From Stagecoach to Train Coach

By Le Roy Barnett

The initial operating railroad in Michigan was the Erie & Kalamazoo line, which was built from Toledo to Adrian in 1836. When this firm put its first passenger cars into service they were little more than stagecoach bodies on flanged wheels. Like the conveyances after which they were modeled, they had an ovoid shape, side-door entrances, were given names instead of numbers, and to this day are still called coaches.

A similar practice occurred with the first automobiles. The pioneering horseless carriages were patterned after the road surreys then in common use, being equipped with buggy wheels, "iron tires, a dashboard and even, in one case at least, with a whip-socket."