During the late 1800's and early 1900's, before the advent of the automobile and well-paved roads, Americans constructed hundreds of electric interurban railways. These railways moved people and merchandise to and from small towns and cities where before this had been a difficult task.

Ohioans built the largest network of interurban lines in the nation. Between the peak years of 1914 to 1918, Ohio contained roughly 2,800 miles of interurban track. But as automobiles, buses and trucks became affordable and popular, they competed successfully with interurban railways to the extent that most of them went out of business by the close of the 1930's, if not earlier.

The subject of our book, The Toledo, Port Clinton & Lakeside Railway, was a medium sized interurban serving Northwestern Ohio. It was an unusually long-lived member of its breed. Whereas the average interurban lasted about 10 or 20 years, the TPC&L was active at least in part for 54.

The line carried a great volume of passengers in its early days--as did all interurbans--but Henry Ford's introduction of the Model T combined with America's passion for individual transportation soon began to take its toll, and thus freight soon became a sustaining commodity.

The TPC&L generated its own electricity in a day when household electrical service was rare and became the first provider of electricity to several of the small towns along its right-of-way.

The TPC&L operated under four different names during its existence. After its 1906 completion by the original corporation, it was sold in 1912 to an electric company and renamed The Northwestern Ohio Railway & Power Company. It again changed hands in 1924 when the Ohio Public Service Company took over. And finally, it operated from 1945 to 1957 as The Toledo & Eastern Railroad.

The most striking aspect of the TPC&L is probably its longevity. It carried passengers until 1939--the last interurban to use Toledo's interurban station--and didn't shut down until 1958, when it would have been difficult to find the even the former roadbed of many larger and better known lines. As the author of our book puts it: "By the standards of any other industry, 54 years would not have been a long life span, but for an interurban it was exemplary."