FAIRPORT, PAINESVILLE & EASTERN
RESOURCES
For those that want to acquire their own collection of FP&E
materials, listed below are resources that, for the most part, can still be
found and/or purchased.
Federal Documents
The Interstate Commerce
Commission was a federal agency that for most of its existence regulated
railroads. The ICC no longer exists, but
its reports are available in any good library, and its records are available for
viewing and copying at the National Archives.
(For more about the extensive ICC holdings at the National Archives
visit this website.)
The ICC's
published reports are kept in a bound series of books called, appropriately
enough, Interstate Commerce Commission Reports, which can be found in
the government publications section of any large/major public library or any
good college/university library. The way
to locate a particular report in the book series is through its citation—for
example, "23 ICC 145"—which is usually included in any references to
ICC dockets and reports. Here is how the
citation code works: the first number refers to the book volume,
"ICC" refers to the title of the series, and the last number refers
to the page number where the document begins.
Reports with no citation code are unpublished; these reports have to be
obtained from either the National Archives or the Surface Transportation Board
(whose website is here).
The
reports that the ICC published were "decision documents," meaning
that the commission was issuing an order to resolve a docket/case; as such,
though the reports have some detailed information about the circumstances of a
given case, much of the information is summarized. The full details for any docket are actually
found in its background documents—the applications, petitions, correspondence,
testimony, etc., of the parties involved in a particular docket/case. These background documents are stored at the
National Archives, and if you wish to get copies of the documents you have two
options: either go to the archives in person and make the copies yourself, or
hire a private researcher to do the work for you (the National Archives has a
list of approved researchers here). All the documents for a docket—both the
background documents and any orders by the commission—are filed by docket
number in the Archives.
Below is a list of the dockets involving the
FP&E; fortunately most have reports that are available in the Interstate
Commerce Commission Reports series, which as I mentioned above you should
be able to obtain from any major library.
|
Docket
10236, 53 ICC 549, 6/27/1919: Diamond Alkali Company v. Fairport, Painesville
& Eastern Railroad Company, |
|
Director General, et al. |
|
Docket
10236, 62 ICC 161, 6/14/1921: Diamond Alkali Company v. Fairport, Painesville
& Eastern Railroad Company, |
|
Director General, et al. |
|
Docket
10236, 78 ICC 1, 3/6/1923: Diamond Alkali Company v. Fairport, Painesville
& Eastern Railroad Company, |
|
Director General, et al. |
|
Finance
Docket 5199, 105 ICC 334, 1/13/1926: Notes of Fairport, Painesville &
Eastern R.R. |
|
Finance
Docket 5246, 105 ICC 297, 1/14/1926: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Equipment Trust |
|
Valuation
Docket 474, 110 ICC 692, 4/3/1925: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern – June
30, 1917 |
|
Finance
Docket 4644, 124 ICC 323, 4/13/1927: Deficit Status of Fairport, Painesville
& Eastern R.R. |
|
Finance
Docket 6072, 124 ICC 393, 4/28/1927: Construction of Extension by Fairport,
Painesville & Eastern |
|
Railroad Company |
|
Finance
Docket 6207, 124 ICC 599, 5/25/1927: Securities of Fairport, Painesville
& Eastern Railroad |
|
Finance
Docket 5199, 138 ICC 23, 1/14/1928: Notes of Fairport, Painesville &
Eastern Railroad |
|
Finance
Docket 6816, 138 ICC 437, 1/13/1928: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Debentures |
|
Finance
Docket 4644, 145 ICC 684, 11/10/1928: Deficit Status of Fairport, Painesville
& Eastern Railroad Company |
|
Finance
Docket 8477, 166 ICC 735, 11/22/1930: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Stock |
|
Finance
Docket 6072, 166 ICC 737, 11/22/1930: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Construction |
|
Finance
Docket 6207, 175 ICC 290, 7/11/1931: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Securities |
|
Finance
Docket 8877, 175 ICC 767, 11/14/1931: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Stock |
|
Finance
Docket 9599, 193 ICC 375, 8/9/1933: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Proposed Construction |
|
Finance
Docket 12287, 230 ICC 535, 1/16/1939: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Stock |
|
Finance
Docket 12514, 233 ICC 675, 8/25/1939: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Stock |
|
Finance
Docket 4644, 249 ICC 405, 10/21/1941: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Stock |
|
Finance
Docket 19014, unpublished, 10/4/1955: Fairport, Painesville & Eastern
Railroad Company Deficit Settlement |
|
Finance
Dockets 23980 & 23981, 330 ICC 672, 8/7/1967: Norfolk and Western Railway
Company – Control – |
|
FP&E Company – Purchase – Fairport,
Painesville and Eastern Railroad Company; FP&E Company – Stock |
|
Finance
Docket 30427, unpublished, 5/7/1984: Norfolk and Western Railway Company –
Control and Merger Exemption – |
|
Fairport, Painesville and Eastern Railway
Company |
If you wish to acquire copies of
any of the background documents for the above dockets, then let me warn you: be
prepared to spend some money! If you
plan to take a trip to the Archives, then be aware that because of the volume
of documents in some of these dockets (a couple have around 1,000 pages) and
because of the strict protocols you have to follow in disassembling and
reassembling the documents (most of the documents are in binders) you will need
to spend several days at the facility to make the necessary copies—so besides
the transportation expense, be prepared to have a decent-sized hotel bill. I felt it would be more economical to hire a
researcher than to go to the Archives in person—and though it did save me a lot
of money compared to a physical trip, it is still an expensive proposition.
State Documents
Secretary of State Corporate
Filings
The Ohio Secretary of State is the
state agency in charge of licensing businesses.
Fortunately for those interested in company histories, the agency has
most of its business filings—past and present—available on-line, including the
corporate filings of the FP&E. To
view and save your own copies of these documents, go to this
webpage; on the left side, click "Business Search," then choose
"Number Search"; in the middle of the page click the button that says
"Entity Number," then enter one of the two Entity numbers below in
the field. The search result will appear
at the bottom of the page; from here, just click on "Show Details"
and a pop-up window will display all the relevant documents, which you can
click on to view and save.
Documents for Entity 27843
(Fairport, Painesville and
Eastern Railroad Company; Fairport Corporation)
|
A076_1650,
July 18, 1910, Articles Of Incorporation: For Profit |
|
A076_1652,
July 23, 1910, Amendment To Articles |
|
A076_1654,
October 18, 1910, Amendment To Articles: Change of Shares |
|
A076_1658,
October 11, 1917, Miscellaneous Filing |
|
A076_1661,
February 28, 1921, Amendment To Articles: Change Of Shares, |
|
Increase Of Authorized Stock Shares |
|
A076_1663,
November 16, 1926, Miscellaneous Filing |
|
A076_1669,
December 23, 1926, Amendment To Articles |
|
A076_1673,
December 22, 1938, Amendment To Articles: Change Of Shares, |
|
Increase Of Authorized Stock Shares |
|
A076_1676,
October 11, 1955, Amendment To Articles: Change Of Shares, |
|
Increase Of Authorized Stock Shares |
|
B571_0450,
August 15, 1968, Amendment To Articles: Change Of Name |
|
B571_0452,
August 15, 1968, Dissolution |
Documents for Entity 347322
(FP&E Company; Fairport,
Painesville and Eastern Railway Company)
|
B441_1906,
January 17, 1966, Articles Of Incorporation: For Profit |
|
B571_0460,
August 15, 1968, Amendment To Articles: Change Of Location, Change Of Name |
|
F483_1725,
June 28, 1984, Merged Out Of Existence |
Public Utilities Commission
Annual Reports
The Public
Utilities Commission of Ohio is the state agency that regulates utility and
transportation companies. In the past
their involvement in railroad regulation included a requirement for any
railroad operating in Ohio (whether based in the state or not) to file extremely
detailed Annual Reports that covered the usual accounting data (i.e., revenue
and expenses) as well as equipment tallies, employee tallies, traffic data,
etc. The length of the Annual Reports
fluctuated over time, with the peak being the time period of 1935 to 1955 when
they were about 160 pages long(!) per year; fortunately after that the reports
went down to a more modest size of about 40 pages long per year. (Since the FP&E was a small switching
railroad, much of the information requested in the large reports did not apply,
so most of the pages in the FP&E's 1935-1955 Annual Reports are not filled
out.)
All older
PUCO Annual Reports are located in the Ohio Historical Society's Archives/Library
(visit their website here). In the Society's PUCO collection is nearly
every FP&E Annual Report from 1912 through 1974—and all are available to be
copied for .25 a page if you visit their facility in Columbus.
The Official Railway Equipment
Register
The Official Railway Equipment
Register (or ORER for short) is a guide to freight car rosters that has
been in continuous publication since 1884 (for the last several decades it has
been published quarterly). From what
I've discovered, early editions have system maps, and all editions have some
basic information about a given railroad; but the primary purpose of the
publication is to give a current snapshot of a given railroads' freight car
roster—though just the freight cars used in interchange (railcars that are
permanently kept on the owner's rails, such as cabooses and maintenance-of-way
cars, are not registered). You can
usually find a few used copies of ORER books at auction sites, used book
vendors, and libraries—but the most complete collection I have found is at the
Kalmbach Memorial Library in Chattanooga, TN (see their website here). If you are just interested in one railroad
and would like copies of every entry available, the KML is the place to
contact.
Below I have compiled a list of all the
FP&E entries I have collected so far between 1926 (the first year the
FP&E was listed in the ORER on a regular basis) and 1965 (the last year the
FP&E listed any of their freight cars in the publication: after the April
1965 edition, the FP&E entries state "Freight cars owned are not used
in interchange service.").
|
ORER Edition |
FP&E Entry |
||
|
Month |
Year |
Date of Data |
Map |
|
June |
1926 |
Mar 1926 |
Y |
|
October |
1926 |
Mar 1926 |
Y |
|
December |
1926 |
Nov 1926 |
Y |
|
February |
1927 |
Feb 1927 |
Y |
|
May |
1928 |
May 1928 |
Y |
|
January |
1929 |
Aug 1928 |
Y |
|
February |
1929 |
Feb 1929 |
Y |
|
June |
1929 |
Feb 1929 |
Y |
|
September |
1930 |
Sept 1930 |
Y |
|
October |
1930 |
Oct 1930 |
Y |
|
November |
1930 |
Nov 1930 |
Y |
|
May |
1931 |
Jan 1931 |
Y |
|
June |
1931 |
Jan 1931 |
Y |
|
August |
1931 |
July 1931 |
Y |
|
November |
1931 |
Oct 1931 |
Y |
|
July |
1932 |
July 1932 |
N |
|
July |
1937 |
July 1937 |
N |
|
April |
1938 |
Apr 1938 |
N |
|
July |
1940 |
July 1939 |
N |
|
January |
1943 |
July 1939 |
N |
|
April |
1944 |
July 1939 |
N |
|
April |
1946 |
Jan 1946 |
N |
|
April |
1950 |
Oct 1949 |
N |
|
October |
1952 |
July 1952 |
N |
|
January |
1953 |
July 1952 |
N |
|
January |
1954 |
Apr 1953 |
N |
|
January |
1955 |
July 1954 |
N |
|
January |
1957 |
July 1956 |
N |
|
April |
1958 |
July 1956 |
N |
|
July |
1959 |
July 1956 |
N |
|
July |
1960 |
July 1956 |
N |
|
October |
1960 |
Oct 1960 |
N |
|
July |
1961 |
July 1961 |
N |
|
October |
1962 |
Oct 1962 |
N |
|
October |
1963 |
Oct 1963 |
N |
|
April |
1964 |
Jan 1964 |
N |
|
April |
1965 |
Jan 1965 |
N |
Articles
I have only found a few articles
on the FP&E; most of them were from the transportation trade magazine Traffic
World and were about the N&W-FP&E control case (Finance Dockets
23980/23981—see above), but one was from the railfan magazine Railpace
discussing the end of the FP&E. Railpace
magazines can be purchased from a good used magazine/book vendor—especially one
that specializes in railroad materials; older issues of Traffic World
can be found either in bound volumes or on microfiche at any large/major library. Here are the details so you can get your own
copies of these articles:
Traffic
World
|
February
5, 1966 (v125), p 54: "N&W Plans to Acquire FP&E Property in
Ohio" |
|
April
9, 1966 (v126), p 54: "NYC Seeks Joint Ownership Of Ohio Carrier With
N&W" |
|
March
18, 1967 (v129), pp 13-14: "Sole Control of FP&E By N&W
Recommended; |
|
B&O, NYC Pleas Rejected" |
|
August
19, 1967 (v131), pp 44-45: "N&W and NYC May Acquire Joint Control of
FP&E; |
|
Division 3 Excludes B&O" |
|
February
10, 1968 (v133 #6), pp 61-62: "N&W Says Issues of Rail Competition
in FP&E Case |
|
Should Be Reviewed by ICC" |
|
February
24, 1968 (v133 #8), p 56: "ICC Sees No 'GTI' Issue In FP&E Control
Case" |
|
April
20, 1968 (v134 #3), p 63: "N&W Says PC Merger Changed FP&E
Situation" |
|
June
15, 1968 (v134 #11), p 11: "ICC Denies N&W Petition to Review
FP&E Control" |
Railpace
August
1984 (v3 #8), p. 19: "Another Fallen Flag … Fairport, Painesville &
Eastern"
Books
There are only four books I have
found that have significant pictures or information about the FP&E: two
'coffee-table' books (books full of pictures with minimal text), a military
history book, and a railroad history book.
The two
coffee-table books are Trackside Around Cleveland: 1965-1979, published
by Morning Sun Books in 2005, and Trackside Around Eastern Ohio: 1965-1995,
published by Morning Sun Books in 2008.
Both of these books feature the photography of Dave McKay, a
railfan/photographer from the Cleveland area who passed away in 2004. In Trackside Around Cleveland, pages
104 & 105 contain five pictures of the FP&E; in Trackside Around
Eastern Ohio, pages 58-61 and 128 contain seven pictures of the
FP&E. The captions for the pictures
are very descriptive—though there are some inaccuracies in the background
information given in a couple of the captions in Trackside Around Eastern
Ohio, which I address at the bottom of my Diamond Alkali/Shamrock page.
The military
history book is Industrialists in Olive Drab: The Emergency Operation of
Private Industries During World War 2, published by the US Army's Center of
Military History in 1999. Chapter 6 in
this book, "The Fairport, Painesville and Eastern Railroad Case, November
1942," is a 6-page story of the temporary takeover of the FP&E by US
Army Engineers (for more details, see my FP&E History page).
The
railroad history book is Ghost Rails XIX: B&O Lakers, written and
published by 'ghost rail' historian Wayne A. Cole. This book is about Baltimore & Ohio's
Lake Branch from New Castle & Youngstown up to Fairport Harbor & Grand
River—and due to the Lake Branch's connection to the FP&E in Fairport Harbor,
a nice chunk of the book (over 30 pages!) covers both the Fairport, Painesville
and Eastern as well as Diamond Alkali/Shamrock.
I contributed to the book, so though it is probably biased of me to say
this, I'm going to say it anyway: this book is great! To read more about the book in the author's
own words and to order your own copy, click here.
Maps
Basically the only maps that are available to collect are those
found in older editions of the ORER (see the chart above). To see what those maps look like—and for more
information about FP&E maps or maps related to the FP&E that are
available on the internet, see my FP&E Maps page.
Created by Scott Nixon
July 2009
Updated: October 2010, June 2021,
September 2021
