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Lake Shore Electric Interurban Days 1893-1938 by Harry Christiansen Soft Cover
Lake Shore Electric Interurban Days 1893-1938 by Harry Christiansen
Soft Cover
Copyright 1963
82 pages
The story of the Lake Shore Electric is typical of the many interurbans that once flourished throughout the United Sates.
They were spawned under the shadow of automotive development, but they grew rapidly and for a few short decades were a vital part of the American scene. But increasing automobiles and paved road networks caught up with the colorful trolleys.
The Lake Shore Electric is still remembered and mentioned frequently along the route its big orange cars once rolled.
Purpose of this book is to preserve for all time the history and heritage of the Lake Shore Electric.
I remember the line vividly. For the last five years of its life, I constantly rode the line and watched its death throes. Knowing it was doomed, I aimed cameras at the cars to capture the scene for posterity.
I searched the dim recesses of dusty company files in Sandusky and Cleveland to obtain much of the data that is brought to light today --- a quarter of a century later --- in the statistical section.
In writing this book, no hearsay was accepted. Everything has been documented from serious searches of all transit publications reflecting the Lake Shore era. Old newspapers have been thoroughly combed. Public Utilities Commission records have been sifted.
I have attempted to avoid the dryness of many rail histories by chronological arrangement of facts, and injecting the all-Important atmosphere of the golden trolley era.
As a professional newspaperman for 20 years, compiling the Lake Shore book was the toughest and most enjoyable assignment I have ever undertaken.
I called upon many sources and old friends for verification and additional information.
Thanks go to them.
To round out thousands of photos available, I purchased some photos from Ralph Perkin of Stone Mountain, Ga. He was a frequent rider along the line in its last days. Some of his excellent camera work has been selected for use in the book, including the cover photo.
Joseph Galloway of Toledo spent many hours typing long letters of research in Toledo. Joe is a retired police official of that city, and a renown expert of the many fascinating trolleys that once blanketed that area. His outof-print manuscript, "Interurban Trails" is a masterpiece of research, and should be read by all fortunate enough to locate a copy.
I met Leonard Siegel of Hudson who for years has been ferreting out history and wrecks on the Lake Shore. Some results of his endless study are included.
Wilbur E. Hague, a Michigan rail authority, of the Michigan Railroad Club sent maps and sharp details of the dimly-remembered Lake Shore activities in Detroit.
I saw Andrew Palcisko again after 25 years. Andy and I reviewed the days when he was the night station agent for the LSE in Cleveland, and I considered the depot a second home.
Vernon Bogner of Lakewood, a noted commercial artist, drew the center map, Vern and I spent many months riding and photographing the interurban. His camera work also appears here.
I met Mrs. Walter Bishopof Rocky River. This gracious lady is the daughter of ex-LSE head, F. W. Coen. She loaned a picture of her father, who was a dominant leader in the interurban age, and the person responsible for keeping the Lake Shore alive as long as 1938. The visions and faith that Coen had in electric traction emerged frequently throughout the study of the line.
Max Wilcox of Elyria, who recently published the Southwestern Story, sent photos and timetables. His book on this Ohio line is highly recommended.
Others who responded to telephone calls were Herbert Dosey of Cleveland, and Morris Stone, vice president of the American Greeting Company, an ardent follower of electric traction. And thanks to many others who volunteered aid in the work.
It is impossible to credit all the photos in the volume. Many have been purchased in the past 25 years from many sources. A great number were taken by the author.
The type in the statistical section may be smaller than desirable, but this was done to include as much Information as possible - the goal of this book.
I am dedicating the book to Felix Reifschnelder of Fairton, New Jersey. He is a retired transportation executive who has been furiously publishing books (about 35 to date) in order to preserve the histories of the interurban era. He has assisted with this book, and he will be known to history as the man who did most single-handed to keep alive the interurban story for future generations.
A little about the author: For 20 years, I was transportation editor of the Cleveland News, and am a member of Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalism society. Currently I am executive assistant to Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert S. Porter.
The old Cleveland News started the Cleveland Transit System's present rapid transit system. I fought alone for five years to interest the community in the abandoned rightsof-ways leading from the Cleveland Union Terminal.
My remembrance of the swift Lake Shore cars, and the deserted platforms in the Union Terminal designed for them, brought about the present CTS rapid transit. Finally, in 1945, U.S. Senator Frank 3. Lausche, then mayor of Cleveland, ordered the Cleveland Transit Board to study these abandoned rights-of-ways and unused terminal facilities, and the rapid transit plan in Cleveland gained community impetus.
I mention these long-ago incidents because few people today watching a rapid transit train speed along in Cleveland realize that the defunct Lake Shore Electric and a dead newspaper had a part in building it.
Enjoying compilation of this book immensely, other volumes for nationwide distribution are in preparation.
One is a history of the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, with many pages written by the Van Sweringens themselves. A long lost document tells the true story of the start of the Van Sweringen empire. Another will be the complete history of public transit in Cleveland from horse-car beginnings to the peak of trolley car riding and the swift decline of this once great system in the years following 1947. It will be a complete analysis of all facets of transit in a great metropolitan city, spiced with hundreds of photos and official data.
A happy journey on the Lake Shore trail. 1 hope you'll enjoy the trip to yesterday.
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