With the conclusion of the Golden Age of railroading in America, began the railway preservation movement.
-Long days, late nights, conference calls, precision logistics, all while balancing full-time careers, family obligations, etc. This is what occurs day-in and day-out within preservation groups across the country. For our new nonprofit organization near Indianapolis, it has been no exception relocating Indiana’s last surviving trolleys.
In 1935, Indiana Railroad, which was the dominating interurban (high-speed electric train car between cities) route resulting from the acquisition of nearly every interurban line in Central Indiana, was looking for ways to cut costs and standardize equipment. Competition from automobiles and busses were injuring the interurban line’s finances, as the personalization and ease of these modes of transportation had great appeal.
