Streetcars of Davenport, IA

[Railwaymodeler]

I'm originally from Davenport, IA, and lived there until I was 13, when my dad got transfered to an office in Highland Park.

Before WWII, Davenport had a streetcar system, Tri-City Electric I think it was called.

Haven't found too much info on it, do know it was dismantled in 1940 and the cars were mostly yellow. I want to say the color scheme was similar to the CRANDIC's cars.

Does anyone know any good resources for the system? I would like to build a few streetcars for my HO layout and paint them like Davenport's cars.

Thanks in advance!

[Busjack]

Nope, but it seems like most of the small city street railways were shut down by the owning electric companies about 1940. About that time all over Illinois.

[Railwaymodeler]

Not sure of at the time, but Davenport is about 100,000 people, and part of the Quad Cities area, so I don't think it is really a "Small town", and according to a book I have about the Rock Island Line, Davenport was the 5th most important stop on the system.

When I was a kid, the optometrist we went to had a coffee table book about Davenport in the waiting room, and a chapter in the book had pictures and a brief history of the system. This was many years ago, so I have no idea what the book was called or anything,

[Busjack]

Not sure of at the time, but Davenport is about 100,000 people, and part of the Quad Cities area, so I don't think it is really a "Small town", and according to a book I have about the Rock Island Line, Davenport was the 5th most important stop on the system.

When I was a kid, the optometrist we went to had a coffee table book about Davenport in the waiting room, and a chapter in the book had pictures and a brief history of the system. This was many years ago, so I have no idea what the book was called or anything,

I was thinking of all the Illinois Power lines, such as in Peoria (but a book I have, Middleton, The Time of the Trolley, says 1946 for them). That book also indicates South Bend in 1939, another indicates Hammond in 1940.

Middleton has a picture of a Waterloo & Cedar Falls in 1954, but basically says it is a Knoxville Perley Thomas trolley. Davenport is not listed in that book's index.

What I tried to distinguish was Chicago, where some trolley service lasted until 1958, while it was gone from places smaller than that in the 1940s, often as a result of the "National City Lines" conspiracy.

For modeling, the question might be whether the city was big enough to have 2 truck cars, or had Birneys or similar single truck ones.

[Railwaymodeler]

Wikipedia tells me Davenport was about 66,000 people in 1940s. If I understand correctly, the line also served Rock Island and one other town, Bettendorf, probably.

Davenport was indeed converted to a National City Lines service, as was Rock Island.

I think I remember a photo of a two truck car in Davenport, but they probably also had Birney Safety Cars or similar.

If they did indeed have Birney cars, I have a Lionel O gauge trolley, in rather rough shape, that currently is in San Francisco colors. Late 1980s car my dad bought me because I enjoyed the trolley on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. May repaint that whenever I also get around to the repairs to the motor. I have some Bachmann dummy 2 truck cars, one of the cars they offered to Readers Digest subscribers. That would do for HO.

[Busjack]

In going through Lind's book, it indicates that some Chicago Railways cars of the 1429-1505 series (built 1899, "bowling alley" seating; rebuilt 1911-1912) were sold to Davenport in 1917. While double truck, big hulking looking cars, the specs indicate that they were only 43 feet long, compared to 49 for most CSL cars. It is also indicated (with respect to similar cars sold to Gary) that they were retired long before most of the cars that stayed in Chicago. IRM car 1467 (AA-72) is the remaining one in this series. They have one 1958 picture, but the rest of the gallery shows it stripped.

[Railwaymodeler]

Thanks Busjack. Google searching tends to be a bit "Interesting" as there was a Davenport line in Canada it looks like, and a lot of results for streetcars are unrelated to what I am looking for.

Found a few things here and there, including something from the Davenport Public Library.

I guess it doesn't help that in some of these searches, a lot of the historical sites are fan sites, created by people who wanted to publish what they know to the web, but as they by and large aren't web developers, and do their own work, the useful sites won't be high on search result listings.

EDIT:

Looking closer at the pics from the IRM, my Bachmann double truck streetcar, a dummy model lettered for "Desire", probably to tie in with the play "A Streetcar Named Desire", would be a good starting point. The windows on the model are all arch top, but I think I will cut the window section out and install new struts, and file square the end windows.

Other than that, rework the doors, fresh coat of paint, and pull off the freight car trucks underneath. Then find out a color scheme for how it looked in Davenport.

[Busjack]

The other caveat, again based on what Lind said about the cars sold to Gary, is that you might have a 1920s car instead of what was in use up to 1940.

...

I guess it doesn't help that in some of these searches, a lot of the historical sites are fan sites, created by people who wanted to publish what they know to the web, but as they by and large aren't web developers, and do their own work, the useful sites won't be high on search result listings....

One also has to figure that there wasn't an Internet at the relevant times. All of these books are usually based on slides in some collection or another.

[Railwaymodeler]

If you saw my model railroad, you'd figure that the era of the car is not a problem either way. The majority of my models are antique HO scale, many made in the 1930s even. I am not to strict on era, as "newer" stuff from the 1960s and 1970s keeps creeping into my collection. Never say no when free trains are given!

My layout. My alternate reality. My say on what runs. Don't care if it makes sense in this reality, in mine the Hooterville Cannonball can run along side a train of hi-cube boxcars.

[Busjack]

....

My layout. My alternate reality. My say on what runs. Don't care if it makes sense in this reality, in mine the Hooterville Cannonball can run along side a train of hi-cube boxcars.

That reminds me that someone once had a web site (I'm not going to look for it now) where there was a polder in Lake Michigan* with an eastern extension of Chicago running 1990s era 6000 series L cars and the like.

_____

*Not to be confused with the equally imaginary airport proposed by Mayor Daley I.

[mel bernero]

Here is a photo of Tri-City Railways 606 taken on 10-14-1939

[Railwaymodeler]

Thanks Mel.

More Google image searching yielded a vintage postcard on eBay, which shows the cars on Brady Street as being yellow with a gray roof.

This will probably be a good weekend project.