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1939–1960 · MOTOR BUSES, THEN TROLLEY COACHES, THEN BUSES ALONE
A first experiment: The motor bus appeared in Fort Wayne a generation before it won. In the traction era the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana company tested an experimental bus service on the city's west side; the primitive buses of the day were judged unprofitable against the streetcar infrastructure already in the ground, and the experiment was quickly discontinued. The conversion, when it came, came from the Indiana Service Corporation and it came by petition: in December 1939 the corporation asked the Indiana Public Service Commission for authority to substitute trackless trolley and bus service for 21 of the 58 miles of Fort Wayne streetcar line still running. The first conversion had already happened — on 16 May 1939 the West Jefferson line, a streetcar route since 1872, ran its last car at 1:15 p.m. and went to motorbus.
The trolley-coach years: The replacement technology was the trolley coach — a rubber-tired bus drawing power from the same overhead wires. Trolley-coach operation began 7 July 1940 with a fleet of ACF-Brill coaches; the News-Sentinel's retrospective counts 28 new coaches bought in 1940 and forty more ordered in 1942, and through the war years streetcars and coaches ran side by side, which assured Fort Wayne a ready supply of transit while other cities suffered for want of equipment. By 1940 the newest streetcars were already fifteen years old and the track was deteriorating. On 9 September 1945, for the first time, not a single streetcar operated. The survivors to the end were the Broadway, Creighton–Anthony, South Wayne and St. Francis lines. The record gives the last streetcar two dates, and both are carried here: the Trains section, following the Williams Woodland Park historic brochure, first recorded the final trip on 7 June 1947 (settled at 27 June 1947 in this merged record, on the stronger sourcing); ChicagoRailFan's route history and the News-Sentinel's 1982 Cityscapes retrospective give 27 June 1947. Either way the summer of 1947 ended seventy-five years of rail transit in Fort Wayne; the remaining track was ripped up or paved over, and none of the old cars was saved, though one trolley coach was donated to the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society. The trolley coaches themselves were phased out in their turn, the last running 12 June 1960, and from that date Fort Wayne's transit has been motor buses alone.
Sources: Trolley Tuesday's Fort Wayne Transit Company history (the west-side experimental bus; the last West Jefferson car, 16 May 1939, 1:15 p.m.; the Broadway, Creighton and South Wayne lines as survivors); the Palladium-Item, Richmond, 6 December 1939, via ACGSI (the substitution petition, 21 of 58 miles); CPTDB Fort Wayne Transit roster (trolley-bus operations 7 July 1940 – 12 June 1960; the 1940 ACF-Brill fleet); News-Sentinel Cityscapes, 10 April 1982 (28 coaches in 1940, forty more in 1942; no streetcar operated 9 September 1945; the last run 27 June 1947; the donated coach); ChicagoRailFan Fort Wayne route history (route-by-route conversion dates, 27 June 1947).