The Cleveland Railway Years With the political and financial stabilization provided by the Tayler Grant, discussed last week, Cleveland Railway began a modernization program: construction of new cars – including the “1200” class of which several are now in our collection, replacement of several obsolescent car barns, an up-to-date repair shop, and replacement of its…

The City-Wide System Creation of Cleveland Railway, discussed last week, gave the city a comprehensive transportation network. Whereas, in the past, traveling about the city might require transferring form one company to another – and, of course, paying an additional fare – it was now possible to move quickly and easily all over town. But…

Growth, Merger & More Growth During the 1880’s and ’90’s, new car lines continued to be built throughout the city and, as we saw last week, by the late ’80’s, electrification began. But the electrification didn’t occur all at once, and many of the new lines in the ’90’s began using the tried-and-true horse car,…

The Electric Streetcar Comes of Age Last week, we looked at the first commercial electric street railway, Cleveland’s 1884 Bentley-Knight installation. At about this same time, there were other attempts at creating a successful electrically powered transit systems, notably those of Werner Siemans, Leo Daft, Magnus Volk and Charles Vandepoel. But, while all showed promise,…

Technology Changes Technology Changes. Last week, we looked at the beginning, the growth and the financial success of horsecar lines. But there also were problems. Horses were expensive, both to purchase and to feed, and many were needed. A team of horses could perform the heavy work of pulling a car for only a few…

The Horse Car Era The horse car era began with the New York & Harlem Railway in 1831. Cleveland had a horse car line. beginning in 1835, along Euclid Ave from today’s E 110th St downtown. This line was cheaply built, using oak rather than iron rails, laid on top of hard earth. Because this…

The automobile was the enemy of the streetcar. Not only did the tin lizzies and their relatives take away business, but their proliferation on the roads added to operating difficulties. They choked the city streets where, once, streetcars could move freely, and rural road crossings became a major hazard. Interurban cars could no longer make…

Like every other piece of machinery, streetcars eventually became outmoded as the technology advanced, or simply wore out. At this point, the great majority of old cars were scrapped. However, not every old car met this fate. Last week we looked at how some cars that were no longer suitable for carrying passengers were converted…

The G.C. Kuhlman Car Co.: Cleveland’s Master Builders Ohio was a center of the Interurban and electric railway industry. Many car manufacturers and component suppliers were located here. We had a major car builder right in Cleveland. The G. C. KUHLMAN CAR CO. was founded in Cleveland by Gustav C. Kuhlman in 1893. The Kuhlman…