Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad

Kenneth C. Springirth

Feb 2009 · Arcadia Publishing

About this ebook

Andrew Carnegies vision of transporting iron ore from his boats on Lake Erie to his Pittsburgh steel mills was realized when he obtained ownership of a series of railroad companies in the region. In 1900, these companies became the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, which connected the Lake Erie ports of Erie, Pennsylvania, and Conneaut, Ohio, south to North Bessemer near Pittsburgh. Through vintage photographs, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad highlights the railroad passenger excursions to Conneaut Lake Park and the steam and diesel locomotives used on the well-maintained line. The railroad continues to serve the steel industry today and in May 2004 was acquired by the Canadian National Railway.

About the author

Kenneth C. Springirth, author of Greater Erie Trolleys, Johnstown Trolleys and Incline, Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys, Suburban Philadelphia Trolleys, East Broad Top Railroad, and Southeastern Pennsylvania Trolleys, has a vested interest in rail history, as his father was a trolley car motorman in Philadelphia and his grandfather was a motorman in Washington, D.C. A transportation historian, he has been documenting and chronicling the history of the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad since 1965.