HomeMy WebLinkAboutTexas Aggie Articleby David L. Chapman '67, Texas A &M University Archivist THE ARCHIVES Our Aggie Heritage
The Bryan
College
Interurban
"Ladies keep your seats,
profs get out and walk and
cadets get out and push."
0 n July 13, 1930, The Dallas Morning
News devoted nearly a half -page to a
humorous memorial to the demise of the
Bryan - College (as College Station was then
referred to) interurban. The headline read,
"Noted White Elephant Passes to a Doubtful
Reward."
In its nearly two decades of
operation, the foibles and
idiosyncrasies of the little
interurban became the stuff
of legend. As the News
described it, the interurban
"had hauled A &M students,
professors and Bryan girls
from College to Bryan and
Bryan to College to dances, to
football games, to numerous
and various festivities, to
shows and shopping trips and
even sometimes to classes. It
always ran at the most inop-
portune times, and meals,
dates, shows and classes had
to be accommodated to the
erratic hours kept by the sole means of pub-
lic transportation:'
Before the interurban, the little town of
Bryan was six - and -a -half miles from A &M.
If someone on campus wanted to go to town
in the early days, there were several choices.
You could walk, ride a horse, hitch up a
buggy or catch either the Houston and Texas
Central or International and Great Northern
passenger trains. While the railroads were
undoubtedly used and made three trips a
day (almost all in the afternoon or well after
midnight), their schedules were inconven-
ient and offered no possibilities for a regular
commute or day excursion.
The first mention of an interurban
appeared in 1905 with the issuance of a char-
ter for the Bryan - College Electric Railway
Right of Way Company of Bryan. The pur-
pose of the charter was to build a rail line
between Bryan and Texas A &M. With a capi-
tal stock of $1,000, the venture appeared to
be woefully underfunded. Little was accom-
plished and the project was not heard from
again until 1910, when the Bryan and College
Interurban Railway Company filed for a
charter in Austin with a capital investment of
$20,000. The new company proposed to
complete and operate a line between Bryan
and College.
The line began operation to the A &M
campus on June 4, 1910. In January 1911, as
Cadets greet the interurban sometime around 1911 -1912.
an example of its abilities, the line moved 400
cadets in numerous runs to a massive city-
wide Bible study in Bryan organized by Frank
D. Steger, A &M's YMCA director.
The first cars on the line were propelled by
underpowered gasoline engines that often
required the male passengers
to dismount and push the
cars over small grades. On
some occasions, the engine
stopped altogether, leaving
the passengers stranded.
Cadets amused themselves by
sitting near the motorman
and giving him no end of
unsolicited advice on the
operation of the car. Thus,
the little line began, wheezing
and coughing its way along
and emitting clouds of
exhaust that, at times, nearly
overcame the passengers.
In 1915, the line began
conversion to electricity by
building its own direct -cur-
rent generating system in Bryan. By 1920, the
system was inadequate to meet the demands
for increased service to A &M College, and
Bryan took over electric production. This
growth spurt, however, was short -lived as
more and more automobiles appeared in the
Brazos Valley. Hitchhiking cadets and profes-
sors with cars meant greatly decreased rev-
enue for the interurban. The line gradually
failed despite several attempts to resuscitate it
by A &M faculty and staff.
Soon the interurban quietly passed into
the lore of Old Texas A &M.
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