- Little Miami Railroad
The Little Miami Railroad, now defunct, was a railway of Southwestern Ohio, running from the eastern side of Cincinnati, Ohio to Xenia. By merging with the
Columbus and Xenia Railroad it created the first through rail route from the important manufacturing city of Cincinnati to the state capital, Columbus.History
The Little Miami was incorporated on March 11, 1836 and its first president, who served without pay, was
Jeremiah Morrow , governor of Ohio. The first meeting to sell stock was held at Linton's Hotel,Waynesville, Ohio , May 13, 1836; the second on June 2, 1836 in Xenia.Cincinnati to Milford Constructed
By the end of 1841, the road was open from Cincinnati to Milford along the
Little Miami River and preparations had been made to lay rails north along the river toFosters, Ohio . The first train ran December 14, 1841 from Cincinnati to Milford, making the journey in about ninety minutes.Completed to Waynesville
The road's surveyors ran a route along the Little Miami River past what would become the
Peters Cartridge Company at Kings Mills to South Lebanon and thence upTurtle Creek toLebanon, Ohio and thence Waynesville. However, at a grade of thirty-three feet to the mile, it was too steep for locomotives then available. The city of Lebanon pleaded for the company to reconsider but the route was instead laid along the river to what would become the towns of Morrow, Fort Ancient (where the gorge is convert|300|ft|m deep and where theJeremiah Morrow Bridge today stands), Mathers Mills, Oregonia, and to Waynesville (which was on the opposite shore). This country even today is sparsely populated. Had the directors waited just a few years, more powerful locomotives that could have climbed the grades became available.Open to Xenia
The road was pushed northward and the line to Xenia opened in August 1845. From there, a branch was built to link to the
Columbus and Xenia Railroad , its partner. The two companies merged their operations, but not corporations, November 30, 1853. By 1856, the Little Miami had one hundred sixteen and one-quarter miles of track and the C&X sixty-three and one-quarter. TheHillsboro and Cincinnati Railroad was chartered in 1846 to run a line between Hillsboro and O'Bannon Creek in Loveland on the Little Miami's route. By 1850, the H&C had completed the thirty-seven miles toHillsboro, Ohio . The H&C would lease its line in perpetuity to theMarietta and Cincinnati Railroad and ultimately became the mainline of theBaltimore and Ohio Railroad .Growth Through Mergers
The Little Miami Railroad leased in perpetuity all assets of the C&X on March 18, 1869 while the C&X continued to exist as a separate corporation. At that time, the LMRR had convert|123.49|mi|km of track and the C&X 75.33. It would later acquire forty-two miles of
Dayton and Western Railroad track by lease in 1864 and sixteen and one-half miles from theDayton and Xenia Railroad .The Little Miami joined the
Cincinnati and Indiana Railroad in 1862 in building track along the riverfront in Cincinnati to link their two depots. The LMRR and the C&X then bought theDayton, Xenia and Belpre Railroad in January 1865.Absorbed into the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis RR
On February 23, 1870, the Little Miami Railroad leased in perpetuity, renewable forever, all of its assets, including the DX&P, the D&W, and the C&X, to the
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad , retroactive to December 1, 1869. The rent was $480,000 per year. The PC&St.L was part of thePennsylvania Railroad and the Pennsy co-signed the lease, guaranting the payments and other conditions. At the time of the lease, the LMRR system consisted of convert|195.65|mi|km of track. The system had cost $3,995,165 in track, right-of-way, and facilities, plus $1,065,968 in rolling stock, machinery, and a boat on theOhio River . On August 28, 1890, the PC&St.L. merged with several other railroads to emerge as thePittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway .On the Little Miami River between
Kings Mills, Ohio and South Lebanon was Middletown Junction, where theMiddletown and Cincinnati Railroad track met the LMRR.From PRR to Conrail
The LMRR continued to exist as a separate corporation even though much of the stock was owned by the Pennsy. When the Pennsy's successor, the
Penn Central company collapsed into bankruptcy in 1970, the LMRR was still active. It would become part ofConrail and merged out of existence December 23, 1981.The rails were subsequently lifted and the right-of-way turned into the
Little Miami Bike Trail .Further reading
Robert L. Black, "The Little Miami Railroad" (Cincinnati, 1940).
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