Occasionally interurban promoters, too strapped for cash to string trolley wire or to build power plants, went into business with gasoline motor cars a temporary expedient until they could round up the necessary funds.One such line was the 27-mile Woodstock & Sycamore Traction Company in Illinois, which started operation in 1911 with three of these fearsome-looking knifed nosed McKeen gasoline cars. Among the least successful of interurban ventures, the Woodstock & Sycamore was abandoned in 1918, before its owners ever did get around to electrification. Stephen D. Maguire Collection.