The Northern Texas Traction Company was a subsidiary of

Stone & Webster Stone & Webster was an American engineering services company based in Stoughton, Massachusetts. It was founded as an electrical testing lab and consulting firm by electrical engineers Charles A. Stone and Edwin S. Webster in 1889. In the earl ...

that operated the

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 ...

system and

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 in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

. The Northern Texas Traction Company began with the purchase of the City Railway of

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

by George T. Bishop in 1900. Bishop also acquired the Dallas and Oak Cliff Elevated Railway to gain access to

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. Construction of the second interurban line in the state of Texas linked the cities of

and

with operations commencing on July 1, 1902. The Bishop interests sold out to

Engineering in 1905. The company produced a monthly employee newsletter called The Traction News throughout the 1920s. The power generating plant and workshops for the interurban line were located in the small town of Handley just east of Fort Worth. The Northern Texas Traction Company bought land south of Handley where it developed a

trolley park Trolley may refer to: Vehicles and components * Tram, or trolley or streetcar, a rail vehicle that runs on tramway tracks * Trolleybus, or trolley, an electric bus drawing power from overhead wires using trolley poles ** Trolleytruck, a trolleyb ...

called Lake Erie. The pavilion at Lake Erie included a roller skating rink, a dance hall, restaurant, and rides on a pier above the water. Northern Texas Traction actively fought the loss of passenger traffic to the private automobile. Its efforts to maintain ridership led the company to receive the Charles A. Coffin medal in 1927. Numerous ideas to improve service and improve profits were implemented including the

Birney A Birney or Birney Safety Car is a type of streetcar that was manufactured in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. The design was small and light and was intended to be an economical means of providing frequent service at a lower infrastruc ...

Safety Car and Crimson Limited Interurban deluxe service. NTT was one of the first 3 traction cities to obtain Birney Safety Cars, the first city to fully equip a line with Birney Cars and a member of the Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee, which produced the

PCC streetcar The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...

(although PCCs did not see service in Fort Worth until the advent of the Tandy Center Subway). Stone & Webster sold the company in 1934 as the result of diminishing profits and antitrust action brought by the federal government. The last interurban run was completed on Christmas eve, 1934, and streetcar service was maintained by the transit company until 1937 when the city charter was renewed and revised.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Texas Traction Company Defunct Texas railroads Interurban railways in Texas

See also

References