Travelectric: The Story of the Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern Railroad and Associated Lines

The early 1900's were indeed the heyday of the electric railway industry with seemingly countless local and interurban electric railways being built. In a few areas, electric railway promoters organized investment and management "syndicates" that joined connecting electric railways together to form larger systems, though not necessarily merged. In upper New York state, Clifford Beebe was one of those dynamic electric railway ;promoters who built a network of interurban railway centered on Rochester and Syracuse. The line controlled by the Beebe Syndicate were built to high standards and boasted local and limited-stop trains, chair or parlor car service, and more. Unfortunately, with high standards came high costs to build and operate the system. Despite Beebe's best efforts to attract riders, competing steam railroad lines and the almost simultaneous coming of the private automobile and paved highways ultimately doomed the enterprise. "Travelectric" was a term coined by the Beebe Syndicate's advertising department to urge both area residents and summer vacationers to travel by electric railway. Through a wealth of photographs and detailed text, author McFarlane takes the read on a trip back to the time when electric railways represented the last word in modern transportation.