The Cleveland Union Terminal was the union passenger station for the City of Cleveland and served all railroads entering the City, except for the Pennsylvania. The C.U.T. was developed by the Van Sweringen brothers, whose Shaker Heights residential community first led them to purchase the Nickel Plate Road in search of a right-of-way into the downtown area for their Shaker Rapid line.

The Cleveland Union Terminal was located in the lowest levels of a complex of buildings on the southwest corner of Cleveland's Public Square. Because the City of Cleveland did not allow steam engines to enter the underground passenger terminal area, the passenger cars were switched to electric engines at the Collinwood Yards on the east side and at the Linndale Yards on the west side of town. The electric engines brought the passenger cars into the terminal and back out to the opposite yard for switching back to steam engines.

A video tape illustrate the relationship between the Terminal Tower complex over the union terminal, the electrified approaches to the station, and the Shaker Rapid lines. Mr. Neil Bluhm shot the original film in 1944-45 and D & V Rail Videos holds a 1990 copyright on a 22-minute video made from the film. Our thanks to D & V for granting permission to make these clips and to Robert Shields for allowing us to use his copy to make them.

There are four video clips available here, in Apple's Quicktime format (.mov files):

1. Overhead shot of a C.U.T. electric passing below a forest of catenaries, which carried the electrical power. (401 KB file size)
2. Passing shot of a C.U.T. electric in open territory. (157 KB)
3. Shorter segment of the passing shot, above. (436 KB - better resolution)
4. Shot of Shaker Rapid cars being overtaken and passed on a parallel track. (436 KB)

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Last updated February 17, 1997