The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad faced competition beginning in 1904, when the Washington, Arlington, and Falls Church Railway began service from Washington, D.C., to Vienna, Virginia, along a route parallel to the W&OD. It offered passengers electrified trolley service while the W&OD continued using steam until 1912, and it later expanded its line from Vienna to Fairfax Court House, now the city of Fairfax. In 1927 a group of local citizens took over the railway and renamed it the Arlington and Fairfax. In the 1930s they replaced aging electric cars with Evans auto-railers, hybrid vehicles that ran on both track and paved roads. Despite these efforts, the line suffered the financial problems that plagued most local trolley lines and was abandoned in 1939.