Chagrin Falls is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Northeast Ohio.
It is known for its nationally recognized popcorn shop,
two waterfalls, and shopping and dining selections. However, very few people
realize the popcorn shop used to be one of nine mills in the once industrial village.
An even less known fact was that Chagrin Falls even had its very own railroad. In this video
we’ll cover the history of the railroad branch line and show you what’s left of it.
Chagrin Falls, Ohio is located 17 miles southeast of Downtown Cleveland along the Chagrin River.
Early settlers from New England utilized water from the river and established numerous mills
that produced flour and paper. Four miles south west of Chagrin Falls is the City of Solon.
It’s vast and wide-open fertile land proved successful for farming. Both Solon and Chagrin
Falls are very similar but have much different terrain. While Solon is mainly flat, Chagrin Falls
is the opposite, having many hills and gorges. As both Chagrin Falls and Solon grew, they needed
a faster and cheaper form of transportation to ship and receive their commodities.
In 1848 a railroad called the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley was formed to connect the cities
of Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio. Residents in Chagrin Falls, Solon, and other surrounding
communities were bustling with excitement once news of this railroad reached them.
Chagrin Falls villagers were told by this railroad company that if they purchased $30,000 of their
stock, the line would be routed through Chagrin Falls. The villagers did just this, but the
company didn’t keep their word. After surveying for the potential right of way was completed,
the company decided to instead route the line through Solon because of its flat land.
As the years and eventually decades went on, there were three other attempts to
build a railroad through Chagrin Falls. All of them failed except for the 1875
incorporated Painesville, Canton & Bridgeport Narrow Gauge Railroad.
The company stated that if Chagrin Falls residents bought first mortgage bonds
a branch line would be built from Chagrin Falls to the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley in Solon.
Chagrin Falls residents complied and purchased the required amount of bonds.
Just as quickly as construction started in 1876, it stopped completely in 1877 when the PC&B failed
to pay their contractors. Chagrin Falls stock and bondholders were growing frustrated with the PC&B.
Not only was there minimal progress being made, but there was also lack of communication
from the company. When a new update finally came, the PC&B would ask for more money.
This is when prominent Chagrin Falls residents Irving W. Pope and John W. Williams came into
the picture. Irving Pope was a successful businessman involved in multiple enterprises
in Chagrin Falls. He owned a hotel named in his honor and was one of the founding members
of the Chagrin Falls Paper Company. He even became the mayor of Chagrin Falls in 1874.
John W. Williams was one of the most prominent industrialists in Chagrin Falls. Williams started
a foundry called J.W. Williams & Sons, which produced a wide variety of products like Empire
Wood burning stoves and sad irons. Both men were also involved with one of the previous attempts to
build a railroad through Chagrin Falls in 1873. In late October 1877, Irving Pope, and John
Williams led a party of four other prominent Chagrin Falls residents and took matters into
their own hands. The group of men entered into a contract with the PC&B to finish the railroad.
Amazingly, the 5.155-mile line was opened on December 15, 1877.
The Chagrin Falls branch began at the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley near Banbridge Road and Kruse
Drive. It terminated at Chagrin Falls in between East Washington and Bell Streets.
As mentioned earlier, this was a narrow-gauge railroad. Gauge is the measured distance
between both sets of rails. In the case of the Chagrin Falls branch it was three feet.
Even though the PC&B Railroad was opened between Chagrin Falls and Solon, the line
was poorly constructed. Railroad equipment derailing was a common event as a result.
Approximately 5 miles of right of way had been partially graded to Twinsburg,
but that was the only thing accomplished in extending the line further south.
The Painesville, Canton, & Bridgeport Narrow Gauge Railroad never reached the cities in its name.
In June 1878, the Chagrin Falls contractors terminated their contract with the PC&B,
as the railroad company did not fulfill their terms in the contract.
The contractors then took possession of the railroad for their own protection.
In 1879 the PC&B sued the contractors, and they went to court in 1880. As it was revealed,
the PC&B never had any money. Some of the right of way acquired for the line was never paid for
and even the printer for the bonds they issued. The PC&B fell into receivership on July 14,
1880. It’s receiver then auctioned off all of the company’s assets to pay for their court costs,
the unpaid right of way, and reimbursement of the Chagrin Falls contractors.
Irving Pope, John Williams, and William Hutchings ended up purchasing the company when
it went to auction on September 28, 1880. The three men then incorporated the Chagrin
Falls & Southern Railroad Company on September 30, 1880. The CF&S owned two steam locomotives,
two passenger cars, two box cars, and eight platform cars. A wide variety of commodities
were hauled over the line like coal, stone, lime, sand, petroleum, lumber, and general merchandise.
There was also a spur which led to a sandstone quarry in Bentleyville, Ohio.
While companies in Chagrin Falls were thriving because of this little branch line, in the long
run they had a hard time competing with other companies in surrounding towns and cities.
This was because the line could not directly transport their products to its destination.
An additional step had to be made by transferring it in Solon to the Cleveland & Mahoning Railroad
which was a different gauge. Over the years there had been attempts to extend the line north to
principal markets like Willoughby, Painesville, or Fairport Harbor, but neither happened.
In 1888, a syndicate which owned the Cleveland & Canton Railroad formed the Cleveland,
Chagrin Falls & Northern Railroad. The Cleveland & Canton was a massive network
of consolidated railroads that operated over 160 miles of narrow-gauge track
between Cleveland and Coshocton, Ohio. The Cleveland, Chagrin Falls & Northern’s purpose
was to connect between the Cleveland & Canton and Chagrin Falls & Southern Railroads.
Between 1888 and 1889 3.04 miles of track was built north from Glenwillow and crossed over
the Cleveland & Mahoning to the Chagrin Falls & Southern in downtown Solon.
This connection with the Cleveland & Canton by Austin Powder Dr. in Glenwillow was called Falls
Junction. In 1891, the entire Chagrin Falls Branch was converted from narrow to standard gauge.
Through a series of mergers, the Chagrin Falls & Southern and the Cleveland,
Chagrin Falls & Northern ended up in the hands of the Cleveland & Canton Railroad.
This railroad later further consolidated as the Cleveland Canton & Southern
and was purchased by the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway in 1899.
The Chagrin Falls branch was thriving during the W&LE years. However, freight traffic steadily
declined after World War II. Passenger service to Chagrin Falls was permanently
discontinued in November 1933. In December 1949, the W&LE was leased to the Nickel Plate Road.
The Nickel Plate, as it turned out, had huge plans for the branch line.
In 1951, the Nickel Plate Industrial Development Inc. purchased 1,000 acres of land in Solon that
had been rezoned for industrial use. This laid the groundwork for Solon’s transition from farming to
a suburban industrial community. 26 industries like the Kroger Company and Western Electric had
relocated from Cleveland to the Solon industrial park. In 1953, the Nickel Plate built a 1.15-mile
industrial spur that branches off the Chagrin Falls Branch to serve these industries.
The industrial park in Solon brought much needed traffic to the Chagrin Falls Branch.
However, the portion of the line into Chagrin Falls was increasingly losing customers.
In 1988, the Nickel Plate Road’s successor, the Norfolk & Western Railway merged the
Wheeling & Lake Erie into their successor Norfolk Southern. 6.25 miles of the Chagrin Falls Branch
was finally abandoned past the Solon industrial spur connection to Chagrin Falls in 1989.
In 1990, a group of investors formed the Wheeling Acquisition Corporation
and acquired 568 miles of the former Wheeling & Lake Erie from Norfolk Southern. Their acquisition
also included the entire 8.5-mile Chagrin Falls branch. The reincarnation of Wheeling continues
to serve customers on the industrial spur located at milepost 1.9. Although, there’s only about 4-5
customers that still receive rail service. Now let’s talk about what happened to the
abandoned 6.25-mile section of the Chagrin Falls Branch. In 1992 the City of Solon purchased 2.1
miles of right of way between Som Center Road and the Solon-Bentleyville border. The Cleveland
Metroparks later purchased the right of way from the Solon-Bentleyville border to Pine Street in
Chagrin Falls in 1998. The Metroparks later built a walking and biking trail in the early 2000’s.
Solon tried to do the same with their section in 1990’s and 2018 as of most recently, but both
attempts did not work out as there was pushback from homeowners surrounding the right of way.
In recent years there have been multiple sections of the right of way violated by new developments.
In Chagrin Falls a retirement community was built on some of the right of way by South Franklin
Street. Another senior center was built last year over the right of way by Banbridge Road in Solon.
Overall evidence of the railroad is long gone, but there are a few remnants left if you know
where to look. In Glenwillow the 1905 built Falls Junction Depot still exists which is owned by the
city. Last year, the depot was moved west from Wheeling’s property on the east side of the
tracks, to Pettibone Park. It is currently still in the process of being restored into a museum.
The Chagrin Falls Freight Station also survives. It was purchased in 2001 by Mary Briggs,
former Claridon Township Trustee. She had it temporarily moved to the Geauga
County Fairgrounds until it was later moved to her property in April 2002.
On the Metroparks trail, mile marker six was left in place.
A bridge abutment from where the railroad used to cross over the Aurora Branch of the Chagrin
River is also still there. Although when I visited it was hard to see under the heavy brush.
That’s all for now, thanks for watching,
I hope everyone enjoyed this episode of Abandoned Railroads of Northeast Ohio.
If you did and want to see more, make sure you like this video and subscribe to the channel!