Small town trolley systems and branch lines in larger towns often operated on a singe track. More important lines, especially in large cities, generally were double track. But there were a few places where more tracks were used. In one case, Los Angeles’ Pacific Electric Railway had a four track line simply because traffic was…

This word seems to have had several meanings on different trolley operations, but in Cleveland it had more to do with the line than with the cars that operated on them. These were shuttles, short lines on which a car or two ran back and forth either as short connections between through lines or as…

This may be getting a bit off topic, but it does have to do with the pre-history of the interurban network. We have discussed the Electric Package Company that provided a very extensive interurban express network across Ohio and neighboring states. This system followed in the path of railroad express companies, dating at least as…

The Vision of O.C. Barber Barberton is located to the south west of Akron. It was founded in 1891 when O.C. Barber, founder of the Diamond Match Co., located his factory at an undeveloped site and built a town to house his employees. This was not to be the classic “company town,” a money-making proposition…

We’ve been looking at the relationship between Cleveland’s street railways and the development of suburbs. So far, we’ve considered suburbs to the east and the west. As we know, Cleveland area population has tended to orient in those directions. But what about to the south? The community of Garfield Heights began as a part of…

We’ve been talking about Cleveland’s East Side streetcar suburb, Cleveland Heights. Let’s look at the West Side. What became Lakewood’s Clifton Park was founded in 1866 by a group of Cleveland businessmen not, originally, as a suburb but as a resort. This became, and remained popular through the 1870’s and ‘80’s, with swimming beaches, boating,…

The Final Extensions So far, we have seen Cleveland Heights beginning to develop along the lines of its trolleys: the initial line up Mayfield Hill to the cemetery and which eventually reached Lee Rd, the line to and eventually up Cedar Glen, the line from the top of the Glen along Euclid Heights Blvd, and…

The First Shaker Rapid Transit: So far, we have looked at the role of trolleys in the development of the western part of today’s city. Now we will look farther east. So, what’s this about a FIRST Shaker line? We know that Van Sweringen brothers built a transit line that connected their new Shaker Heights…

Patrick Calhoun (1856 – 1943), grandson of the Vice-President, was born in South Carolina. Going into the law, he became interested in railroads and, by the 1890’s, in street railways. A business trip brought him to Cleveland and he had occasion to visit the Heights. Recognizing it’s potential for development as a desirable suburb of…

Many trolley suburbs came about because developers built lines to attract residents. For Cleveland Heights the process was somewhat more complex. The first trolley to the region came for a slightly different reason. Dr. Nathan Hardy Ambler (1824 – 1888) was a Cleveland dentist who went into real estate development. This, in turn, led him,…