Historical Overview

The harnessing of electricity and the railroad…these are two of the greatest innovations of the 19th Century. Both technologies were vital to the improvement and advancement of the United States and have greatly contributed toward this country becoming both a world power and economic giant. Combined in the form of the electric railway, these technologies created a revolutionary new way to transport people. The legacy of the electric railway lives on today, both in the subways and high-speed railways that prosper in urban centers around our world, and in visions of our world’s future. But to understand its significance, we must first explore the technology that made the electric railway possible.

What does an Electric Railway Require?

An electric railway is an electricity-powered coach (commonly called a streetcar or trolley) that rides upon a length of rail. It is the perfect combination of the railroad that monopolized the 1800’s long-distance transportation and the electric motor. Both these technologies came together precisely in the 1830s, leading to the development of the electric railway.

Steam engine technology sprang into life in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. James Watt constructed his famous stationary steam engine in 1774, and an Englishman by the name of Matthew Murray built a steam locomotive in 1804. The benefits of travel by rail were quickly recognized. Not only could goods be cheaply and quickly moved from one place to another via rail, but people could be transported as well. Seeing the potential of a “horse-less carriage”, entrepreneurs started numerous railroad companies to fulfill the transportational needs of the European populace. By 1825, the railroad had found its way to America. Over the next 40-some years, railroads were created and networked across the eastern United States culminating in 1869 when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific combined to form the first transcontinental railroad line.

Meanwhile, many scientists in the 19th Century worked to harness electricity—an untamed and untapped source of power. In 1820, both Hans Christian Oersted and Andre Marie Ampere published their discoveries of the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Not long after in the early 1830s, a New Yorker by the name of John Henry began producing large electromagnets and designed the workings of an oscillating electromagnetic motor by 1831. Inspired by the findings of Henry, a blacksmith in Vermont named Thomas Davenport invented an electric motor in 1834. He created a small model electric railway in 1836 that ran on a four-foot diameter track behind his blacksmithing shop.1

Davenport’s combination of the electric motor and a rail system provided a glimpse into the future. But it would be another 50 years before electric railways grew to a size that would be able to transport people. It would also take those 50 years for the need for electric railways to become the premier mode of transportation for America’s booming urban centers.

What were the Functions of the Electric Railway?

While steam locomotives dominated travel between the major communities of the U.S. in the mid to late 1800s, they had a number of shortcomings. They were dirty, creating their steam power by burning coal which leaves soot on everything it runs near. They were also loud; the releasing pressurized steam emitting the familiar “chug, chug” of the train. It was also quite undesirable to have a soot-spewing railroad running through the middle of one’s town.

With the introduction of the electric motor, all that changed. The electric railway functioned in a way that made up for the shortcomings of the steam-powered locomotive. For one thing, it was clean energy. An electric streetcar spewed neither soot nor smoke, and it ran quieter than a steam locomotive. Tracks for the electric streetcar experienced less stresses due to its lighter build; this made building track systems cheaper. Once in place, a single streetcar could easily navigate the sharp turns required around street corners.

The electric streetcar, unlike the railroad, was also developed with one goal in mind: the transport of people. This encouraged streetcar manufacturers to specialize their models. The goal was to get as many people onto the streetcar, yet still be comfortable.

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