10/19/2026
Excitement to get up and running was so high for some interurbans that they ended up procrastinating in putting up the overhead wires. Minnesota had a number of interurbans without wires.
The photos show equipment of the Electric Short Line Railway (often called the Luce Line), the Minnesota Northwestern Electric Railway, and the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, & Dubuque Electric Traction Company (known as the Dan Patch Line), and the Minneapolis & Northern Railway. Across all, the desire to begin operation swiftly necessitated the use of non-electric equipment, most commonly gas-mechanical or gas-electric locomotives and passenger cars, or even steam locomotives, due to the high costs of putting up overhead wire or a lack of availability of electricity.
For passenger operations, popularity of gas-mechanical and gas-electric “motor cars” were what allowed these interurbans to operate as electric railroads in name only. The Minneapolis & Northern used McKeen Motor Cars that relied on a gasoline engine connected to the front axel of the front truck via a clutch and gearing that proved to be unreliable as the system tended to freeze in the frigid Minnesota winters on the line between Anoka and Minneapolis. The remaining lines generally used gas-electric motor cars constructed by General Electric. The Dan Patch Line (Minneapolis to Northfield) began service with two gas-electric cars built by the Strang Gas-Electric Car Company (the company only built four cars, all for the Strang Line interurban between Kansas City, MO and Olathe, KS, which electrified soon after due to difficulties operating the gas-electric cars) before going with the more reliable General Electric cars. The Minnesota Northwestern (Thief River Falls to Goodridge) had a single General Electric motor car and the Luce Line (Minneapolis to Hutchinson) rostered numerous General Electric cars.
The various corporate histories demonstrate cycles of boom or bust, generally following the interurban industry. Those that expanded beyond the passenger business to bulk up their freight capabilities survived to be folded into the contemporary freight railroad infrastructure (Dan Patch Line and the Luce Line), having abandoned any dreams of electrifying long before. The Minnesota Northwestern held out until 1940, but its reliance on passengers meant its business was siphoned off by improved rural roads. Mechanical failures and rough track meant the Minneapolis & Northern abandoned after eighteen months of operation, but the tracks were soon after purchased by the Minneapolis, Anoka, & Cuyuna Range, which allowed it to become an electric interurban (story: Brian A. Long, PhD; photos: MSM).
