Salt Lake City Streetcars

This page was last updated on May 22, 2011.

(Return to the Salt Lake City streetcars index page)

Equipment

January 2, 1904
Utah Light & Railway Company was organized as a consolidation of Utah Power & Light Company, and Consolidated Railway & Power Company. (Utah Corporation Index 4644)

A descriptive listing of the railway property was completed at the time of the organization of Utah Light & Railway Co., and showed the following:

Closed cars (74 cars):

Qty. Type Body
Length		 No. of
Motors		 Seating Capacity
(persons)
6 Single truck 16 ft. 2 22
5 Single truck 20 ft. 2 32
1 Double truck 23 ft. 2 34
6 Double truck 24 ft. 4 32
15 Double truck 24 ft. 2 32
27 Double truck 25 ft. 2 36
4 Double truck 25 ft., 6 in. 2 36
1 Double truck 26 ft., 1 in. 2 34
1 Double truck 26 ft., 8 in. 2 40
6 Double truck 27 ft., 10 in. 4 36
2 Double truck 27 ft., 10 in. 2 36

Open Cars (39 cars):

Qty. Type Body
Length		 No. of
Motors		 Seating Capacity
(persons)
3 Single truck 12 ft., 6 in. 2 28
7 Single truck 17 ft. 2 40
18 Single truck 18 ft. 2 40
4 Single truck 19 ft. 2 45
7 Single truck 25 ft. 2 60

Trailers (7 cars):

Qty. Type Body
Length		 No. of
Motors		 Seating Capacity
(persons)
7 Single truck 22 ft. 0 40

Maintenance Cars (12 cars):

Qty. Type Body
Length		 No. of
Motors		 Seating Capacity
(persons)
1 Large gravel car   4 0
1 Small gravel car   2 0
2 Emergency cars   2 0
1 Sand car   2 0
1 Snow sweeper   2 0
1 Line repair car   2 0
2 Single truck gravel cars      
2 Single truck flat cars      
1 Single truck reel car      

March 24, 1908
Seventeen new cars to arrive. (Edwards Notes: Salt Lake Tribune, March 24, 1908)

1910
St. Louis Car Company shipped 12 new "semi-convertible" cars to Utah Light & Railway. The cars were 34 feet, 4-1/2 inches long over the corner posts, with an overall length of 45 feet, 4-1/2 inches. A photo shows car number 602. (Electric Railway Journal, Volume 36, Number 27, December 31, 1910, pages 1284, 1285)

September 18, 1914
A September 25, 1939 internal history of UL&T showed September 18, 1914 as the date that the property and interests of Utah Light & Railway Co. were taken over by Utah Light & Traction Co. At that time the property included 192 pieces of rolling stock. (History of Utah Light & Traction Company, dated September 25, 1939; located at Utah Power and Light archives in Salt Lake City, research completed on October 29, 1981)

(View a listing of the 192 pieces of rolling stock at the time of the 1914 purchase)

1917
In a petition before the Utah Public Utilities Commission to raise rates, Utah Light and Traction Co., showed the following mileage and number of cars for 1910 to the first six months of 1917:

Year Miles
of Track		 Quantity
of Cars
1910 116.47 91
1911 121.35 91
1912 132.09 95
1913 142.63 101
1914 145.18 112
1915 145.26 112
1916 145.74 112
1917
(6 months)		 145.89 118

July 13, 1944
Utah Light & Traction Company sold all of its transportation interests and transferred all of its rights to operate streetcars, electric trolley coaches, and gasoline motor buses to Salt Lake City Lines. Utah Light & Traction retained all of the electrical distribution system, including the system for the Salt Lake City Lines' streetcars and electric trolley coaches. (Utah PSC Case 2814)

From the agreement between Utah Light & Traction and Salt Lake City Lines:

Route No. 8 started at 33rd South and 7th East on a single-track line to 21st South, continuing on the rest of the route on double track, along 7th East to 5th South. On 7th East and 13th South it left the street running, and traveled along the east fringe of Liberty Park for four blocks on the grass before re-entering the middle of the street again. It went west on 5th South to State Street to 4th South, then one block west to Main Street traveling north to 1st South, made a right turn and went up 1st South to 13th East, then turning right again, it ran past the main entrance of the University of Utah, the line terminating just short of 9th South, right in front of East High School. This was the heaviest traveled line; therefore, it was the last street car line to be converted to using buses. Streetcar service in Salt Lake City was officially ended in 1941. Due to the war they were unable to acquire enough large buses. Because the tracks were all still in operating condition and 26 cars were available in the car barn, they decided to re-institute street car service, serving until 1947. They decided they could operate the line with a total of 13 cars and they sold the remaining 13 cars to San Diego in 1942 where they also operated until 1947. The cars were old, and the track was rough, but they were very reliable and worked out just fine. (Gordon Cardall, text on back of photo of Utah Light & Traction car 659, used as Christmas card in 1998)

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