Historic rail from Indianapolis’ well-known streetcar system has been awarded to the nonprofit Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company through a collaborative effort amongst Midtown Indy, the Arts Council of Indianapolis and IndyGo. The rail from College Avenue once carried the company’s Indianapolis Railways streetcar No. 153, which is the last one known in existence.
As of 4:29 p.m. on 4/29/2019, a group of young preservationists are pleased to announce the Electrify 429 capital campaign. Electrify 429 is a project of the Hoosier Heartland Trolley Co. to restore Indiana Union Traction Company No. 429 to operation – one of the last remaining interurbans from Indiana’s world-famous electric railroad system of the early 20th century.
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.
Electricity – the invention that defined the beginning of the 20th century. Indianapolis’ streetcar system adopted the technology in the 1890s – ushering in the new century with it. Beginning in 1864, transportation in Indianapolis was provided by horse or mule-drawn carriages on rails through the street. By 1890, Citizens Street Railroad Company, the dominant streetcar company in the city, was operating 260 cars with some 1100 horses and mules. The inefficiency ultimately proved to be problematic for the City of Indianapolis.
At this point-in-time, our team rolled up our sleeves and entered the scene in crisis mode as part of a serious effort to acquire as many of the remaining electric railway cars as possible. Although beaten and battered, these cars were the last glimpses into an industry that built Indiana into what it is today - a cultural phenomenon that employed thousands, moved millions, and opened Indiana up to economic possibilities never before seen nor contemplated.
