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 which was located just east of the Springboro Pike/Northlawn Blvd. intersection and just north of today’s Fuyao Glass America. The race finish line was near where the current day Frisch’s Restaurant is located, at the corner of South Dixie Drive and State Route 741.
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 (see photo). The C&LE was a short lived electric high speed interurban streetcar/trolley railway that operated from 1930 to 1939 in Depression era Ohio. C&LE ran twenty high speed “Red Devil” interurban passenger cars between Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus & Toledo. Red Devils were power efficient, lighter (among the first to be constructed with aluminum), passenger comfortable (with leather seats, toilet, luggage compartment) seating up to 44 people.
In the photo notice that the Moraine Field hangar still has the painted words “Dayton Municipal Airport” on it. That is because Moraine Field was Dayton’s first municipal airport from 1926 to 1928.
The publicity stunt race was arranged by C&LE. The trolley had an edge as it took off immediately and headed south. Meanwhile, the biplane had to taxi and then get airborne. The plane almost caught up before the finish line, but the interurban car ran at 97 mph and beat the airplane. Maybe not a fair race, but an historical one that was shown all around the United States.
That wraps up our quick look at the Great 1930 Moraine Trolley vs. Airplane Race.
