| Car 1203 was built in 1914 by the Kuhlman Car Co. in Cleveland for the Cleveland Railway Co. The car has a low step height from the street for easier boarding with the conductor collecting fares in the middle of the car. Shaker Height Rapid Transit was built to serve a new community under development. Shaker Heights’ routes still operate to this day as the Cleveland's RTA Blue & Green Light Rail Lines. They are all that remain from Cleveland's once vast streetcar system. In 1920 1203’s body was leased to the Shaker Rapid where it was upgraded for rapid transit service and renumbered 3. As Shaker's number 3 it lead the first rapid transit train on the line in 1930.
In the early 1930’s the car was returned to CRC where it was stored at the Miles carbarn. During this period the Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company went out of business. CRC used 1203 to test out the feasibility of running service to Bedford.
1203 was later returned to the Shaker where is ran in regular service until replacement by PCC cars. 1200’s were then used only during rush hour. 1203’s final assignment on the Shaker came in the mid-1960’s when the car was moved to the end of the Van Aken line and used as a trash car.
NORM acquired the car in 1968 and did a cosmetic restoration to its sunburst paint scheme and ran it along with two other 1200’s on fantrips on the Shaker and Cleveland rapids from 1969-1971. The car was moved to Trolleyville in 1974 and finally to our museum site in 1979.
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1203 at the Shaker's Van Aken yard in its final years of service as trash car number 3. (Museum Collection)
