Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway

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Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway

Locale	Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky
Dates of operation	1889 – 1922
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Indianapolis, Indiana

The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Big Four Railroad and commonly abbreviated CCC&StL, was a railroad company in the United States. Its main routes were in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

[edit] History

The railroad was formed on June 30, 1889 by the merger of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway, the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway and the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railway. The railroad once operated a terminal at Bellefontaine, Ohio which included the largest roundhouse in use at that time between New York and St. Louis. The railroad was headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, at 105 S. Meridian Street. As of 2006 the building previously known as the Big Four Building is a Hampton Inn hotel.

By 1906, the Big Four was acquired by the New York Central Railroad. The Big Four's lines were incorporated into Penn Central in 1968 with the merger of New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad. When Penn Central declared bankruptcy two years later, Big Four's lines were nationalized through the state-run Conrail. Conrail closed the Bellefontaine terminal in 1983, and the roundhouse was dismantled. Conrail was later privatized, and sold in 1999 to CSX and Norfolk Southern.