[PRCo] Re: Cleveland trolley timetline article

[Herbert Brannon]

Mailing Address:


Herb Brannon
2825 Monroe Avenue - Apt. 5
Cleveland, Ohio  44113

Bob Rathke wrote:

> Herb,
>
> The online article is below.  A friend in Cleveland also send me the
> 1-1/2-page newspaper clipping which includes six old photos, an illustration
> of a Cleveland PCC and a large cutaway illustration of a 4000 series Peter
> Witt car that depicts the enter/exit/fare procedure.  If you'd like to have
> a Xerox copy of the article, give me your mailing address.
>
> Bob 1/31/04
>
> -----------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <LeviGuyCleveland at aol.com>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 12:43 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Cleveland trolley timetline article
>
> > I am very interested. I seldom read the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I settle
> for
> > CNN, Ohio News Network, and the Cleveland Free Times (the REAL WORLD
> newspaper
> > in Cleveland). Contact me off-list and I will give you my address.
> >
> > HrB
>
> -------------------------------------------------
>
> When streetcars owned the road
>
> 01/23/04
>
> Rich Exner
> Plain Dealer Reporter
>
> The No. 4051 streetcar rolled west from Public Square
> in the wee hours of the morning, dipping to the lower
> level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge.
>
> It emerged from Cleveland's old subway at West 25th
> Street and Franklin Boulevard, headed west and reached
> the end of the line at Madison and Spring Garden
> avenues in Lakewood at 1:35 a.m.
>
> It was the end of an era.
>
> Fifty years ago Saturday Jan. 24, 1954 the last
> streetcar line in Ohio ceased operation.
>
> For nearly 100 years, the streetcars first powered by
> horses and then by overhead electrical lines traveled
> over rails to carry Clevelanders to work and play.
>
> Euclid Beach Park was served until 1951. Streetcars
> ran on the city's main street, Euclid Avenue, until
> 1952. Longtime residents harbor fond memories of
> riding downtown to shop at Halle's, Higbee's,
> Sterling-Lindner, the May Co. and other popular
> stores.
>
> Newspaper accounts from 1954 said the first bus on the
> Madison Line, which left Public Square five minutes
> before the last streetcar, was greeted along the way
> by boos.
>
> A sign posted in front of People's Methodist Church on
> West 65th Street said: "Madison Streetcars: Thank you!
> You have brought many people to this church! Goodbye!"
> The Plain Dealer identified Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B.
> Edwards, who boarded at Bunts Road in Lakewood, as the
> last paying customers. The fare: 15 cents.
>
> An estimated 10,000 people took free rides between
> Public Square and West 65th Street later that day in a
> farewell promotion. The free rides were supposed to
> end at 3:30 p.m., but the throng kept the streetcars
> filled until near dark.
>
> "It was quite an event," Jack Ainsley, a former
> Clevelander who now lives in Parma, said during a
> recent interview. "A lot of trolley car buffs like
> myself, we hated to see it go. The trolley still has
> quite a role to play in the development of our cities.
> And it was just scrapped to junk."
>
> Ainsley chose to follow by car instead of ride in a
> streetcar on that final day. But his essay published
> in the book "Cleveland's Transit Vehicles" re-creates
> a typical ride on the lower level of the
> Detroit-Superior (now Veterans Memorial) Bridge.
>
> "The clatter of steel in the narrow confines of the
> entrances, particularly on the West Side, was almost
> deafening when the car windows were open. . . .
> Conversations had to be interrupted entirely whenever
> two cars passed on the ramp. Even a blind and deaf
> person would know that he or she was on the West
> 25th-Detroit subway by feeling its dampness and
> smelling the burnt electricity."
>
> The Cleveland Transit System waxed nostalgic about
> streetcar history in a souvenir program distributed
> that final day, but it also promoted modernization.
>
> Since the public transit system took over for the
> private Cleveland Railway Co. in 1942, the system had
> modernized 28 main lines from "antiquated streetcar to
> bus or trackless trolley." Trackless trolleys were
> buses with rubber tires but still powered by overhead
> electrical lines.
>
> The new off-street rapid rail line from East Cleveland
> to West 117th Street would open soon. In addition, a
> long-talked-about downtown subway would "finally
> become a reality because residents of Cuyahoga County
> voted overwhelmingly for it at the 1953 election." The
> rapid line did open in 1955. The more extensive subway
> never did.
>
> "It was just another example of out with the old and
> in with the new," local transit historian Blaine Hays
> of Parma said of the streetcar's demise. The retired
> Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
> maintenance worker has co-authored six transit books,
> including "Cleveland's Transit Vehicles" and "Horse
> Trails to Regional Rails."
>
> "I think most people regarded it as a sad occasion,
> but I think the people in power wanted to move on to a
> new, better thing," Hays said.
>
> The last streetcars used in 1954 were scrapped. In
> 1952, 75 newer streetcars originally intended for use
> on what is now RTA's Red Line rapid, were sold to the
> city of Toronto. Some of those cars were used as late
> as 1982 on Toronto's busy trolley system.
>
> There are, however, plenty of efforts to keep the
> streetcar history alive locally.
>
> The Northern Ohio Railway Museum, which has about 40
> old trolleys in storage and one mile of track in
> Medina County near Chippewa Lake, is attempting to
> raise money to open a museum to the public "as soon as
> we can," said Hays, the museum's spokesman. There is
> no timetable.
>
> Trolleyville U.S.A., which formerly operated a museum
> and provided rides in Olmsted Township, hopes to move
> its collection of about 40 cars to the Flats and
> operate limited runs on RTA's Waterfront Line. The
> goal is to move within two years, though money is
> needed, Director Mark Brookins said.
>
> The special collections department at the Cleveland
> State University Library is sorting through a recent
> gift of thousands of streetcar-related photographs,
> adding to a wide collection at the university,
> librarian William Barrow said. Many of the pictures
> can be viewed at www.clevelandmemory.org.
>
> RTA this year plans to buy 11 buses that look like
> trolleys to run downtown Loop routes in an effort to
> stir up interest in response to requests from downtown
> businesses.
>
> The lure of streetcar memories is a natural, Brookins
> said.
>
> "A lot of people like to reminisce about things from
> the past, not only streetcars, but antique cars, old
> boats, old buildings," Brookins said. "It's just
> something from Cleveland's past."
>
> The streetcar was a way of life for many people right
> to the end.
>
> "I want to cry," Clevelander James Shikner, 65, one of
> the last fare-paying customers, was quoted in The
> Plain Dealer at the time.
>
> "I ride the streetcars since I came here from Praha
> [Czechoslovakia] in 1907," Shikner continued. "The
> streetcar takes a little time. I read the paper. I
> always get there."
>
> To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
>
> rexner at plaind.com, 216-999-3505