Michigan and Ohio Railroad

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Michigan and Ohio
LUECKE
KA&GR to Grand Rapdids
HLUECKE ABZlg
C&WM to Pentwater
BHF
0.0 Allegan
STRrg ABZrf
LUECKE STR
KA&GR to White Pigeon
HLUECKE KRZBHF HLUECKE
11.2 GR&I (Grand Rapids–Kalamazoo)
HLUECKE KRZo HLUECKE
35.1 Michigan Central (Niles–Jackson)
HLUECKE KRZ HLUECKE
41.7 C&GT (Chicago–Port Huron)
BHF
42.0 Battle Creek
LUECKE STR
Air Line to Niles
HLUECKE ABZ3lf KRZ ABZ3lg HLUECKE
67.8 NCMR (Jonesville–Lansing)
STR LUECKE
Air Line to Jackson
HLUECKE KRZ HLUECKE
81.7 FTW&J (Fort Wayne–Jackson)
HLUECKE KRZu HLUECKE
89.0 DH&SW (Bankers–Ypsilanti)
HLUECKE KRZ HLUECKE
116.8 LS&MS (Lenawee Junction–Jackson)
HLUECKE KRZ HLUECKE
123.5 Wabash (Montpelier–Delray)
STR LUECKE
TAA&NM to Owosso
ABZrg STRrf
BHF
132.9 Dundee, Michigan
LUECKE
TAA&NM to Toledo
The above shows the physical line of the Michigan and Ohio as of March 25, 1887, when the Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw bought it, including crossings by other lines as they were then constituted. Intermediate stations omitted.
Not to be confused with the Ohio and Michigan Railway.

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

[edit] 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] 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]

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]

[edit] 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] 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.[5]

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 Dundee–Toledo line from the new company, although the last two miles from Manhattan Junction to Toledo proper were leased from a new concern, the Wheeling & Lake Erie.[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Michigan Railroad Commission (1884), 417.
  2. ^ Meints (1992), 108.
  3. ^ Michigan Railroad Commission (1888), iv.
  4. ^ Wing (1890), 241.
  5. ^ Meints (2005), 170-171; Michigan Railroad Commission (1884), 422-423; Wing (1890), 241.
  6. ^ Michigan Railroad Commission (1887), 372-373; Meints (1992), 145-146.

[edit] References

  • Michigan Railroad Commission (1884). Annual Report. 
  • Michigan Railroad Commission (1887). Annual Report. 
  • Michigan Railroad Commission (1888). Annual Report. 
  • Meints, Graydon M. (1992). Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0870133187. 
  • Meints, Graydon (2005). Michigan Railroad Lines. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. 
  • Wing, Talcott Enoch; Helen Weightman Gay (1890). History of Monroe County, Michigan. Munsell & company.