The People's Automobile

Take a fun and picturesque journey through Ohio's interurban past and revisit transportation life as it once was. Hundreds of rare photos from the earliest days of electric rail are published here for the first time. See the birth, heyday and abandonment of interurban lines across the state. Included are photos of the Lake Shore Electric, Southwestern Division, Cleveland & Chagrin Falls and the Cleveland & Eastern Railway systems. From Columbus northward, this exclusive collection is the largest and most unique portfolio ever published. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this book will leave you speechless.


Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most towns and villages around the country had an electric railroad system. Before the invention of the automobile, some 17 million people rode this new form of transportation daily. These machines allowed people to live farther from their homes and jobs, connecting cities and suburbs. Millions used it to visit their entertainment destinations such as Euclid Beach Park, Cedar Point, Luna Park etc. Ohio had one of the best electric rail systems in the country.

The age in which these lines ran was between the 1890's and 1950's. It is the author's desire to rekindle some memories and present Ohio's interurban electric railroad history in a new light.