[PRCo] Re: Lake Shore Electric Ry. may auction its trolleys

[Herb Brannon]

The separate development was/is the "Flats East" project.This was to
include the usual apartments, condos, shops, stores, and even a large
Giant Eagle store The land was cleared and right now is getting all
new underground infrastructure (water, sewer, electricity, natural
gas, streets, etc) all provided by the City of  Cleveland, Cuyahoga
County, Northern Ohio Sewer District, and RTA. This would be the
perfect time to include the rails in the new streets. So, while the
private developer panicked and withdrew, the government agencies are
committed to completing their part of the project. If Lakeshore did do
any fundraising then it was a very secretive type of fundraising
which, apparently, the general public was excluded from. I have never
seen any type of media advertising any fundraising activity on the
part of Lakeshore. They probably like to do things like 'wine and
cheese tastings'. That type of thing doesn't net much in the way of
funds to give to the project. Also, right now is the time to tap into
the US Government money for a "new start" private sector rail transit
project. In my opinion  they are not really trying and apparently are
content to watch their assets roll away.

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:31 AM, Edward H. Lybarger <trams2 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Unfortunately, it's not this simple.  I know one of the principals in this,
> and he and others have provided a lot of capital.  Yes, the public sector
> was cooperative as well, but it was not expected that they would wrap things
> up like a present and hand them to LSE.  Plenty of fund raising activity
> took place among certain board members (I will not try to tell you that
> everyone on that board was equally helpful), but it was the fact that a
> separate development plan fell through that made LSE conclude that funding
> was not available at this time.  They simply didn't have the ability to
> cover the ongoing costs of storage until the economy recovers.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Herb
> Brannon
> Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 8:56 PM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Lake Shore Electric Ry. may auction its trolleys
>
> I was just at the Northern Ohio Railway Museum to look at their collection
> of rust last weekend. They are hoping to get two or three of the
> Lakeshore/Trolleyville cars so they can begin operating their "museum".
>
> Word is also circulating that the current owners of the ex-Trolleyville
> fleet just gave up on trying to raise funds for their operation. The City of
> Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority have actually
> gone "above and beyond" to try to get this operation started. However, when
> the ball gets in the owners court, they are either unable or unwilling to
> play the game. I know, for a fact, that RTA has given a lot of kilowatt
> hours of electricity and pantographs to that group so they could run some of
> their double-end cars for the public on RTA revenue tracks.  I think the
> owners may have thought that the city government, county government and RTA
> would put it all together for them to "play" with. There has never been any
> attempt to raise capital or to obtain capital to begin this project. Looks
> like some more of those "business" types who don't know "business". Too bad,
> it could have been a really nice operation.
>
> On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Bob Rathke <bobrathke at comcast.net> wrote:
>> The following article was sent to me by a friend in Cleveland, and is
> attributed to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  Photos of some of the trolleys in
> this article are embedded in the e-mail, but I'm not sure if they will
> appear on the Dementia post.
>> Bob 5/26/09
>>
>>
>>
>>      Lake Shore Electric Railway Inc. may be forced to auction 30-plus
>> trolley car collection
>>
>>
>>
>>      Many of the cars stored in Cleveland were once on display at
> Trolleyville U.S.A. in Olmsted Township, which closed in 2002.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>      The PDA hand crank shows workmanship of a bygone era aboard one of
> the many trolley cars being stored in a warehouse near the Great Lakes
> Science Center.
>>
>>      Another big idea for downtown Cleveland derailed before it left the
> station.
>>      A nonprofit group with a warehouse full of old trolley cars is nixing
> plans to build a tourist-attracting rail loop downtown and a trolley museum
> nearby.
>>      Instead, Lake Shore Electric Railway Inc. wants to put a 30-plus car
> collection up for auction as soon as July, said Mark Ricchiuto, group
> spokesman and an executive with Marous Brothers Construction.
>>      Civic and elected leaders supported the project, he said. But the
> economic recession stanched fund raising. The stalled Flats East Bank
> project hurt as well, he said.
>>      The nonprofit group wanted to build a short trolley loop near the
> east bank and up through the Warehouse District, Ricchiuto said.
>>      But Lake Shore Electric can't wait any longer to deal with its debts
> and mounting costs, Ricchiuto said.
>>
>>
>>
>>      Seats are available on this trolley car owned by Lake Shore Electric
> Railway Inc. In fact, the entire collection of trains is likely to be up for
> sale soon.
>>      Dennis Eckart, a former U.S. congressman and a board member for the
> railway group, called the project "a bridge too far."
>>      "The real value was getting them out of the museum and back on the
> track," Eckart said of the trolleys. "That became a financially
> insurmountable hurdle."
>>      Most of the collection sits in a city-owned warehouse on Cleveland's
> port, north of the Great Lakes Science Center.
>>      The cars have sat for several years in the warehouse, under a
> $1-a-year lease with the city of Cleveland.
>>      That lease has expired, as has a lease the railway group held on a
> city-owned parcel south of the sprawling municipal parking lot at East 9th
> Street.
>>      The group hoped to build a storage barn and museum there, at the
> terminus of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's Waterfront
> Line.
>>      "They had a unique asset with the collection of historic trolleys,"
> said Cleveland Planning Director Bob Brown. "It was worth giving it a try.
> But you know how many museums come and go. It was well-intentioned, but they
> weren't able to raise the money."
>>      Many of the cars had once been on display in Trolleyville U.S.A. in
> Olmsted Township. The late Gerald E. Brookins assembled the symbols of a
> bygone era and ran some of them on a short track on weekends.
>>      When Trolleyville closed in 2002, the nonprofit group formed to
> preserve the cars and also crafted the downtown proposal. Chip Marous,
> president of Marous Brothers, headed the effort.
>>      A number of cities, including Tampa and Dallas, have drawn crowds to
> rail lines featuring old trolley cars, Ricchiuto said.
>>      Eckart hopes that the auction will yield enough money to restore one
> or two of the cars for nostalgic use on an RTA line.
>>      "But that will be driven by what the market tells us," Eckart said.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Herb Brannon
> On America's North Coast
>
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-- 
Herb Brannon
On America's North Coast