How utilities grew from rail operations. Many streetcar companies started out as horse car operations. Large numbers of those early companies were never formally incorporated, so researching horse car companies is quite challenging. Relatively few horse car companies appear in the database.

As electricity became available in the later part of the 18th century, many horse car operations switched to electric power. Requiring money for greater infrastructure, streetcar companies incorporated all across the country.

In big cities, redundant and parallel streetcar lines were the norm. Needless to say, they developed large apetites for electrivity. Business logic dictated heavy company consolidation was necessary to pay for power generation.

Companies gradually realized that extra power could be sold to business and households. During the early 1900s, streetcar companies started including power and light nomenclature in their corporate names.

After World War I, highly mobile buses started appearing which cannibalized ridership from fixed-rail routes. Development of electric-powered buses grew rapidly around World War II and streetcar operations disappeared by the hundreds.

As demand for electricity grew and demand for streetcars decreased, electric companies evolved into utilities and public service companies. Essentially all references to rail transportation had disappeared from their corporate names by 1950.

Hundreds of utilities could be included in my railroad database, but only if I researched each company to determine the moment when they switched from streetcar transportation to buses. Generally speaking, most utilities changed their corporate names within a year or so of dropping streetcar operations. The word "Transit" came into vogue, generally signalling the switch from rail to rubber-tired buses.

Since time is crucial, I formed a simple rule about utilities. I list utilties, power generation and public service companies in the database only when their company names imply rail involvement. All other utilities are excluded.

Some collectors argue that today's utilities are big, big users of rail equipment. Believe me I understand. I used to be a coal geologist. I am intimately familiar with the exploration, mining, transportation and burning of coal.

Today's large railroads haul staggering amounts of coal by 100- to 120-car "unit trains". Most of the those cars are owned by utilities.

Some people have suggested I include utilities in the database when the own unit trains. While there is a certain logic to the argument, those people may not actually understand that "unit trains" are simply strings of cars. Railroad companies own the locomotives that pull unit trains and the rails they ride on.

I question whether average collectors would look in a catalog named Collectible Stocks and Bonds of North American Railroads for information about stock and bond certificates from utilities.

No separate catalog for utility companies? For those who would like to argue that there is no separate catalog for utility company certificates, I invite you to take the opportunity to start one for yourself.