Cleveland Ry. 1227

No. 1227 is one of 130 cars built by G.C. Kuhlman for the Cleveland Railway Company in 1914-15. This class of cars eventually grew to 201 cars. These cars were designed by Cleveland Transit Commissioner, Peter Witt, and featured center doors. Passengers entered at the right center door and exited from the left center, paying when they passed the conductor who sat between the two doors. The design also included at high-domed roof with Scullin ventilator louvers. Cleveland designed these cars to haul a trailer car. Cleveland was unique in its extensive use of motor-trailer streetcar trains. At 51 feet, No. 1227 is the longest city streetcar in the Seashore collection. The center-entrance cars operated on most of Cleveland’s trunk routes, often hauling trailer cars. After purchasing these center-entrance cars, Cleveland purchased very similar cars also designed by Peter Witt, where the center door was for exiting and a front door was for passenger entrance. This “Peter Witt” style car became popular in Cleveland and elsewhere. In 1942, the city of Cleveland bought the Cleveland Railway, forming the Cleveland Transit System. Cleveland scrapped most of its center-entrance cars in 1947-48, but No. 1227 had previously been sold to the Cleveland Interurban Railroad. The brothers, O.P. and M.J. Van Sweringen had developed the suburb of Shaker Heights, OH and built the Cleveland Interurban Railroad to provide trolley service between Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland and the suburb. In 1925, the Cleveland Interuban leased several Cleveland Ry. center-entrance cars including No. 1227. During the depression, the Cleveland Interuban returned No. 1227 and some other center-entrance cars to the Cleveland Ry. No. 1227 went into storage until 1940, when the Cleveland Interurban purchased 36 Cleveland Ry. center-entrance cars, including No. 1227. The Cleveland Interurban renumbered most of these cars by dropping the “12” prefix from the Cleveland numbers. It converted these cars to multiple-unit operation and removed the Scullin ventilator louvers. Cleveland Interurban also changed the trucks from Cleveland Standard (Brill 67F) to Brill 177E trucks more suitable to the interurban service. In 1944, the city of Shaker Heights purchased the Cleveland Interurban, renaming it the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. Newer PCC cars replaced the center-door cars on the Shaker Heights line by about 1960. [See also: “the Museum’s Cleveland Collection,” Dispatch, March 2010, and Dispatch, May 2015, p. 14 and “A Trolley with Nine Lives” on museum website] In 1959, No. 1227 went to the Baltimore Streetcar Museum’s site in Baltimore. Because the car did not fit with the wide gauge Baltimore collection, in 1968 No. 1227 went to the Trolley Valhalla museum in Tansboro, NJ and later Jobstown, NJ. No. 1227’s car frame was badly damaged in the move to Tansboro. Ronald Jedlicka, a trolley preservationist in Ohio eventually acquired the car. In 1984, Jedlicka donated No. 1227, less trucks and some components, to Seashore. Seashore removed the MU equipment and installed Brill 177E trucks. Work stretching over 30 years culminated in the full restoration of No. 1227 to its 1920s Cleveland Ry. appearance. Seashore dedicated the car on Members Day, September 12, 2015. In 2009, Seashore acquired matching Cleveland trailer car No. 2365 which will create a train typical of historic Cleveland operation.