Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway history

He incorporated the Ohio & Toledo Rail Road (O&T) on May 7, 1872 to move coal from eastern Ohio mines to Lake Erie.

Things remained this way until Carrollton sold the railroad to Eckley for $1 on July 15, 1873.

He integrated it into his O&T system and made further upgrades, such as laying solid iron T-rail (3-foot gauge) and extending service to Minerva during 1874.

Incorporated as the Painesville, Canton & Bridgeport Narrow Gauge Rail Road on January 12, 1875 it began construction from Chagrin Falls.

With a right-of-way ready for rails the first 12.5 miles between Huron and Norwalk opened during June of 1877.

It then awarded Smith the property in 1878 and Eckley's involvement ended.

Before shutting down in late 1879 the group was successful in converting the Huron-Norwalk segment to standard-gauge.

Actual construction commenced east and west of Creston and by November of 1881 the line was finished from Massillon to Norwalk/Huron.

A point known as Valley Junction was reached in August of 1882, which offered interchange with the Cleveland & Marietta Railroad (C&M).

In Cleveland, CVR tracks extended along Canal Street to the corner of Ontario and Huron Avenues, where a new passenger depot was opened in 1883.

Sold under foreclosure to bondholders on May 9, 1885, the railroad renamed as the Cleveland and Canton Railway.

The remaining 43 miles (which required four short tunnels) was finished to Martins Ferry in October of 1889.

The Cleveland, Belt and Terminal Railroad (CB&T) was chartered on May 13, 1891 to speed up the movement of freight through the Cleveland area.

Here, it constructed a modest depot not far from the B&O's ornate three-story facility (home to the Wheeling Division's main offices). The W&LE began regular service into Wheeling on February 1, 1892.

When the CB&T opened for traffic in 1893, its tracks ran from the Cleveland, Canton and Southern in the Flats westward to the Big 4 (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St Louis Railroad) tracks near Denison Avenue.

The renewed initiative got off to a rocky start when a coal strike hammered traffic, leading to another receivership on January 15, 1897.

Both the CC&S and CB&T railroads deteriorated until their purchase by the WLE in 1899.

In 1900 the WLE had 435.7 miles of track in operation, with the majority of its earning coming from freight, particularly coal, coke, iron ore, stone and sand.

As it had expanded its territory through mergers and transfers, the Wheeling and Lake Erie found itself leased by the Nickel Plate Road (NKP) in 1949 for fifteen years.

In 1964, NKP merged with Norfolk and Western Railway.

* IU #23 was built as Electro-Motive demonstrator #107 in June of 1966.

In 1982, the Norfolk and Western became the Norfolk Southern Railway.

Kendzierski, Richard. “Bedford fix-up: Old N&W depot on town square to be restored.” Plain Dealer, July 29, 1986.

The original lines of the WL&E were sold in June 1990 to a new railroad, which adopted the original name (WL&E) and still runs today.

In 1995 it was purchased by Union Pacific.