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    The Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway
    The Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway
    The Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway
    Ebook164 pages1 hour

    The Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway

    By George W. Hilton

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    About this ebook

    At the dawn of the twentieth century, before good roads were common and everyone owned an automobile, Northwestern Ohio was home of the Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway. The TPC&L began operating in 1905 and didn't entirely close down until 1958, decades after other railways like it were gone. This fascinating book, first published in 1964, contains the complete story of the line as told by noted transportation authority George W. Hilton, including construction of the railway in the days of "interurban fever," details about the boats that carried passengers from Marblehead to Cedar Point and Sandusky, the line's varied rolling stock, accidents, and more.

    This e-book version contains all of the text and graphics of the original printed volume.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMontevallo Historical Press
    Release dateDec 15, 2019
    ISBN9780965862462
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      Book preview

      The Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway - George W. Hilton

      The Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway

      The Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway

      George W. Hilton

      Montevallo Historical Press

      Cover Photo

      Number 21, on a fan trip in the late 1930’s, poses on the Oak Harbor bridge. The car stands on the trestle built to replace the span which collapsed under car number 20 in 1923. Photo by Karel Liebenauer.

      Originally presented

      as Bulletin Number 42 of the

      Electric Railway Historical Society.

      Copyright © 2019 by Montevallo Historical Press

      Web: mhpress.com

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN 978-0-9658624-6-2

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      Contents

      Foreword

      The Line’s History

      Equipment Notes

      Text of the Railway’s Abandonment Papers

      Photographs and Illustrations

      Scenes Along the Line

      Timetables

      Ephemera

      About the Author

      Foreword

      Although Ohio had much the largest network of interurban lines, research has brought forth relatively few histories of its companies. This volume presents the history of one of Ohio’s medium-sized interurbans, a line distinguished by longevity and variety, rather than by size. The Toledo Port Clinton & Lakeside was, as interurbans went, a distinct success. It never went bankrupt, and its overhead felt the pressure of the trolley wheel until 1958, when it was becoming difficult even to locate the grade of many a larger and better known interurban.

      The basic history of the company has been brought together from the customary sources: newspapers, reports of the Public Utility Commission, Poor’s and Moody’s Manuals, and dockets of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Unfortunately, the equipment records of the company were destroyed in the various changes of ownership, and, consequently, much of the roster detail had to be based on the recollections of former employees of the line. The longevity of the interurban generated an exceptionally large number of former employees, but, as is so frequently true, their recollections were incomplete and often contradictory. Thus, there are many uncertainties concerning the roster that I have been unable to resolve, particularly in connection with freight equipment.

      My debts to former employees, riders and enthusiasts of the TPC&L are great. In particular, I must express my gratitude to Joseph A. Galloway. Lawrence Weis, George Weis, W. Lupher Hay, Wilbur E. Hague, Al Wharton, Sidney B. Ferris, William A. McDonald, George R. Silcott, Gordon Wendt, Captain Frank E. Hamilton, and George Krambles.

      The recollections and researches of these gentlemen compensated to a considerable extent for the limitation of my own acquaintance with the line, which was necessarily restricted to visits to the property in its freight-only days, and to reverent following of the abandoned right-of-way.

      George W. Hilton

      The Line’s History

      The Marblehead peninsula of Ohio was looked upon by interurban promoters as a rich plum. It was a major vacation and recreation area, dotted with summer cottages and resort hotels. The Ohio Methodist Conference maintained an encampment at Lakeside which attracted summer visitors by the thousands. About 75,000 to 100,000 people per year attended meetings at the encampment or took vacations in and about Lakeside. The peninsula was the jumping-off point for the Lake Erie Islands, which also had a large summer business, and across Sandusky Bay was Cedar Point, yet another major summer resort. Port Clinton, the peninsula’s largest town, had a permanent population of only 3007 (1910), but Sandusky, on the south shore of the Bay, was a city of 19,989.

      In addition, agriculture in the area was mainly devoted to growing fruit, a high rate commodity that the interurbans had little difficulty attracting away from the railroads. Interurban freight service was fast enough that fruit could be shipped short distances without refrigeration at a saving over the rail rates. Port Clinton shipped about $750,000 worth of peaches and grapes per year, and tomatoes were grown throughout the area.

      Finally, the marshy lands west of Port Clinton along the Portage River attracted large numbers of duck hunters every fall. Railroad transportation to the peninsula was no more than adequate. Port Clinton was on the main line of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (New York Central), but the eastern part of the peninsula was reached only by a short line, the Lakeside & Marblehead Railroad, which operated steam trains and, later, gasoline cars, from a connection with the LS&MS at Danbury.

      There were projects to tap the Marblehead Peninsula from the middle 1890’s. The Lakeside Association in 1895 proposed to build an interurban from the Lakeside Encampment through Port Clinton to Fremont and Tiffin. Since there was no direct rail service from Port Clinton to any of the several large towns south of the Bay, the route to Tiffin and Fremont was particularly attractive. Because of the depressed business conditions in the middle 1890’s, the Association was unable to promote its interurban.

      Business conditions began to improve about 1897, and by 1900 America was extremely prosperous. The money market was easy and the reported success of several interurbans in Ohio and Michigan owned by H. A. Everett and E. W. Moore of Cleveland had created a veritable mania of promoting interurban lines. Roads were projected to every part of Ohio, frequently several times over. The proposed Tiffin-Fremont-Port Clinton interurban was revived by no less than three separate promoters, each of whom was reported to be grading a route north from Tiffin in 1901. Judge J. F. Bunn of Tiffin graded a roadbed between Tiffin and Fremont under the name

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