Interurban Miscellany
by Paula Bosse
Wooden, red… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Just a few miscellaneous photos from the days of the Interurban, the electric railway which ran through Dallas from 1908 to 1948.
The photograph above has the following written on the back: “The Texas Electric has a whole flock of fast interurbans. Most are steel and painted blue. This older wooden car is red and was used on the Dallas-Denison run. Dallas, Tex.”
Below, “Evolution of Transportation,” a postcard featuring “Miniature Interurban Exhibit, Showing a Model Suburban Home and the Splendid Service Between Dallas, Fort Worth and Cleburne.”
via eBay
An Interurban mishap:
via eBay
A couple of pleasant waiting-shelters, circa 1925:
Another stop, with a sign (“ALL INTERURBAN CARS STOP ON SIGNAL”):
via Lynne’s Lens Flickr photostream
And the Interurban Terminal, downtown, ca. 1925 (located at 1500 Jackson St. at Browder, still standing, converted to residences):
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Sources & Notes
Top photo found on eBay. “Robert M. Hanft, Brainerd, Minn.” is printed on the back. Hanft (1914-2004) was a rail enthusiast and photographer — his obituary is here.
The Texas Interurban route connected with Dallas in 1908 and continued for 40 years until being discontinued in 1948. More at the Handbook of Texas here, and at Wikipedia here; a look at the stops can be seen in an illustration here.
Check out these two Interurban pamphlets with lots of great photographs, scanned in their entirety by UNT’s Portal to Texas History:
- Making Neighbors of the People of Dallas and Kaufman Counties, and the Towns of Terrell, Forney, Mesquite and Dallas (20 pages, Texas Interurban Railway) — read it here.
- Making Neighbors of the People of Dallas and Denton Counties, and the Towns of Denton, Garza, Lewisville, Carrollton, Farmers Branch and Dallas (24 pages, Texas Interurban Railway) — read it here.
More Flashback Dallas posts on the Interurban can be found here.
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Copyright © 2020 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
The interurban mishap is a RPPC from the 1908 flood
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In 1944, my grandmother took me on my first train trip from Dallas to Iowa Park, Tx. A small farming community outside Wichita Falls. I was 6 years old. The walk down the center ramp at Union Station was loud with the sounds of people walking on the marble floors. We walked to the assigned tunnel taking us out the tracks where the train was waiting for us to board.The hot smell of grease, sounds of hissing steam and the giant size of the locomotive are still fresh in my memory. The day trip provided sights that were too many for a young boy to take in. We were visiting her sister and husband who owned a large wheat farm. It was also my first trip to a farm. Of course that was memorable. The trip home on the train was just as exciting as the trip up. You might say it was my “Six Flags” trip at that time in my life. Riding the rails, whether train or streetcar has always been delightful.
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[…] Depot until researching this post. It was established around the time when the Dallas-Fort Worth Interurban ceased operation on Christmas Eve, 1934 (the line from Dallas to Waco and Denison kept going a […]
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[…] I’m not sure where this photo of a young woman waiting for an Interurban was taken, but it’s somewhere along the Interurban line. I choose to think it’s Dallas — or that she’s at least heading to Dallas. From the April post “Interurban Miscellany.” […]
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