Visiting the Past

History of the Duck Lake Interurban

by Norman Krentel

The history of the Mixter's interurban car at Duck Lake is very complicated, and can be confusing. What is known from the St. Louis Car Company builder's record is it was one of ten cars built for Michigan Construction Company (MCC), and received at Jackson in 1901-02. MCC was one of several subsidiary companies, and was actually the construction subsidiary of W.A. Boland, W.A. Foote, J.B. Foote and others who were heavily into power and railway companies of that era. Eventually, Boland would be out of the picture, and the Foote brothers are credited with founding Consumers Power Company, and with being the driving force behind the ultra interurban, Michigan Railway Company's (MR) Western Division (Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo, Battle Creek-Allegan at 2400 v dc).

At the time the ten cars were built for MCC, they were to be the 'limited'
cars for their line, which at this point was still under construction. The lines being built were to extend first, east from Jackson to Grass Lake, Chelsea, Dexter, Ann Arbor, and eventually to Detroit. Simultaneously, they also were building west from Jackson to Parma, Albion, Marshall and Battle Creek, with the eventual goal of reaching Chicago.

In reality, the east line never operated past Grass Lake. The reason for this was competition from Hawks-Angus and their Detroit-Jackson line, via Chelsea and Grass Lake. Both companies were building at the same time, and when Hawks-Angus completed first Boland ceased construction. Regardless, as segments that were built were completed, they operated under the name Jackson & Suburban Traction Company (J&ST), which was also the name for the Jackson city street railway system. The line west, between Jackson and Battle Creek, was broken into three construction segments, each with a separate name, but all consolidated into the Jackson & Battle Creek Traction Company (J&BCT) by the time of their completion.

As a side note, the Detroit & Chicago Traction Company (D&CT) was the name Boland/Foote applied to their overall project. But, there was never any real operating property with that name, it was just a paper corporate entity.

The ten St. Louis cars were initially numbered 30-39, later 31-40, and represented the latest in technology of that era, having the best electrical equipment available, and much thought going into body style and passenger comfort. Probably the same level of thought was given years later, by Foote, to their large and fancy MR Co's Western Div. parlor cars. None the less, limited service on the Jackson-Battle Creek line used five cars of the ten, Jackson-Grass Lake used two, and the remaining three were left on blocks at the J&ST's Jackson barn, pending demand for more cars.

Eventually, the other three cars were needed for service in 1909, after completion of the new, separate, Lansing-Jackson line. There was some renumbering of these cars, even in their early days, and considerable rebuilding. About 1911-12, a major effort was made to create a group of combination passenger-baggage cars, all able to run together in multiple car trains. Five of the original ten cars were selected for this extensive rebuilding done at the company's main Albion car shops. It was out of this batch of cars that the #3 emerges, which was the number of the Duck Lake car. What the original number was for that car, and subsequent numbers up to that point is unknown, and probably lost in time.

In 1911 an agreement was entered into between the Michigan United Railways Co. (MUR), a name created in 1905-06 by merger of several central Michigan properties, including J&ST and J&BCT, and the Detroit United Railway (DUR). Both companies saw advantage to through Lansing-Jackson-Detroit, and Kalamazoo-Battle Creek-Jackson -Detroit services. The sections east of Jackson were on DUR trackage, the rest being MUR.

To provide this service certain DUR cars were equipped with third rail pick ups, and several MUR cars were selected as well. It was likely an equal amount of equipment from both companies that made up this pool of cars. It is reasonably certain, though not positive, that car #3 was used as one of the MUR cars in this equipment pool.

No photos exist, or any other documentation, proving that # 3 was run east of Jackson (and through George Sparrow's home town of Chelsea) on DUR trackage. But, because of the expenditures in rebuilding it, it is certain #3 was one of the MUR's prime cars, and remained so until later when steel cars started to arrive.

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