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Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad by Jack Keenan Ohio's great interurban system
Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad by Jack Keenan Ohio's great interurban system
Hard Cover with dust jacket
Copyright 1974
226 pages
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 5
Chapter 1 Coming of the Interurban 9
Chapter 2Conway's Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway 33
Chapter 3 - The Great Race 59
Chapter 4Red Block - Troubles Ahead 79
Chapter 5Bankruptcy and Still Running 95
Chapter 6 - Fire, Flood and Slow Orders 111
Chapter 7Freight Service 131
Chapter 8Moving Toward Collapse 163
Chapter 9End of the Line 189
Appendix 211
Bibliography 221
Index 223
This is the story about one of the nation's most colorful interurban systems. For the rail historian the C&LE is an interesting study because it represents both a prototypical, and at the same time, a unique interurban. It operated freight trains, interchanged with steam railroads, utilized streetcars, ran high-speed deluxe trains, and expresses. It operated miles and miles over open country right-of-way. But it also ran its trains over the cobblestones of the main thoroughfares and the winding back streets of the cities it served.
Beginning with the reorganization of the bankrupt Cincinnati & Dayton Traction Co. as the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway in 1926, the principal lines of the dismembered Ohio Electric Railway were reassembled by Dr. Thomas Conway, Jr., a finance professor turned railroader. Conway rebuilt, reequipped, and expanded freight and passenger service on the CH&D and turned it into a first class line. In 1930 the CH&D was joined with the Indiana, Columbus & Eastern Traction and the Lima-Toledo Railroad to form the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad, which extended from Cincinnati to Toledo, with a line from Springfield to Columbus, with approximately 270 miles of main track.
The C&LE bought new interurban cars that made speeds of 80 and 90 miles an hour. The line's management inaugurated the longest passenger run in the history of the interurban industry - the 280 mile Cincinnati to Detroit Limiteds. The road's freight equipment provided better long haul service than most competitive steam railroads. Considerable interest was generated within the transportation industry by its high-speed cars. In a spectacular race with an airplane filmed by Pathe News, the interurban traveled 97 m.p.h. to outdistance the plane.
This book concerns the life and times of an electric interurban railway. While unique in many ways, it was a commonplace operation in others. Its successes and frustrations were no different than those of neighboring interurbans, large and small. The story of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad is really the story of the industry to which it belonged. An industry overlooked by historians and rejected by the public.
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