LSERy - The Big Move

The BIG Car Move!

Trolleyville, USA -- formally the Gerald E. Brookins Collection of Electric Railways -- began its move from Olmsted Township to Lake Shore Electric Railway's new home in Downtown Cleveland on Tuesday, April 25, in a very BIG way -- aboard a 135-foot-long trailer!

Car 460 was moved to RTA on Tuesday, and they installed a pantograph on it in preparation for the eventual move on RTA's rails to Downtown Cleveland after all seven heavyweights are on RTA property. Car 451 was the next on Wednesday morning. On Thursday morning, CA&E Car 409 -- the heaviest in the fleet, at 103,300 pounds -- was moved to the RTA facility.

The other cars were moved, one a day, until "OX, the former Northern Ohio Traction/Shaker Heights Rapid Transit work car, made the trip to RTA on Wednesday morning, May 3, completing the move of all of the seven heavyweight interurban cars.

Beginning the week of May 15 the remaining 22 streetcars moved to Lake Shore Electric Railway's temporary storage site and museum on Dock 32 on Cleveland's Lakefront, behind the Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Please see the photo montage, below, for scenes of the car loading and moves -- including backing 45 yards of trailer and cab in from Brookpark Rd.!

The move of all of the cars, as well as spare parts, machinery, tools, books, files, and everything else which has been accumulated over more than 50 years, took about 30 days to complete.

On April 6 the first seven cars -- six former Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railway interurbans -- and "OX" the former Northern Ohio Traction/Shaker Heights Rapid Transit work car, were lined up (at right) and ready to leave the Trolleyville site in Olmsted Township.

CA&E 460, (at right) a 1945 St. Louis Car Co., 86,000-pound interurban, was the first car to be moved out on Tuesday, April 25. The "OX" was the last car out on Wednesday. May 3.

These cars are going into secure storage at a Cleveland RTA facility, where they will join two other of our cars which have been there since 2003 when they ran on RTA's "Waterfront Line."

We're storing these cars, all of which are operational, until our own carbarn is built and we can move them there. We may run some of these cars on the "Waterfront Line" and other RTA lines, again this Summer, but details of this still have to be worked out.

It was a very emotional day for many long-time residents of the Columbia Park mobile home community on Monday afternoon, April 24, as CA&E 480 was loaded aboard the trailer. They felt that they were losing good friends, and many of the viewers were teary-eyed to see the cars go. One commented: "One era ends, but another is beginning. I'm glad that the cars are being saved, and I'm looking forward to seeing them running in downtown soon."

The remaining began moving during the week of May 15. They were going to Dock 32 on the Lakefront, just north of the Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Science Museum/IMAX Theater, where they are in safe covered storage, and where they will be available for public viewing.

This group of 22 cars moved out at the rate of two a day, except on weekends) until all are were off the Olmsted Township. site.

Toronto Transit Commission PCC 4602, (left) built in 1952 by Canadian Car & Foundry Co., shown here on April 6 while it was under power and serving as a warm-up car for the volunteers working in the car yard to prepare for the move, was one of the cars headed for Dock 32.

We had our first "open house" at Dock 32 during the "Tall Ships Festival" in July, and the Dock 32 site is open every Saturday and Sunday, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m., until Labor Day.

Moving electric streetcars and interurban of their age and varying condition is an expensive proposition. Lake Shore Electric Railway, not-for-profit corporation, is bearing the cost of the move and development of the storage site to ensure that these cars have a good home until our permanent facilities are ready.

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