Nostalgia & History > Terminal Tower Thursday: CUT

No, not Cinci -- the real CUT, Cleveland Union Terminal. CUT had all of the ingredients that for me make a really great passenger station: electrification and a cojoining suburban system. All it really needed was more trains, at least when I saw it. Here's some shots from the fall of 1967:
1) The west side
2) The east side
3) One of their switchers

To be continued.....

SZ

---

---

---

Some additional shots of the eastern approach:
4) Did the powerplant also provide the 3000 vdc ?
5) Further east, w/ the LH running SHRT
6) An N&W freight on their ex-NKP line

Best rgds, SZ

---

---

---

Great series! Cleveland's a fascinating place and was really hopping years ago. Do you have any shots of NKP passenger trains, there?

Got any shots of that steel mill?

Interesting stuff. My mother's family lived there and I remember riding the PCC cars on the Shaker Rapid Transit. I was always intrigued with all the varied railroad activity observed on SRT trips
to the downtown station.

Regards, Jim Evans

Being from Cleveland (Nottingham area), and having returned there for many summers after our family moved to California, I was delighted to see your post.

Cleveland State University has an excellent Cleveland Union Terminal web site. http://www.clevelandmemory.org/cut-coll/

I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

Following is the Library of Congress record for an interesting book about CUT.

LC Control No.: 2004298208
LCCN Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004298208
Type of Material: Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name: Grasso, Jack.
Main Title: Operation CUT-- the first 30 years : the story of the rail operations out of Cleveland Union Terminal in "railroading’s golden age" / by Jack Grasso.
Variant Title: Operation Cleveland Union Terminal-- the first 30 years
Published/Created: Flanders, NJ : RAE Pub., c2003.
Description: 72 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 72).
Subjects: Cleveland Union Terminal (Cleveland, Ohio) --History.
Railroads --Ohio --Cleveland --History.
Railroad terminals --Ohio --Cleveland --History.
LC Classification: TF25.C6 G73 2003
Dewey Class No.: 385/.260977132 22

OCV

Thanks for these other "CUT" photos. Cleveland is sadly
neglected in the world of the railfan, outpaced by
Cincinnati.

Photo #1, with the "West Park" destination makes it after
1961. I rode to and from the Terminal Tower, CUT, many
times in 1964 and 1965 when I was working downtown. Got
on at 117th Street, lived in Lakewood, and it was always
a great ride although I can count on the thumbs of one hand
the times I saw rail movements during these journeys. Never
had any luck with that. Standing at the station is another
story.

Perhaps we should note that SHRT and CTS both ran left handed
east of CUT. I never heard the reason for this although I assume
it was to cut down the area needed for the stations.

Thanks for posting these, enjoyed all of them.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion,IA

Excellent !!!!!!!!! never saw the angle from the east end,,, thank you,,
now as has been asked how about that Steel mill.. US STEEL made in Cleveland,,, OHIO !!!

To answer a few questions:
1) No, I was too late for the NKP passenger trains; sorry.
2) I don't think I took any steel mill shots from this angle; but I did take some from the Clark-Pershing Viaduct [ name from memory ] on another trip; will try and dig those out.

Best, SZ

Thanks for bringing back some Cleveland memories and giving me some new insight into Cleveland railroading.
Bob

Thanks for the great pictures. Too bad the place is an abomination nowdays. Rails need not apply. I went to CUT in 1974 to ride the EL Lake Cities commuter train. The only thing happening at 5pm when the train left,was
a guy went into the tower and turned on the dwarf signals, then the train left and all was quiet again. I rode out to the first station and took a bunch of slides which I still have. Maybe I will post them here later. The train consisted of a EL F unit, and three modern coaches. It was a ball to ride out of CUT. If anyone has any current pictures of the former track area, please post for us to look at. Thank you, Charles



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/11 17:21 by cforssi.

Beautiful! BTW guys, there are plenty of Clevo railfans with pictures, they're just not posting here. I'll see if I can do something about that.

These are wonderful photos. I look forward to more of them.

I have the Jack Grasso book mentioned by Charles Varnes. It's a nice book covering CUT's operations.

I also have a more recent book published by the Cleveland Landmarks Press in 2005 - James A. Toman and Daniel Cook, "Cleveland's Towering Treasure - A Landmark Turns 75." This book covers the role of the Brothers Van Sweringen, construction of CUT, architectural highlights, surrounding buildings and transformation to the hotel and retail complex.

Here's a link with more information about the book:

http://clevelandlandmarkspress.com/bookDetail.aspx?bookID=70

I first visited Cleveland in 1977 to ride the "heavy" rapid transit line, the Shaker Heights lines, and the Columbia Park & Southwestern museum operation in Olmstead falls. This was when the Shaker Heights line was still running 3-car PCC trains and had two ex-Illinois Terminal double enders rented from museums. What was really impressive was taking the "heavy" (now Red Line) rapid transit to the Airport. From there I took a taxi to Olmstead Falls. Note "rapid transit to the Airport." Cleveland was one of the few places in the US where one could take a "train to the plane" 35 years ago. Los Angeles STILL hasn't accomplished this. One of the peculiar things about the Cleveland airport line is that it uses overhead power pickup, unlike most "heavy" rapid transit operations. Also, for a few miles it shares track and wire with the "light rail" to Shaker Heights.