Evening star., 1924-08-29

rapid transit. So the Van Sweringen
brothers built their rapid transit line.
They planned a downtown terminus
for their new transportation line
and needed land adjoining the Nicke
Plate right-of-way. They learned
the Nickel Plate was acquiring land
they would need.
Bought 523-Mile Line.
So they bought the Nickel Plate,
523-mile line operating between
Buffalo and Chicago.
Seven years later they enginee red
a merger that gave the railroad
world as great a surprise as when
they bought the Nickel Plate. and
added railroading to their real estate
operations. This was in 1923 when
they combined the Lake Erie and
Western, and the Toledo. St. Louis
and Western (Clover Leaf roads
with the Nickel Plate, making
1.695-mile line, reaching WESTWARD
from Buffalo to Chicago. St. Louis
and Peoria.
While this consolidation was under
way, the Van Sweringen brothers OBJ
tanned control of the Chesapeake and
Ohio, the greatest carrier of bitumi-
nous coal, and it's subsidiary, the
Hooking Valley. adding 2.S67 miles to
their system and providing tidewater
outlets at Newport News and Nor
folk. The consolidated company also
obtained a half interest in the Detroit
and Toledo Shore Line railway, a
freight carrier between Detroit and
Toledo.
System of 1900 Miles.
Thus they built up a system of
4.600 miles of railway connecting the
Atlantic and the Great Lakes with d
total investment of about a half
billion dollars.
In the meantime they had expanded
their rapid transit terminal plan to
include S75,000.00O union station
for steam and electric roads, which
now is under construction.
The brothers, Oris =. and Mantis J.,
46 and "A years old, respectively, were
born in Wooster, Ohio of humble par
ents. The family moved to Geneva. a
small town to the east. There the
boys received Il common school edu-
cation, and. after completing the ele-
mentary grades, went to work. When
the family moved TO Cleveland they
purchased newspaper route.
Studied at Home.
They improved their education by
home studies, and, with an aptitude
for figures and n liking for real es-
tate, saw opportunity to obtain
control of property on Shaker
Heights, owned by a Buffalo syndi-
cate. but not successfully mark eted.
They proved successful as real estate
statesmen and went into the business
for themselves. The building of
Shaker Heights. with 1S0 and 1870 foot
streets. 800 acres of parks, golf and
other features, fine homes and the
new rapid transit line followed
The New York Central lines wanted
to dispose OF the Nickel Plate road
because of the act relating to parallel
and competing lines. The opportunity
to accomplish their terminal and
rapid transit plans, as well as to de-
Veloping the Nickel Plate property
itself, led the Van Sweringens to
purchase it, according to their as
SociateS.
Both Brothers Bachelors.
The brothers, who are bachelors,
carry on their enterprises as partners
on "share-and- share alike" basis, and
have avoided publicity in their deal
ings as far as possible. They are
close companions, and avoid public
gatherings, preferring to live quietly.
How the Nickel Plate system got its
name is reported to have been
through suggestion by the editor
of the Norwalk, Ohio. Chronicle, who.
In the issue of his paper on April