Interurban Press

Originally named Interurbans, the company developed out of a mimeographed newsletter first distributed by its founder, Ira L. Swett, in 1943. The Interurbans News Letter was for electric railway enthusiasts and anyone interested in streetcars/trolleys or electric interurbans as a hobby. Swett initially wrote the newsletter while stationed at Fort MacArthur as a U.S. Army Private First Class, and the earliest editions were intended to pass along news about streetcars and interurban railways in the U.S. to American railfans stationed overseas during World War II. Many of his readers became volunteer correspondents, sending news of electric-transit developments in their locales for inclusion in the newsletter. Swett also began publishing books—which he called Interurbans "Specials"—on the history of a particular streetcar system or related topic. The first, in 1944, was The “Big Subs”

(big suburban cars), about a group of interurban cars used on a line between San Francisco and San Mateo from 1907 until 1923. He discontinued the newsletter in December 1948, concentrating thereafter on researching and writing books, which he still called "Specials". Streetcar systems were being abandoned in cities all around North America at that time and over the following two decades, heightening trolley fans' interest in recording systems' histories. Swett wrote about 50 books himself, but he also edited and published manuscripts written by others. The first non-electric railway book published by Interurbans was Seattle Trolley Coaches, in 1971, and the company later published other books about trolley buses, but most of its titles were about electric rail lines or other types of rail transportation.