Railroad History Holdings in Cleveland Memory

A pathfinder to images, texts, and archival collections in Cleveland Memory & the Special Collections in the Michael Schwartz Library, Special Collections, Cleveland State University as well as links to some outside sources.

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Web Exhibits

  • Cleveland, Ohio Along the Nickel Plate Road® During the 1920's
    Nearly 500 black and white photos from two different series of photos taken by the New York, Chicago, St Louis Railway (Nickel Plate Railway or NKP)*. The first, from 1922, depicts locations along its right-of-way and adjacent neighborhoods from Euclid through the west side of Cleveland. The second series, from 1926, documents the original conditions of the right-of-way and the adjacent neighborhood for a grade elimination project that was undertaken as part of the Cleveland Union Terminal construction project.
    *Nickel Plate Road is a registered trademark of the Nickel Plate Road Historical Technical Society.
  • Cleveland Union Terminal Construction Photographs
    The black and white photographs in this collection document the construction of the Cleveland Union Terminal (CUT) on the southwest quadrant of Public Square. These photos, dating from 1926 to 1929, depict the progress of the construction as well as the original conditions on the land before the neighborhoods and commercial districts were demolished to make way for the Union Terminal project.
  • Etchings of the Cleveland Union Terminal by Louis Conrad Rosenberg
    Digital reproductions of 22 dry point prints, produced from 1928 to 1930 — all prints are signed by the artist and in original mats.
  • The Gerald E. Brookins Collection
    Documents and photos from the Gerald E. Brookins Trolleyville U.S.A. archives including images of streetcars, interurbans, railroads and everyday Cleveland area photographs.
  • Models of the Terminal Tower
    Photos of various 3-D models of the Terminal Tower.
  • The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad: Cleveland's Iron Cross
    The 70 black and white photos appearing online in this collection originate from a much larger archival collection housed within Special Collections at the Michael Schwartz Library. These photos, dating from 1863 to 1962, depict the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad's various assets including equipment, motive power, towers, and bridges, and more.

Online Texts

*Indicates resources from the Cleveland Digital Library.

Archival Collections*

  • The Cleveland Union Terminal Collection
    Archives of the company that built the Terminal Tower complex, the Union passenger station, and the entire infrastructure of tracks, bridges, signals, electrical catenary structures and yard facility buildings.
  • Newburgh & South Shore Collection
    600 cubic feet of archival records including hundreds of rolled drawings showing track plans, valuation maps and facilities drawings.
  • Nickel Plate Railroad Collections
    Several collections of files, drawings images, and photographic negatives of the railroad, especially as it passes through Cleveland.
  • The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad
    Over one thousand photos in many different sizes and dating from 1863 to 1962, including with the photographs is a registry which lists the location of many assets by division and branch.

*At the Michael Schwartz Library, Special Collections Cleveland State University.

Off-Site Resources