Passengers load at Toledo in 1939
Introduction
During the late 1800's and early 1900's, before the advent of the automobile and well-paved roads, Americans constructed hundreds of electric interurban railways. These railways moved people and merchandise to and from small towns and cities where before this had been a difficult task.
Unlike steam railroad equipment, interurban passenger and freight cars received power for movement from electric wires suspended above the track. A small rolling wheel under spring tension (the "trolley") conveyed the electricity from the wire to the car's electrical system. Electric power plants constructed by interurbans to power their equipment were often the first to provide electrical service to the small towns they served.
Ohioans built the largest network of interurban lines in the nation. Between the peak years of 1914 to 1918, Ohio contained roughly 2,800 miles of interurban track. But as automobiles, buses and trucks became affordable and popular, they competed successfully with interurban railways to the extent that most of them went out of business by the close of the 1930's, if not earlier.
This is the story of the Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway. Serving Northwestern Ohio, it was an unusually long-lived, but typically financially-unhealthy member of its breed. The TPC&L was active at least in part for 58 years in an industry where the average lifespan of a participant was a mere 10 or 20.
Credits
All of the information for this Web presentation comes from the research of Professors George W. Hilton and Douglas V. Shaw. I have simply reorganized their hard work. I am enormously grateful to them.
This compilation is copyright 1996 by Dean K. Fick.
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Author: Dean K. Fick.,
based on research by George W. Hilton and Douglas V. Shaw.
Last update: December 24, 1996.
URL: http://www.scott.net/~dean/TPCLtop.html