The Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad, often abbreviated TStL&W and commonly known as the Clover Leaf, was a railroad company that operated in northwestern Ohio, north central Indiana, and south central Illinois during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

History

The TStL&W originated with the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, a company formed in February 1881 as a consolidation of several smaller,

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

lines connecting the

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 ...

cities of Toledo and

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

with

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. Soon in financial difficulties, the company dropped its Cincinnati arm and reorganized in June 1886 as the Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad and over the next two to three years converted its lines to . The following constituent companies formed the Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad: * Toledo, Dupont and Western Railway of Ohio * Bluffton, Kokomo and Southwestern Railroad of Indiana * Toledo, Charleston and St. Louis Railroad of Illinois The Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City was reorganized in 1900 and renamed as the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad. It operated 450.72 miles of line between Toledo and East St. Louis. The Clover Leaf became part of the larger

New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad , abbreviated NYC&St.L, was a railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. Commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", the railroad served parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvan ...

(the "Nickel Plate") on December 28, 1922, which eventually became part of

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

References

Defunct Illinois railroads Defunct Indiana railroads Defunct Missouri railroads Defunct Ohio railroads Former Class I railroads in the United States Predecessors of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Railway companies established in 1900 Railway companies disestablished in 1923 {{US-ClassI-rail-transport-stub