The Oklahoma Railway Company (ORy) operated

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

lines to

El Reno El Reno is a city in and county seat of Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 16,989, marking a change of 1.55% from 16,729, recorded in the 2010 census. The city was begun shortly after the 18 ...

, Guthrie, and

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, and several

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

lines in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

, and the surrounding area from 1904 to 1947. Freight traffic was also handled on the interurban lines as well as a few of the streetcar lines. The railway had a connection with the

Fort Smith and Western Railroad The Fort Smith and Western Railway was a railroad that operated in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. The railroad's main line extended from Coal Creek, Oklahoma (about 7 miles east of Bokoshe, Oklahoma) to Guthrie, Oklahoma, with an addit ...

at Guthrie and the two companies interchanged freight cars there. As

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

approached, the company began to shift focus away from interurban/streetcar operation towards buses; as a result, the company began to gradually abandon its rail operations. As part of this action, several line segments were leased, then sold to the Santa Fe and the Rock Island.

References

Defunct Oklahoma railroads Interurban railways in Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-transport-stub