Michigan and Ohio Railroad

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Michigan and Ohio Railroad
Map
Michigan and Ohio
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KA&GR to Grand Rapdids
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C&WM to Pentwater
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0.0
Allegan
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KA&GR to White Pigeon
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11.2
GR&I (Grand Rapids Kalamazoo)
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35.1
Michigan Central (Niles Jackson)
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41.7
C&GT (Chicago Port Huron)
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42.0
Battle Creek
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Air Line to Niles
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67.8
NCMR (Jonesville Lansing)
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Air Line to Jackson
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81.7
FTW&J (Fort Wayne Jackson)
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89.0
DH&SW (Bankers Ypsilanti)
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116.8
LS&MS (Lenawee Junction Jackson)
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123.5
Wabash (Montpelier Delray)
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TAA&NM to Owosso
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132.9
Dundee, Michigan
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TAA&NM to Toledo

The Michigan and Ohio Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in southern Michigan in the mid-1880s. Originally intended to forge a new line from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan, it came close to its goal, completing a line between Allegan and Dundee before financial embarrassment landed it in receivership.

Contents

Corporate history

The company incorporated on June 25, 1883, to consolidate the Toledo & Michigan, an Ohio company, and the Toledo & Milwaukee. The company filed articles on October 9, 1883 and began operations November 29. [1] :417 Beset by financial difficulties, the company went into receivership almost immediately; the Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw (CJ&MK) bought the company on March 25, 1887. [2] :108

Discussing the liabilities assumed by the CJ&MK in acquiring the M&O and other companies, Michigan's railroad commissioner wrote that:

"...a sum so largely in excess of the real value of the property as to suggest unfavorable comment upon the policy of loading down a new enterprise with liabilities that cannot fail to seriously impair the financial standing of the corporation." [3] :iv

Michigan operations

From the Toledo & Milwaukee the M&O inherited 11.5 miles (18.5 km) of track in revenue service between Allegan and Montieth, where the tracks crossed those of the Grand Rapids & Indiana, and a completed-but-not-operational stretch 121.7 miles (195.9 km) in length east from Montieth through Battle Creek and Marshall to Dundee, in Monroe County. [4] :241 The M&O promptly opened this new section opened on November 29, 1883. The Toledo & Milwaukee had also leased the tracks of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Grand Trunk, which ran south from Dundee to Toledo, Ohio, the company no longer having the funds to complete its own line. [1] :422–423 [4] :241 [5] :170–171

The M&O continued this leasing arrangement; in 1884, when the TAA&GT merged into the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan, the M&O continued to lease the DundeeToledo line from the new company, although the last two miles from Manhattan Junction to Toledo proper were leased from a new concern, the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad. [2] :145–146 [6] :372–373

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References

  1. 1 2 Michigan Railroad Commission (1884). Annual Report.
  2. 1 2 Meints, Graydon M. (1992). Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN   978-0-87013-318-3.
  3. Michigan Railroad Commission (1888). Annual Report.
  4. 1 2 Wing, Talcott Enoch; Helen Weightman Gay (1890). History of Monroe County, Michigan. New York: Munsell & Company. OCLC   81710795.
  5. Meints, Graydon M. (2005). Michigan Railroad Lines. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN   978-0-87013-693-1.
  6. Michigan Railroad Commission (1887). Annual Report.