Quarries and a Ghost Town: the Abandoned Euclid Railroad
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- Опубликовано: 30 апр 2021
- The Euclid Railroad was in operation from 1883-1967 hauling Bluestone and other freight commodities between South Euclid and Euclid, Ohio. Ever since it was abandoned it is slowly being reclaimed by nature.
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Sources used in this video were from: the South Euclid/Lyndhurst Historical Society, the Euclid Historical Society and Museum, Cleveland State University Special Collections, Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society, Bluestone Heights, RailsandTrails.com, Library of Congress, and the National Archives.
#euclidrailroad
I grew up on Catalpa Road, the first street to the west of the railroad. My street dead-ended at the Nickel Plate Road. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, my buddies and I would often walk along the tracks of the Euclid Railroad, play along and in Green Creek and explore the wilderness that was hidden amid the city that it traversed. It was like a lost world and quite mysterious. Often, our imaginations would conjure up a sighting of wild animals such as bears and cougars. Of course, the only animals were squirrels, raccoons, chipmunks and birds. We didn't care though. We KNEW what we saw or more often heard and it scared the bejesus out of us. Sometimes my uncle would go with me down to the Nickel Plate mainline where the Euclid Railroad began and wait for the steam switch engine to pull onto the spur. With the big-eyed, pleading look of a young boy who was fascinated by trains, I would make eye contact with the engineer. More often than not, Uncle Dutch and I were invited up into the locomotive's cab to ride the short distance up to Euclid Avenue where the train would stop until a trainman could halt traffic to allow the little train to cross and we could get off. To a young boy, THAT was heaven. By 1953, when I began Junior High School, my interest in the lost world of Green Creek had been by replaced by exciting new adventures and I stopped going for hikes along its banks. I'm 80 years old now but the memories of those golden days of youth with my buddies, my uncle and my dog still warm my heart. Jim Schenk
wonderful.
My family lived on Lowden Road in South Euclid from 1968 -1978. One block west was glenridge and south green (glenridge shopping center). As kids, we often went to the drugstore for candy. Just north of the shopping center was a vacant lot and paths that led behind the shopping center. I was about 10 and I went with a friend to explore the paths. They led to railroad tracks. We started to follow the tracks north for what felt like hours. Whenever we saw someone, we asked where we were. They always responded "green road." We called that our green road railroad tracks adventure. We never knew where these abandon tracks led. Almost 50 years later, the mystery is solved. I can now tell that friend we were on the Euclid railroad tracks. I've often wondered about those tracks from five decades ago.
My friend and I rode out bikes from Colonnade rd. in Cleveland to the woods behind a apartment building and looked all over the woods found the tracks and some foundations of old buildings.
Was in that area behind the houses on Green Road recently, looks like the tracks are gone but it’s still very clear where the tracks would have been.
The stone sidewalks were so smooth. I loved roller skating on them. There were only about 1/2 of the sidewalk left of the stone on our street in the early 1950's.
Allan Ferritto here. HAUNTED VILLAGE!! Lived on Bluestone right at the edge of the woods/St. Margaret Mary field. When a young boy, I would dig looking for granite rocks ( I am a geology freak) at the edge of our back yard/where the woods began, and I would find porcelain pill bottles. At 10 years old I never knew the significance. Never heard of the Village until the 1980's. What a shame, only plaque I know of is at strawberry pond. Maybe because its history was not that long ago, not ancient, especially to a boy living in 1968 South Euclid.
But...just as interesting as its history, is that I and a couple others, ( my friend and my sister/brother) experienced paranormal events in the woods at night, and one at home. One experience was in my basement, as my sister, brother, and I were playing down there. I turned to see a face the likes of which I have never seen before staring at us through the basement window. The face had the largest blackest eyes and just stared without a blink. Needless to say we ran upstairs. I never saw it again. Another one: While walking up through the woods with a friend, around 1973, age 14, a growling sound, so evil, like in the movies. I kid you not. We stopped, looked at each other in amazement, took another step and it growled again. We quickly walked out to the open church field. We knew it was not a real dog. But we did not know what it was. Dogs, as far as I know, do not wait patiently in wooded areas, in the black of night, just in case two young teenagers walk through a path near them, so they can scare them, do they?
Another one, at night hanging at the far rear yard at my house near the edge of the woods with a solitary friend. All of a sudden we could hear something running out of the woods towards us ( we were still on the lawn but at the very edge near the woods) tree branches were swaying up about 10 feet above ground and branches were breaking underfoot. We ran so fast across the street and kept an eye on the house (by that time, 1973, dad had passed and mom was in the house alone). But we saw nothing else. This moving energy force has no apparent physical presence, so it seemed. When I and my friends were a little older we would walk through the woods and hang out in it at night. I never experienced anything odd when with a larger group. But as the years passed, mom stayed there until 2005, almost 50 years to date. By then I was 47 and would never walk in her back yard at night alone, let alone in those woods. Only well after those experiences did I know about the village. Knowing that mining towns bred drinking, violence, shootings, among mining accidents, no wonder there is an energy there. Trust me folks its there, you just have to hang around long enough right in the area to experience it. The "hauntings" I experienced although never resulted in physical harm but it seemed it or they, or whatever it was, would have been willing to cause physical harm. Think of what must have gone on there over a period of 50 years or so. I am not an overly superstitious person and I never feel sensitive to "unseen powers". In fact, just the opposite. So if I experienced this, I felt, it must mean something. There are historical accounts that said there were deaths and accidents there and they would ring a bell during an emergency. I know folks died somewhere around and behind what is know the house my family lived in , among others, especially on the side of the street that borders that small section of woods. There could be bones in those woods. But for sure there is an energy there, and my experiences with it showed it to be not very inviting.
Great and historically informed video! Still hike the remote areas in Euclid Creek today and find evidence from the quarry and/or the CCC days.
Hiked with my father and brothers the Euclid Railway, back in 1968 (I was aged 6), from Euclid Ave to Glenridge and back. Most of the rails and tracks there except a few washed-out areas. (Ate lunch afterwards at the nearby Kenny Kings on Euclid Ave, adjacent to the the GM Fisher Body Plant.)
Hiked again in 1986 with my brother, same, along the Euclid Railroad right-of way from Euclid Ave to Glenridge and back. Most of the ties and rails were gone though at that time.
I do remember the “cement mixer” business that was on Glenridge and Green too, “Collinwood Cement?” as a tike.
Again, great video!👍👍
Thank you! It was called the South Euclid Concrete Company.
First off as a lifelong Clevelander/grew up & live on the east side I love your vids. I was on Green Rd about 18 months ago w/my daughter right near Will Landscaping. I saw an old piece of track on the road that the concrete didn't quite cover. I spent a few moments trying to figure out what the hell a railroad track would have been doing this far up the hill from Euclid Ave and now I know, lol. Keep up the fine work!!
WOW! I grew up on Miami Road in Euclid. Moving into the new community of Indian Hills in 1957. The Euclid line ran along the backyards of our neighbors across the street. The trains were still running fairly regularly when I was a kid in the 1960s. The last time I recall hearing a train rumbling down toward the ravine was probably when I was in high school around 1975. A friend of mine who lived up the street actually went to the effort of cutting and pulling up the rails to sell as scrap. My mother wrote a history of Euclid for the Euclid Historical Society. I’ll have to dig out the book and see what she wrote about the railroad. She lived in our Miami Road house until her death a few years ago. Thank you for this video. I never imagined I’d find something on RUclips so close to home.
A lot of us played in the "ravine" but it was still like your own secret place if only you and your best pals were there. We would cut a vine and swing across the creek, we would test it's strength first by hanging three of us on it
Great story! I'll bet, it's a very secluded area.
I grew up in Lyndhust and I had lots of friends who lived near Euclid Creek. All of us attended Anderson Elementary School, now gone. In the mid 60's those tracks were all there but unused, we "discovered" them one day and walked quite a ways towards Euclid Ave. Euclid Creek Park was our stomping grounds. We loved the creek, the bluestone quarry near Anderson Rd., scaling Mount Baldy, and skipping shale across the water. We knew the park well, but as kids we didn't care about history. I do now, and thank you so much for this well researched video, now I know what the tracks were for!
That looks like my Dad on the left side of the engine on your front cover. He was a conductor on this run, alternating with my Godfather Mr. McHugh. Slim Newrones was often the engineer and one of Switchman/Brakeman was Joe Bluechek. I do not recognize the man standing on the right hand side. The engine and crew were called for the Euclid run out of Ivanhoe Yard, North of Euclid Avenue but South of Collinwood Hich School. This was a very “minor” run as the main customers for NKP here were Towmotor Corp., Murray Bicycle, General Electric, Eaton Yale and Towne on London Road and the Gould Battery Plant close to where Euclid Railroad tracks started on the main line. I was fortunate as a boy to get cab rides on this line, it was a long slog uphill. The highlight for me as a kid was walking the line and half way down the line from Monticello to Euclid was the abundance of wild rasperberries and blackberries that I picked nearly every year. I grew up on Belvoir Boulevard just south of Bluestone but I went to Saint Margaret Mary which was at the corner of Belvoir and Bluestone. My neighbors were Dr. Frank Ryan, Paul Wiggins and later Paul Warfield. A special place for all kids was 250 feet from where the Euclid Railroad crossed Euclid Avenue just east of Green Road, do you remember it? Also South Euclid dump was across S. Green road from EOT and first area bowling alley was cattycorner across Monticello.
This reply certainly got my attention: It seems JCalOhio must practically bleed Nickel Plate! I know I do, and I only lived next door to it in East Cleveland on Northfield Avenue during the 1950's. I first saw the Euclid RR when we travelled east on Euclid Avenue and crossed it. Later, in 1960 we moved to Cleveland Heights two streets from Bluestone Road. Consequently, I came to learn the history of my neighborhood, which even in the early 1960's seemed a long time past, though it really wasn't. BTW, we worshipped at St. Margaret Mary, too! My dad worked at Towmotor, my beautiful bike came from Murray-Ohio, my aunt worked at General Electric, and you're the first person I've seen spell Towne correctly in years! I sure envy your cab rides and your NKP lineage.
In 1965 I had a summer job at the Gent Machine Company on the corner of Green and Glenridge Roads. One day one of the very last, if not THE last, trains on this line was at work switching for the company just north of us. The usual NKP switch engine was shoving back and forth before it crossed Glenridge finally and shambled down the ravine and probably into history. As a young railfan who knew how little use this line saw, I knew what I was witnessing and I remain grateful for the memory.
Bravo! and thank you Railroad Street for a fine video which is immeasurably bettered by the good use of the right maps.
May I second the request for a video on the Cleveland & Eastern interurban line?
@@heightsbandsman4304 it is a small world! My Aunt Helen and my Sister Kathy worked at the GE plant, My Uncle lived on the corner of Coit and Wemple and you could see into one of the Towmotor plants from his front porch. Unfortunately, my father was hurt in a derailment in 1960 switching Murray Ohio but recovered. He went on to own the Pure gasoline station across from the East Cleveland Farmers Market.My brother worked summers thru college as a clerk at 55th Street Yard for NKP. Now I live in South Carolina near original Southern mainline out of Charleston. The store on Euclid Avenue was Weber's Chocolates!
I lived in that area several years.
Euclid Park Collinwood area, then Lancaster Road between Belvoir and Green, then Richmond Heights by Highland and Trebisky. One night got busted by my parents friend for sneaking out of the house at night with my bicycle. Went behind houses on east side of Green road at Lancaster then followed tracks north to Euclid. Cut over and went up some big hill and ended up on Miami in Indian Hills. Visited an old friend from Endora who was
living with his Grandmother at the time. He snuck out too. Needless to say upon returning was busted and Tony and Jeanne were not happy.
Used to hang in the woods north of Glen ridge machine and Glastic corp. My Dad worked at Glastic. Had many friends who lived around the tracks and several who lived on Bluestone itself.
Fascinating video!
#BigAl
I was born in Euclid and didn't know about this. I'd love to find more local stuff in NE Ohio to check out.
Thanks for filling in a lot of gaps I had. Incidentally, my grandmother lives in the Bluestone neighborhood.
Wow this is probably the best thing I’ve seen on this railroad. I had a book with a picture of this railroad but I could never find any information on it. Thank you a lot for posting!
Thanks! That means a lot to me, glad you enjoyed it. Which book are you referring to? The only publications covering the Euclid Railroad that I am aware of were published in the Spring 1987 and Fall 2012 Nickel Plate Road Magazine.
@@RailroadStreet I’m sorry but I don’t know where it went. It was on the cover of the book and it looked similar to the picture you used in the thumbnail. If I ever find it I’ll let you know
@@northernohiorailfanningpro8899 Ah I know which book that is. It's called "Cleveland Mainline Railroads" by Craig Sanders.
@@RailroadStreet Yep I’m pretty sure that’s the one!
@@RailroadStreet Also, my Grandparents actually run the Euclid Historical Society, I got the chance to see them earlier today and asked them if they had somebody come in asking about the Euclid Railroad within the last month or so, and they said they did. I put it on the TV and they were very impressed with your work.
Very informative video. I love obscure railroad history. I'm always pointing out traces of old rail lines and their bridges or abutments to my granddaughter. So history can survive.
Thanks so much for researching this subject and making this great video!
This was very informative! I enjoyed this a lot. Very well done!
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the video!
This is so cool. My grandparents lived on Glenridge and I am just young enough to remember trains on the crossing, and then the rails still being there for a while before they paved them over. I didn't know anything about the history so thank you.
Very interesting. Grew up in Euclid, with a railroad buff, father and never knew about this. Thanks for sharing
I grew up on Miami Rd. and the "ravine" behind our house was home to the Euclid RR. As kids we knew it as the Nickel Plate RR spur. The RR ran every day, on rare occasions twice. Once up, and later in the day, back down the ravine to Euclid Ave. The ravine at our house was about 70 feet deep. We played down there all the time. We made a fort out of the tunnel that the RR built where the tracks went from the east side to the west side of the creek. We put pennies on the tracks and reaped the flattened results after the train would go by. In our early years, the 50s, there was a RR guy perched on the last freight car, for what purpose... we figured it was to keep us kids away. Probably had a much more practical reason. By the 1960, that person was gone. By the early 60s, the train was no longer running. We think the construction companies on Green Road were getting deliveries by trucks instead of by train. The ravine and tracks were a nice shortcut down to Euclid avenue and the shopping center at Green and Euclid. The drug store there sold baseball cards, with a slab of bubble gum, for 5 cents a pack.
This was a very nice video which brought back many memories.
Played there on Euclid creek all through the 60s and 70s . Great doc thanks
Well done. Enjoyable to watch
Very enjoyable!
Thanks for posting!
This story is so captivateing!
Must have been shortly before abandonment, 1960-ish, the Plain Dealer Sunday magazine ran a photo story about the railroad. They had a pretty fancy private car or caboose up near the cement plant.
I lived on the cul-de-sac on Waynoka Road in Euclid 1959-1970. No A/C in the house in those days, so my bedroom windows, which faced west, were open all summer. When I was in the room, I could hear and see the trains slowly working up and down that line. It wasn't a frequent occurrence, so I always watched. There are a couple of photos of the Euclid railroad in Roy Larick's excellent book "Euclid Creek", part of the "Images of America" series published by Arcadia Publishing.
Fascinating. Thanks for posting.
Awesome video!!!! Thanks. :)
Great channel!
I grew up next to Euclid Creek. I can remember hearing the train horns as they crossed Glenridge. The dunnage used to secure the lumber shipments were a source of lumber for the many forts we built in the woods of our back yards overlooking the park. It was an enchanted place to grow up.
Hi Bob, it's been a while! How lucky to have Euclid Creek in your back yard! I had to walk from the end of Case Ave in Lyndhurst to spend a day at Euclid Creek with my friends! Like you said, it was a special place and time to grow up. I always visit the park when I'm in town.
Hi Bob, Its been a long time. I do hikes in Euclid Creek. Interested?
One of my favorite parks in the Cleveland Metroparks.
Great content, keep up the good work
used to go to Prince pharmacy as a kid and go behind the shopping center and walk the tracks for what seemed miles looking for old beer cans for my collection still have every old flat top beer can to this day!
Cool information I grew up off 185th And was always exploring Euclid Creek as a kid Late as a Adult I always wondered about this old line I seen on Maps 👍 Glad I saw this Video
No way I weekly do a delivery to Roechling Glastic composites, the building the occupys where the railroad went through at the end. Had no idea
The tracks would have run where the west driveway is currently. If you follow the drive north into the woods you can still clearly see where the tracks would have been
Alot of blue stone was used for sidewalks even steps porches it was all over west side of Cleveland back when most streets were red brick pavers back when Cleveland had character and old school charm
_Alot_ is a town in India. _A lot_ is more than one of something.
That was excellent!
I played on this track when trains were still running on it . many years ago I walked up the.line and located about 50 yards of track that had been buried under falling soil . I believe it's still there and towards winter of this year I'm going to see if it's still uncovered so stay tuned one section of track is still there !!
Keep me posted! Definitely curious to know if it's still there.
@@RailroadStreet I'M SURE THE TRACK IS STILL THERE WITH TEARS IN MY EYES I WATCHED THEM REMOVE THE TRACK . THE SECTION OF THE TRACK THAT THEY COULDN'T GET IS ABOUT EVEN WITH THE TOP OF GREEN ROAD HILL . THE HILL ABOVE THE RAILS COVERED THE TRACK WITH SOUL AS IT SLID DOWN TOWARD THE CREEK. I WENT BACK ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO THIS SECTION OF TRACK WAS UNCOVERED AND IN GOOD SHAPE
Cool video brother thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise I would love sure to get some of them spikes typlats and track I enjoy making Anvils out of the old rails A useful piece of time travel once old is reclaimed an new
I’ve been watching too many scp videos.
But anyway, this is an amazing video. Very informative and well put together
This is amazing history! I lived here as a child and never heard this story.
Well done!
Very cool history !
I grew up in Euclid...there is a Euclid sign at 7:35 into the video...it is a bit hard to make out...but I remember a sign like that at E. 185 as you entered Euclid...I think it read: Euclid...Friendly City...Traffic Laws Enforced...I am 81 years old...fantastic video...what we remember as we age...thank you for sharing...
Amazing video. I have wandered through that area knowing it used to be a quarry, but not that there was a town and infrastructure around it. Its sad that people would rather let things rot away than have a park acknowledging the history for future generations . That often seems to be the attitudes here in NEO. People just want things to never change and just waste away for whatever reason. The metroparks have done amazing work connecting the "emerald necklace", revitalizing edge water as well as many other green spaces. I hope some day they could take this land and memorialize it. A path walking through this would be not just educational but step into the past.
There is a large segment of track sticking out of the ground along the creek just north of the Anderson Road bridge.
Good video! I enoyed it :D
Amazing.
Nice!
I grew up just west of Noble Road in Cleveland Heights, and after the swimming pool at Denison Park was built in the mid-late 60's (it took a while to build - as I recall, there was a big scandal because the contractor put too much sand in the concrete mix and it wasn't strong enough - I remember jumping the construction fence, as boys will, to look at the dry pool and there was sand all over the place - you could scuff your feet on the concrete and the sand would come out - I believe someone went to prison for that, and the whole thing had to be busted out and re-built) I'd ride my bike down Bluestone Road to get there in the summer. Great place to cool off. Now the pool is long gone, although the locker room building which was put up at the same time as the pool is still there.
I had an idea that the line was being brought back to serve those industries.
Idk why I clicked this, it was great video and very well structured, but why on earth was I expecting some SCP stuff, anyways if recommended does what I think it will I hope everyone who sees this has a great day
As a young boy, I lived in Euclid. My brother and I played in the Euclid Creek.
I grew up in south Euclid..
You should do a video about the Long Island Railroad and how it has evolved over the decades. Would be nice to see. Hopefully before the turntable in Greenport rusts away into nothing.
Rally sad how they just abandoned it like that, I think the walking trail would've been a wonderful idea at least they could've fixed it up a bit for safety
Indian Hills Senior Community, that brings back memories.
It is now the Indian hills black community
would the process still be about the same if a RR company wanted to apply to abandon a rail line? i love interesting stories like this!
Great video! Note: Corps (such as civilian conservation corps, army corps) is pronounced core.
A good idea for video in thr future is one on the C&I (cambria and indiana) railroad! There's is much history with it but not much video wise on it.
"Euclid Railroad"
Ah yes, the SCP railroad to *[REDACTED]*
The shale and bluestone was laid down during The Flood 4,350 years ago.
It should be a trail. It's perfect for biking.
no, its perfect for another train!
Nickel Plate RailRoad
Did they name the dump truck after this place
Are you from Cleveland?
😊👍
old people ruin lots of things especially things too close to retirement condos and apartments because god forbid someone has a quiet walk on a train or walks their dogs or even rides a bike. but they are right thats way too much noise.
The name Euclid sound all to familiar to me
cars were delivered ....loaded and picked up later....not delivered and loaded while the engine waited
Great research! Corps: “Core” not “”corpse”
Was your mispronunciation of the word corps (corpse) facetious or intentional?
Aside from just a brief exposure to it historically, I have no point of reference into anything regarding the CCC. As it was a government operation, I can imagine it being referred to in some corpse like manner.
The “p” and “s” are silent
excellent video - just to help, its pronounced "core" not "Corpse". English and its wierd word pronunciations. Hope that helps!
Corps is pronounced core, great vid otherwise lot of good research!
not courpse (corps) just corp...the s is silent
Thank you literary police! I was totally confused why they were servicing all them dead bodies 🤷♂️🤦… 😳😂🤣✌️🤙
The “p“ is silent, too. If you want to be picky.
Check your pronunciation of the word CORPS.