Cleveland's Mainline Railroads

By the mid-1800s, railroad development was instrumental in enabling Cleveland to surpass rivals and become THE industrial center along Lake Erie.  By 1920, Cleveland was the nation’s fifth-largest city, and was a “big player” in the iron and steel, petroleum-refining, automotive, and chemical industries.  It was second only to Detroit among American cities in the percentage of the population employed by industry.  Railroads brought raw materials needed for manufacturing and carried the finished products to markets everywhere.  The mainline railroads serving Cleveland included the Baltimore & Ohio, the Erie, the NEW YORK CENTRAL, the Nickel Plate Road, the Pennsylvania, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie. Images of Rail: Cleveland Mainline Railroads describes how these six railroads developed and the freight and passenger markets they served through the 1960s. 

Author Bio: Craig Sanders is president of the Akron Railroad Club, and has published five railroad history books.  A resident of University Heights, Sanders teaches journalism and public relations at Cleveland State University.  Most of the more than 200 images in this book are from the special collections of the Cleveland State University Library.