I don't know if anybody else has done this, but among my many hobbies, I'm also a bit of a fan of alternate history, so I decided to write up a backstory for my freelance layout of the "Cleveland & Western Railroad". It's based on a lot of real local history and railroads, primarily it's an alternate history version of the NKP's mainline between Lorain & Cleveland which I live near. I'd love to hear what you all think of it, and if you've come up with a backstory for your own freelance layout, please feel free to share! Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the following:
The Cleveland & Western Railroad: A Short History
The genesis of the present railroad was the Rocky River Railroad which was operated between 1869 and 1881 on a single track it started at Bridge Avenue and West 58th Street in Cleveland and ran to the Cliff House, a once-famous tavern that stood near Riverside and Edanola in western Lakewood. There was a turntable behind the Cliff House where the train swung round for the trip back to Cleveland. Most business was passenger in nature with excursionists riding in the summer and fruit and berry pickers who helped area farmers during the fall. It was formed by Mark Hanna, Daniel P. Rhodes, Elias Sims and Ezra Nicholson and cost $160,000 to establish. While profitable in the in the summertime, the railroad fared poorly during the winter months, and its stockholders never earned any dividends.
In 1881, the Rocky River Railroad was bought out by a consortium of local investors, with the intent of constructing a rival railroad to the Lake Shore, Michigan, & Southern Railway, with the intent of connecting either Toledo or Detroit and Cleveland. The railroad was reincorporated as the Cleveland & Western Railroad at this time. Construction began in the spring of 1882, to the east, connecting the old line to the Valley Railway in Cleveland. The old engines of the Rocky River Railroad where used for construction trains during this time, but were shortly thereafter sold off. The new line retained it's Ex-Rocky River coaches , which were soon supplemented by a handful of second hand 4-4-0s and freight cars. The line was also built out towards the west, but construction was slow due to financial difficulties caused by the Panic of 1884. Eventually the line was only completed as far as Lorain, in 1885. In it's later years, the railroad served primarily as a bridge route, between the B&O and the NYC in Cleveland and Lorain respectively. Passenger service was limited and, by the 1950s, reduced to a pair of long distance mail trains and the local Whippoorwill mixed. The service was retained only because it was mandated by the state.
In 1881 a new station was also provided for the township of Whipporwhill, named after the mansion of it's most famous resident, Jared Potter Kirtland. The station was sited at the foot of the hill where the town's namesake residence still stands, and proved to be a busy end point on the railroad. Also during this period, a few miles to the West, a massive bridge was built to span the Rocky River with a depot placed at it's end replacing the old Cliff House as a station stop. Business between the cities of Whippoorwill, Rocky River, and Cleveland would be brisk even deep into the 1950s thanks to commuter traffic and local small industries.
