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The Utah Idaho Central Railroad
THE UTAH IDAHO CENTRAL RAILROAD
By Philip E. Sorensen
No history of Utah can be fairly written without repeated and emphatic mention of the railroads which wrought so great a transformation in the state, developing its economy, broadening its social base, and creating a large part of its folk-history. This paper presents only a tiny part of the story of Utah's railroads, but it is a colorful chapter and one which reflects, at least to some degree, the histories of the other small railroads whose lines once crossed the state.
The Utah Idaho Central Railroad was the longest electric railroad in the West at the time of its abandonment. It was the creation of one of Utah's important economic pioneers, David Eccles, whose family with that of M. S. Browning, was associated with dth enterprise throughout its history.
That history began with the creation of two local traction systems, the first, Ogden Rapid Transit Company which was organized May 16, 1900. This company took over the properties of the Ogden Electric Railroad, constructed other lines in the city of Ogden, and in 1909 built a line to The Hermitage in Ogden Canyon, which was extended to Idlewild two years later. A second Eccles railroad, the Ogden and Northwestern, took over an existing line from Ogden to Hot Springs at the time of its formation in 1903 and extended this line to Brigham City in 1907. A separate branch from Five Points to Plain City was built in 1909 which, with the other properties of the Ogden and Northwestern, was conveyed to Ogden Rapid Transit Company on June 22, 1911, uniting the Eccles system.
Success greeted the Ogden Rapid Transit Company in its first years of operation and determined David Eccles to build a similar system in Cache Valley. This determination was strengthened by the appearance in Logan in the spring of 1909 of a stranger from the East, a Mr. Mahler, who presented the Logan Commissioners with his proposition to build a local traction system, an idea greeted with such enthusiasm that an immediate franchise to build such a line was granted. Prompted to action, Mr. Eccles made his own application for a similar franchise but was turned down by the commissioners on the grounds that Mahler had precedence.
After several months passed without further developments, it became clear, at least to the Logan Journal, that Mahler intended only, "to hawk his franchise about the East in an attempt to make money." So on August 4, 1909, when David Eccles again applied for the Logan franchise, his request was granted. He immediately organized a construction team and ordered the rail, and on October 19, 1909, the first track was laid.
With the exception of Mahler's short-lived interruption, the city line of Logan Rapid Transit Company was built without interference; but the Eccles interests received considerable competition in their attempt to build an interurban line in Cache Valley. The history of this spirited battle is told most picturesquely in the pages of the Logan Journal in which the following facts were reported:
On April 6, 1912, Logan Rapid Transit Company asked the county commissioners for a franchise to build a branch from Smithfield to Providence. Some three weeks later, on April 27, M. J. Golightly and a group of Cache Valley citizens petitioned for a similar franchise which was conditionally granted. On May 1 this action was rescinded in favor of David Eccles. Then on May 4 both franchises were granted.
The indecision of the commissioners aroused the ire of a group of local readers who fired a letter to the Journal on May 7, reading in part:
David Eccles, expressing utmost scorn for his competitors, ordered the steel for his extension which, together with Japanese laborers, began arriving in the Valley on June 1. Robert Anderson, well-known Logan lumberman, was named manager of the new construction project. Purchase of the right-of-way proved the most difficult hurdle for the company as many landowners sought to gain exorbitant prices for their land. One woman wanted $500.00 for a corner of a small tract and finally settled for $83.00. Numerous such incidents caused the Journal to comment on September 10, "It is evident that not all the grasping, greedy manipulating is done by the corporations."
On September 17, 1912, the Eccles interurban reached Hyde Park, and on September 26 was completed into Providence. October of 1912 was the first full month of operation of the branch between Smithfield and Providence.
Despite the completion of the Eccles interurban, promoters of the Golightly railroad continued their efforts to build a competitive line. Rumors of the imminent construction of this second interurban appeared to have real basis when the Journal announced on September 6,1913:
Then on November 20, 1913, a headline appeared in the Journal which seemed to settle, finally, the question of whether the road would indeed be built: "GOLIGHTLY FRANCHISE A WINNER AT LAST," it declared:
The Ogden, Lewiston and Northern Railway never became a reality, however. Six months after the Journal report, on June 28,1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, heirs to the Austrian throne, were assassinated at Sarajevo in Servia. This event, as everyone knows, unloosed the First World War. The $6,000,000.00 which was to come out of France evaporated, and the Golightly franchise quietly died.
There are no records available to the writer which state the financial makeup of the ill-fated Golightly railroad, and it is therefore impossible to report what financial support, if any, was lent the enterprise and how much was lost in its collapse. The company filed no articles of incorporation in Utah, and possibly not a share of stock was printed. No further mention of the railroad is to be found in the pages of the Journal, and it is therefore probable that the whole affair was believed to be better forgotten.
Less than two years after the death of David Eccles, an event of utmost significance in the history of the Utah Idaho Central took place, one which Mr. Eccles might never have permitted had he lived. On October 17, 1914, Ogden Rapid Transit Company and Logan Rapid Transit Company were merged to form a new corporation, the Ogden, Logan and Idaho Railway Company. The merger was prompted by the decision to connect the two systems and provide rail service between Logan and Ogden. This promised to be the greatest construction project in the history of the company, for not only was the Ogden-Logan connection to be built, but also a twenty-one mile extension from Smithfield to Preston, Idaho, and a five mile extension from Idlewild to Huntsville.
There were three possible routes for the road between Ogden and Logan: from Huntsville over the divide to Hyrum, a route which offered the easiest grades and the shortest mileage; the central route from Brigham City to Wellsville via Mantua, generally the present route of U.S. 91; and finally, the route north from Brigham City over Collinston hill and through Mendon to Wellsville, providing access to a greater agricultural area and more towns than either of the other prospects. The company "decided" upon the central route, originally; then, in February of 1915 announced it had reconsidered and determined to build over Collinston hill. This it finally did do. Work on the new lines proceeded at a rapid pace through the summer of 1915, and Logan and Ogden were finally joined on October 14 of that year.
When regular passenger service on the new lines was inaugurated, October 27, 1915, a huge celebration was staged in Logan with thousands of people streaming in from towns in Utah and Idaho to witness two parades, various sports events, speeches by Utah's Governor William H. Spry and other dignitaries, and in the evening a giant barbecue dinner and a masked dancing carnival. This celebration gave the O. L. and I. (or the "Ollie" as it was known) a strong beginning, which it truly deserved. But after this time the railroad was never again as popular or successful. Short years later traffic on the line began a slow decline which, with few recoveries, continued through all the years of operation.
On January 1, 1918, the articles of incorporation of the company were changed, and the Ogden, Logan and Idaho Railway Company became the Utah Idaho Central Railroad Company. The new name gave the line added prestige and lent credence to the report that the company planned to extend the rails further into the Gem State.
In terms of total revenue, 1919 was the best year the company ever had — over a million dollars — but profits at the end of the year were only $11,622.00, about 1 per cent of gross revenue. The directors of the railroad decided that the trouble was in Ogden, specifically the uneconomic Ogden Canyon branch. Accordingly, the decision was made to separate the Ogden lines from the direct operation of the U. I. C. The Utah Rapid Transit Company was formed on September 29,1919. The U. I. C. transferred to the new company its rail properties in Ogden City and Ogden Canyon, receiving back the full issue of stock in Utah Rapid Transit. The latter company took over operations of the Ogden system on January 1,1920, and at this time local rail operations in Brigham City, which had begun in 1910, were ceased. In 1932 passenger service through Ogden Canyon was discontinued, and the line was operated solely for freight. On December 26, 1935, the Ogden Canyon branch was abandoned, and busses were substituted for rails in Ogden City. Continuing losses having been suffered from the beginning, Utah Rapid Transit Company entered receivership in 1936, and its properties were sold to Ogden Transit Company on December 5 of that year. Ogden Transit Company, also owned by the Eccles interests, operated the Ogden lines until May 19, 1952, when the system was abandoned and sold to Ogden City, which now operates the busses as a municipal utility.
Returning to the discussion of the Utah Idaho Central, the divorcement of the Ogden lines from the parent company did nothing to cure the staggering economic deficit which the company suffered in the 1920's. Although bondholders had forfeited or contributed most of the interest accrued to this time, after the July, 1926, cumulation the company found itself facing a matured interest of $443,905.00, which would somehow have to be erased if the company were to continue operations. Thus, on August 20, 1926, the Utah Idaho Central entered its first receivership and was subsequently purchased by a committee of its bondholders. A new corporation, the Utah Idaho Central Railroad Company, was organized on October 18, 1926. At this time an event of some importance took place, for control of the company was divested from the Eccles- Browning interests and fell into the hands of a group of promoters from St. Louis, headed by M. E. Singleton and A. B. Apperson, who operated the railroad for some eleven years.
This new directorship began its reign with some significant changes in operation. Rails in Logan were abandoned in 1926 and busses were substituted. Two busses a day were placed in operation between Ogden and Logan over U.S. 91, conserving for time-conscious patrons the twenty-odd minutes lost on the rail schedule between these points. By reducing the size of its debt, the company cut interest charges to half their previous figure and paved the way for two profit-making years: in 1927, $42,477.00; and in 1928, $33,858.00. From 1927 to 1935, all interest charges were fully paid, in spite of falling revenue.
In 1932, $4,754.00 was expended in engineering expenses in regard to a proposed extension of the line to Idaho Falls. Although the extension was never built, this practical effort in that direction indicates a degree of optimism on the part of the new promoters and a belief that one of the problems facing the railroad was the shortness of its line.
The company suffered continuing losses after 1929, however, and prospects for improvement were small. Early in 1939, therefore, the Singleton interests sold back their holdings for an undisclosed sum to George S. Eccles, trustee for the Eccles-Browning bondholders, and the U. I. C. was again in its original hands. A reorganization was immediately decided upon, since the company faced a staggering figure of accrued interest, $557,777.00, at the time of the institution of the second U. I. C. receivership on July 1, 1939. On October 30, 1939, a new company, the Utah Idaho Central Railroad Corporation, was organized by the Eccles-Browning bondholders, and this new company took over operation of the railroad on November 30 of that year.
Before the 1939 receivership the properties of the Utah Idaho Central were carried on the books at a value of $5,644,162.00. After reorganization this value was realistically restated to be $1,630,945.00, which permitted the company to obtain a loan of $241,920.00 from the Reconstruction Finance Company and at the same time a loan of $192,000.00 from First Security Bank.
The new bond issue placed the company in the most favorable financial position in its history. Interest charges were reduced to a fraction of their original figure and were decreasing yearly. With the economy undergoing full-scale war mobilization, significant profits must have been expected.
But these profits never materialized, and this fact deserves some attention. Being a short line carrier and operating through a primarily agricultural district, the U. I. C. had little access to government shipments of freight or personnel. Too, the demand for tank cars to haul petroleum products was so critical on the major railroads that small lines were almost completely unable to consign them. This drove gasoline and fuel oil wholesalers, who had previously shipped their products over the interurban, to obtain their own trucks or seek other means of shipment. The U. I. C. was forced to rely to a greater and greater extent upon the carriage of low revenue freight such as coal and sugar beets, the latter a seasonal crop. The widespread strikes which crippled the coal industry in 1946 had a disastrous effect on the U. I. C; indeed, they sounded its death knell.
On March 20, 1944, P. H. Mulcahy, who had managed the railroad during most of its history, including both receiverships, resigned as general manager and was replaced by R. E. Titus. A second change of managers came on January 1, 1945, when Amalgamated Sugar Company, an Eccles corporation, took over ownership and control of the U. I. C, and its president, H. A. Benning, became general manager of the railroad. In 1945, the U. I. C. registered its greatest loss since 1917, a whopping $215,667.00, and Mr. Benning, who had hoped to change the fortunes of the line in his year as manager, regretfully resigned on December 26. Amalgamated retained ownership of the company, however.
Total revenue for the railroad in 1945 was about $225,000.00 above the figure for 1939. During the same time, however, operating costs had increased by over $425,000.00. In 1944 and 1945 operating costs alone exceeded the total revenue figure, in the latter year by almost $150,000.00. Without cash advances of $320,000.00 from Amalgamated, the U. I. C. could not have met its payroll in 1945. This increase in costs, together with a tremendous increase in automobile registrations, was the ultimate cause of the collapse of the U. I. C.
In 1946, losses were kept to $45,448.00, a result accomplished largely by neglect of regular repair and maintenance of the road and equipment. The coal strikes of this year were the final blow to hopes of recovering the mounting deficit. A receivership now would not solve anything, since operating costs alone were greater than total revenue. Furthermore, the railroad was badly in need of extensive repairs, and this would involve even greater expenditures.
This unhappy picture confronted the board of directors of the Utah Idaho Central at a meeting held November 25, 1946. Seeing no alternative, the board resignedly adopted resolutions of abandonment.
Since abandonment required the permission of both the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Utah Public Service Commission, an application was filed with the I. C. C. on December 18, 1946, which stated in part:
Upon court order, the railroad suspended operations on February 16, 1947. A hearing was conducted by the I. C. C. on May 5, 1947, and the commission issued its final order on June 20 of that year, which read in part, "Aside from operating losses, the line is in need of rehabilitation, for which large expenditures will be required. Its abandonment might inconvenience or damage some shippers . . . but continued operation at financial losses would impose an undue burden upon the applicant and upon interstate commerce." The order authorizing abandonment became effective July 5,1947.
Most Utah citizens had little reason for concern over the demise of the U. I. C, but a few, notably officials of the California Packing Company and Logan coal dealers, tried with some desperation to keep the railroad operating. There was no avoiding the economic facts of life which had convinced the Eccles-Browning interests to abandon the enterprise, however, and neither Union Pacific nor Denver and Rio Grande was interested in purchasing the line for these same reasons.
So it was that on March 18,1947, the last train of the U. I. C. clattered from Preston to Ogden with a single motorman aboard. Soon after, the Hyman-Michaels Company of Chicago, which had scrapped another Eccles railroad, the Salt Lake and Utah, a year earlier, began the task of tearing out the rails, routing the ties, and winding the miles of aluminum and copper wire into bales.
In spite of the abandonment of the U. I. C, some of its properties saw further service in transportation. Some ninety steel gondolas were sold to other railroads along with two electric locomotives. Certain rights-of-way in Ogden were sold to the Bamberger line, while the L. D. S. Church purchased the Ogden car barn and its adjacent rails. Other buildings in Ogden, including a large repair shop, were sold to the Ogden Transit Company. Burlington Trailways purchased the U. I. C.'s bus franchise and much of its automotive stock. And Hyman-Michaels Company shipped some of the U. I. C. rails to Brazil for use in the construction of coffee plantation roads there. The remainder of the railroad's properties was sold to miscellaneous bidders or scrapped.
The reasons for the failure of the U. I. C. have already been suggested, the overwhelming cause being overexpansion: an investment of nearly eight million dollars in transportation facilities serving a total population of less than one hundred thousand, with more than half of that number concentrated in Ogden. That the Utah Idaho Central was operating in a falling market after 1925 is a foregone conclusion. The almost precipitous decline in patronage corresponded, as might be presumed, with the increase in automobile registrations during the same period, a period which, notably, encompassed the Great Depression.
Indicating the magnitude of its operations, statistics submitted by the railroad to the Public Service Commission of Utah show that the U. I. C. during its history (from 1915 on), carried 33,320,823 paying passengers; transported 10,186,030 tons of freight; paid wages of $9,586,- 938.00; expended $7,242,841.00 for equipment and real estate; and paid taxes of $1,755,100.00 to state and local governments in Utah and Idaho and to the federal government. With the co-operation of the Amalgamated Sugar Company, the U. I. C. did a great deal to encourage development of the sugar industry in northern Utah and southern Idaho, and other food processing businesses. It provided inexpensive freight service for coal and oil dealers and other bulk shippers also. It was therefore a major economic agent in the agricultural area it served.
There are many who believe that the Eccles-Browning promoters profited greatly from the operation of the U. I. C, but such is not the case. A comprehensive audit of all company records would be necessary in order to exactly state the total losses suffered by the railroad. The records of the Public Service Commission of Utah show an investment by the railroad's owners and creditors of over eight million dollars, with a return of about three million dollars in interest, less than four hundred thousand in installments on the principal of the debt, and about one million dollars from the proceeds of the final sale of properties. Returns from the sale of Utah Rapid Transit Company and other interests, not specified, could not amount to over half a million dollars. These figures indicate a loss of over three million dollars by the railroad's investors. Furthermore, dividends were never declared by the company, so stockholders received no> return on their equity either during the years of operation or at the abandonment. A consideration of the "opportunity" losses suffered gives an even more startling picture: accruing interest at 6 per cent, compounded semiannually, an investment of $8,000,000.00 in 1917 would have grown to over $47,000,000.00 by 1947.
Thus the once-proud Eccles interurban came to its end, bowing finally to the leveling forces of the new automotive economy. It declined with the passing of an old way of life, a simpler, slower, and kinder society which first found in a rumbling, ungainly electric gondola the key to an exciting outside world, which dimmed with familiarity. Not a few were saddened at the scrapping of the Utah Idaho Central, for it told them, as other events had done, that there is little in life which can resist the devastations of time.
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