The Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1879 to reorganize the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad, which owned a railway line between

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 census ...

, and

Jackson, Michigan Jackson is a city in Jackson County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 31,309 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along Interstate 94 in Michigan, Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127 in Michigan, U.S ...

. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway leased the company in 1882. Most of the company's line has been abandoned.

History

The precursor of the Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad was the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad, which was incorporated on January 26, 1869. That company consolidated two older companies, the Jackson, Fort Wayne and Cincinnati Railroad of Michigan and the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad of Indiana. Construction began the same year, and the company completed a from

, to Reading, Michigan, on November 22, 1869. A further from Reading to Angola, Indiana, was completed on January 17, 1870. The final from Angola to

, was finished on December 5, 1870. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway leased the company in 1882. This lease was later assumed by the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

(1915) and Penn Central Transportation (1968). Much of line was abandoned in 1973, following the Penn Central bankruptcy: * Waterloo, Indiana– Pleasant Lake, Indiana *

Jonesville, Michigan Jonesville is a city in Hillsdale County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,176 at the 2020 census. History The area was first settled by brothers Benaiah and Edmund Jones, who came here from Painesville, Ohio in 1828 and purch ...

– Bankers, Michigan * Haires, Michigan– Horton, Michigan These abandonments left four sections of the old line: yard trackage within Jackson, a branch from Jonesville to Horton, a branch from Bankers to Pleasant Lake, and a branch from Fort Wayne to Waterloo. In 1976, several small sections within the vicinity of Fort Wayne, Jackson, and Waterloo were conveyed to

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

. The lines between Jonesville and Horton, and Auburn and Waterloo, saw little traffic and was abandoned. The new short-line railroad Hillsdale County Railway took over the section between Bankers and Pleasant Lake. In 1981, the city of Auburn established the City of Auburn Port Authority to purchase the remaining that connected the city with the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

, and then leased the line to the B&O (now

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{cite book , title=Final system plan for restructuring railroads in the Northeast and Midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 , year=1975 , author=United States Railway Association , author-link=United States Railway Association , location=Washington, DC , url=http://multimodalways.org/docs/govts/federal/executive/Agencies/DOT/USRA/FSP/FSP%20VII.pdf , oclc=2889148 , volume=2 , ref={{Harvid, USRA, 1975b Defunct Indiana railroads Defunct Michigan railroads Railway companies established in 1879 Railway companies disestablished in 1976 Railroads transferred to Conrail American companies established in 1879 Companies affiliated with the New York Central Railroad