The old interurban railway system hasn't received much attention on this blog for a while. To help make up for this grievous oversight, here's a great article from the Feb. 27, 1956 Lorain Journal. It tells of a special reunion of four Southwestern interurban motormen that was held on the 25th anniversary of the last run of the line.
The four veteran motormen – Tom Ferron, Edward Wilcox, Tom Marsh and Harry Searles – enjoyed themselves at a celebration in Oberlin that featured a special display of interurban relics prepared by Norman C. Muller. Muller was the owner of the Arlington Traction Company, featured in a series of posts on this blog.
A special cake with a 3-by-5-foot oval track complete with scale replica interurban cars was prepared by Harold Gibson of the Gibson Bros. Bakery.
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Here are a few Lorain Journal articles that ran at the time that the Cleveland Southwestern went out of business.
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| Jan. 30, 1931 |
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| March 28, 1932 |
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| May 24, 1932 |
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| May 25, 1932 |
What a wonderful, and sad, post. My parents (b 1915 & 1922) told us stories of interurban cars of their childhoods (you could go from here to Niagara Falls, if you wanted to). My sweetheart's great-grandpa was a motorman on one that ran between Clarksburg, WV and Pittsburgh, PA - 110 miles over rivers, hills, and through tunnels.
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I have his honest-to-goodness railroad watch. It still keeps perfect time. As long as you remember to wind it.
Great material, Dan. I enjoyed reading it. The interurbans predate me, although I did ride on streetcars in Cleveland when I was young. Or so I was told - I wasn't old enough to remember the experience.
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