Little Miami Railroad

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 to Fosters, 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 up Turtle Creek to Lebanon, 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 the Jeremiah 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. The Hillsboro 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 to Hillsboro, Ohio. The H&C would lease its line in perpetuity to the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad and ultimately became the mainline of the Baltimore 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 the Dayton 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 the Dayton, 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 the Pennsylvania 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 the Ohio River. On August 28, 1890, the PC&St.L. merged with several other railroads to emerge as the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway.

On the Little Miami River between Kings Mills, Ohio and South Lebanon was Middletown Junction, where the Middletown 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 of Conrail 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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