MOOSE JAW — Around this time in 1911, Moose Jaw celebrated the launch of its first trolley service — and more than a century later, Tourism Moose Jaw’s new trolley tours are keeping that spirit alive along the same streets once traversed by electric cars.
The Moose Jaw Electric Railway Company (MJER) held an opening ceremony on Aug. 19 that year, with Mrs. J.M. Paul, wife of Mayor Paul, pulling the powerhouse lever to send the first car — Car 104 — rolling out of its one-storey barn at the corner of Fourth Avenue and High Street West.
Regular service began Sept. 4, 1911, with a delay caused by paving and other infrastructure work, and for the next two decades, streetcars became a defining part of life in the growing Prairie city.
The idea of a street railway in a city of about 12,000 people may seem ambitious by today’s standards, but in 1909 Moose Jaw was brimming with optimism. Young businessmen including lawyer James T. Cashman and banker E.M. Saunders believed the city was destined for explosive growth.
At one point, a billboard in Winnipeg even boasted Moose Jaw would reach 135,000 residents. Convinced the community needed modern infrastructure to match its promise, they set out to make the street railway a reality.
Cashman’s connections in Ottawa made the dream possible. There he met consulting engineer J.B. McRae and A. Hector Dion, son of the general superintendent of the Ottawa Electric Railway Company.
Dion would later become Moose Jaw’s first street railway superintendent, while McRae and several other investors — including Dr. Peter B. Melon, barrister E.J. Daly, and broker C.E. McCuaig — secured a 20-year franchise from city council in March 1910. With capital in place and visions of a growing city, MJER was born.
By June 1911, crews had laid nearly eight miles (about 12.9 kilometres) of track, with plans for more. At its height, the system stretched about 11.5 miles (about 18.5 kilometres) with 21 passenger cars, one work plow and one snowplow, including double-track laid along Main, High, and Manitoba streets.
The original fleet was built by the Ottawa Car Company, with yellow streetcars banded in red and green. Each carried a pair of 40-horsepower Westinghouse motors and charged a nickel fare in a pay-as-you-enter system. A crude-oil diesel powerhouse supplied direct current and was considered the first installation of its kind in Canada.
Ridership was heavy from the start. On Dec. 31, 1912, the MJER year-end report claimed receipts of $77,996 (approximately $2.1 million in today’s dollars) and 1,607,770 passengers carried.
Like many early railways, the company built an entertainment park, Kingsway Park, to attract riders during evenings and weekends. In 1916, the Jitney Dance Hall opened at the park — a landmark still preserved today as part of Connor Park, named after George Tupper Connor, MJER’s final general manager.
The streetcars left their mark on the city. On opening day, a short circuit briefly disrupted the city’s fire alarm wires. “As the streetcar came to the corner of Fairford and Main, the trolley pushed the high voltage streetcar wires against the city wires and put the fire alarm boxes throughout the city out of business.
"This momentary contact of the wires resulted in some dazzling fireworks at the switchboard in the firehall,” the Moose Jaw Evening Times reported.
That same year, YMCA staffer E.J. Chegwin made headlines after walking into a trolley pole while chasing a departing car. “Being stunned he dropped in the road and it was a minute or two before he recovered his senses,” the Evening Times wrote.
By the late 1920s, however, the automobile was reshaping urban travel. MJER added three new motor bus routes in February 1928, and the last streetcar ran on Oct. 8, 1932. Connor carried on transit service privately through the Moose Jaw Transportation Company until 1957, when the City of Moose Jaw launched its own Moose Jaw Transit system.
When the final streetcar was parked, census records from 1931 put Moose Jaw’s population at 21,299 — far short of the earlier optimism shared among planners.
Despite its impact on the city, none of the original streetcars has been preserved, with the last car, Car 106, temporarily displayed at Kingsway Park before its removal.
Tourism Moose Jaw’s new tour arrives in time for this anniversary, offering residents and visitors a chance to relive the city’s streetcar past. Though the rails are long gone, the tradition of sharing Moose Jaw’s history continues more than 110 years after the first trolley left the barn.
