Interurban Railways of North America

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About Interurban Railways of North America

The purpose of this group is to create a pool of photographs documenting electric interurban railways of the type that was common in United States and Canada during the first half of the Twentieth Century. (Modern-day photos of the South Shore Line will also be accepted, as this is the closest thing that we have to a traditional interurban still operating in North America today.)

With the aim of attempting to clarify just what an interurban was (in the North American sense of the term, at least), I quote from the excellent book The Electric Interurban Railways in America, by George W. Hilton and John F. Due (Stanford, 2004):
“…the term interurban may be applied to railways that shared most or all of the following characteristics: electric power, primary emphasis on passenger service, equipment that was heavier and faster than city streetcars, and operation on streets in cities but at the sides of highways or on private rights-of-way in rural areas.”

Photos of ancillary operations of these interurbans, such as freight service, maintenance of way, and city streetcar lines, are also invited (provided they belong[ed] to the parent interurban company).