PC: Cleveland Union Terminal

[Philip.Kuhl@xxxxxxx]

Hmm.  This old Clevelander doubts that there was ever any overhead RAIL on
the Cleveland Union Terminal system.  That system used overhead wire
(catenary) exclusively, and its electric locomotives had normal pantographs.

For the non-Clevelanders:  Cleveland's Union Terminal (aka Terminal Tower;
now Tower City) was opened in 1930 and it forbade the use of steam
locomotives inside the Terminal.  A wholly-owned New York Central
subsidiary, the Cleveland Union Terminal Company, operated the terminal
trackage.  It had an electrified line for a few miles both to the east and
west of the Terminal, and NYC (and other) steam powered passenger trains
would swap their steamers for a CUT motor for the trip into the Terminal and
then, if a through train, swap to another steamer at the other end of the
CUT electrified line.  Passenger trains that did not stop in Cleveland, such
as the "20th Century Limited," did not use the CUT line but took the NYC
"freight" line on the immediate south shore of Lake Erie, the route now used
by Amtrak's "Lake Shore Limited" and on which Amtrak's Cleveland station is
located.  The CUT also operated a few Geeps, lettered "Cleveland Union
Terminal." The need for electric operation dropped rapidly after the Second
World War with the progressive introduction of diesels, and CUT's electric
operation stopped and the wires were taken down in 1953 -- but the last time
I checked (about 1987) the catenary supports were all in place still!  The
motors were transferred to Harmon, rebuilt for third-rail operation, and
continued on into Penn Central days.  CUT as a company soldiered on and I
assume, but do not know, that it fully merged into Penn Central.

Phil
Philip.Kuhl -AT- ping.be