Lake Shore Electric Railway
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The Lake Shore Electric Railway (LSE) was an interurban electric railway that ran primarily between Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio by way of Sandusky and Fremont. Through arrangements with connecting interurban lines, it also offered service to Fostoria and Lima, Ohio, and at Toledo to Detroit and Cincinnati.
LSE served many communities along the south shore of Lake Erie. Through the mid 1920s, a time of mostly horse-drawn vehicles on rutted and muddy dirt roads, LSE provided innovative, high-speed transportation that rivaled the area's steam railroads. The earliest predecessor of Lake Shore Electric Railway commenced operation in 1893 on the Lake Erie coast of Ohio. The Lake Shore Electric connected with many other interurban lines to offer a comprehensive quilt of transportation. This allowed increased regional commerce, ease of transportation, and access for the industrial-era family to visit popular lake shore resorts. An unimaginable feat in the horse prevalent transportation days of the late 1800s, one could travel from Lorain to Cleveland (approximately 30 miles) in under one hour, making the railway a huge success. Unfortunately this success only lasted about 40 years.
LSE helped to develop tourism as a major industry in northern Ohio by serving several lake shore recreation areas (some owned by LSE and others privately owned) such as Avon Beach Park in Avon Lake; Linwood Park in Vermilion; Crystal Beach, Beulah Beach, Mitiwanga Park and Ruggles Grove (Ruggles Beach) between Vermilion and Huron, and Sage's Grove and Rye Beach in Huron. It also brought large numbers of visitors to the Sandusky dock where a ferry crossing Sandusky Bay reached the Cedar Point beach park and picnic ground which evolved into the giant amusement park resort of today.
Lake Shore Electric was formed August 29, 1901 through the merger of several smaller interurban railways:
- Lorain and Cleveland Railway, running between Cleveland and Lorain, and intent on building westward at the time of the merger.
- Sandusky and Interurban Railway (S&I), which had begun as a local transit operation in Sandusky, and was building eastward from Huron to Lorain at the time of the merger.
- Toledo, Fremont and Norwalk Railway (TF&N), serving Toledo, Fremont, and Norwalk and building eastward toward Lorain at the time of the merger.
- Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk Railway, formed in 1893 and one of the earliest interurban railway companies in the United States, between Sandusky and Norwalk, via Milan. This line served as the earliest physical connection between the Sandusky and Interurban Railway and the Toledo, Fremont and Norwalk Railway after the merger. It became a branch line after completion of the previously planned TF&N line east from Norwalk to connect to the S&I at "Ceylon Junction", a few miles east of Huron. It was also the first portion of the Lake Shore Electric system to be abandoned, ending service on March 29, 1928.
The LSE later added the following interurban lines and operated them as branches:
- Lorain Street Railway, which ran between Lorain and Elyria and operated Lorain local transit services.
- Avon Beach and Southern Railway, which ran between South Lorain and "Beach Park" in Avon Lake, the location of a Lake Shore Electric resort park, passenger station, car barn and electrical generating station. A small portion of this line is the only part of the original LSE system still in operation today, becoming what is now a Norfolk Southern Railway branch serving the FirstEnergy Corporation's Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company(CEI) generating station at Avon Lake. This plant was first built to replace the LSE power plant at the same location that was destroyed in an explosion and fire in 1925.
The Lake Shore Electric built a short branch to Gibsonburg, Ohio that opened on December 21, 1901. This branch was built as part of a planned expansion by LSE south and west to Findlay and Lima. This goal was reached instead by joint services with the Fostoria and Fremont Railway and the Western Ohio Railway, and the line never went beyond Gibsonburg. It built a new route between Fremont and Sandusky via Castalia, commencing service on July 21, 1907, and later relocated some of its lines in Huron (1918) and Sandusky (1931).
The Lake Shore Electric at its height offered multiple-unit trains of interurban cars to and from Cleveland and Toledo. These trains would split in Fremont on the west and at Ceylon Junction (a passenger station on the former S&I line east of Huron at the connection with the former TF&N branch to Norwalk) on the east. After splitting, some cars would travel via the Huron, Sandusky and Castalia northern route and others would go via the Norwalk, Monroeville, Bellevue, and Clyde southern route. The service was scheduled so the cars would re-join at Fremont and Ceylon Junction, respectively, to continue on to their destinations of Toledo or Cleveland as a train.
The Lake Shore Electric achieved nationwide notoriety through the heroism of a motorman, William Lang, who climbed out of his moving trolley car and snatched a 22-month old child off the tracks on August 24, 1932 near Lorain, Ohio. The young girl, Leila Jean Smith, grew to adulthood and they remained friends for the rest of his life.
As its passenger business waned with the increasing number of private automobiles on paved roads, it outlived most connecting interurban lines by concentrating on freight services. LSE had even developed a marginally profitable freight service interchanging with the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad at Toledo to deliver lcl (less than full carload) freight from southern Ohio factories to Cleveland. The C&LE cars continued straight through Toledo to Cleveland on LSE trackage on a tight overnight schedule. A poorly planned strike by LSE freight agents and office staff in 1938 caused the LSE to abandon operations immediately putting every LSE employee out of work at the worst time in the Great Depression. The loss of the Cleveland connection seriously hurt the C&LE and helped lead it into bankruptcy in 1939.
The Lake Shore Electric went into bankruptcy on October 5, 1932, was operated under receivership, and ended all interurban rail operations on May 15, 1938, with Car #167 making the last run out of Cleveland.
Several physical remnants of the Lake Shore Electric can still be found today. In the cities of Bay Village and Avon Lake are streets named "Electric," running over the former right-of-way.[1][2] Also, bridge piers can be found at the Cleveland Metroparks Huntington Reservation and in Rose Hill park, both in Bay Village, and at several other locations.[3] Much of its route can still be traced in northern Ohio by power lines on unusually high utility poles, where LSE's former electrical transmission infrastructure became the property of area utility companies.
[edit] Museum reorganization
The former Trolleyville USA museum (formally known as the Gerald E. Brookins Museum of Electric Railways) in Olmsted Township closed down in 2005. At that time organizers sought to relocate the museum's collection of 31 trolley cars. In 2006 the collection was moved to Dock 32 of the Port of Cleveland, which is owned by the city and is located just north of the Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center as well as northwest of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at 41°30′32.65″N 81°41′59.53″W / 41.5090694°N 81.6998694°W.[4] The museum was renamed the Lake Shore Electric Railway to honor the interurban company from the early 20th century. In 2007 work at the new location was started upon constructing a new carbarn.[4] The museum is accessible by the RTA Waterfront Line.
apparently the museum never existed, but they tried: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1243326713245330.xml&coll=2
As of 2001, LSE coach #167 (that made the last run in 1938) sits in a L&WV freight yard at Wellington, Ohio, south of Lorain. Along with other railroad relics, it sits in the open. In surprisingly good shape, #167 is a 1904 Niles wood frame/truss bar coach with steel sides and Baldwin MCB trucks.
[edit] References
- ^ Sartin, V. David (2007-08-31). "Quiet, clean, electric rail systems served area 100 years ago". PD Extra. http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/08/quiet_clean_electric_rail_syst.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-23.
- ^ kturner (2007-08-31). "Electric". PD Extra. http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/08/bob_beckinterurban_crossing_ra.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-23.
- ^ "History Q & A: What are those concrete structures in Cahoon Park and the Metroparks?". City of Bay Village. http://www.cityofbayvillage.com/history/qa.cfm. Retrieved on 2008-09-23.
- ^ a b "LSERy - Home Page". http://www.lsery.org/. Retrieved on 2008-12-21.
- Harwood, Herbert H., Jr. and Korach, Robert (2000). The Lake Shore Electric Railway Story. Bloomington, Indiana. ISBN 0-253-33797-6.
- Hilton, George W. & Due, John F. (1960, 2000). The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4014-3.
- Middleton, Wm. D.. The Interurban Era. Milwaukee, WI: Kalmbach Publishing.
- Keenan, Jack. The Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad. San Marino,CA 1974 226pp: Golden West Books.
[edit] External links
- Images of Lake Shore Electric equipment at Dave's Electric Railroads
