The Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railroad (nicknamed the "Blue Grass Route of Ohio" ) was a railroad company in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. It connected its namesake cities and served as a vital link for later parent

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

to connect

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

and

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

History

The company was formed through a reorganization of the Cleveland, Mount Vernon and Delaware Railroad on December 7, 1881, as the Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railroad. It was rumored in 1881 that the line might become part of 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 ...

system, as officials of that company had made visits to the property at the time. The reorganization became effective on December 31, 1885, with the first trains running under the new name Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railway on January 1, 1886. During the late 1880s and most of the 1890s, the railroad was controlled by Dutch investment firm ''Maatschappij tot Beheer van het Adminstratisckanteer van Amerikaansche Spoorwegwaarden'' (Company for the Management of the Administrative Office of American Railways). In later years the railroad was also controlled by the

Lake Erie and Western Railroad The Lake Erie and Western Railroad was a railroad that operated in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The Lake Erie and Western main line extended from Sandusky, Ohio, westward to Peoria, Illinois, passing through Fremont and Fostoria, Ohio, Muncie ...

. Rumors of control by the

floated in the mid-1890s, with control of the CA&C ultimately gained in 1899. The CA&C merged with the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad in 1911. Passenger services on the line ended on December 14, 1950.

Notes

Footnotes

References

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External links

Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railway Company Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30th, 1890
''New York Public Library'' {{North America Class I Defunct Ohio railroads Predecessors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Railway companies established in 1881