Modelling the ATSF in 1970 in HO

[Keith Addenbrooke]

2nd Iteration Track Layout - Saturday is my usual day off so I had another look at my 'starter' layout idea.  Replacing the switchback with a single long spur was straightforward - but what it showed was how little space there is alongside the tracks.  There were just a couple of inches either side, making it difficult to fit in anything meaningful to convey the space out West.

 

I found a piece by Iain Rice in his Kalmbach "Shelf Layouts" book where he discusses appropriate baseboard width for different scenic settings on narrow layouts, and this was really helpful.  Rice envisages a straight 12' layout, and while I have a U-shape wrapped around a 3' aisle, if I unfold it the scenic boards would be 13' 8" long (ie: about the same).  Half mine are 16" wide, the other half just 14".  For narrow baseboards 12" - 15" wide, he suggests an urban setting might work best - not a modern Industrial Park, but a more vertical, cramped inner city, where tracks are closer together.

 

This would shift my setting East towards the Windy City, but I'd be equally happy with an Urban layout: John Pryke's "Modelling City Scenery" is the one book I bought on impulse after seeing the front cover - it may not be the first thing I think of when the Santa Fe is mentioned, but I think it's another option?

 

Taking the same track plan - for the best of / worst of reasons (I like it, it fits, and I have the track for it), my 2nd iteration looks this:

 

 

If I imagine the switchback track (and tail track) represent one end of an interchange disappearing under a roadbridge, then any cars spotted there at the start or end of a switching turn are there to be moved, not loaded / unloaded.  
 

To me, that section does now look like it could have come from Linn Westcott’s original “101 Track Plans” but that’s what I grew up with.  It's a different take on the idea - and a Switcher would move to the top of my search list, but it's a thought, and could complement my "Union Station" diorama when that progresses.  Keith.

Edited September 30, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
Reinstating photos

[Regularity]

If you have plug in cassettes on the interchange road, which can also serve as a head-shunt (switch lead), then it might work. Otherwise you will find the short access to the kick-back a pain in the proverbial.

 

If you concentrate your operations on doing it properly, stopping short before lining the couplers, then inching slowly, you will have plenty to do, and your operation will take longer, and you will then have no need for complicated shunting, sorry, switching.

[dave1905]

58 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Taking the same track plan - for the best of / worst of reasons (I like it, it fits, and I have the track for it), my 2nd iteration looks this:

 

 

If I imagine the switchback track (and tail track) represent one end of an interchange disappearing under a roadbridge, then any cars spotted there at the start or end of a switching turn are there to be moved, not loaded / unloaded.  
 

To me, that section does now look like it could have come from Linn Westcott’s original “101 Track Plans” but that’s what I grew up with.  It's a different take on the idea - and a Switcher would move to the top of my search list, but it's a thought, and could complement my "Union Station" diorama when that progresses.  Keith.

 

Interchange means a connection with another railroad.  Junction is a connection with the larger ATSF.

 

I'm not fond of the switch back, especially it cuts through the passenger platform.  The portion in front for the depot unusable for spotting cars.    The other thing that bothers me is that it looks like it would get very jammed up to switch.  If you had two cars in each interchange track and brought  several cars in your train  to go to your interchange, plus had cars to spot and pull from industries, in order to run around cars or to spot the freight house you would have to pretty much clear all or most of the cars from the interchange tracks.

 

I would go for changing the arrangement of tracks on the right side to make it less congested, as in the attached drawing.

 

As far as location,  Chicago isn't the only place with big buildings.  For the small footprint you have just about any major city on the ATSF would have large brick buildings (Kansas City, Topeka, Oklahoma City, Houston, Ft Worth, Galveston to name the ones I've been in.)  I would choose a smaller city.  That feels like that "feels" more like the ATSF.  Unless of course you want a generic "urban' design because you might want to swap over to more eastern roads later on.

 

Having a depot and freight house buried in an industrial area that is a stub end at Interchange that has passenger service in a big city is also somewhat atypical for the ATSF in a really big city.

 

[mdvle]

2 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

This would shift my setting East towards the Windy City, but I'd be equally happy with an Urban layout: John Pryke's "Modelling City Scenery" is the one book I bought on impulse after seeing the front cover - it may not be the first thing I think of when the Santa Fe is mentioned, but I think it's another option?

 

Almost any railroad will have some sort of city presence, so certainly not something that would be strange to see for a Santa Fe layout - with the advantage that it plays into your limited space (think the railroad coming along after some of the city was in place).

 

2 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

 

I agree with Dave, the switchback in front of the station looks wrong.

 

Perhaps a better idea might be to put the depot at the bottom of the layout, against the wall where the trains come in from staging?

 

This way if you operate a freight it just becomes scenery to pass through, but if you operate a mixed train it can enter the layout, cut off the passenger car at the station, and then proceed with the switching?  You would need to essentially do that anyway, and a station there is as good as anywhere else.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

9 hours ago, Regularity said:

If you have plug in cassettes on the interchange road, which can also serve as a head-shunt (switch lead), then it might work. Otherwise you will find the short access to the kick-back a pain in the proverbial.

 

If you concentrate your operations on doing it properly, stopping short before lining the couplers, then inching slowly, you will have plenty to do, and your operation will take longer, and you will then have no need for complicated shunting, sorry, switching.

 

9 hours ago, dave1905 said:

 

Interchange means a connection with another railroad.  Junction is a connection with the larger ATSF.

 

I'm not fond of the switch back, especially it cuts through the passenger platform.  The portion in front for the depot unusable for spotting cars.    The other thing that bothers me is that it looks like it would get very jammed up to switch.  If you had two cars in each interchange track and brought  several cars in your train  to go to your interchange, plus had cars to spot and pull from industries, in order to run around cars or to spot the freight house you would have to pretty much clear all or most of the cars from the interchange tracks.

 

I would go for changing the arrangement of tracks on the right side to make it less congested, as in the attached drawing.

 

As far as location,  Chicago isn't the only place with big buildings.  For the small footprint you have just about any major city on the ATSF would have large brick buildings (Kansas City, Topeka, Oklahoma City, Houston, Ft Worth, Galveston to name the ones I've been in.)  I would choose a smaller city.  That feels like that "feels" more like the ATSF.  Unless of course you want a generic "urban' design because you might want to swap over to more eastern roads later on.

 

Having a depot and freight house buried in an industrial area that is a stub end at Interchange that has passenger service in a big city is also somewhat atypical for the ATSF in a really big city.

 

 

8 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

Almost any railroad will have some sort of city presence, so certainly not something that would be strange to see for a Santa Fe layout - with the advantage that it plays into your limited space (think the railroad coming along after some of the city was in place).

 

 

I agree with Dave, the switchback in front of the station looks wrong.

 

Perhaps a better idea might be to put the depot at the bottom of the layout, against the wall where the trains come in from staging?

 

This way if you operate a freight it just becomes scenery to pass through, but if you operate a mixed train it can enter the layout, cut off the passenger car at the station, and then proceed with the switching?  You would need to essentially do that anyway, and a station there is as good as anywhere else.

Thank you - 3 really useful suggestions.  Today is a work day for me, and a family day, but I’ll have a good look at all 3 (cassettes, reworking the switching area, or depot by the staging) when I next get some time.

 

When lockdown ends I also need to sort out my sub-frame (benchwork and supports): it has to be freestanding, narrow, lightweight, portable, and fit my budget.
 

Thanks once again for the help - much appreciated, Keith.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Keith Addenbrooke

[long island jack]

i'll leave this here!!!!

 

http://www.patchrailroad.net/The_Patch/Patch_Home.html

Edited November 29, 2020 by long island jack

[Keith Addenbrooke]

58 minutes ago, long island jack said:

i'll leave this here!!!!

 

http://www.patchrailroad.net/The_Patch/Patch_Home.html

Absolutely perfect!  Thank you.

 

The ingenuity in simply seeing the potential layout space is brilliant - let alone the quality in the execution of the idea.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

9 hours ago, long island jack said:

i'll leave this here!!!!

 

http://www.patchrailroad.net/The_Patch/Patch_Home.html

Just to follow this up, I sent the owner an email using the address on his website and got a very nice reply: apparently the layout was also featured in Model Railroad Planning 2011 and Great Model Railroads 2012 (two annual Model Railroader special publications), if anyone wants to find out more.  The website may not have been updated recently, but is still live.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

14 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

 

 

Thank you - 3 really useful suggestions.  Today is a work day for me, and a family day, but I’ll have a good look at all 3 (cassettes, reworking the switching area, or depot by the staging) when I next get some time.

 

When lockdown ends I also need to sort out my sub-frame (benchwork and supports): it has to be freestanding, narrow, lightweight, portable, and fit my budget.
 

Thanks once again for the help - much appreciated, Keith.

Further to my post this morning, my next placeholder:
 

With exquisite timing a copy of Kalmbach’s “Modeling Cities & Towns” came today.  With the other suggestions made earlier to look at as well, I’ve the next chunk of research to do.  The next building kit and the rolling stock I need is now arriving, so I’ve plenty to sort out before my next update.

 

For me, I think the biggest challenge however remains sorting out a benchwork solution so I can squeeze just that little bit more railroad into a space that is - always - just that little bit too small.  If I can avoid getting stuck on that, I’ll have made more progress than at any time in the past 40 years - and all my projects will take a huge leap forwards. Until then...

 

Keith.  

Edited November 29, 2020 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Nick_Burman]

On 26/11/2020 at 03:08, Prof Klyzlr said:

One of the things about ATSF is that they did document and standardise a lot of stuff.

 

Including track layouts, where possible. When the Santa Fe decided to plant a station in "virgin" territory it used a standard arrangement of a small wooden station with a short platform fronting the main track. There would also be a passing track next to the main and a so-called "house track" - this would be double-ended, often as long as the passing track, but would run behind the station crossing the, ahem, "Station Square". This was where freight cars would be set out for whatever customers there might be at the moment. If the new location took off and turned itself into a village or small town the ATSF would sell/lease parts of the property along the "house" track to customers (lumber dealers, coal dealers, grain elevators, etc...) who would use the "house" track as their own siding. If business really took off, then the house track might end up being broken into smaller sidings, with parts being reconnected directly to the main track and made stub-ended to serve particular customers. I have a number of BNSF station layout diagrams where the location of the former "house" track ca still be discerned decades after it was chopped up and modified.

 

 

Cheers NB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by Nick_Burman

[Nick_Burman]

On 26/11/2020 at 14:52, Keith Addenbrooke said:

In the UK mixed trains had to have a Guards Van as well for help with braking, but my understanding is that Cabooses didn’t fulfil this function so the Conductor would ride in the Combine.

 

Yes; many combines were permanently assigned to mixed train service and thus carried a desk, seat and pigeonholes (for sorting waybills) so the conductor could do his work.

 

Cheers NB

[Keith Addenbrooke]

13 hours ago, Nick_Burman said:

 

Including track layouts, where possible. When the Santa Fe decided to plant a station in "virgin" territory it used a standard arrangement of a small wooden station with a short platform fronting the main track. There would also be a passing track next to the main and a so-called "house track" - this would be double-ended, often as long as the passing track, but would run behind the station crossing the, ahem, "Station Square". This was where freight cars would be set out for whatever customers there might be at the moment. If the new location took off and turned itself into a village or small town the ATSF would sell/lease parts of the property along the "house" track to customers (lumber dealers, coal dealers, grain elevators, etc...) who would use the "house" track as their own siding. If business really took off, then the house track might end up being broken into smaller sidings, with parts being reconnected directly to the main track and made stub-ended to serve particular customers. I have a number of BNSF station layout diagrams where the location of the former "house" track ca still be discerned decades after it was chopped up and modified.

 

 

Cheers NB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Nick, might the initial wooden station building would be a combined passenger / freight depot, or would the freight house generally be a separate building on the House Track?  ( @Prof Klyzlr also advised on this standard arrangement, but I forgot to ask then).  Just wondered - I’ve seen some nice examples on combined wooden stations: Los Lunas , NM (now moved and in use as a Veteran’s Museum / Memorial) is one example.
 

My long-term aim is for a garage-sized layout for which this would be ideal - inspired by Andy Sperandeo’s Washita and Santa Fe MR Project layout based on Paul’s Valley, OK.  He modelled a house track in front of the station; although space constraints meant he used a stub-ended switchback, I think the Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows a double ended siding exactly  as you describe.

 

For my ‘starter layout’ the extreme space constraints mean an urban setting looks more suitable, though I am also working with the geometry of how to work a switchback out of the track plan within my restrictions. All good fun, thanks again, Keith.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Nick_Burman]

4 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Thanks Nick, might the initial wooden station building would be a combined passenger / freight depot, or would the freight house generally be a separate building on the House Track?

 

It depends on how much volume there was on offer. Freight houses/rooms dealt with LCL (Less then Carload) freight, if the volume was low then a combined depot sufficed. However if the volume was high enough to justify originating/terminating/splitting (to other destinations) dedicated carloads of LCL freight, then there would be a separate freight house.

 

Cheers Nicholas

[dave1905]

I'm confused on the concept.  On one hand you are designing what looks like an urban layout and investigating the "Patch" and on the other hand you are talking about ATSF standard depots and house tracks.  Kinda polar opposites.

 

By the 1960's LCL was waaaaaaaaay down and it ended in the mid 1970's.

 

I live in Omaha and have relatives in Texas so I drive by the Pauls Valley line on the way to and from visiting relatives.  I hope you like red dirt.  Here are some pictures I took around the ATSF depot at Ardmore, OK (south of Pauls Valley).  Ardmore was a junction where the CRIP crossed the ATSF and the depot was a joint station.  Its notable because in 1915 a carload of gasoline blew up and killed 42 people there.  On the right end of the depot, in the shade of the tree, is a a memorial to the people killed in the accident.

Edited December 1, 2020 by dave1905

[Keith Addenbrooke]

58 minutes ago, dave1905 said:

I'm confused on the concept.  On one hand you are designing what looks like an urban layout and investigating the "Patch" and on the other hand you are talking about ATSF standard depots and house tracks.  Kinda polar opposites.

 

By the 1960's LCL was waaaaaaaaay down and it ended in the mid 1970's.

 

I live in Omaha and have relatives in Texas so I drive by the Pauls Valley line on the way to and from visiting relatives.  I hope you like red dirt.  Here are some pictures I took around the ATSF depot at Ardmore, OK (south of Pauls Valley).  Ardmore was a junction where the CRIP crossed the ATSF and the depot was a joint station.  Its notable because in 1915 a carload of gasoline blew up and killed 42 people there.  On the right end of the depot, in the shade of the tree, is a a memorial to the people killed in the accident.

Hi Dave, thank you for sharing these photos - really interesting and informative.  I’m not sure what time of day they were taken, but I notice there aren’t any people around?

 

I agree it would be helpful to everyone for me to clarify the contradictions in my thinking (perfectly fair question):

 

1.  I like rural and urban settings: Andy Sperandeo’s Washita and Santa Fe MR project layout (Oklahoma rural) and John Pryke’s Union Freight RR (Urban street running) are both layouts I find inspiring.

 

[1a.  I also like large passenger stations, hence my separate diorama project based on Walther’s Union Station kit].

 

2.  My long-term aim is a rural layout in a garage - a retirement project some years off still.  My job means I have to move house when I retire (which I’d not explained before).  It is why I can research and plan the grand project but not start building yet: we don’t have the space where we live now.

 

3.  I’ve been encouraged to build a small layout start now though - not just wait / accumulate, so am looking at a ‘starter’ concept layout, using the same compact footprint for a portable UK layout planned during lockdown.

 

4. My first idea was for a rural branch terminal, but testing the track plan suggests it needs to spread out more, so my second iteration looked at an urban alternative, effectively trying to turn the space restriction from a constraint into an asset.

 

That’s where I’m currently at - the plan needs another run to remove the switchback, but the geometry is proving a bit tricky. It all means I’m interested in information on rural settings, but also looking at an urban beginning.  All the posts have been interesting, but for me the constant is the Santa Fe around 1970 in HO.  Hope that makes sense.  Keith.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Keith Addenbrooke

[mdvle]

37 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Hi Dave, thank you for sharing these photos - really interesting and informative.  I’m not sure what time of day they were taken, but I notice there aren’t any people around?

 

Why would you expect to see people around?

 

This is a somewhat typical smaller community in North America - the railroad is at the edge of town, somewhat separated from the town, which when added to the decline of the importance of the railroad to these smaller towns means ignored by the town.

 

If we go to Google we can see that the station is off to the end of the main shopping street in the town of 24k, separated from the main shopping area (and somewhat surrounded by) empty lots and many abandoned buildings.  Amtrak service is a 10:30am-ish train south and a 7:11pm-ish train north which serves about 10 people a day(*) - and Amtrak only uses a small portion of the station.

 

So no real reason to expect to see any people.

 

Also a good example of how in many cases the railroads didn't worry about access to the stations in the same way most UK stations did.  In addition to the already mentioned having a track on the "front" of the station in standard ATSF layouts, in this case the ATSF was on the east side of the building and the Rock Island on the west, leaving the narrow strip between the 2 railroad's tracks for access - though safe to guess that in that former era a lot of people merely crossed the tracks.

 

(see the Sanborn maps to see the station surrounded by tracks - https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06981_008/

 

 

* - https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/statefactsheets/OKLAHOMA17.pdf

So 7,287 people getting on or off a year, so divide by 2 for 2 trains a day, and divide by 365 and you get approx. 10 people per train.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

12 minutes ago, mdvle said:

 

Why would you expect to see people around?

 

This is a somewhat typical smaller community in North America - the railroad is at the edge of town, somewhat separated from the town, which when added to the decline of the importance of the railroad to these smaller towns means ignored by the town.

 

If we go to Google we can see that the station is off to the end of the main shopping street in the town of 24k, separated from the main shopping area (and somewhat surrounded by) empty lots and many abandoned buildings.  Amtrak service is a 10:30am-ish train south and a 7:11pm-ish train north which serves about 10 people a day(*) - and Amtrak only uses a small portion of the station.

 

So no real reason to expect to see any people.

 

Also a good example of how in many cases the railroads didn't worry about access to the stations in the same way most UK stations did.  In addition to the already mentioned having a track on the "front" of the station in standard ATSF layouts, in this case the ATSF was on the east side of the building and the Rock Island on the west, leaving the narrow strip between the 2 railroad's tracks for access - though safe to guess that in that former era a lot of people merely crossed the tracks.

 

(see the Sanborn maps to see the station surrounded by tracks - https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06981_008/

 

 

* - https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/statefactsheets/OKLAHOMA17.pdf

So 7,287 people getting on or off a year, so divide by 2 for 2 trains a day, and divide by 365 and you get approx. 10 people per train.

Thank you: that’s what I was wondering.  The rail fan videos I’ve seen are often filmed at grade crossings (obvious reasons) so tend to show a couple of cars / pick-ups as well, or when switching is taking place and an employee or two may be visible at a an industry (at a safe distance from the trains).  Dave’s photos give us a good representation of everyday reality.

[Regularity]

28 minutes ago, mdvle said:

So no real reason to expect to see any people.

Even in the UK, most stations were/are only busy close to train arrival/departure times. That's why Waterloo is always busy (lots of trains) but many stations served by it are frequently empty (also varies by time of day, of course).

In an issue of Modeller's Backtrack about 30 years ago, there was a photo of the LSWR station at Bodmin, taken on a Saturday afternoon in the fifties, which included a fair portion of the town. Only 6 people could be seen, two of whom (IIRC) were walking away from the station - a train had recently arrived, so you can see why the line was losing money.

[dave1905]

23 hours ago, mdvle said:

This is a somewhat typical smaller community in North America - the railroad is at the edge of town, somewhat separated from the town, which when added to the decline of the importance of the railroad to these smaller towns means ignored by the town.

 

If we go to Google we can see that the station is off to the end of the main shopping street in the town of 24k, separated from the main shopping area (and somewhat surrounded by) empty lots and many abandoned buildings.  Amtrak service is a 10:30am-ish train south and a 7:11pm-ish train north which serves about 10 people a day(*) - and Amtrak only uses a small portion of the station.

 

Sorta, kinda, depending on the era, no.  If you are modeling pre-WW1, the railroad station will be more likely to be at the very center of the town.  When the auto arrived, it allowed everything to be more spread out.  Since the area right next to the railroad was already spoken form as the town expanded the town moved away from the railroad.  Since the "new" stuff was away from the tracks and the "old" stuff was next to the tracks, people gravitated towards the new and abandoned the old.  Its not that the railroad was built on the outskirts, the town actually moved itself away from the railroad.  What era you pick will determine the distance.  The empty lots are places where there were buildings, but as those industries closed down, the buildings were knocked down and became vacant lots.  Go back to WW2 and the area would look completely different.

 

One of my favorite sites is "Historic Aerials".  Looking back at 1962, you can see that those "vacant lots" were occupied by buildings and freight houses.

 

Here is a post card from the eearly 1900's, not only is Main St close to the tracks, there is a track down the middle of the street.

"http://www.jmaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Ardmore-OK-Very-Vintage-Postcard.jpg"

Edited December 2, 2020 by dave1905

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, dave1905 said:

 

Sorta, kinda, depending on the era, no.  If you are modeling pre-WW1, the railroad station will be more likely to be at the very center of the town.  When the auto arrived, it allowed everything to be more spread out.  Since the area right next to the railroad was already spoken form as the town expanded the town moved away from the railroad.  Since the "new" stuff was away from the tracks and the "old" stuff was next to the tracks, people gravitated towards the new and abandoned the old.  Its not that the railroad was built on the outskirts, the town actually moved itself away from the railroad.  What era you pick will determine the distance.  The empty lots are places where there were buildings, but as those industries closed down, the buildings were knocked down and became vacant lots.  Go back to WW2 and the area would look completely different.

 

One of my favorite sites is "Historic Aerials".  Looking back at 1962, you can see that those "vacant lots" were occupied by buildings and freight houses.

 

Here is a post card from the eearly 1900's, not only is Main St close to the tracks, there is a track down the middle of the street.

"http://www.jmaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Ardmore-OK-Very-Vintage-Postcard.jpg"

Interesting - I’d not thought of looking for old aerial photos but they can be a great source, thank you.

[dave1905]

There was a Swift meat dealer in the row of buildings right across from the depot:

[dave1905]

The other thing about the Paul's Valley line is that the line had to have been built by somebody who worked for the PRR or lived near Philadelphia.  The first time I drove through that area it was immediately obvious.  The towns were named Paoli, Wayne, Wynnewood, Ardmore, Overbrook.  Those are all station names on the PRR Main Line west out of Philadelphia.  When I commuted to college on the former PRR, I caught the train at Wayne.  Having listen to conductors recite those station names day after day while riding the train, it just jumped out at me.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, dave1905 said:

Here is a post card from the eearly 1900's, not only is Main St close to the tracks, there is a track down the middle of the street.

"http://www.jmaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Ardmore-OK-Very-Vintage-Postcard.jpg"

 

Would have thought that the track in Main Street is more likely to be the tram route mentioned on the Ardmore, OK, Wikipedia page...

 

In the early twentieth century, Ardmore had a fairly extensive traction (streetcar/interurban) railway system, franchised in February 1905, that linked outlying areas, such as the Dornick Hills Country Club, to the central business district.[26] The main part of the streetcar line originally ran down the center lane of Main Street. Service ended in 1922.

[dave1905]

Could be, there was no overhead wires in the picture so I didn't think of a tram (as opposed to a trolley).

[Keith Addenbrooke]

9 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

Would have thought that the track in Main Street is more likely to be the tram route mentioned on the Ardmore, OK, Wikipedia page...

 

In the early twentieth century, Ardmore had a fairly extensive traction (streetcar/interurban) railway system, franchised in February 1905, that linked outlying areas, such as the Dornick Hills Country Club, to the central business district.[26] The main part of the streetcar line originally ran down the center lane of Main Street. Service ended in 1922.

Would there be overhead electric power lines for an interurban / tramway by the turn of the Century when this postcard photo was taken?  

I’m not an expert but I think New York Grand Central went all electric from around 1903 (for example)?