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Why not equip the C&LE high speeds for multiple-unit operation? This question comes up frequently. Two multiple-unit cars running in tandem consume less power than two cars operating independently. Why not the C&LE? The 1930 passenger service schedules suggest that the C&LE did not have the traffic density to warrant such a decision. Conway likely believed that it made better economic sense to run a second section, rather than multiple-unit cars, to handle the occasional rush-hour load. Furthermore, it follows that Conway did not want to add the weight of heavy center sills, draft gear (couplers), and the electrical switch boxes, cables, and cable connections, which were the essential components of a multiple-unit system. Perhaps there was a more compelling reason: the C&LE may have lacked sufficient power to run multiple-unit trains at the speeds necessary to hold to its rigorous schedules. Most of the substations throughout its three-division system housed rotary converters rated for 300 kilowatts. Comparing operations of the C&LE and the Philadelphia & Western Railway (P&W), Butler noted that “with greater distances between substations” C&LE’s voltages “varied from 450 to 600 V.” The P&W, on the other hand, made a practice of running multiple-unit trains “at a stable 660 volts.”14

The C&LE’s high speeds took over most of the scheduled passenger traffic on the company’s three divisions, handling limited and local runs. Conway also inaugurated through parlor-car service between Cincinnati and Detroit in late 1930, comprised of two daily round-trips and one night train. The 275-mile junket between Detroit and Cincinnati represented the longest, scheduled passenger run in the history of the industry.15

Despite experimentation and advanced design work, the C&LE’s high speeds were not quite state of the art, rather they were the culmination of a technology developed throughout the 1920s. The cars’ body design, while extremely attractive, was somewhat conventional, and while the motors showed innovation, they were not revolutionary. The controls—PC-12 and HLF with tapped fields—had been around for years. The high speeds’ very serviceable, smooth riding, arch-bar trucks represented the last step in a chain of similar designs nurtured by the CCCo. The cars also had a flaw or two. Aluminum riveted to steel did not work very well, and corrosion set in. In addition, the aluminum was soft and dented easily. The bolster side-sill connection was poor, and the stiffening over the bolster itself was inadequate. The railroad doors and the installation of field taps were mistakes. The field switch itself probably weighed seven hundred pounds. Why carry the extra weight when the 80 miles per hour balancing speed of the cars seemed eminently satisfactory? Even with these flaws, everything else worked pretty much as planned, and no one ever forgot the cars’ fetching appearance. Although Conway and Butler were aware of advanced motors and drives that cut power costs and produced a more efficient car, they did not use these devices. Why not? Perhaps they had too much at stake to employ a technology that did not yet have widespread acceptance.16 Conway and Butler did, however, manage to produce twenty attractive, reliably functioning interurban cars that adapted superbly to the fast, tangent roadways of Ohio.

The C&LE cars, modeled for long-haul, cross-country, high-speed operation, were not suited to the physical plant and the operating demands of one of their subsequent owners—LVT. The undulating terrain, short runs, and frequent stops put enormous stress on the WH motors. The GE cars, equipped with automatic control, fared better. LVT, however, aggravated the cooling problem for both models, covering the pilots with stainless steel sheathing and cutting off the air flow to the motors. The operating conditions at Cedar Rapids & Iowa were not much better, although the cars did not have the hills to contend with. The cars on this line may have confronted something equally thorny—poorly maintained track and parallel rail joints. Yet the C&LE’s high speeds acquitted themselves very well on both roads, particularly during the war years.

The Red Devils were undeniably fast; one was clocked at 101 miles per hour on the Columbus Grove test track. Toledo Division motormen, running late, frequently hit speeds of 90 miles per hour or better, having switched to short-field operation. (The author rode one of the deluxe cars in summer 1937 that did 75 to 80 miles per hour consistently on the Cincinnati division’s mostly roadside trackage.) The speed and comfort of the C&LE’s high speeds did little, however, to stem the ominous decline in ridership that followed on the heels of the depression and in the wake of the rising popularity of the automobile. As passenger revenues slumped, Conway and his executives looked more and more to freight for survival, pushing ahead with a plan to make the C&LE one of the leading interurban freight carriers in the central-states area.

The Makings of a High-speed Freight System
In February 1930 the C&LE took delivery of fifteen new steel freight motors (see Fig. 30). The CCCo fabricated the car bodies and equipped them with trucks, motors, and controls removed from older passenger cars. Most of these freights carried four 100-horsepower motors, giving Conway enough motorized equipment to develop a full-blown, high-speed, regional, interline freight system. The new motor cars were sleek, powerful, and fast, and they proved to be excellent marketing tools. They supplemented a fleet of wooden, main-line freight motors, fitted out with 100- and 125-horsepower motors and a cache of older cars suitable for short-haul, local-freight, or switching work. The C&LE now owned more than fifty serviceable motor freight cars. The merger with the IC&E and the LT gave the C&LE one hundred or more reasonably new, well-maintained interurban boxcars. The merger also endowed the new company with more-than-adequate freight facilities throughout the system and a north-south main line built largely to steam-railroad standards. Most important, the C&LE had acquired the interurban connections necessary to reach the major business centers in the Indiana-Michigan-Ohio region.

Just a few comments about interurban freight. The steel freight motors shown in Figures 30 and 31 resemble an interurban passenger car in size and weight. Townspeople in Ohio who did not like the idea of having freight trains in their streets were willing to accept a freight car that looked like a trolley. Freight motors and box trailers were also designed to maneuver through the tight curves and to climb the steep grades found on typical streetcar and interurban lines. As traction lines expanded their freight business, the communities they served forced them to run more and more of their trains at night and imposed daytime restrictions on freight-train lengths. Most of the freight handled by the central-states interurbans was less-than-carload, known as LCL. In earlier days the big railroads carried just about all of this freight. By the 1920s, however, the steam roads were concentrating on carload freight, and many began to neglect their LCL business. The central-states interurbans took over a share of the LCL business almost by default.

Following the receipt of its new steel motor cars in February, the C&LE issued its shippers an advisory outlining freight train schedules for the recently merged corporation. The freight department carded daily trains between Dayton and Toledo and between Cincinnati and Toledo that departed their respective terminals in the evening and arrived at their destinations the following morning. The C&LE also ran through trains daily between Columbus and Toledo and between Columbus and Cincinnati. These runs, too, were evening departures and next morning arrivals. The C&LE promised a fast and reliable delivery schedule. The “through train” arrangement saved much of the effort that the CH&D, the IC&E, and the LT had previously expended turning over cars at junction points.
The C&LE’s freights running north picked up cars at Lima billed to Detroit, dropped off by the Fort Wayne-Lima Railroad (FWL) each night sometime after midnight. The LT and the FWL made a joint interline run daily between Toledo and Fort Wayne via Lima, using pooled motor equipment and, sometimes, the connecting Indiana Service Corporation. This pooled run began after the breakup of the Ohio Electric and continued throughout the 1920s. It is doubtful that the C&LE opted to continue the Fort Wayne-Toledo interline runs. Fort Wayne, however, was a very important market. Shippers generated heavy freight traffic between Fort Wayne and Detroit, and the C&LE’s Lima-Toledo division was the connecting carrier of choice for companies moving goods between these two cities.

The Detroit Freight Service
Conway lost no time working out agreements to launch interline freight service with two of the C&LE’s other connecting carriers—the Lake Shore Electric (LSE) and the Eastern-Michigan Toledo Railroad (EMT). Both roads linked with the C&LE at Toledo. The EMT served the Detroit market, and the LSE extended to Cleveland and points in northern Ohio. During 1930 the C&LE began to run through trains between Detroit and Dayton. These were evening departures and morning arrivals, or in tariff parlance, “first morning deliveries.” It is likely that Moraine City’s Delco-Frigidaire plant loaded one or more trailers daily for the northbound Dayton-Detroit run. The FWL dropped off Detroit cars for the C&LE every evening at Lima. Factories in the “Motor City” shipped goods on the southbound leg for delivery to businesses in Lima, Fort Wayne, Columbus, and Dayton.

The C&LE also initiated Cincinnati-Detroit freight runs in late 1930. The trains covered 275 miles. Conway probably added this run to maintain a competitive hold on business developed in Kentucky and West Virginia, which landed in Cincinnati by steam railroad for transshipment to northern points. Conway guaranteed southern shippers—who forwarded goods from Cincinnati via C&LE rail—next morning delivery in Detroit.17 The C&LE powered the Detroit runs with its new steel freight motors. Pooling or sharing motor cars with the EMT was difficult. The Michigan interurban was too weak to throw its front-end power into the daily pool, but once in a while it managed to assign one of its motorcars to the interline run. According to one C&LE freight conductor’s report, EMT number 1987 handled the point on a three-car train to Cincinnati on 30 March and again on 13 April 1931.18