Time Machine: Interurban high-speed rail

Cedar Rapids and Iowa City residents had a big picnic Aug. 13, 1904, to celebrate the completion of the new electric interurban railway between the two cities.

The picnic was at the Midriver Park in Johnson County, a park created during construction of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City (CRANDIC) interurban trolley line, with cars departing from the Cedar Rapids station hourly and “oftener when the occasion demanded,” The Gazette reported.

The electric railway was a vision of two men, Col. W.G. Dows and Isaac B. Smith. It operated as part of the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway & Light Co. in 1903. The company laid track and strung electric wiring between the two cities to operate the cars, which were connected to overhead wires via a pole, like a trolley car.

One major electric generating substation was built in the place that became the city of Swisher, which was platted as the direct result of being on the interurban line.

By 1920, the interurban carried more than 554,000 passengers a year, about 1,500 daily.

The CRANDIC bought six high-speed aluminum cars when the Cincinnati and Lake Erie interurban railroad went out of business in 1939.

The C&LE cars had been painted red and nicknamed the “Red Devils.” When the six arrived in Cedar Rapids, they were repainted bright yellow with red trim and called “Comets.”

The new cars could travel more than 80 mph. On the CRANDIC’s less than perfect tracks, the high speeds resulted in a lot of car movement, leading to the motto, “Swing and Sway the CRANDIC Way.”

It also led to an altered nickname — the “Vomit Comet.”

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The last run

As more people opted to buy cars in the 1950s, the CRANDIC ended its 49-year run of the electric interurban service on May 30, 1953.

The news of the line’s last run spread nationwide.

Because of that, The Gazette reported, “the company has decided to make it a gala event. Passengers on the final run will include railroad officials, railroad fans, retired employees, press and radio representatives and a lot of other people who want to shed a nostalgic tear over the passing of an era in electric railway transportation.”

Iowa’s U.S. Sen. Bourke B. Hickenlooper and officials from the CRANDIC, North Western, Rock Island, Illinois Central and Great Western railroads were among the nearly 300 who bought tickets for the last run.

Alfred Scales, a passenger on the first trip in 1904, bought a ticket for the last ride. The CRANDIC returned his money and listed him as a special guest.

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With the CRANDIC switch to a diesel-powered freight line, the six high-speed electric cars, including No. 110, were out of service.

By the end of the year, CRANDIC had listed five of the Comet cars for sale. A Canadian railroad expressed interest in a couple of them. One went to a rail museum in Ohio. Another was bought by a group of rail fans in Chicago.

No. 110

In 1954, though, the No. 110 car was sold to the Hlavacek family for $100.

John Hlavacek had it transported to his family retreat in the woods along the Iowa River near South Amana where it served as a vacation cabin for more than 30 years.

In 1987, Ed Blossom of the interurban and trolley restoration company, DuShore Car Co, of Topton, Pa., found out about No. 110 in 1987. He got in touch with Virgil Coonrod of Coonrod Wrecker and Crane Service, who already knew about the old railcar.

Blossom and Coonrod arranged for Jack Keenan, a Philadelphia railroad buff, to meet Hlavacek. Keenan’s father had worked for the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad when the Red Devils were built in 1930.

Keenan found the old rail car in good shape. He offered Hlavacek $100 for the car. Hlavacek accepted.

Keenan planned to have DuShore repaint No. 110 as a Cincinnati and Lake Erie interurban, noting DuShore was “one of the top streetcar and interurban restorers in the country,” Keenan said.

The electric rail cars when they were running throughout the world “were extremely fast, very modern and very comfortable,” Keenan said. “The one I’ve acquired, No. 110, was the first of the cars to go into service in Ohio on June 28, 1930.”

Keenan hired Coonrod to lift the 110 car onto a flatbed for the long trip to Pennsylvania where DuShore restored it. It eventually became part of a transportation museum.

John Hlavacek Jr. said the family looked forward to visiting the car — their former vacation home — after it was restored.

The former CRANDIC 111, restored as Cincinnati and Lake Erie 111, was donated to a San Francisco museum, according to Cedar Rapids rail historian Willard Clay in 1987.

CRANDIC 117 went to Pennsylvania, and No. 119 was restored as a Cincinnati and Lake Erie car and sold to a museum in Ohio.

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