Six

WHEELING & LAKE ERIE

The history of the Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Cleveland-Zanesville route goes back to the March 9, 1850, chartering of the Carroll County Railroad, which opened in 1853 between Carrollton and Oneida. After a host of financial difficulties and ownership changes, the railroad reached Canton on May 15, 1880, as the narrow-gauge Connotton Valley Railway (CV).

Two months later, the CV began building to Cleveland, reaching Bedford on July 4, 1881. Passenger service to Cleveland began seven months later after the CV completed a bridge over the Cuyahoga River. The CV entered Cleveland from the southeast near Calvary Cemetery and ran in a northeasterly direction, crossing Harvard Avenue; East Ninety-ninth, East Ninety-third, and East Ninety-first Streets; and Broadway and Union Avenues. It ran along the Cuyahoga River to a point near Ontario and Huron Avenues.

Most CV freight was coal delivered to the Cleveland Rolling Mill and Union Rolling Mill. The railway also operated a wharf along the Cuyahoga.

The CV began building south from Canton in 1882, reaching Coshocton in June 1883. An extension to Zanesville was completed in June 1889. The CV had been built with steel rails, not iron, that featured a generous amount of ballast, which drew praise from the Ohio Railroad Commission. The CV built a two-story headquarters and station in Canton, and the Stark County seat donated 46 acres of land on which the CV built locomotive and car shops.

The CV defaulted on its bonds in June 1883 and went into receivership. It emerged on May 9, 1885, as the Cleveland & Canton Railway. On November 18, 1888, the railroad was converted to standard gauge by 1,150 men. It later became the Cleveland, Canton & Southern Railroad.

In July 1890 the CC&S opened an eight-mile branch from Glenwillow to Chagrin Falls. Billing itself the Tip-Top Route, the CC&S fell on hard times when many Cleveland industries switched from coal to natural gas for their furnaces and boilers. The tracks and rolling stock of the CC&S deteriorated, with fewer than half of its 36 locomotives serviceable. The W&LE purchased the CC&S on August 5, 1899, and later moved its executive offices to Cleveland.

The CV’s first Cleveland station was on Commercial Road. A permanent station opened on August 29, 1883, at Ontario and Huron Streets on a bluff known as Vinegar Hill that overlooked the industrial flats of the Cuyahoga River. To reach the station, trains had to twist their way up a wood trestle with the last half mile featuring a 1.6-percent grade. After that station was deemed unsafe, the W&LE spent $8,000 to build a “temporary” Tudor-style depot next door at 2260 Ontario Street. The photograph above shows the depot from the Ontario Street entrance. The depot, which opened on April 1, 1909, was about 1,000 feet from Public Square. The photograph below shows the interior of the depot. Passengers had to descend a stairway to board trains. The flier on the post advertises excursion trains to Wheeling, West Virginia. (Both, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

Above is a track-level view of the W&LE passenger station. The tracks curved to the right of the photograph. Note the door that opens into the freight house just beyond the station. A track led into the building, enabling boxcars to be loaded or unloaded out of inclement weather. The W&LE station stood on land that was needed for the east approach to the CUT. W&LE ceased using the Vinegar Hill depot on January 25, 1929, in favor of the Erie depot. However, the railroad opened its own station on Commercial Road on February 9, 1935, to save on rental fees for using the Erie station and track rental charges to use Erie and NYC tracks. The Vinegar Hill station was razed in April 1929, as shown below. (Both, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

Nos. 32 and 35 were the W&LE’s last passenger trains. They made a daily 304-mile round-trip between Cleveland and Wheeling. Although the original CV route had terminated at Zanesville, Ohio, service to that city had ended by 1932. At one time, there were three round-trips between Cleveland and Canton, but in 1932, the W&LE ended all passenger service except for Nos. 32 and 35. The image above shows the common consist of the trains, which usually were pulled by a 4-4-2 steam locomotive and had a baggage car, railway post office/smoker car, and an observation coach. Above, No. 32 is passing Garfield Park in Cleveland on May 24, 1935. Below, it is shown at the East Ninety-third Street, where the W&LE opened a station in July 1909 to replace another station at Jones Road. (Both, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

In the 1930s, the W&LE passenger fleet shrank to 11 cars and 4 locomotives. Nos. 32 and 35 averaged 6.15 passengers per trip. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in late June 1938 gave the W&LE approval to end these trains, and their last runs were made on July 17, 1938 (above). The Cleveland station sold 350 round-trip tickets at $3.05 apiece, and it was standing-room only after the 8:00 a.m. departure. Some 300 passengers paid a dime to ride across the Ohio River between Wheeling and Martins Ferry, Ohio. The photograph above shows the final trip, which had an expanded consist of five cars. No. 35 returned to Cleveland at 7:05 p.m., 15 minutes late. Pulling the last trip was Atlantic-type No. 2303. It is shown below in Cleveland on July 6, 1936. (Both, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

The W&LE’s first K-1–class 2-8-4 Berkshire locomotives were delivered by Alco in April 1937 and proved to be just as adept at hauling high-speed merchandise freights as they were at handling slow coal drags. The W&LE eventually owned 32 of these locomotives. In this image, No. 6408 has a pair of cabooses in tow as it works in Cleveland in 1938. (Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

The W&LE used its 2-8-2 Mikado locomotives for a range of duties, from lugging heavy mineral trains to yard switching to pulling passenger excursions to baseball games. Based on a USRA design, the 20 locomotives in this class were built in 1918. The W&LE’s Mikados enjoyed a long life, with the last one retired by the NKP in 1956. (Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

In May 1928, the W&LE’s Brewster shops built its first 0-8-0 steam locomotive. Brewster shops built 20 of these switchers, including the 5113, which was completed on July 19, 1929. When released by the shops, the locomotives featured white paint on the main rods, driving wheel tires, running board edges, and poling pockets. Each unit also received a coat of gloss-black Duco paint and gold Delux lettering. (Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

RD Tower was the junction in Cleveland where the W&LE’s Belt Line branch crossed the B&O at a noninterlocked crossing. The Belt Line continued west to a connection with CUT at Knob. The bridge pictured here carries Dennison Avenue over the tracks. The tower is beneath the bridge. There, an operator controlled a target signal governing movements across the diamonds, and flasher signals at four nearby grade crossings. (Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

W&LE predecessor CV completed its line to Bedford, located 12 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland, on July 4, 1881. Until the institution of passenger service to Cleveland on February 21, 1882, CV passengers had to transfer to a C&P train at Bedford to reach Cleveland. The photograph above looks north from the 1882 Bedford passenger station (left). For a time, eight commuter trains operated between Bedford and Cleveland until this business was lost to streetcars and interurban railways. The photograph below is also looking north toward the passenger station. The building on the right above the tank car is the Bedford Town Hall, which dates to 1874. Both photographs show typical scenes along the tracks in the early 20th century, when oil companies and feed mills regularly shipped by rail. The Bedford depot is now owned by the city. (Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.)

The W&LE built a yard at Campbell Road in Cleveland during the 1940s to replace the Mahoning Street Yard, also known as Coal Docks, that had been established by the CV on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River. The Campbell Road Yard featured the seven-stall roundhouse shown in both images on this page. Above, No. 6428, a 2-8-4 Berkshire, rides the 110-foot turntable in October 1949. Sitting in stall No. 7 is NW2 diesel D-2. The W&LE had just a handful of diesel locomotives, all of them switchers. To the right of the roundhouse in the photograph above is 0-6-0 No. 3977. Both photographs were taken shortly before the NKP leased the W&LE on December 1, 1949. Many W&LE steam locomotives continued to carry their W&LE markings through the early 1950s. (Both photographs by John D. Burger.)