Yakima Valley Transportation Company

Kenneth G. Johnsen

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780738581033
• eBook ISBN: 9781439640296
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The National Register of Historic Places lists the Yakima Valley Transportation Company (YVT) as the last intact early 20th century electric interurban railroad in America. From its beginning in 1907, the YVT was no quitter, surviving a takeover by the Union Pacific, large financial losses as the last trolley railroad in Washington state, attempts at dieselization, and a concerted effort to put the company in its grave. Thanks to the efforts of local preservationists, YVT trolleys are still in operation. The railroad and its infrastructure never changed. What is seen today is what was built 100 years agoa living slice of history. Images of Rail: Yakima Valley Transportation Company is the most authoritative chronicle of the famous YVT yet compiled.

Three

RISE AND FALL AND RISE AGAIN OF CITY SERVICE

Opinions vary about whether the YVT was intended to be a city transit service or an interurban railroad from the beginning. Newspaper accounts from 1906 and 1907 never mention a word about freight service, and indeed only passenger trolleys were purchased initially. But in letters to the board by early director William Sawyer, there are cryptic references to working out deals with “our friends in the east.”

In an interview in 2000, Homer Splawn (Jack Splawn’s youngest and last surviving son) told the author that “George Rankin and my Dad had been told from the beginning by the Union Pacific that if they could get a trolley line built from Yakima to the State Fairgrounds, and have two trolleys running on it, the Union Pacific would help them financially.”

Whatever their motives, Splawn and company were required by their franchise to provide city passenger service on all lines. This requirement was in effect until the franchise renewal of 1946. At that time, YVT traded its right to operate on Yakima Avenue (for freight from the Cascade Lumber mill on Eighth Street) for permission to abandon all passenger service.

During those 40 years of city transit service, the YVT saw a steady decline in patronage that correlated with a steady increase in the number of automobiles in Yakima. The railroad tried substituting bus service in 1926 and also bought state-of-the-art trolleys in 1930, but by the end of World War II, passenger service was losing too much money.

Following cessation of trolley service (the last in the state of Washington) on February 1, 1947, the YVT provided transit service with a fleet of buses for 10 years. This too was a losing proposition, and at the expiration of its 10-year bus franchise, YVT sold its buses to a private operator and got out of the passenger service for good—almost.

In 1974, passenger trolley service of a tourist nature was revived on the YVT by a consortium of city, county, and private individuals. Today the entire railroad and its trolleys and locomotives belong to the City of Yakima, and the service continues.

In the horse-and-buggy days, modern streetcars were an amenity usually reserved for larger cities. Yakimans were proud of their up-to-date trolley line, and patronage flourished. This view is of east Yakima Avenue in late 1908, after the track was complete and the new trolleys were placed into service. (Yakima Federal Savings and Loan collection.)

Many people and no automobiles were good for Yakima’s trolley railroad. Ridership grew each of the first few years, starting with the initial runs on Christmas Day, 1907, on which 1,320 fares were collected. (KGJ.)

An interesting nighttime view of big-city activity on Yakima Avenue was recorded some time in 1909, before the avenue’s second track was laid. Ladies in hoop skirts and their gentlemen are seen climbing aboard one of the single-truck trolleys, perhaps headed off to the theater. (YVM.)

All of YVT’s streetcars were originally painted in YV...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - EARLY DAYS
• Two - EXPANSION INTO AN INTERURBAN RAILROAD
• Three - RISE AND FALL AND RISE AGAIN OF CITY SERVICE
• Four - FROM FREIGHT ONLY TO A LIVING MUSEUM
• Five - ROSTER AND INFRASTRUCTURE
• YVT ROSTER
• INDEX
• YAKIMA VALLEY TROLLEYS