View source for Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad

{{maplink-road|from=Frankfort and Kokomo Railroad.map|from2=Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad.map|from3=Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad (CL&N).map|from4=Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad (CH&D).map|plain=no|frame-align=right|text=System map as of 1884|from5=Iron Railroad.map}}
[[File:1881 Maps showing the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington Railroad and its connections, by G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co., from the Digital Commonwealth - commonwealth cj82kp19c.jpg|thumb|right|Toledo, Delphos & Burlington Railroad, 1881]]
{{Short description|Former railroad line}}
{{Infobox rail
| railroad_name= Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad
| logo_filename=
| logo_size=
| gauge={{RailGauge|3ft|lk=on}}
| old_gauge=
| marks=
| locale=[[Illinois]], [[Indiana]] and [[Ohio]]
| length={{convert|780|mi|km|abbr=on}}
| start_year=1879
| end_year=1885
| hq_city=
}}
The '''Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad''' ("TC&StL") was a {{RailGauge|3ft|lk=on}} [[narrow-gauge]] railroad operating in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It began as a subsidiary of the {{RailGauge|3ft|lk=on}} [[narrow-gauge]] '''Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Railroad''' ("TD&B").  The entire TC&StL system, principally linking [[Toledo, Ohio]] with [[Cincinnati, Ohio]] and [[East St. Louis, Illinois]], was operational by March of 1883, consisting of about 780 miles of road.  However, the railway quickly landed in bankruptcy, and was broken up.
==History==
The predecessor TD&B came about on May 23, 1879 from a merger of several other railroads.<ref name=Hilton2/>  While originating in [[Delphos, Ohio]], the line always had its eyes set on Toledo, Ohio as one terminus, and expected the other to be [[Burlington, Iowa]].<ref name=Hilton2/>
A separate railroad which became important to the TD&B was the {{RailGauge|4ft10in|lk=on}} [[Iron Railroad]] founded on February 2, 1848, and based in [[Ironton, Ohio]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-01-30 |title=D T & I RR in Lawrence Co., OH |url=https://www.waverlyinfo.net/d-t---i-rr-in-lawrence-co.--oh.html |access-date=2022-09-13 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130092634/https://www.waverlyinfo.net/d-t---i-rr-in-lawrence-co.--oh.html |archive-date=30 January 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Hilton2>{{cite book |last=Hilton |first=George |date=1990 |title= American Narrow Gauge Railroads|publisher= Stanford University Press |page=473-479 |isbn= 0804723699}}</ref>  The TD&B wished to reach Ironton, which was a rail- and ingot-producing town,<ref name=Hilton2/>
In 1881, the TD&B reached an agreement with the Iron Railroad to [[dual-gauge]] a segment of its line by laying a rail spaced to {{RailGauge|3ft}} narrow-gauge in-between the Iron Railroad's existing track.  Both railroads merged later that same year, retaining the TD&B name.<ref>[http://dti.railfan.net/DTI_History/dti_history.html History of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad]</ref>
However, the TD&B's intended western termination point changed in the spring of 1880 from Burlington to East St. Louis, and the TC&StL subsidiary was formed in February of 1881 to handle construction of the extension from [[Kokomo, Indiana]] to that destination.<ref name=Hilton2/>  On February 23, 1882, the TD&B and the TC&StL were merged, with the enterprise continuing under the TC&StL name, since it was then more representative of the system. The extension was in operational shape by March 1, 1883, and express trains were linking the railroad's three principal cities of East St. Louis, Toledo and Cincinnati in the summer of 1883.<ref name=Hilton2/>  This gave the railroad a total of about 780 miles of track.<ref name=Hilton2/>
Along the way, the TC&StL was a promoter of the Grand Narrow Gauge Trunk.<ref name=Hilton>{{cite book |last=Hilton |first=George |date=1990 |title= American Narrow Gauge Railroads|publisher= Stanford University Press |page=101-117 |isbn= 0804723699}}</ref>  If all required elements had fallen into place, this would have created continuous 3’ narrow-gauge tracks extending from [[Mexico City]] to the [[Great Lakes]].<ref name=Hilton/>  A railroad called the [[Texas and St. Louis Railway]] was constructing narrow-gauge trackage from [[Gatesville, Texas]] to [[Bird's Point, Missouri]],<ref name=Rails>{{cite web|url= https://www.american-rails.com/cotton.html |title=St. Louis Southwestern Railway, "The Cotton Belt Route"|publisher=American-Rails, June 12, 2023|accessdate=October 8, 2023}}</ref> and that company already planned to extend southerly to [[Laredo, Texas]], where not much more than a bridge or ferry would have been necessary to have joined it to the narrow-gauge rails of the [[National Railroad of Mexico]] which ran south from [[Nuevo Laredo, Mexico]] to Mexico City.<ref name=Hilton/>  Then, a new railroad would have been needed to fill the gap between the end of the Texas and St. Louis line in the north and a connection around St. Louis to the TC&StL, which would have provided the route into Toledo on [[Lake Erie]].<ref name=Hilton/>  Representatives of the TC&StL and the Texas and St. Louis announced in January of 1881 their agreement to form such a linking railroad, to be called the Toledo, Texas and Rio Grande.<ref name=Hilton/>  While a company of that name was chartered in Illinois on June 8, 1882, financial issues with both sponsor railroads starting around the fall of 1882 quickly prevented any real progress on the plan.<ref name=Hilton/>  While the failure of the Grand Narrow Gauge Trunk and its sponsors did not by itself doom the narrow-gauge railroad movement in the U.S., this occurrence was seen as solid evidence that narrow-gauge lines were not competitive with standard railroads for general transport purposes, although they might still have uses in niche applications.<ref name=Hilton/>
The financially troubled TC&StL system entered receivership later in 1883, and was split at [[foreclosure]] in 1884 and 1885 as follows:<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urcvAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA585 |title=Poor's Manual of Railroads |date=1884 |publisher=H.V. & H.W. Poor |language=en}}</ref>
* St. Louis and Toledo Divisions (split at [[Kokomo, IN|Kokomo]]), completed by the TC&StL: [[Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad]] ([[Nickel Plate Road|NKP]])<!--initially three separate companies, one per state, but very quickly merged-->
* Cincinnati Division
** Built by the TD&B (Lebanon Junction to Dayton): [[Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati Railroad]] ([[Pennsylvania Railroad|Pennsy]])
** Ex-Cincinnati Northern Railway: [[Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway]] ([[Pennsylvania Railroad|Pennsy]])
* Dayton Division, completed by the TD&B (Delphos to Dayton): [[Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway (1846–1917)|Dayton and Toledo Railroad]] ([[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad|B&O]])
* Southeastern Division, ex-[[Dayton and South Eastern Railroad]] (Dayton to Wellston): [[Dayton and Ironton Railroad]] ([[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad|B&O]])
* Ironton Division
** Constructed by the TC&StL (Deans to Ironton Junction): [[Dayton and Ironton Railroad]] ([[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad|B&O]])
** Ex-[[Iron Railroad]] (Ironton to Center Station and connection to Deans): [[Iron Railway]] ([[Track gauge conversion|converted]] to {{RailGauge|4ft8.5in|allk=on|disp=or}} in 1887)
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toledo Cincinnati Saint Louis  Railroad}}
[[Category:Defunct Illinois railroads]]
[[Category:Defunct Indiana railroads]]
[[Category:Defunct Ohio railroads]]
[[Category:Narrow gauge railroads in Illinois]]
[[Category:Narrow gauge railroads in Indiana]]
[[Category:Narrow gauge railroads in Ohio]]
[[Category:Predecessors of the Pennsylvania Railroad]]
[[Category:Predecessors of the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad]]
[[Category:Predecessors of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad]]
[[Category:Predecessors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]
[[Category:Railway companies established in 1881]]
[[Category:Railway companies disestablished in 1885]]
[[Category:3 ft gauge railways in the United States]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1881]]
{{US-rail-transport-stub}}