ABOVE: One of the five Jewett Car Company interurban-type electric cars purchased in 1903 by Topeka Railway Co., for service on an interurban line, Topeka to Kansas City, that was never built. For the next seven summers the big green cars were familiar sights to Topekans who knew them only as “Vinewood cars,” because of their service on the Vinewood Park line. A new Jewett interurban car is shown here in front of the old Santa Fe office building on Jackson street, between 9th and Tenth. The car’s wooden pilot (commonly called a “cow-catcher” would, a year or two later, be replaced by a wide metal fender, standard equipment on all Topeka Railway cars. Photo, Ray Hilner, who also furnished the following specifications for Jewett cars.
Freight train with Topeka Railway’s electric locomotive, probably on Jackson street near the Rock Island switch tracks. In 1905, this single locomotive handled an average of 15 cars a day, ten of which were cut or crushed stone from the Vinewood quarry. Photo by Ray Hilner.
