The April 22, 2025 presentation by the James A. Garfield Historical Society featured Dan Rager, writer and researcher and storyteller about the Northeast Ohio history of transportation, namely, the Interurban Railway/Electric Transportation systems across the area. These included the Cleveland & Chagrin Falls Interurban, the Cleveland & Eastern Railway, the Baltimore & Ohio Lake Branch, and even others which met abrupt financial distress and disintegration. Basically, the fact that roads and bridges for everyday use were so bad meant that folks made every effort to get places–especially over long distances–by some sort of locomotive; milk had to be shipped, people wanted to enjoy an amusement park, business was all about going places–hence the electric train lines all over NEOhio. Power plants were dotted along the lines,, car barns and battery barns were found along the tracks, plans were originated and abandoned, the busiest stop was at Hiram (college students coming and going?), Garrettsville was the farthest point in the connection. The flood of 1913 took out many of the connections and was the “beginning of the end”. Many tales were told about what happened both on and off the trains–passengers having to push the cars up the hill when the power was deficient, “bad boys” putting a cow in a car overnight, etc. By 1925 the era of he interurban was over; abandonment and salvage came next. The stories live on and Mr. Rager( as well as local writer Scott Lawless) was informative and entertaining in his narrative. His books (Ohio’s Interurban Railroad History, Portrait of the B&O Lake Branch et al) were available for purchase, refreshments were served, attendees got to ask questions and tell tales which they had heard from old-timers.
‘Twas a fine evening. Watch for more sponsored by the JAGHS.
