Is there perhaps someone who has heard of the
C.& L.E Railway. I can not find any referance to this line.
T I A Steve

I think the old interurban line in upper New York State that used to serve the Chautauqua Institute was called the Chautauqua & Lake Erie Railway.

It was a passenger carry interurban line that carried folks from the Pennsylvania RR. line at Maryville NY to the Chautauqua Institute grounds. It termininated in Jamestown, NY as I recall.

I believe it went belly up in the 20's/30's, but that's all based on really fuzzy recollections.

Regards! Mark

Thanks Mark,
Your thoughts lead me to do an internet search which has brought up the "Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad" It began in 1930 by taking over several smaller operations and combining them into one. Their main claim to fame appears to be a number of trolly cars known as red devils that could almost hit 100 mph. Went bust in 1939 due to the depression and competition from cars. Your memory is pretty good. If this is what I am looking for it presents me with several problems. I have obtained a watch with an inscription on the back. "To Patric O'Shea in appreciation of 25 years Loyal service C & L.E.RR." The watch dates to 1916. If it was presented sometime between 1930 and 1940 it would have to have been second hand or very old new stock at the time. Possable I suppose given the times and the fact it is a small company. A budget gold watch perhaps.
Next, how do you give 25 years loyal service to a company that was only around for 10 years. Perhaps he was with one of the companies they took over in 1930. Maybe the inscription is fake but then again if you were going to fake something like that why pick such an obscure railway? Be nice if I could find something on Mr O'Shea. Thanks again for the information.

Hello again,
I found the railway you were thinking about http://wnyrails.org/railroads/jwnw/jcle_home.htm
The name is very close but it has Jamestown at the start so that would give me J.C & L.E RR.
I may never find the answers but it is fun looking for them.

Yep, THAT'S the one I was thinking of!

What's so bad is I OWN an old cancelled ticket from the line, but couldn't lay my hand on it before I replied to your post.

Neat short lines, and they served their purpose quite well while they were in existance. Sadly, we need them today, and the chances of THAT ever happening are slim to none.

As I also recall, a couple of the old Cincinnati and Lake Erie cars were at the Columbus, Ohio 'Ohio Railway Museum', or were last time I was there back in the 80's.

Thanks to you as well Stephen!

HIGH regards! Mark

Hello Mark,
One thing we do have in Melbourne is trams.
They are every where. A zone 1 met card which covers most of the tram lines will cost you about $7 and you can ride the things all day. They do have to contend with traffic but there are a lot of special rules here that tend to give them the right of way. On many inner city intersections you have to do a right hand turn from the extreem left of the intersection. You pull off to the left and then go around when the lights change. It's called a hook turn and is designed to keep cars out of the way of trams. Just remembered you drive on the other side so you will have to turn my explination around. Here is a link you might enjoy. Yarra trams
Steve

I think I found your man!

A RR Man for sure, in Ohio, see the link to where the post will go as soon as I get it sized.

https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=32060...421006492#5421006492

With many thanks to Sheila I can add the following to this thread.
I have a record of Patric O'Shea in 1880 indicating he was one of 5 sons born to an Irish migrant family living in Ohio. 2 were working as break men and he was a track man. He was 21 years old at that time. We next have him in 1910 working as a railway switchman. He has a wife and 5 sons. Three of his sons are working for the railway. My last record of him is in 1920 where he is shown as a widower still working for the railway as a switch man. All his sons are now railway workers. I believe the initials C & L.E.RR stand for Cincinnati and Lake Erie Rail Road which came into being in 1930 after a merging of several smaller lines that had fallen on hard times. I don't know when the watch was presented as it is not dated but the earliest Mr O'shea could have recieved it is 1930 and he would then have been 72 years old. If he got it later he would have been older. Not a bad effort for a switch man and no doudt the reason the company wished to present him with such a gift.
I hope those reading have enjoyed this as much as I have.

Thank you for the link, Stephen.

I was up in my hometown of Portsmouth last week and drove around to see what had changed since my last visit. Since the extremely hot summer, many of the asphalted roads had sunk in the original brick paving brick underneath, and you can now actually see the outlines of the old trolley/interurban rails they paved over that ran from Wheelersburg to Portsmouth until the 1930's Depression killed the road. Instead of pulling the rails, they just covered them, and they're starting to make an apperance again!

Regards! Mark

Hello Stephen and Mark:

Stephen the correct terminology is brakeman, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen were initially called the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen from there formation in 1883 until 1890 when the title was changed to Trainmen. Switchmen formed their own union in 1890 called the Switchmen's Union of North America there headquarters was in Buffalo, New York.

Mark, I recently acquired a collection of Order of Railway Conductors membership cards from 1903 to 1931, while the member spent most of his career working for the Denver and Rio Grande Railway in 1903 he worked for the CO & Y railroad I can find no record of this company, would you have any idea where this route road was located?

Larry

Hello Larry,
Thanks for the correction. Now a question.
I assume the Brakman was the man who walked along the top of the cars and applied the hand brakes when required. This would have been before automatic brakes came into use. The guard stayed in his van at the back and the driver and fireman were at the front on the footplate. The switchman I am not sure about. Was he like a signalman or did he assist the signalman or was he more like a shunter who operated points during shunting operations and coupled and uncoupled cars. I suspect some of these roles changed over the years as operating needs altered.

Hello Stephen

Yes, the brakemen were the men that rode on top of the cars when given a whistle signal from the locomotive engineer (driver). There were two brakemen, one road in the caboose (Van) with the conductor (guard). The other one rode on the engine with the firemen and engineer. (In the early days of the engineers formed the Order of the Footboard, which became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. These brakemen were known as road men as were the engineers, firemen, and conductors. The switchmen
(now called Yardmen) and work strictly in yards switching out (shunting) cars, assembled trains, delivered cars to industrial spurs, the crew would usually consist of one switch foreman, two to four helpers, a Yard engineer, and a Yard fireman. They Yard engineer and firemen usually didn't have enough seniority to hold Road runs, or stayed in the yard on purpose, due to medical, or liking regular shift work. Not like the road men that would be called at any time night or day. Hope this helps you with your questions, and wishing you a Merry Christmas, I just talked to my sister in Perth this evening, and she says it's going to be 38° on Christmas. What a contrast from Canada.

Larry