Michigan and Ohio Railroad

Not to be confused with the Ohio and Michigan Railway.

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

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.

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]

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 and Lake Erie Railroad.^[6]

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.

References

• Michigan Railroad Commission (1884). Annual Report. http://books.google.com/books?id=nyE2AAAAIAAJ. 
• Michigan Railroad Commission (1887). Annual Report. http://books.google.com/books?id=BiM2AAAAIAAJ. 
• Michigan Railroad Commission (1888). Annual Report. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZiM2AAAAIAAJ. 
• 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. http://books.google.com/books?id=UJEPx_u92h8C.