The Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad is a historic railroad that operated in the southwest portion of the U.S. state of Ohio.
It connected Middletown, Butler County with Middletown Junction, Warren County, a distance of 14 miles.
The company's predecessor, the Middletown and Cincinnati Railway Company, was organized on February 28, 1890, by Middletown industrialist Paul Sorg and others who were dissatisfied with the service provided to Middletown by the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad and the Cincinnati and Springfield Railroad. The new line was charted to provide more accessible facilities and provide better connections to Cincinnati.
The line was completed in December 1892. Beginning at a depot on Clinton Street in Middletown, the line ran southeast through Lemon Township near Oakland, crossed into Warren County east of Monroe into Turtlecreek Township and continued into Union Township. At Hagemans Crossing, about twelve miles southeast of Middletown, the line crossed the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway, then a narrow gauge railroad. This part of the line was roughly the route of the Warren County Canal. The line continued two miles southeast, crossing the Little Miami River on a 365-foot truss bridge, into Hamilton Township where it terminated on the Little Miami Railroad at Middletown Junction, between Kings Mills and South Lebanon. The route was very level, having a maximum grade of 0.46 percent.
The railroad was constructed largely on borrowed money and in 1894 it went into receivership. On October 20, 1894, it was sold at auction to the original owners, who had lent it considerable sums. It was reincorporated on December 24, 1894, as the Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad Company. Following the Pennsylvania Railroad's acquisition of the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway in 1896, the CL&N on June 3, 1902 bought the M&C for $400,000 and merged it into the CL&N.
Following the bankruptcy of the Pennsy's successor, the Penn Central company, the line became the property of Conrail in 1976. Conrail later sold the Middletown to Hagemans Crossing section to the Indiana and Ohio Railroad. The I&O operates freight service to Lebanon and Mason via the track and formerly operated an excursion train to Monroe from Mason. The track southeast of U.S. Route 42 at Hagemans Crossing has been abandoned, the rails lifted, and the right-of-way sold to the City of Lebanon.
The most southeasterly section, between Columbia Road and Middletown Junction has been converted to the Lebanon Countryside Trail by the City of Lebanon. The trail opened in the fall of 2005. The bridge is being used to link the trail to the Little Miami Bike Trail.
Warren County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 242,337. Its county seat is Lebanon. The county is one of Ohio’s most affluent, with the county median income the highest of Ohio’s 88 counties. The county was created on May 1, 1803 from Hamilton County; it is named for Dr. Joseph Warren, a hero of the Revolution who sent Paul Revere and the overlooked William Dawes on their famous rides and who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Warren County is part of the Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Little Miami Scenic Trail is the fourth longest paved trail in the United States, running 78.1 miles (125.7 km) through five southwestern counties in the state of Ohio. The multi-use rail trail sees heavy recreational use by hikers and bicyclists, as well as the occasional horseback rider. Over 700,000 people made use of the trail in 2014.
Turtlecreek Township is one of the eleven townships of Warren County, Ohio, United States. It is in the central part of the county and surrounds the county seat of Lebanon. Turtlecreek is the largest township in the county, originally containing sixty-three whole and seven fractional sections. It had a population of 12,617 in 2000, up from 10,383 in 1990. Of those, 12,114 lived in the unincorporated part of the township, 456 in Middletown, and 47 in Monroe.
The Little Miami Railroad was a railway of southwestern Ohio, running from the eastern side of Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio. By merging with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad in 1853, it created the first through-rail route from the important manufacturing city of Cincinnati to the state capital, Columbus. In this period, railroads were important for creating connections between the important waterways of the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, which were major transportation routes for products to other markets.
Hagemans Crossing is an unincorporated community in Union Township, Warren County, Ohio, United States. Located in the western part of the township, it is located on the old Cincinnati and Xenia Pike, now U.S. Route 42, about halfway between Lebanon and Mason. It was at the crossing of the Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad and the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway and was about two miles northwest of the M&C's eastern terminus at Middletown Junction.
Union Township is one of the eleven townships of Warren County, Ohio, United States, located in the central part of the county. It was established January 3, 1815 and named Union as it was formed from parts of Deerfield and Turtlecreek Townships. The 2000 census found 4,668 people in the township, up slightly from the 4,631 in 1990. Of those, 2,230 lived in the unincorporated part of the township and 2,438 lived in the village of South Lebanon.
Hamilton Township, one of the eleven townships of Warren County, Ohio, United States, is in the south central portion of the county. The 2000 census found 9,630 people there, up significantly from the 5,900 in 1990. 8,645 of the total in 2000 lived in the unincorporated portions of the township. It is the fastest growing area of Warren County and is about 36 miles² (93 km2) in area.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage remains a major rail transportation corridor used by Amtrak passenger trains and several freight lines; in 1998, its ownership was split at Cleveland between CSX to the east and Norfolk Southern in the west.
The Marietta and Cincinnati (M&C) was one of five important east-west railroads of southern Ohio; it was later absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). Its original route ran from Marietta through Vincent, Athens, Hamden, Chillicothe, Greenfield, Blanchester, and Loveland. It had two main branches: Blanchester to Hillsboro, which was originally part of the Hillsboro and Cincinnati Railroad; and Hamden to Portsmouth, Ohio, originally part of the Scioto and Hocking Valley Railroad.
The Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway (CL&N) was a local passenger and freight-carrying railroad in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Cincinnati to Dayton via Lebanon. It was built in the late 19th century to give the town of Lebanon and Warren County better transportation facilities. The railroad was locally known as the "Highland Route", since it followed the ridge between the Little and Great Miami rivers, and was the only line not affected by floods such as the Great Dayton Flood of 1913.
Lemon Township is one of thirteen townships in Butler County, Ohio, United States. Located in the northeastern part of the county, it includes most of the city of Monroe. It had a population of 13,875 at the 2010 census. It is the only Lemon Township statewide.
Liberty Township is an affluent suburb of Cincinnati located in Butler County, Ohio. It is one of thirteen townships in Butler County, Ohio, United States. It is located on the east-central part of the county, just south of the city of Monroe. With an area of about 29 square miles (75 km2) it is smallest of the thirteen townships but one of the fastest-growing areas in southwest Ohio, having a population of 37,259 at the 2010 census, up from 22,819 in 2000 and just 9,249 in 1990. It was named for Liberty, Pennsylvania, at the suggestion of John Morrow, a resident in the township at the time of its formation in 1803 who was the brother of Ohio Governor Jeremiah Morrow, after his hometown. The first settler was John Nelson, who arrived in 1796, seven years before Ohio became a state. It is one of 25 Liberty Townships statewide.
The Warren County Canal was a branch of the Miami and Erie Canal in southwestern Ohio about 20 miles (32 km) in length that connected the Warren County seat of Lebanon to the main canal at Middletown in the mid-19th century. Lebanon was at the crossroads of two major roads, the highway from Cincinnati to Columbus and the road from Chillicothe to the College Township (Oxford), but Lebanon businessmen and civic leaders wanted better transportation facilities and successfully lobbied for their own canal, part of the canal fever of the first third of the 19th century. The Warren County Canal was never successful, operating less than a decade before the state abandoned it.
The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route, was a railroad that was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line, which began at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and continued west to Bradford, Ohio, where it split into a northern line to Chicago and a southern one through Indianapolis, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois.
The Lebanon Countryside Trail is a rail trail in Ohio.
The Lebanon Mason & Monroe Railroad is a heritage railroad in Ohio. It offers passenger rides out of its depot in Lebanon, Ohio.
The Indiana and Ohio Railway is an American railroad that operates 570 miles (920 km) of track in Ohio, southern Michigan, and parts of southeastern Indiana. It is owned and operated by Genesee & Wyoming, who acquired the railroad in the 2012 purchase of RailAmerica. The railroad's traffic comes mainly from grain, lumber products, metals, and chemical products. The IORY hauled around 62,000 carloads in 2008.
The Cincinnati District is a railroad line owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway and operated by Cincinnati Eastern Railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio. The line runs from Cincinnati, Ohio southeast to Portsmouth, Ohio along a former Norfolk and Western Railway line. Its southeast end is at the Columbus District near Portsmouth, while its northwest end is in Mariemont, Ohio, where it meets the Indiana and Ohio Railway's Midland Subdivision and Norfolk Southern's Dayton District.
The Cincinnati Northern Railroad was a railroad that stretched from Franklin, Ohio north to Jackson, Michigan, a distance of about 186 miles (299 km). It was acquired by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway in 1901 and the New York Central Railroad several years later. Most of the line has since been abandoned.
The Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad (C&MV) was a shortline railroad operating in the state of Ohio in the United States. Originally known as the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad (C&M), it was chartered in 1848. Construction of the line began in 1853 and was completed in 1857. After an 1872 merger with two small railroads, the corporate name was changed to "Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad". The railroad leased itself to the Atlantic and Great Western Railway in 1863. The C&MV suffered financial instability, and in 1880 its stock was sold to a company based in London in the United Kingdom. A series of leases and ownership changes left the C&MV in the hands of the Erie Railroad in 1896. The CM&V's corporate identity ended in 1942 after the Erie Railroad completed purchasing the railroad's outstanding stock from the British investors.