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When Milwaukee traction fans refer to The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co., they usually use the
abbreviated "TM", and it usually includes TMER&L and its subsidiaries and successors.
The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co. was the largest electric railway and electric utility system in
Wisconsin. It combined several of the earlier horsecar, steam dummy and streetcars lines into one system. Its
Milwaukee streetcar lines soon ran on most major streets and served most areas of the city. Its interurban lines
reached throughout southeastern Wisconsin. They also operated the streetcar lines in Appleton, Kenosha and
Racine as well as doing their own switching operations at the Port Washington and Lakeside power plants.
The first electric streetcar in Milwaukee operated on Wells Street April 3, 1890. The last streetcar in Milwaukee
(and Wisconsin) operated on Wells Street on March 2, 1958.
The first interurban ran between Milwaukee and Kenosha on June 1, 1897. Other lines soon reached out to
Watertown, Burlington and East Troy. In 1922 TM acquired the Milwaukee Northern Railway and added their
Milwaukee to Sheboygan interurban line to the system.
During the depression, streetcar and interurban lines were cut back, replaced with buses, abandoned or sold.
Abandonments ceased during WWII, when gas and tires were rationed, and defense workers needed transportation.
After the war, riders returned to their autos and abandonments resumed. The last two remnants of interurban
lines were to Hales Corners and Waukesha. They closed out their days being operated in Rapid Transit service by
Speedrail until June 30, 1951. Electric locos continued operating at the power plants until the early 1970's.
A complete history, or even a comprehensive list of historical highlights would be too involved for this website. If
you are interested in more details, we suggest the followings books, that might be available in your library or on the
second hand book market.
"TM (The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Lights Co.)" by Joseph Canfield, published by CERA as their Bulletin
112. "Path Of A Pioneer" by John Gurda, The story of Wisconsin Electric Power Co., published by WE Energies.
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This map shows the TMER&L
interurban system before 1922.
Plans for the Watertown line to reach
Madison, the East Troy line to reach
Delevan and Elkhorn, and the Burlington
line to reach Lake Geneva were never
fulfilled.
This was the extent of the system until
1922 when they acquired the Milwaukee
Northern Rwy and added their line from
Milwaukee to Port Washington and
Sheboygan to the system.
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On most lines a single car was enough to handle the
passenger loads. Even on busier lines most non rush hour trips
were handled by single cars.
Single car 1120 rolls south through Racine. This was the
only interurban to receive this unusual paint scheme. Fans
soon dubbed the car the "spitball".
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In addition to repairing and rebuilding streetcars and
interurbans, TM's shops were innovators and held patents for
several designs and inventions.
One design was the articulated train, joining two bodies over
a single center truck.
First used on their streetcars, they also used it on several
interurbans, including this unit rounding the corner from
Michigan onto 2nd Street and the diners as shown below at
Grafton station.
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Parlor car and diner service were limited luxuries provided by TM to compete with the steam railroads. Most trips
were not long enough to take advantage of the extra fare service and they were eliminated during the depression.
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A single interurban car and an articulated unit
(duplex) pause in Waukesha.
Because of short loading platforms, the single
car loading from the rear door was always on the
front of the duplex loading from the center doors.
Except for an unusual event, no more than two
single cars were ever operated together.
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City streetcar 902 rolls along the private right-of-way near
Hawley Road on West Allis branch of Route 10. Tracks along
the left were used by Rapid Transit.
The extensive use of private right-of-way, and its proximity
to the new Milwaukee County Stadium is one reason Route 10
lasted longer than the other lines.
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One of the more memorable features of TM's streetcar
system was a ride across the Wells Street Viaduct used by
Route 10 streetcars.
It was built in the 1890's for the Wauwatosa Motor
Railway (a steam dummy line). It was originally
single-track with a wood roadway for horse drawn wagons
and pedestrians.
Contrary to some claims, it was steel, not wood, and was
never "rickety" or swayed. It was solid enough to carry
streetcars and heavy interurbans before the Rapid Transit
line was built.
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When St. Louis Car Co. built the 1030-series cars for
TM's South Milwaukee suburban service, they used the
articulated design developed by TM.
Articulated units could handle as many passengers as two
single cars, but only needed one crew.
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This scene on a very busy 3rd St. shows three types of
streetcars. A 500-series car in the forground, followed by an
800, while a 600 heads the opposite direction.
It also shows the use of a safety island. Not shown, are the
interurbans which also shared 3rd St. Close examination on the
original photo shows the yellow "interurban" sign along with
the blue "car stop" sign on the stop light post.
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Although most fans preferred streetcars, many routes were
replaced with trackless trolleys, commonly refered to as
trolleybuses.
The public found the trackless trolleys to be fast, quiet and
smoother riding. They also developed a fan following of their
own.
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One of the more unique operations of TMER&L was the annual Schuster's Christmas Parade in November. TM
provided a Differential Dump car and several flat cars. Store employees decorated them into floats illuminated with
1000's of lights getting their power from the 600v trolley wire.
The parade followed several streetcar lines through the city. Thousands lined the streets to watch the floats. On
at least one occasion they actually used live reindeer. The parade ran on rails from 1928 to 1955.
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TMER&L operated its own print shop, printing their own tickets,
passes, transfers, schedules, utility bills and all the various forms needed.
Each year, or whenever a change was made they had to print thousands
of these schedules, maps and guides to give to the public.
Here are some examples of the guides and schedules with routes, fares
and other information, tickets and passes.
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Above is an interurban ticket sold on the train. This half was given to the passenger, the
other half remained in the holder carried by the conductor. The notches indicate where
the trip began and ended and the amount of fare paid.
The transfer to the right is an early version used on streetcars with time designated by
punch marks. In later years they changed to a "tear-off" version.
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Buying "Car Tickets" was one way to save money paying fares. To count the
tickets, TM devised a method to separate tickets from coins by air, then weighed them
in piles. This was actually found to be more accurate than counting them by hand.
They usually collected over 300,000 tickets each day.
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To boost riding in the 1930's, the $1.00 weekly pass became the standard. There were also versions with extra
fare zone coupons.
The pass above is notable, as it was one of hundreds returned for refunds after the 1947 blizzard. Note the
"paid" stamped with small holes.
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TM also printed passes for
other companies. Sometimes
they used the same design on
the same date, other times they
used the design on different
dates.
Here is an example from
Capital Transit.
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