hi - i am new to this forum, and excited to be a part of it. my interest is currently in the interurban railway of charleston wv. it is very difficult for me to find much information about it, and i have been directed here. i am trying to ascertain all information possible regarding the charleston interurban railway company (charleston, wv) that existed between 1919 - 1936. i know they had about 22 cars, but i am trying to find accurate maps of the routing, and exactly what models they ran - as well as any other information i can find. i have found a couple documents online, but would love to learn more. does anyone have any information regarding this topic?

The Electric Interurban Railways in America by Geo. W. Hilton & John F. Due has one very short paragraph on this line. Apparently it operated both north and south out of Charleston along the west bank of the Kanawha River. The line north to St. Albans was built in 1912, the south line to Cabin Creek Jct. was built in 1916.

The line was a owned by the Charleston street railway., later Charleston Transit Co., converted to busses in 1939. No mention of what kind of equipment was used. If you're in the Charleston area, local historical societies usually have some information on interurbans. City and state archives may be another good source.

According to the Railroad Station Historical Society website, a carbarn still exists on the 200 block of Virginia St. W in Charleston. My "Streets and Trips" map shows this location to be a few blocks north of I-64, between Ohio Ave. and Tennessee Ave. There are also a couple of bridges reported that the electric railway shared with the C & O.

A quick look at Harold Cox's builder order list site at http://streetcars.telcen.com/rosters/ suggests the line was a regular customer of Cincinnati Car Company:

Cincinnati #1930 for "Charleston Interurban" - 6 cars, 1914, fleet #1-6
Cincinnati #2035 for "Charleston Interurban" - 2 cars, 1916, fleet #15-16 (single truck)
Cincinnati #2040 for "Charleston Interurban" - 2 freight motors, 1916, fleet #104 & ?
Cincinnati #2045 for "Charleston Interurban" - 2 cars, 1916, fleet #35-36
Cincinnati #2125 for "Charleston Interurban" - 2 cars, 1915, fleet #37-38
Cincinnati #2240 for "Charleston Interurban" - 1 freight motor, 1915, fleet #105 or 106
Cincinnati #2275 for "Charleston Interurban" - 4 cars, 1917, fleet #7-10
Cincinnati #2360 for "Charleston Interurban" - 2 cars, 1919, fleet #11-12
Cincinnati #2365 for "Charleston Interurban" - 2 trailers, 1919, fleet #13-14
Cincinnati #2370 for "Charleston Interurban" - 2 cars, 1919, fleet #39-40
Cincinnati #2480 for "Charleston Interurban" - 8 Birneys, 1921, fleet #71-78

There's more information on Cox's site, including truck descriptions and basic body type. There are also two photos on Dave Mewhinney's site:

http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/wv/htm/cwv01.htm
http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/wv/htm/cwv02.htm

The lightweights pictured appear to closely resemble the more modern cars run by Hershey Transit.

Wow, a delivery roster! Who knows what knowledge lurks here!

I have to ask, what brings up this interest in a rather obscure railroad? I'm especially curious as I am from West Virginia, and would like to know more about this line myself.

As an additional suggestion, you may wish to contact the Kanawha County Public Library. In their collection is a locally published book, a pictorial history of Kanawha County, long out of print, and it includes a map of the street railway system. I wish I could remember the title and author--indeed, I wish I had a copy! I'll try and get the title and author for you.

At the risk of going off-topic, I'll mention that West Virginia had a surprising number of interesting electric roads. These included two systems that were never combined in the Wheeling, W.Va. area (and a Wheeling car now operates in a museum in New England), the Monongahela-West Penn system in the vicinity of Clarksburg and Fairmont and Morgantown which ran into the postwar era, and the interurban that ran between Bluefield and Princeton, also into the postwar era (and was killed off by a highway widening project--bummer!) The last one ran for a number of years exclusively with Cincinnati curved-side cars, and I believe they may have rostered the very first car of this design built. I'll have to look up my 1940-something copy of Railroad Magazine to confirm that.

Let's see what a quick internet search brings up:

Several roads here; Ohio Valley Electric was the street railway system in Huntington, W.Va.:

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr1016.htm

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr325.htm

General West Virginia trolley history link:

http://www.american-rails.com/west-virg ... rbans.html

Photo link:

http://davesrailpix.com/odds/wv/wv.htm

General link to the above site:

http://davesrailpix.com/index.html

Norfolk & Western ran an electric division from the WW I era to about 1950; it was one of the few instances where electrics were replaced by improved steam engines. The Virginian also had an electric division with some similar boxcab locomotives in its original electric roster.

http://davesrailpix.com/nw/nw.htm

http://davesrailpix.com/vgn/vgn.htm

It may well be a lot of hot air, but there has been a proposal to bring back streetcars in Huntingon:

http://www.huntingtontrolley.com/

Hope this helps out a little.

Here's a picture of a Princeton-Bluefield trolley on the last day of service.

wow. i have to say, of all the rail forums i have been a part of, this one is certainly the most active! lots of great information for me to research further. thanks so much. as for why i have this particular interest - i grew up in charleston and have since moved to boston, ma. i was introduced to the charleston of the first quater of the 20th century through richard andre's book (i believe this is the one that was being referenced in one of the above posts), and i was taken with the cars, the trolley park, and the vivacity of the town it is all very different now. my goal is to faithfully recreate the area, in HO scale, circa 1925-35.

i have been in touch with the archivists at the dept of cult and history in charleston, but they only have images. no maps or equipment rosters. the above roster is a gem.

I used an "eye in the sky" service (ironically, I reach it through a website called "The Bus Bench) and zoomed in on Charleston. In the block identified as the site of the carbarn, there's a large industrial building that runs the width of the block. It appears to have a relatively new roof. Could this be the former carbarn? I'm in California, so an "on the spot report" is not practical at this time.

Evan's posted photo of the last Tri-City Traction car in Princeton is fascinating because most of the buildings in the photo are still there, and just ahead of the car, to the left, is the Virginian Railway station. This station has been reconstructed lately, and is now a museum exhibit.

http://cityofprinceton.org/MUSEUM.rev.htm

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics ... t_Virginia

One of the neat things about Google's map and photo service is that this firm has apparently put some money into street navigation, likely from a car or something. This, combined with a "little man" icon lets you walk the streets that have been photographed. This link takes you to Princeton, and you can look around at the reconstructed station, at the stores that are in the background of the 1947 photo, and at the two slots in the brick street where the rails once were.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UT ... ygT6trmjCg

Another reconstructed station is at Bramwell, W.Va. This town was the "town of millionaires," all in the coal business.

http://www.bramwellwv.com/

http://www.bramwellwv.com/depot.html

http://www.bramwellwv.com/depotnov04a.html

Again, this may be a lot of hot air, but there have been some proposals floating around for a tourist rail service, perhaps with steam, in the Bramwell area; proposed destination was Pocahontas, Va. (site of an exhibition mine) over an abandoned but mostly intact N&W branch (which was once electrified, by the way). If arrangements could be made, it was also proposed to run to Princeton, although this would require cooperation from Norfolk Southern (we know how that can be tough to come by).

Fairly close by is Coalwood, made famous as the setting for the "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam, Jr.; this was made into a film, "October Sky," which featured small but important roles by Southern 4501 as a Norfolk & Western engine, with the late O. Winston Link at the throttle. Alas, the movie was made in Tennessee!

http://www.coalwoodwestvirginia.com/

In any event, enjoy a little trip into southern West Virginia.

i've checked the above list out, and have found a couple books on the subject of the cincinnati car company, but does anybody know where i might look for plans and designs for any of the above cars. i'm trying to build an HO replica of the Charleston Interurban Company fleet. any insight of direction is greatly appreciated.

Surviving Cincinnati Car Company records are, I believe, all at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis:

http://www.indianahistory.org/library/manuscripts/collection_guides/p0376.html

You may be able to contact them to see what photos, plans, etc they have on the aforementioned lot/order numbers.

Folks,
This my interest some of you who like the electric lines in West Virginia.

The Seashore Trolley Museum has just finished a 25 year rebuilding/restoration of a Wheeling, West Virginia car built using the special curve side design of the Cincinnati Car Company. The talk about it on their web site as well as show pictures of the car.

Ted Miles