The Akron & Chicago Junction Railroad was a railroad incorporated in the state of Ohio on February 17, 1890. It ran from Akron to the town of Chicago Junction, Ohio, renamed Willard in 1917. Construction was completed the following year, and the first train ran on August 15, 1891. On July 1, 1890, the A&CJ was leased in perpetuity to the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

, who built the A&CJ as part of its new Pittsburgh-Chicago route, consisting of existing B&O trackage from Cumberland, Maryland, to Pittsburgh, with the newly acquired

Pittsburgh and Western Railroad The Pittsburgh and Western Railroad was a nineteenth-century, narrow gauge railroad connecting Pittsburgh with coal supplies and the oil field around Titusville, Pennsylvania. Its right-of way formed the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio R ...

from New Castle, Pennsylvania, to Akron, and the A&CJ from Akron to the old B&O main line at Chicago Junction. The new line provided faster, more direct service from eastern shippers and markets through the heavily industrialized parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio to Chicago, avoiding the steep grades of B&O's mountainous route between Cumberland and Grafton, West Virginia. The surviving portions of the B&O's Pittsburgh-Chicago route are part of

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

References

Defunct Ohio railroads 1890 establishments in Ohio Railway companies established in 1890 American companies established in 1890 {{US-rail-company-stub