The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad was the second

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

to be built and operated in the U.S. state of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

(the

Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

was first, beginning operations in Toledo during the

Toledo War The Toledo War (1835–36), also known as the Michigan–Ohio War or the Ohio–Michigan War, was an almost bloodless boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan over what is now known as the Toledo ...

in 1836). It was also the first railroad company chartered west of the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

History

The railroad first broke ground in Sandusky, for construction on September 17, 1835 at the site which is currently Battery Park Marina. On November 17, 1837, the MR&LE took delivery of its first steam locomotive, '' Sandusky'', built by Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor of Paterson, New Jersey. ''Sandusky'' was also the first locomotive built by Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor, and the first to include features such as cast

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

driving wheels and counterweights. The locomotive's transportation from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

was overseen by Thomas Hogg. He was engineer for the locomotive for many years, and later became the railroad's chief mechanical engineer. The MR&LE used a rail gauge of , a gauge that soon became known as "Ohio gauge". At the time of the ''Sandusky'' arrival, no track had been laid by the railroad. The locomotive was used to aid construction, and the first trains (passenger cars only) began running on the line on April 11, 1838, between Sandusky and

Bellevue, Ohio Bellevue ( ) is a city in Erie County, Ohio, Erie, Huron County, Ohio, Huron, Seneca County, Ohio, Seneca, and Sandusky County, Ohio, Sandusky counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, located 61 miles southwest of Cleveland and 45 miles southeast of To ...

. Construction continued on the MR&LE, reaching

Tiffin Tiffin is an Indian English word for a type of meal. It refers to a light breakfast or a light tea-time meal at about 3 p.m., consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday luncheon or, in s ...

by 1841 and Kenton in 1846. The railroad was completed to Springfield in 1849. Over the next several decades, the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad changed ownership at least four times. In 1892, it came under the control of the

Big Four Railroad The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Big Four Railroad and commonly abbreviated CCC&StL, was a railroad company in the Midwestern United States. It operated in affiliation with the New York Central system. I ...

(

Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Big Four Railroad and commonly abbreviated CCC&StL, was a railroad company in the Midwestern United States. It operated in affiliation with the New York Central Railroad, ...

), which itself became part of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

. Most of the original MR&LE lines were abandoned by

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

at the advent of Conrail in 1976, if not earlier. However, a portion between Bellefontaine and Springfield continues in operation by

RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it ...

's Indiana and Ohio Central Railroad.(a map of today's remaining New York Central trackage). Although most of the MR&LE lines that once ran through downtown Sandusky have been removed, tracks serving the

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

coal docks located west of downtown still use a small portion of the original MR&LE right-of-way.

References

Bibliography

External links

The abandoned Mad River and Lake Erie

Defunct Ohio railroads Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad Railway companies established in 1832 Railway companies disestablished in 1858 4 ft 10 in gauge railways in the United States American companies established in 1832 {{US-rail-transport-stub