| Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway | |
|---|---|
Big Four (red) and New York Central system (orange) as of 1918 |
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| Locale | Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio |
| Dates of operation | 1889–1922 |
| Successor | New York Central |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 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 Midwestern United States.
Its primary routes were located in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.
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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 following year, the company gained control of the former Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway (through the foreclosed Ohio, Indiana and Western Railway and through an operating agreement with the Peoria and Eastern Railway).
In 1906, the Big Four was acquired by the New York Central Railroad, which operated it as a separate entity until 1922. The Big Four's lines were later incorporated into Penn Central in 1968 with the merger of New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970, and in 1976 many of Big Four's lines were included in the government-sponsored Conrail. Conrail was privatized in 1987 and in 1997 was jointly acquired by CSX and Norfolk Southern.
The railroad was headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Chesapeake Building at 105 S. Meridian Street. The building was constructed for the railroad in 1929 and was also known as the Big Four Building. In 2007 this multi-story structure became a Hampton Inn hotel.[1]
Nearby, on the southwest corner of Pennsylvania and Georgia streets in the Wholesale District of downtown Indianapolis, a large building was built by the railroad to serve as one of its maintenance shops. Until the neighboring Conseco Fieldhouse was constructed in the late 1990s, an elevated track crossed Pennsylvania Street into a partially open locomotive service bay, which itself remains visible along the south side of the second story of this still standing structure. During the Conrail era, most of the building was used mainly as office space; its successor, CSX, still uses a portion of this Georgia Street facility.
The railroad also once operated a terminal at Bellefontaine, Ohio which included the largest roundhouse in use at that time between New York City and St. Louis, Missouri. Conrail closed the Bellefontaine terminal in 1983, and its roundhouse was dismantled.
A large yard facility, known to this day as the Big Four Yards, is located in Avon, Indiana along the line's tracks, now owned and operated by CSX.
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