Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway

The company was founded and initially financed by a group of successful Toledo, Ohio businessmen led by Theodore Schmitt, who became the firm's first president and invested a substantial proportion of his own money into the venture.

Power was provided by the railway's own power-house constructed at Port Clinton, which had a capacity well in excess of that needed for the line.

The new ownership invested to improve the railway's freight business, in new cars, and in building new shops and headquarters in Oak Harbor.

Without the heavy debt load of the original company, the railway turned a regular if small profit in most years.

Service levels were cut to only six departures from Toledo a day from a high of fourteen as the Great Depression hit; only three of these travelled the whole line.

The Toledo streetcar line decided in 1939 to abandon the Starr Avenue route through which the now OPS's cars entered the city.

Rather than cut back service to the edge of town, the company decided that ridership levels were insufficient to continue passenger operation.

Local scrap dealer L.P. Kulka purchased the line and began to operate it as the Toledo and Eastern Railroad.