When the British Columbia Electric Railway Co. became BC Hydro Railway and then sold to what became Southern Railway Of BC it left behind a filing cabinet of old blueprints. Some dating back to 1905. Cataloging of the entire collection is now taking place.
There is one blue print that is named "G" Truck Details for I.T.S. Urbana & Champaign. Research indicate Urbana & Champaign is a metropolitan area in east central Illinois.
I am looking for information on what the I.T.S. may mean. If it is a long ago rail system then I might be able to find out its different cars and how this particular blueprint fits with BCER cars.
Any help is appreciated.

Robert Ashton
FVHRS

http://www.fvhrs.com

I.T.S. is the Illinois Traction System (Reporting Marks ITS)

In the late 1920s or early 1930s, the I.T.S. merged with a couple of St. Louis-area steam terminal railroads. and changed the name of the unified system to the Illinois Terminal System (Reporting Marks ITC)

Thank you, David. Sets me off in a direction.

Robert

And, the I.T.S. used large interurban cars not very unlike the British Columbia Electric Railway:



ITC motor car 277 and trailer coach 518 at IRM in Union, IL.

Might someone be able to advise information on I.T.S. "Urbana" and "Champaign" and also, if they might be amongst the Illinois Terminal cars that have survived?

Thanks.

Les

Sleeper/observation "Champaign" later became parlor/obs #234 and is preserved in Union IL
http://www.irm.org/gallery/IT234/aae

Did British Columbia Electric buy a 2nd hand Illinois Traction System interurban trolley sleeping car named "Urbana"?

You might contact Dale Jenkins at the Monticello Railway Muesum. He has written a book on the IT & I believe he is President on IT historical society.

Dave Huffman

Or you can wait until Wednesday when I can flip through the newly-arrived books at the Maryland Rail Heritage Library, which include "definitive" works on the ITS and B.C. Electric..........

Not from my knowledge. The only second hand were 2 freight motors from Oregon Electric back in the 1940's. They are still around: one at West Coast Railway Museum (960) and the other in Edmonton, Alberta (961). The roof was lowered to allow it to work in Edmonton Transit tunnel work.

Nope. Urbana was IT 511, one of five reserved-seat cars built as trailers by St. Louis Car in 1911, 57'6", seating 35, re-equipped 1928 with one truck from a 280-series car. Rebuilt with furniture and window upgrades 1930 and 1936. 510 and 511 sold for scrap 11-13-1950.

Champaign is the sleeper that was sold to the Illini Railroad Club in Feb. 1956. (Built in 1910, that car has a convoluted history which I'm not re-typing here.)

Nothing whatsoever from Illinois Transit/Terminal is mentioned in Henry Ewert's The Story of the B.C. Electric Railway Company (1986)

My only presumption is that somehow something ran at B.C. Electric with identical trucks, and they found the prints useful. Absent any generalized need for exchangeable truck data (and I'll leave the details of trucks, motors, etc. to better traction guys than me), you might want to gift these prints to the IRM.........

My, we just got these books in from the D.C. Chapter NRHS, and already I'm putting them to use...........

I would think this is more likely to refer to the Urbana & Champaign street railway system, which was a part of the ITS empire. Looking at the diagram, we would be able to tell whether it's a street railway or interurban truck.

Also quote:"My only presumption is that somehow something ran at B.C. Electric with identical trucks, and they found the prints useful. Absent any generalized need for exchangeable truck data (and I'll leave the details of trucks, motors, etc. to better traction guys than me), you might want to gift these prints to the IRM.......

Recent research has indicated that perhaps the identical BCER truck, or truck part, is the reason for the I.T.S. Urbana & Champaign blueprint. The key is the "G" truck.
I offer the blueprint for your opinion.

Robert Ashton, FVHRS