For much of the time between 1897 and 1939, Hamilton was served by one interurban line from Dayton (along North B Street) and two from Cincinnati (via Mount Healthy over present U. S. 127 and via Glendale, generally over what is now Ohio 4). They offered passenger and freight service. All routes in the county were north-south.

The companies operating traction routes through Butler County went through several name changes because of mergers, receiverships, bankruptcies and corporate reorganizations.

Dayton-Middletown-Hamilton

The Cincinnati & Miami Valley Traction Co. was an outgrowth of the Dayton Traction Co. that had formed in 1894. Major investors included Peter Schwab, a Hamilton brewer and businessman.

In 1896, a 10-miles line opened between Dayton and Miamisburg. That year, Butler County commissioners granted permission to extend the line through Middletown to Hamilton at a speed "not to exceed 25 miles an hour." In return, the company agreed to pay the county bridge fund $25 a mile for the first five years and $50 a mile after five years. The traction company also agreed to pay 25 percent of repairs to county bridges that it used.

In Middletown, from north to south, the traction line followed Tytus Avenue to Main Street.

The C&MV crossed the Great Miami River between Middletown and Trenton and ran southwest through Trenton, Busenbark and Overpeck, what later became the village of New Miami and entered Hamilton on Seven Mile Pike and North B Street. Its original Hamilton terminal was at the corner of Main and North B streets.

Obstacles faced by the C&MV included (1) a suit by the Hamilton streetcar company that delayed access to the High-Main Street Bridge and downtown Hamilton for 16 months; and (2) a suit by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad contesting the C&MV's right to cross the railroad in Trenton.

The crossing dispute was settled by a state railway commission ruling that gave the railroad priority and required interurban cars to stop before crossing the CH&D mainline in Trenton.

Starting in May 1897, about 500 men were grading right-of-way, laying track, erecting power poles and stringing wire in Butler County. A car barn was built in Trenton, and a power station was erected in Busenbark, south of Trenton.

The first car from Dayton arrived in Hamilton Sunday, July 25, 1897, but it was just a ceremonial run. Regular service began a week later, Sunday, Aug. 1, 1897.

The first C&MV timetable listed 21 daily northbound departures from Hamilton.

The original route between Dayton and Hamilton was 37.5 miles.

At first (1897), it was the Cincinnati & Miami Valley Traction Co., but there were several changes in names and ownership over the next 40 years.

Later, names included Southern Ohio Traction Co., 1900; Cincinnati, Dayton & Toledo Traction Co., 1902; Ohio Electric Railway Co., 1903; Cincinnati & Dayton Traction Co., 1918; Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Co., 1926; and, finally, the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad, 1930.

The C&LE included a 216-mile mainline from College Hill to Toledo, and, until 1932, offered passenger and freight service between Cincinnati and Detroit in cooperation with other traction companies.

The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Co. (1926) was not the same as the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad that began operating in September 1851.

In July 1909 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had announced its intention to purchase the CH&D. The B&O bought the CH&D at auction June 7, 1917 -- about nine years before the interurban company azssumed a similar name.

Hamilton-Mount Healthy-Cincinnati Scheduled interurban service south of Hamilton began Oct. 27, 1898, after a series of legal and technical challenges. The 17.9-mile route, operated by the Cincinnati & Hamilton Electric Street Railway, terminated in the Cincinnati suburb of College Hill, not downtown Cincinnati.

That first Hamilton-Cincinnati route, from north to south, ran from the Butler County Courthouse on High Street, south over South Front Street, east over Court Street for one block, and then south over South Second Street, Central Avenue and Pleasant Avenue through Lindenwald.

From Hamilton, the original line ran on or parallel to present U. S. 127 through Symmes Corner in Fairfield Township, Pleasant Run at the county line, and New Burlington and Mount Healthy to College Hill in Hamilton County.

Hourly passenger runs started Nov. 1, 1898, between Hamilton and Mount Healthy. The fare was 55 cents.

Eventually, the C&H interurban tracks extended into Cincinnati, but not to the downtown area. The traction line terminal was at Spring Grove and Crawford avenues in Cumminsville, requiring passengers to transfer to a streetcar to reach downtown Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati & Hamilton Electric Street Railway and the Cincinnati & Miami Valley Traction Co. were consolidated into the Southern Ohio Traction Co. in 1900. As previously noted, the corporate evolution was: Cincinnati, Dayton & Toledo Traction Co., 1902; Ohio Electric Railway Co., 1903; Cincinnati & Dayton Traction Co., 1918; Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Co., 1926; and the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad, 1930.

Cincinnati-Hamilton-Dayton

Through service between Dayton and Cincinnati, through Hamilton, didn't begin until 1900.

Jan. 2, 1900, two companies -- the Cincinnati & Miami Valley Traction Co., operating between Dayton and Hamilton, and the Cincinnati & Hamilton Electric Street Railway, running between Hamilton and College Hill -- reached agreement on a Hamilton connection.

The short link was over the existing track of the Hamilton & Lindenwald Electric Transit Co., operator of the Hamilton streetcar lines. H&L owners had originally refused to permit the use of their right-of-way between High and Front streets on the east side of the Great Miami River and Main and B streets on the west side of the river.

The first test run over the High-Main Street Bridge was Jan. 17, 1900, and the first experimental trip from College Hill to Dayton was completed Jan. 18.

The distance was reported as 54.6 miles.

Hamilton-Springdale-Cincinnati

A second route between Hamilton and Cincinnati, from north to south, operated through Stockton in Fairfield Twp., and, in Hamilton County, through the communities of Springdale, Glendale, Wyoming, Hartwell and Carthage before reaching downtown Cincinnati.

The line was known by a variety of names, some official, some not. They included the Cincinnati, Hamilton, Middletown & Dayton Street Railway; the Millcreek Valley Street Railway; the Cincinnati, Glendale & Hamilton Electric Street Railway; the Cincinnati & Hamilton Traction Co., 1901-02; the Cincinnati Interurban Co., 1902; and the Ohio Traction Co., 1905-26. Ohio Traction operated it as the Millcreek Valley Line.

Under the Ohio Traction Co., starting May 22, 1905, the Millcreek was part of a syndicate that also owned the Cincinnati Car Co., the Cincinnati Street Railway and the Cincinnati Zoo.

The Millcreek Valley -- also reported in newspapers then as the Cincinnati, Glendale & Hamilton Electric Street Railway -- was granted permission by city council to enter Hamilton Sept. 10, 1901. It eventually entered the city over what is now Dixie Highway and continued north on East Avenue, west on Sycamore Street, north on South Eighth Street, west on Maple Avenue and north on South Third Street to High Street in downtown Hamilton.

The line was completed north to Springdale by July 1, 1901, and to Schenck's (Ohio 4 at St. Clair Avenue) in Fairfield Twp. by Aug. 20, 1901. Entry into Hamilton was delayed by legal disputes with railroads, rival interurban lines and property owners.

By July 1902, cars were operating between the intersection of East Avenue and Grand Boulevard in the southeastern part of Hamilton to Fountain Square in Cincinnati A test run to Third and High streets in downtown Hamilton -- greeted by fireworks -- was completed the evening of Monday, May 25, 1903. Scheduled service between Hamilton and Cincinnati -- reported as a distance of 36 miles -- began Wednesday, May 27, 1903.

Service into Hamilton was interrupted in April 1920 when the paving of Dixie Highway required that the original tracks be removed during sewer installation and paving. Service resumed Dec. 23, 1920.

The section between Hamilton and Glendale was abandoned July 11, 1926. July 15, 1926, Cincinnati Street Railway extended streetcar service north to Glendale. An extension to Springdale opened in April 1928, but in June 1930 streetcar service was abandoned north of Springfield Pike and Bonham Road in Wyoming.

End of Interurban Service

The Cincinnati & Lake Erie -- including the merging of other lines -- was organized Jan. 1, 1930, at the start of the Great Depression. It lost both passenger and freight customers because of the region's economic problems.

Management tried to recoup business with emphasis on its new lightweight, high-speed, more comfortable cars -- called Go Devils and then Red Devils. The C&LE claimed cruising speeds of 80 miles an hour and reported clockings at 100 mph or faster on some straight-away sections.

Another setback was an accident June 30, 1932, that killed nine people when two C&LE trains collided north of Trenton. It was Butler County's deadliest traction crash.

The C&LE's southbound interurban cars stopped at Mount Healthy, effective July 1, 1938. Passengers had to transfer to buses to continue into Cincinnati.

Jan. 7, 1939, the C&LE ended service between Hamilton and Mount Healthy.

C&LE passenger service between Hamilton, Middletown and Dayton continued until May 13-14, 1939. Northbound car number 105 left Hamilton at 11:10 p.m. and Middletown at 12:02 a.m. that night. Buses assumed the interurban routes the next day.

The C&LE had been in receivership since 1932. The Hamilton Journal-News said the demise of the interurban lines "is directly traced to development of private automobiles and bus lines, which won over the bulk of the passenger business once sustaining the traction lines." Fairfield & Hamilton Powerhouses The Fairfield Powerhouse -- also known as the Symmes Corner powerhouse -- occupied part of the land that is now the Village Green development in the City of Fairfield (west of Pleasant Avenue, U. S. 127, at Wessel Drive).

In October 1898, the Cincinnati & Hamilton Electric Street Railway completed a powerhouse on the site, then in Fairfield Township. The first electricity from the powerhouse went over wires the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1898.

In a few days, after technical and legal problems were overcome, interurban cars were operating south of Hamilton toward Mount Healthy and Cincinnati over the present U. S. 127 corridor (Pleasant Avenue in Butler County and Hamilton Avenue in Hamilton County).

The interurban company also built a car barn next to the power plant at Symmes Corner near the southwest corner of Pleasant Avenue and Nilles Road.

The Symmes Corner power plant continued in use until 1906 when it was replaced by a new facility in the Lindenwald section in Hamilton.

The Lindenwald Powerhouse -- also known as the Hamilton Powerhouse -- was a power station that generated electricity for the interurban system between Cincinnati and Dayton, and for streetcars in Hamilton for 20 years.

Only a tower remains near the southeast corner of Neilan Boulevard and Williams Avenue in Hamilton. The remainder of the site -- also bordered by Fairview and Power avenues -- is a city recreation area.

The powerhouse was built by the Ohio Electric Railway Co. in 1906 in Lindenwald. The coal-fired plant replaced older interurban power stations at Symmes Corner [Fairfield Twp.] and Busenbark.

The Lindenwald plant sent electricity through seven sub stations along the interurban system.

The powerhouse closed in 1926 and the property was donated to the City of Hamilton in 1943.

Interurban won 1930 race with plane In June 1930 the recently-formed C&LE showed off its new high-speed passenger cars in a race with an airplane. The land-air contest was just eight months after the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.

C&LE advertising in 1930 promised "better service, greater operating efficiencies and economies, and improved schedules." The new owners ordered 20 new 44-foot cars from the Cincinnati Car Co. to replace aged equipment. Ten coaches had a baggage compartment in the rear. The other 10 were described as deluxe coaches, including a lounge section. The C&LE said the new cars would "set a new standard for high speed, luxurious passenger service in America." To the company’s advantage, only one person was required to operate the new vehicles, not two as on earlier cars.

To the public, C&LE executives emphasized the speed and comfort of the steel and aluminum cars -- designed to approach 100 miles an hour. They launched a traditional advertising campaign to win back riders. They also organized an unconventional promotional event -- the 48,300-pound interurban car against an open cockpit biplane.

The C&LE hired motion picture and still photographers to record the well-publicized event designed to show off the speed of the new 38-passenger cars, called Red Devils because of their dark maroon bodies with gold lettering.

The improbable race was set for July 7, 1930, over a straight, double-tracked course near Moraine between Dayton and Miamisburg. More than 100 newsmen accepted invitations to attend the preliminaries in Dayton and the main event.

For stability, the floor of the interurban car was weighted down with sand bags. All switches along the route were spiked in the proper position for safety.

Car 126 was chosen for the run against the biplane piloted by a Dayton man.

Another new Red Devil, No. 127, was designated to follow No. 126. The trailing unit hauled newsreel photographers and writers who were recording the contest.

The new interurban car reached 97 miles an hour in besting the plane, but that wasn’t the end of the C&LE publicity campaign.

The show moved to the C&LE’s fast line between Springfield and Columbus with No. 122 challenging "an Indianapolis Speedway racing car" while the film whirled in car No. 123 that followed the action. The race car sped over the old National Road (U. S. 40) that paralleled the interurban track near Lafayette.

Again, the Red Devil won, this time attaining 92 mph.