Street Car Crash in 1914

I will probably stray from the bike riding portion of this blog, especially in the Wintertime every once in awhile. This is one of those times. The Lake Shore Electric Railway was a Street Car system that ran from Cleveland to Toledo and operated from 1901 to 1938. This system was later replaced by buses. The reason I wanted to touch on this topic is because it played a major part in my area's history and a lot of the remnants of the street car system can be found on my local bike routes. I will go more in depth during the riding season, but here is the start of my endeavor to visit some of these important sites that seem so mundane now-a-days. Come with me back in time.

West Erie Avenue Undergrade at Norfolk and Southern RR Tracks, Lorain (Taken from my car this morning)

Same undergrade, taken from the opposite direction in 1926. My car would have been coming right at the camera on the left side of the picture where the street car tracks are. In 1950, 12 years after the LSE was shut down the road was widened to 4 lanes. (picture is copyright Ralph Sayles)

In 1914 LSE Car 7 derailed, killing 2 people, one passenger and one motorcyclist. This picture was taken from the NS tracks above the undergrade facing  the same direction my car was traveling this morning. (copyright Albert C. Doane)

Not the motorcyclist that was killed, but this is what a 1914 motorcycle looked like. (J.R. Eike)

My car would have looked something like this in 1914, except it would have the top up because it was -5 degrees outside (Rory Carroll)