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.
A number of ownership changes since 1942 have left the track in various corporate hands. Portions of the track are now biking and hiking trails.
Founding Jacob Perkins, a prominent attorney in the city of Warren in Trumbull County, Ohio, was the leader in the movement to build a railroad between Cleveland (a fast-growing industrial center and port on the shores of Lake Erie) and the coal fields of east-central Ohio. A previous road to that area, the Ohio and Erie Railroad, was proposed earlier but nothing came of this project. Perkins helped incorporate the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, which was chartered by the state of Ohio on February 22, 1848. It was authorized to build a rail line from Cleveland to an unspecified point near Warren. Initially, Perkins attempted to interest the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad (O&P) into building the line, but that company declined. He then offered the charter to the Pittsburgh and Erie Railroad, but it was uninterested as well.
The state reissued the charter, with minor amendments, on March 20, 1851. One of these changes allowed the road to build its line into Pennsylvania, if that state permitted it. The Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad was organized on September 20, 1851. The incorporators included Perkins; Dudley Baldwin, Cleveland investment banker; Robert Cunningham, businessman in New Castle, Pennsylvania; Frederick Kinsman, a Trumbull County judge and land agent; James Magee, a wealthy Philadelphia tack manufacturer and one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Railroad; Charles Smith, a Warren businessman and banker; and David Tod, Mahoning County attorney and former U.S. ambassador to Brazil. The initial board of directors included Perkins, Baldwin, Kinsman, Smith, Tod, and Reuben Hitchcock, a judge from Painesville in Lake County, Ohio. Cleveland was chosen as the corporate headquarters.
Route and route changes Deciding on a route The company surveyed a number of different routes. The route proposed in 1851 had the railroad's northern terminus in Cleveland, where it would connect with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. The route then ran through Chagrin Falls, Garrettsville, Warren, Niles, Girard, Youngstown, Poland, and Petersburgh before terminating at Enon Valley, Pennsylvania. Company officials decided in 1852 to bypass Youngstown entirely, shifting the route south (along what is now Interstate 76 and Interstate 80) to reach Enon Valley. David Tod, who returned to the United States from Brazil in 1852, was angry that the railroad would bypass the largest city in his county. He convinced company officials to change the route back.
The railroad then proposed that, after leaving Youngstown, the route should follow the Mahoning River to New Castle. There, it would connect with the North Western Railroad and the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad. The former gave it access to the Pennsylvania Railroad, while the latter provided access to the industrial and agricultural region between New Castle and New Brighton.
At the end of December 1852, a new board of directors was elected. Retained were Baldwin, Kinsman, Perkins, Smith, and Tod; newly elected were Charles L. Rhodes, former agent for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, and Henry Wick, a prominent Cleveland banker. Perkins was elected president.
Gauge and fundraising As the company prepared for construction, it had to decide on a track width ("gauge"). The track width has been characterized as both narrow-gauge and standard-gauge. It was neither; the gauge was a highly unusual . At the time, nearly all railroads in Ohio were built with a gauge (the "Ohio gauge"). The directors of the new railroad chose the slightly narrower gauge because they believed it would allow the road to also haul standard-gauge railcars. The confusion about the C&M's gauge likely stems from the fact that the Atlantic and Great Western Railway (a broad-gauge railway) and its owned and leased subsidiaries (which included the C&M) converted to standard-gauge on June 22, 1880.
The Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad initially sold stock to raise construction funds. Investors in Warren and Youngstown bought $275,000 ($ in dollars) in stock, while those in Cleveland purchased $100,000 ($ in dollars).
The route was surveyed by the end of 1852, and construction was ready to begin toward Warren from Cleveland.
First phase of grading Work on the track began in 1853. The company said in January that it had identified locations in Cleveland for the construction of its freight and passenger stations and its docks on the Cuyahoga River. The company also altered its route and bypassed Chagrin Falls after residents there failed to purchase enough of the company's stock. The new route shifted south, passing through Mantua. Company officials also said the railroad would not go south to the village of Poland after passing through Youngstown, again due to a lack of stock subscription. The railroad would instead follow the Mahoning River southeast to New Castle and might even go as far south as New Brighton.
Grading and track work in Cleveland in 1853 began at the Old Ship Channel of the Cuyahoga River in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland. The route crossed the Old Ship Channel to land near Mulberry Avenue, headed southeast (paralleling the avenue), then ran along the Irishtown Bend of the Cuyahoga River. It cut overland to the southeast to avoid the Scranton Flats and Collision Bend and crossed to the east bank of the Cuyahoga just north of Kingsbury Run. The tracks then ran parallel to and east of Broadway Avenue, shifting to an east-southeast direction about E. 55th Street. After crossing the tracks of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, the C&M turned sharply southward. Before reaching Hamilton Avenue (now called Harvard Avenue), the tracks shifted southeast again, largely paralleling Harvard Avenue, Caine Avenue, and Miles Avenue before leaving the city. This work was completed by a company based in Livingston, New York. The C&M's "Western Division" ran from Cleveland to Warren. This section was graded by a company from Buffalo, New York. The railroad's "Eastern Division" ran from Warren to its terminus. Grading here was completed by Britton & Co., a construction firm based in Warren. Work between Warren and Youngstown began about August 1853.
The road proved more costly to build than anticipated. To obtain more funds, the company sold $850,000 ($ in dollars) in bonds on August 22, 1853. Another $300,000 ($ in dollars) in stock was sold in Philadelphia in early 1854. By July, grading was complete in Cleveland from the Cuyahoga River to the top of the heights in what was then Newburgh Township. Once more, the railroad ran out of money. This time, it estimated it needed another $200,000 ($ in dollars) to complete grading the road to Youngstown.
Second phase of grading To raise the necessary funds, the railroad decided to sell more bonds. The bond sales faltered badly due to the economic challenges brought about by the 1853–54 recession. Perkins traveled to the United Kingdom in the spring of 1854 to try to sell bonds to investors there, but met with no success. Perkins returned to the United States, where board members pleaded with him to take over the railroad's presidency in an effort to improve its reputation among investors. Perkins agreed to do so, and even pledged to put $100,000 ($ in dollars) of his own money into the railroad—but only if his fellow board members agreed to personally guarantee the road's debts. The board members agreed to do so, with their investment totaling $440,000 ($ in dollars). The strategy worked, for the company was able to sell another $469,200 ($ in dollars) in bonds on September 8, 1854.
With construction tentatively scheduled for completion between Cleveland and Warren in 1855, Perkins and Tod spent two weeks in December 1854 in Philadelphia, where they managed to personally borrow $20,000 ($ in dollars) which enabled the company to purchase two locomotives. The road now had sufficient funds to buy rails to lay track from Cleveland to Youngstown and a limited quantity of rolling stock to begin operations. Rails were purchased from the Phoenixville Manufacturing Co., and the first shipment arrived in late May 1855. The railroad's first locomotive, the Philadelphia, was manufactured by the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Co. and delivered in late July. The second big shipment of rails arrived in mid-October.
Opening of the line between Cleveland and Warren At Plank Road Station, on Cleveland's southern border, the railroad constructed its first rail yard. The hamlet which grew up around the yards was renamed Randall, in honor of former United States Postmaster General Alexander Randall. (It was incorporated as the village of North Randall in 1908.) Most of the route in Portage County, Ohio, was graded in 1855, and track partially laid. By November 7, the line was complete between Mantua and Warren, and construction trains were running on the line. On November 20, the C&M awarded a contract to the Chamberlain Co. to grade the route from Youngstown to New Castle.
The winter which began in late 1855 was extremely severe, and little construction could be accomplished. This pushed the date for completion of the line into 1856. To accept freight directly from cargo ships, the railroad announced in March 1856 it would build docks on either side of Columbus Street on the south bank of the Cuyahoga River (the southernmost part of Irishtown Bend). The first of track south of Cleveland opened in April 1856. On July 1, the railroad opened all the way to Warren.
With the beginning of rail operations, the C&M needed a superintendent to manage the road's day-to-day operations. W.C. Clelland, of the Pittsburg & Cleveland Railroad, was appointed superintendent on June 15, 1856, but he resigned suddenly just a month later. Charles L. Rhodes was then appointed superintendent temporarily. He was replaced by George Robinson, a superintendent with the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad. Robinson, who also was the C&M's chief engineer, stayed until 1865.
Completion of the line to Youngstown The C&M reached Youngstown in the fall of 1856, and opened for commercial traffic to that city on November 24, 1856. This left the C&M short of any connection to an eastern railroad.
Track did not initially extend beyond Youngstown in 1856. In part, the railroad lacked the funds, saying it needed at least $50,000 ($ in dollars) to complete this work. The C&M also discovered that the North Western Railroad at Blairsville was willing to ship freight east but not west, which significantly hindered the new road (as it was costly to ship empty rail cars back to Cleveland).
No additional work on the Cleveland and Mahoning's main line was made after 1857, leaving the main line just about long.
Independent railroad: 1857 to 1863
Early operations