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Arkansas Valley Interurban Malcome Isely Wichita Newton Hutchinson Interurbans
Arkansas Valley Interurban By Malcome Isely Wichita - Newton - Hutchinson
Soft Cover stapled Cover shows some wear
Interurbans Special #19
Vol 14 #1 April 1956
55 Pages
Full page map with lots of photos
Table of Contents:
Prospectus
History
Facilities
Cars
Passenger operations
Freight Operations
A train and an interurban raced, on parallel tracks, across the Illinois countryside. The train maintained a steady pace, while the car fell behind at each passenger stop. but, as the train passenger, looking idly out the window, was about to dismiss the car from his mild, the relentless torque of the trolley fed, series wound motors, applied to a sure footed all wheel drive, seat the car charging ahead, only to be overtaken again at the next crossroads.
The city fell behind. Millets were less frequent. The train increased its pace---but not enough. Free of numerous stops, the interurban bounded ahead, and stayed ahead.
This impressive display of speed and acceleration was not lost upon a young Kansas banker aboard the train. It was 1910, and steel rails were vital to the nation---but rail service was not without fault. A great need everywhere was for a better local train. The Local usually left the city in the morn-tag and returned in the afternoon, arriving too late for the traveler to transact his business. He had to spend that night in the city, take the next day for his business, and return hone on the third day. Two hotel bills were an extravagance, his clothes were filthy with coal soot, the neighbors had to milk the cows, and It was darned inconvenient
Contrary to the prevalent popular belief, the railroads did not deliberately run their trains that way to offend the public. At the end of its run a locomotive needs the skilled services or a roundhouse staff. before it can start it must raise statue unless a tender was hired to maintain the fire overnight. Due to these reasons the railroads could only operate out or central division points and, with four or five men to a train, they needed long, infrequent trains, well filled, to make them pay.
The interurban car needed no such babying. When its days work was done, the two man crew simply walked away. The car could spend the night unattended anywhere on the line and, next corning, after ninety seconds to heap up the air, It was off to an early start while clean, unobtrusive electric power was poised over every foot of its track to speed it on its way. It could, and often did, run each way, every hour, ready when the people chose to ride. Now here was an interurban which nude its local stops and exceeded the speed of a train' Our banker had been approached to invest in such a line to serve the Wichita area and the prospect certainly deserved his attention.
Forty four years later the banker, still active and eminently successful in the financial world, told our correspondent, 'The Arkansas Valley Interurban was the saddest chapter in my life.'
The interurban, which held such great promise in the memory of many now living is a sad chapter in many lives. Fortunes were lost, employment was terminated, and a way of life withered away.
Typical of the many small midwestern lines but, like each of the rest, with its own individual personality, we herewith present the Arkansas Valley Interurban. Narrating this story is Mr. Mateo:: D. Isely who remembers AVI well, having grown up in its territory when we asked Mr. Isely why he felt constrained to give so much time and effort to this project, he said I recently read of a group of child psychologists who were concerned because one little boy in the art class drew all his pictures with a black crayon.When asked why he used only this one color, he explained it was the only crayon he had I had a box of
crayons and noon noted that my orange and my yellow crayons were wearing out faster than any of the others. I knew the reason. Most of ay pictures were of streetcars, and our Wichita cars were orange and yellow. I also played streetcar motorman by the hour was then three or four years of age). At about this time I began to draw green streetcars; they were not interurbans for I knew that I could not possibly draw the wonderful combination of planes and curves which I could recognize as an interurban, but interurbans were green and I could at least draw green streetcars and pretend that they ran in the country.
I remember going to footballgames with my father, an ardent fan. I would follow the game and discuss it with him, but with the score nearly tied and two minutes yet to play, I would hear the clarion call of an air horn pitched exactly to A above middle C and would leave my two dollar seat to run to the top of the grandstand where I could see the big green, arch windowed vision of loveliness approaching from the distance. This naturally disconcerted my father somewhat and he finally got the idea that I liked the interurban better than football. I also used to watch the MOP and Midland Valley from the top of that grandstand when games were dull, but the big attraction was the AVI. My first sight of the 602 was from my high vantage point; first I heard the three tone air horn and rushed up to see what it might be. There came the first steeple cab trolley locomotive I had ever seen. It Was very like a picture or a Cuban sugar plan- tation locomotive in my book of trains; the picture had become almost worn out from my constant looking at it as a small child.
"Once on ay birthday say father took our family on an interurban ride to Valley Center. I noticed that the line did not have through switches or electric switches, that the conductor had to shift the trolley over to the switch wire, and that there was a phone dispatching system. I thought this all rather time consuming and a bar to one man operation.
"As I grew older, I began visiting An s shops on Ackerman: Island, Wichita. It was quite a thrill observing the many and varied items of maintenance which accompany the operation of art interurban system. I thought that here would be a fine place to work, and felt somewhat cheated that I seemed to be expected to enter white collar employment.
"I didn't ride AVI as much as I would have liked. For one thing, the Santa Fe had little use for Wichita and less for the An; if we went beyond Newton, and we always did, we could not be assured of Pullman reservations unless we bought tickets from Michita---and AVI charged 990 to Newton, Santa Fe 56a. In later years I learned that I could operate my car for less than ?ma a mile including my time spent repairing It at 250 an hour; exclusive of such expense, It cost about le a sale. It was cheaper to motorcade the line than to ride it. Mork was unsteady during the depression and pay was low.
"Two men who have been of great help In compiling this history, Kenneth Fry and Fugate Sabin, likewise recall An but in quite different fashion. Fry was separated from AVI not by economic or geographical barriers; his was the time barrier. He was on a boy Scout hike when he noticed a grimy brick red vehicle, grumbling along in its dotage. The scoutmaster told him that It was the An, and henceforth Fry's was a dedicated life. When I first net him, he seemed to be not different From any other young Air Force officer, but his interest in AVI has led him to write one of the best histories of the company to date; he is also trying to obtain part of the old right of way for an operating and, more recently, he has bought a complete interurban car.
Mr. Sabin's interest in the An was more natural than either Fry's or my own. when 1 drove up to his home, I was impressed by the tact that here was one house in the block where no effort had been made to conceal the fact that a railroad had once crossed the front yard. In fact, the grade seated to have been maintained. The AVI was constant entertainment as well as transportation to young Falcate Sabin, much as the streetcar was to me."
So, here is AVI-Interurbans Special 19. April 15, 1956Ira L. Swett
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