Interurban Railroad

Interurban Railroad. Town of Pendleton. First imagined around 1890 and finally realized in 1899, the Anderson-headquartered Union Traction Company built a 370-mile, electric-powered interurban railroad that connected all the cities in the “gas belt” with Indianapolis. There also were 50 miles of street railway in the cities the company operated. , At Indianapolis, passengers could switch to rail lines serving nearly every part of Indiana, plus neighboring states. , An interurban line from Muncie to Indianapolis placed Pendleton at a key junction of the interurban, with trains carrying passengers and freight running down the centerline of what is now Pendleton Avenue. , Pendleton's interurban station featured a high ceiling, a big potbelly stove, benches along the wall, and a schedule painted on a blackboard. There, the station agent would mark whether a car was running ahead of or behind schedule. , In the mid-1930s, the name was changed to the Indiana Railroad and the old high-floor red cars were replaced with low-slung high-speed models that were painted a brilliant yellow. , The interurban came into being during horse-and-buggy days, and was popular because it served as a means of rapid transportation. But automobiles doomed the interurban. On Saturday, January 18, 1941, the line through Pendleton ceased operation forever.