Milwaukee-Sheboygan Interurban line

[curtissjoyce]

Many years ago there was an interurban line that ran north from Milwaukee, Wisconsin at least to Sheboygan.  Can anyone help me with some additional information about it?  What I remember is that there was an orange depot south of Sheboygan.

[paulsafety]

I found this information at a rails to trails site:

http://www.interurbantrail.us/History.htm

"Actually, the route of the Ozaukee Interurban Trail is not new at all. As the name suggests, the right-of-way the trail uses is primarily that of the historic interurban railway that connected Ozaukee's communities with Milwaukee. In 1922, the right-of-way was acquired by The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company (TMER & L) for development of an improved rapid transit service from Milwaukee to Sheboygan. The Northern Route, the interurban electric railway from Milwaukee to Sheboygan since 1908, had stops in the mostly rural communities of Brown Deer, Thiensville, Cedarburg, Grafton, Port Washington, Belgium, Cedar Grove, Oostburg and Sheboygan. The rapid transit was an electric railway system linking Milwaukee and many of the surrounding communities to the north, west and south from its inception in 1905 to the end of all operations in 1951. During its operation, the Northern Route of the interurban line was also made famous for transporting African-American blues musicians to the main recording studio for Paramount Records recording label in Port Washington and ultimately in Grafton, Wisconsin. The idea of African-American artists from the rural South traveling to Grafton, Wisconsin in the late 1920s and early 1930s by taking the "electric train" seems fantastic. After the TMER & L acquired the right-of-way lands in 1922, it began an ambitious improvements project for many of the lines including the Northern Route that ran through Ozaukee County to Sheboygan. Much of these improvements and realignments that were to be realized happened by 1934. In 1938, the TMER & L reorganized into The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Transit Company (TMER & T); however, the rapid transit system was increasingly losing ridership to the automobile. The economic situation and World War II only temporarily halted this decline. Ridership on the interurban railway lines actually increased during World War II only to realize significant decreases following the War. These decreases lead to the abandonment of the Northern Route north of Port Washington in 1940. In 1946, the remaining Port Washington interurban line was sold by TMER & T to the Kenosha Motor Coach Lines. Between 1940 and 1948, the Port Washington interurban line serviced Ozaukee County, but on March 29, 1948 the Port Washington line was terminated, which brought an end to the former Northern Route to Sheboygan."

Hope this is the line you were thinking of.....

[daveklepper]

The Central Electric Railfans Association has an excellent history of the
Milwaukee system, the local streetcars and the interurbans (but only passing reference to the North Shore, which has two other excellent CERA books).   I recommend it highly.   I also miss it badly.   I brought it with me to Israel twelve years ago.   I gave it to the State Department supported American Jerusalem Library because I thought they needed a book documenting the history of streetcar and interurban transportation in one USA city and also the book describes the growth of Milwaukee and the surrounding area in some detail.   I thouhgt it was in a safe place where I could continue to use it, and now found that the director gave it away as unnecessary to their collection!   Glad I wasn't even more foolish to give them the two North Shore books!   These are all excellet, well-written, accurate, researched hard-cover big books with excellent illustrations, inlcuding some color,  and maps.

[curtissjoyce]

Thank you gentlemen.  This is just what I wanted know.

[Falcon48]

It was the Milwaukee Northern Railway Company.  It was completed from Milwaukee to Port Washington in 1907 and to Sheboygan in 1908.  Both the North Shore Line and the Milwaukee Electric tried to gain control of it, but the Milwaukee Electric won out in 1922.  The line between Port Wahsington and Sheboygan was abandoned in 1940, and the remainder of the line in 1948.  There was also a connecting interurban (Wisconsin Public Service Co.) that ran west from Sheboygan to Plymouth and then north to Elkhart Lake, but it was not affilliated with MN or TMER.

[Nad Rillem]

On a recent bike ride along the interurban trail  we noticed a home for sale by Remax in the town of Cedar Grove in Sheboygan County. The home sure looked like an old railroad depot conversion to me. It could have been for the interurban run. It's all Cream City brick. A beautifull little building. It sits right on highway 32 and the trail. Could be some interresting history here.  Or not

[Randy Stahl]

Indeed that was a Milwaukee Northern Ry combination substation/station. Another stands in Cedarburg Wi along with a truss bridge.

Randy

[BaltACD]

When racing at Road America at Elkhart Lake I noticed geographic sights around Sheboygan, Plymouth and Elkhart Lake that looked like they had the genesis in Interurban operations - thanks for filling in some of the blanks.

[Randy Stahl]

Indeed there was interurbans there, (Plymouth-Elkart lake)  Wisconsin Power and Light (WP&L) had an extensive system out of Sheboygan and several operations in the fox valley. There is a picture of a WP&L interurban #27 in this thread. The electric railways in Wisconsin is well covered in CERA Bulletin 111 (Badger Traction)

There are traces of the WP&L system running between Fond Du Lac - Oshkosh that are easily spotted.

Bulletin 112 covers the JI Beggs TMER&L system

Bulletin 106-107 covers the Chicago & Milwaukee electric and the Insull Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee.

 Most of these books are found on E Bay and the prices are going down. I bought my copies inthe mid 70s and paid around 20 bucks for the TMER&L book , 17 bucks for Badger traction , and 10 bucks for Bulletin 106-107. Now only the TMER&L book seems to be pricey at around 100 bucks.

If you have an interest in Wisconsin electric railway history these 4 books are the place to start

[Bricorc]

[bzerbel]

Bricorc: I read your post on infowars re: Christ Seraphim, It appears that we were in the same places at the same time. I'd like to compare notes. [e-mail]