Pathe Sound News filmed a race challenge between an interurban trolley and a biplane in Moraine in 1930. The film was shown all across the country at movie theaters. For you younger readers, since there were no televisions in 1930, major news events were filmed and shown at movie theaters prior to the feature film.
The race began at Moraine Flying Field (Photo#1) which was located just east of the Springboro Pike/Northlawn Blvd intersection and just north of Fuyao Glass America. The race ended near where todays Frisch’s Restaurant is located at the intersection of South Dixie Drive and 741 (Photo#2).
The Trolley was a Cincinnati and Lake Erie (C&LE line) whose maintenance building was located just west of today’s Springboro Pike and Main Street intersection (Photo #4) The C&LE was electric high speed interurban streetcar/trolley railroad that operated until 1939 in depression era Ohio. C&LE ran twenty high speed “Red Devil” interurban passenger cars between Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Toledo.
Back to the race, the race was arranged by the trolley company. The trolley had an edge as it took off and the plane had to taxi and get airborne. The interurban car ran over 90 mph and just beat the airplane (Photo#3).
