By the time he launched his new business Louis Cass had considerable experience in the railway industry. He was born in Wisconsin in 1865. After receiving a degree from the Iowa State Teachers College, in Cedar Falls, he went to work for the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad, the earliest predecessor of the Great Western, as a freight brakeman before working on the Milwaukee Road. He then worked for the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern as a telegraph operator and later for the Dubuque & Dakota, which was part of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, as a conductor. He was again associated with the Great Western when he became its vice-president from 1905 to 1908, while he controlled the Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern. Later, he served as vice-president of the American Short Line Railroad Association. Cass was also involved in banking, real estate, and lumber.

   Soon after acquiring the Waterloo Street Railway Company, Cass converted it to operate on electricity. Horse-car operations were stopped in May of 1896 and work began on new standard gauge tracks in order to extend the line another four miles. This original line went from Cedar River Park to downtown and soon across the Cedar River to Elmwood Cemetery. Three open cars for summer and two closed cars for winter, all built by Pullman, served this line.

    Within the next year, the lines reached to Cedar Falls but the company could not get a franchise because the Cedar Falls & Normal Railway had exclusive rights to operate on the city’s streets. To accomplish the goal of operating in and between the cities of Waterloo and Cedar Falls, they leased a short portion of the Chicago Great Western Railway that ran in Cedar Falls. The leased portion ran from the corner of 13^th Street and Waterloo Road to the Chicago Great Western depot, slightly east of downtown. Over this portion of the CGW, the W&CFRT ran trolley wires. Service began on 9 June 1897, between Waterloo and Cedar Falls. Passengers traveled on two closed motor cars and two open trailers, built by Pullman. A problem of power capacity soon arose after the advent of the interurban service, because the Waterloo powerhouse could not provide enough power for the Waterloo city cars and the interurban cars. There was no substation on the line, so, to remedy this, a steam locomotive was used to pull the interurban cars beyond Cedar River Park. In 1899, the capacity of the powerhouse was increased and a battery substation was installed at Cedar Falls.

    On 14 December 1897, the Cedar Falls and Normal line began operation between downtown Cedar Falls and the State Normal School (what is now the University of Northern Iowa). This company used Patton Motor Cars, which pulled passenger trailers. This type of locomotive was powered by small internal combustion engines. This line was unsuccessful and was bought by the W&CFRT in August of 1898. After purchasing these lines the W&CFRT converted them to run electric locomotives. Because of the purchase of the Cedar Falls and Normal, the W&CFRT now had access to downtown Cedar Falls and no longer needed to operate on the Chicago Great Western. Passengers could now go from downtown Waterloo to downtown Cedar Falls via Mulberry Street.