All aboard! Electric rail cars ran between C.R. and Marion

This month's artifact from The History Center is a passenger identification card issued to Miss Maurine Keenan in July 1928 by the Cedar Rapids & Marion City Railway Company

The railway was founded in 1879 under the name of the Marion and Cedar Rapids Improvement Company. Tracks for public transportation were laid between the two cities that year. By 1880, the company was providing transportation aboard steam-powered cars between 12th Street in Cedar Rapids and the terminal station in Marion.

Steam-powered cars were replaced with electric cars in 1891.

By 1909, the Cedar Rapids and Marion Railway Co. had more than 15 miles of tracks in Cedar Rapids and Marion.

The railway ceased operations in 1937 when the service was replaced with city buses.

l Jami Roskamp is curator and education coordinator at The History Center in Cedar Rapids. Each month she profiles an artifact from the center's collection.