[An extraordinary archive that visually and textually documents the extent of the electric interurban railways, streetcars, and trolleys across the Northeast and New England through the first half of the 20th Century. Compiled by a Boston Edison Company electrical rail engineer, and rail historian, the archive boasts 3715 photographs filling 17 photo albums and archival binders; two manuscript track maps by the compiler and 46 mimeographed supplement maps issued by the Electric Railroaders association of railways from Altoona, PA to Albany NY, Butte, MT to Yakima, WA, and those in between; along with several original TLS from Massachusetts Senator and Congressman; in-house documents related to the Quincy Electric Light & Power Co.; extensive manuscript notes within the albums, and on versos of photographs, and finally numerous interurban and electric railway publications].

[East Waymouth, Boston, MA, Hoboken, NJ, Toledo, OH, & Chicago IL: Edward Weston Young, Boston Edison Company, Eastern Massachusetts Railway Co., Lackawanna Terminal, Electric Railroaders Assoc., Inc., National Railway Historical Society, Central Electric Railfans’ Assoc., ca. 1910-1950]. Seventeen albums & archival document binders, including 3715 photographs, with 1629 interspersed, mounted, and annotated across 14 different post-binder albums assembled from 1910-1949, most Oblong 4tos. sized 12.5 x 8 in., nearly all on black paper stock, with photos sized from 1.5 x 2.5 in. up to 5 x 7 in., most annotated with extensive white ink annotations & manuscript notes, many bearing extensive local railway histories in manuscript ranging up to 5000 words, manuscript track maps, paint samples for trolley & railway car company colours, and nearly all w/ embossed board post-binders, punch-sewn at gutter margins; Two of these are 4to. on thick wood-pulp paper, bearing many typed captions, and identifying text; The remaining 2086 loose photographs are preserved as 610 archival mylar sleeved album sheets, most sized from 2 x 3 in. up to 8 x 10 in., nearly all w/ pen, or pencil manuscript text on verso, some w/ extensive annotations identifying places & times of photos taken; 30 railway periodicals, many mimeographed, others printed. 4to. [Approx 100 pp (separately paginated.)], w/ 100’s of text photos, illustrations, strip maps. Self-printed softcovers (minor age toning and wear); Two MS track maps by Young - Visalia Electric RR, CA in pencil & Red pencil, Map of Council Bluffs, IA electric railway lines; 46 ERA track maps (often published as supplements, sometimes integral), nearly all mimeographed, dated 1941-1949, 8.5 x 11 in. up to 24 x 36 in.; Two additional separate monographs, and other assorted ephemera, including TLS on Congressional letterheads, mimeographed in-house business letters, maintenance memos & reports. This exceptional archive captures the tremendous reach of electric railway streetcars, trolleys, and interurbans during the first half of the 20th Century, focusing on Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, & Pennsylvania. These images supply an almost time-lapse history for the development and impact of mass transit in the Northeastern United States from the Progressive Era through the Great Depression until after World War II. Hundreds of different rail companies are depicted, including the construction and development of tracks for the Middlesex & Boston Street Railway Co., the Plymouth & Sandwich St. Railway, Blue Hill Street Railroad, Norton & Taunton Street Railroad, the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railways, Bay State Street Railway, Hartford Suburban, Hartford Street Railway Co., Norwich Street Railway Co., the Atlantic Shore Line Railway Co., Biddeford & Saco Railroad, Skowhegan & Norridgeworks Railway, Aroostook Valley Railroad, and scores of others. By 1920 nearly every city in the Northeast had at least one street car company, and automobile travel and commuting was still in its infancy, as 90% of all trips by consumers and travelers were made using the 100’s of electric railways which stopped almost everywhere, ran much more frequently than the steam trains, and easily connected rural America with downtowns, and factories. A small percentage of the thousands of photographs appear to be copy photos shot directly from company car builders, such as J.G. Brill, Osgood Bradley Car Corp., the Manchester Street Railway, the Manchester, New Hampshire Street Railway Co., and the Claremont Traction Co., after securing permission from the companies facilitated by contacts with Senator David Walsh of Massachusetts, and Rep. Richard B. Wigglesworth, Congressman of the 14th Mass District indicated by TLS included in the archive. The images capture the trolleys, electric trolleys, electric motor cars, gasoline motor cars, and electric locomotives which were built by numerous different companies including J.M. Jones & Sons Interurban Car Builders, Watson Manufacturing Co., Jackson-Sharp Manufacturing, Baldwin-Westinghouse, Sheffield Car Co., and others. However the majority of the images appear to have been shot by Young and fellow rail historians, and include details of the trolley interiors, trolley & interurban sheds, roundhouses, rail yards, specialized line installation and replacement equipment, equipment upgrades, line construction, and hundreds of street scenes. The compiler has not only carefully detailed the equipment, years of operation, and locations, but also has included in the albums manuscript track maps checked against in-house records, and physical inspections by himself while working for the Boston Edison Company, as well as research trips under the auspices of The Trolley Pioneer Club, and the Electric Railroaders Association. The photos also capture the tremendous changes to trolley & passenger electric railway designs from open cars to elaborate interiors, along with many paint samples for assorted railway lines. Also revealed are the changes of the urban, suburban, and rural landscapes as well, with the evolving streets, buildings, appearance of automobiles, and then gasoline powered buses, and many cities developing in stages through successive decades. The track maps prepared as supplements and integral supporting maps for assorted “Headlights,” and other publications, although not to scale, nonetheless reflect the diligent efforts of scores of local rail historians and enthusiasts to correct and depict the extent of nearly 50 different trolley and interurban railways. Albany, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, Dayton, Hartford, Scranton, Little Rock, Minneapolis, Newark, New Orleans, Bellingham, Yakima, Seattle, Tacoma, and Worcester are depicted, although a couple bear notes that they have reproduced contemporary published track maps without updates by the ERA. The two manuscript maps prepared by Young focus on the Visalia Electric Railroad of California, a wholly owned Southern Pacific subsidiary which operated from 1908 until about 1945 focused on passenger traffic, and largely switched to freight after World War II. The other depicts the lines for the Council Bluffs & Omaha Railway first organized in 1887, electrified within a few years, and began full operations by 1900 between Iowa & Missouri, and street cars operated until the 1940’s. Included as well are 30 different issues of the scarce “Headlights” magazine from the Electrical Railroaders Association, which during World War II were largely mimeograph productions, with some printed sections, and included particular detailed histories of California Electric Lines, the Montreal Tramways co., the Havana Electric Co. (Cuba), Chicago’s new subway, and even details for the Los Angeles Pacific Electric’s Hill St. Subway at the end of World War II.Young (1892-1955) was originally from Maine, and later became an electrical engineer for the Boston Edison Company, and Chairman of the Old Colony Transportation Committee in Massachusetts. He had begun his career as a machinist with the Saul B. Jordan Co. in Massachusetts before training to become an electrical engineer. Eventually after settling his family in East Weymouth, MA he was one of the founders of the Trolley Pioneer Club in East Weymouth, a member of the Electric Railroaders Assoc., and avid rail historian and advocate. This archive reflects his lifelong ambition to write a detailed history of Northeastern and New England electrification, and electric railways. He is perhaps best remembered for his contributions to the histories of Maine’s four major traction systems, which included the Atlantic Shore Line Railway, Portland Railroad, Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville Street Railway, and the Bangor Railway & Electric Co. His images and work were published in Cummings’ Toonervilles of Maine, the Pine Street State (1955). His final two untitled post-binder albums not only show a miniature tourist steam railroad in Salem, NH, but also views of the East Weymouth Station, train yards across New England, views of the Young Lumber Co. Railroad at Lincoln, NH, as well as steamships with the New England Steamship Co., Nantucket boat at Woods Hole, and the Lake Winnipesaukee Steam Boat Co. in NH. This cataloguer has seen few railroad photo archives of this scale, and none with the amount of original manuscript documentation found within, and very few of the original Headlights magazines, or the special supplement maps survive in institutional holdings, with Worldcat recording a handful of either.