'Last Stop Willoughby' celebrates interurban line

Posted by John Horton August 08, 2008 03:00AM

 

Willoughby -- An electric trolley service once connected this Lake County town to Cleveland. The interurban line was dubbed the CP&E, short for the Cleveland, Painesville & Eastern Railroad.

 

The cars trundled in and out of town from the late 1800s through 1926, with trolley bell clanging to announce arrivals at Erie Street and other stops.

 

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/last_stop_willoughby_celebrate.html

A few pix of the CP&E from the Bill Volmer Collection: courtesy of

 

http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/oh/htm/cpa01.htm

Magnificent heavyweights!

 

Most people nowadays don't grasp the distinction between the streetcars that ambled along city streets at 10mph in the early 1900s and the big, heavy, powerful interurbans that rocketed along private ROW at speeds of 60mph and more. To the uninitiated, they're all "trolleys".

 

The folks in Willoughby could take inspiration from the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum at Washington, just south of Pittsburgh. It's one of the best-run facilities of its type in the Midwest (can I call that area part of the Midwest?), with a large, varied collection that is kept in a protective environment and displayed well. Though the distance leaves me wanting more, the rides are enjoyable and everything is clean and orderly, unlike the many junkyards that present themselves as museum.

Imagine if this map were still valid today?  This is the interurban system Ohio had back in the beginning of the 20th Century.  Would that we still had this as a transportation option in 2008. 

my god

I'm not sure if one of those westward lines out of Toledo was part of the never-completed Chicago & Toledo interurban line. That line was planned to run parallel to the New York Central steam mainline through northern Indiana between the two namesake cities, but only some small segments got built, including a piece between Kendallville and Waterloo with a branch southward through Garrett to Fort Wayne.

 

Fort Wayne historian Craig Berndt authored a book on that line and has presented lectures featuring a slide show of some fascinating photos.

 

Federal, state and local investment of taxpayers' money to subsidize the construction and consolidation of highway systems to encourage automobile use, along with the financial impact of the Great Depression on electric utility empires and the federal government's action to force the utility companies to divest their traction holdings during a time of national fiscal crisis, brought the whole midwestern interurban network crashing down. :x

 

</rant>

There was also a line that ran out of Ironton north to Jackson that was built before the DT&I.

I used to work at Fowler's Mills Golf Course out in Chesterland.  The old path to Middlefield would pass right through the course, cross the 18th fairway then along side and continue across the 17th.  I always tried to imagine the interurbans rumbling through there.  There actually used to be a stop at Caves Road in Chesterland, as it was sort of a tourist stop to explore the caves there..  Interesting.

You can still see the route the C&E took, meandering its way down into the Chagrin Valley along Old Mill Road and back up the other side. And the old truss bridge across the river is still there, used as a pedestrian bridge today.

 

There's lots of remnants of the interurban system still around, 70+ years later. Some are old stations and electrical substations used for new purposes today. Some are bridges, or bridge abutments, or rights of way, or bike paths or utility poles and so on.

 

Perhaps we should have a thread where people can post pictures of these remnants? Maybe this thread can be reconstituted for that purpose?

are you referring to this bridge currently used as a pedestrian bridge in Gates Mills?

 

Most certainly a railroad type bridge able to handle interurbans.

 

Here's a favorite old photo from back when the interurban systems were trying (and failing) to fight their main foes.... the development of highways.... back in the early 1900's.

 

Interesting message on the side of this Columbus & Zanesville Interurban car:

 

This thread should be called "Back In The Day"/Still Haven't Learned Anything!  :x

 

Here we are...transit and Amtrak ridership is setting records and what are we doing? Talking about funding cuts for transit, raiding the federal transit account to pay for more highways and still no plans for more rail cars.

 

Threads like this are a depressing reminder of what we squandered as we blindly "saw the USA in our Chevrolet." Now we have no choice but to drive, no matter what gas costs. It will be years before we have a meaningful alternative to the auto.

 

Up till recently, I bought books that gave a historical view of railroads and transit operations, that, one-by-one fell to government sponsored auto and air competition. The ending was always the same: Trains came off, lines abandoned, etc. I finally got tired of rereading the same old scenario and decided to stop buying books.

 

Folks, I am mad as hell. We need to rally on the statehouse steps and DEMAND a change. "Where are the trains?" NARP asks. Where indeed? "We want a CHOICE!" should be our call to sleepy legislators who deserve a good, hard kick in the pants.

 

Ohio STILL does not support pasenger rail (even though it might) and its support for transit is a disgrace.

 

As far as I am concerned All Aboard Ohio should come out breathing fire and lead the charge for real change.

are you referring to this bridge currently used as a pedestrian bridge in Gates Mills?

 

 

Yep.