Cleveland railroad history
This is the origination of the Amtrak train name, "The Lake Shore Limited", that still operates through Cleveland in the middle of the night.
The southern leg of the wye was an entity of NYC, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis (referred to as the Big Four).
The line began at Front Street, near Lake Erie, and at various times had a wye track connecting to the New York Central, just a little west of the current Amtrak station building.
The Big Four ran southwest past the present Cleveland Airport area to Galion, where it divided, with one branch running to Columbus and Cincinnati, and the other going to Indianapolis and St. Louis.
The Nickel Plate Road also owned two other lines to the west of Cleveland - the Cloverleaf, and the Lake Erie and Western.
The Erie main line ran from a major division point in Meadville, Pennsylvania to Youngstown, Ohio, and then westward through Akron to Chicago.
was intended to bring the railroads into Cleveland's Public Square, and this benefited the Nickel Plate because it stayed on the higher ground and did not descend to the lakefront.
Only the Pennsylvania Railroad (Cleveland and Pittsburgh) stayed out of this arrangement, retaining their uptown station at East 55th Street and Euclid Avenue.
ran under overhead, or "trolley wire" electrification with heavy P-1a 4-C+C-4 double-ended "motors" equipped with pantographs - the same wheel arrangement that was later used on the famous P.R.R.
The line started at Collinwood on the east end, where the steam locomotives were removed, and ran about 17 miles to Linndale, on the west side.
from the east approach after dieselization, at which time the electrification was removed and the "motors" were sent to work in Grand Central Terminal in New York City, after being converted to third rail operation and designated as P-2b's.
The stub of the Wheeling and Lake Erie connection remained under the Eagle Avenue Viaduct until track removal began in the Penn Central era, but it was never used.
A complicated track structure under the Ontario Street subway allowed CTS eastbound trains to cross above the depressed westbound CTS and Shaker track to proceed eastward, as they ran left-hand until they reached the Northern Ohio Traction junction, where the Shaker Rapid shops were, and the two lines diverged and continued separately.
On the west end, there were two longer stub-end tracks that could hold one switch engine each, but were also used for mail cars under the U.S. Post Office building.
At the extreme west approach, just in from the viaduct, there were two more stub-end tracks that led into the car shop and the wheel lathe house.
coach yard would have been moved to if the Wheeling and Lake Erie and the Pennsylvania Railroad had required their own space in the terminal.
Another short line conglomerate freight system built around in a loop shape near downtown called the Newburgh & South Shore Railroad (N&SS).
Chessie and N&W continued to supply the steel mills with iron ore, and coke - a special type of processed coal.
NS had spun off 16 miles (26 km) of track at this time, and a Class III bought it right up, known as the "Flats Industrial" railroad corporation
The Conrail system also included the former Big Four mainline, as well as the former New York Central Cleveland Short Line, which was a bypass around the congested downtown trackage.
These projects included adding a second track to the 100+ year old Marcy Trestle over the Cuyahoga River, the restructuring of the interchange and diamond between the Big Four and Cleveland Short Line, and the addition of a second mainline track on the Big Four mainline from Berea south to the connection with the CSX (former B&O) Chicago Line at Greenwich, Ohio.
Both of these rail lines handled switching in and around the Cleveland steel mills and Sun Oil distribution center.
The Norfolk Southern system through Cleveland was fairly lean, consisting only of the former Nickel Plate mainline with some industry along the route.
The NS mainline through Lakewood, Ohio was the site of a heated battle between the railroad and the city over noise complaints.
Lakewood features a large number of level grade crossings in very close proximity, each requiring a locomotive horn sounding.
NS also received trackage rights over the Cleveland Short Line from the Harvard Connection west to Rockport Yard.
On May 17, 1990, the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway (1990) began operations over several hundred miles of secondary routes across Ohio previously owned by Norfolk Southern.
In early 2002, the Independent Steel Group reopened the mills in Cleveland and once again requested coke trains from the Wheeling.
In late 2002, the Wheeling began leasing the remainder of the Cleveland line from Glenwillow to the interchange track near CP Harvard to the Connotton Valley Railway.
