On August 8, 1888, the new White Line Electric Railway Company of Dayton operated their first electric streetcars from their barn at Washington and Cincinnati streets. Free rides were given the first day, and several fights broke out among those vying to ride that first car.

The White Line was built as a new railway, and was not an electrification of an existing horse-car line. It was an instant success, and the other (horse/mule-car which began in 1870) lines quickly electrified; the last horses/mules were retired by 1892.

The White Line cars from the very beginning used the now-familiar upward-pushing pole against the trolley wire, where before the other cities had an ill-fated troller device riding on top of the trolley wires. (The term trolley came from troller.)

Some interesting situations took place in the summer of 1888, during construction and initial operations of the new White Line Electric Railway.

The line was constructed with all new tracks, except downtown where they shared existing tracks, begrudgingly, with the White Line Electric Railway using the Oakwood Street Railway mule-car tracks.

Shortly after operation of the new electric cars commenced, the mules of the Oakwood line started "tap-dancing" on their tracks whenever a White Line car was running nearby. Sparks often shot out of their tails, too! After the Oakwood line hauled the White Line into court with a stop order, it was soon resolved by electrically bonding the mule-car tracks together. This stopped the electric current from leaking into the surrounding moist earth, and into the mule's iron shoes, through their belly, and out their tails. No more tap-dancing!

In 1896, the White Line became one of the major components of the new Peoples' Street Railway Co. The White Line/Peoples was most prosperous in those days. They built public amusement parks at each end of their line, Fairview on the North end, and Lakeside at the West end.

On Sundays, they had to haul trailer cars to handle the crowds. The big event each Sunday afternoon was to watch an elk jump into the Fairview Lake from a platform. Everybody went home happy, on the electric White Line streetcars.

The first electric trolley bus (ETB) operation in Ohio was on April 23, 1933 when the Linden-Salem line converted from rail to rubber-tired trackless trolleys as we know them today.

In 1941 City Railway Company purchased Dayton Street Railway. The Peoples' Street Railway Co. merged into City Railway in 1945. The final running of street (rail) cars took place in September 1947, when electric trolley buses (ETBs) replaced the rail cars on the 3rd Street line.