Trolley Tales
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Construction vs Operation
As with any business, the lower the costs of operating an electric railway the greater the likelihood that it would be profitable. Thus, debt load lowered profitability. As we noted last week, sometimes a line was “overcapitalized,” that is it…
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Media Mornings: Meet Dr. Stephen Hambley
On August 2nd at 10:00 am come to our Media Morning event. Local author and historian Dr. Stephen Hambley will speak about his newest book The Pioneer Route and Electric Railways of Northeast Ohio at a Northern Ohio Railway Museum…
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Paying for the Trolley Lines
Because of the high cost of building electric railways, the promotors followed steam railroad practice, selling stock, which made the purchasers joint owners of the business and entitling them to a say in how it was run. People purchased the…
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Small Town Informality
Big city trolley lines, just by virtue of their size, often became very impersonal, although in cases when the same crews worked for years over a residential line, this impersonality might be less. However, in smaller communities, where people were…
