Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway
Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway is both the name of a former railway company ( AAR Reporting mark: WLE ) and that of a current railway company ( AAR Reporting mark: WE ).
The first Wheeling and Lake Erie (1877-1949)
The history of the first Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway began with the establishment of its first predecessor, the Carroll County Rail Road , on March 9, 1850. The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad was established on April 6, 1871 and was a 3- foot narrow-gauge railway between Norwalk, Ohio and Huron, Ohio . Operations began on May 31, 1877 . However, the route was not very successful and was closed again after only 2 years.
With investments by the railroad financier Jay Gould in 1880 and financial reorganization of the company, the line was converted to standard gauge . Operations on this new standard-gauge line between Huron and Massillon began on January 9, 1882. Further new routes were built that led to the Ohio River and Toledo (Ohio) . In addition, the WLE built new docks on Lake Erie near Huron, which opened on May 21, 1884 with the receipt of the first cargo of iron ore .
In 1880, construction began on another narrow-gauge line, the Connotton Valley Railway, connecting Canton, Ohio, with Coshocton and Zanesville, Ohio . The Connotton Valley Railway became the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad . On November 18, 1888, it was converted into a standard gauge line within a day. In 1899, the WLE bought the Cleveland, Canton & Southern Railroad in a foreclosure auction and incorporated them as the Cleveland Division .
At the height of its existence, the WLE had routes from the Pittsburgh region to Lake Erie and Huron. The main routes of the WLE, however, were entirely in Ohio . There were also routes between Cleveland, Ohio and Zanesville. This line crossed the main line in Harmon (Ohio) , where the headquarters and workshops of the WLE were also built. Because of these two main routes that crossed in the middle of Ohio, the WLE soon got the nickname The Iron Cross (Engl .: The Iron Cross) . Ironically, the WLE never reached Wheeling, West Virginia , the place that gave the railroad its name. However, branches between Steubenville and Martins Ferry were opened in 1891 , which indirectly led to a connection to Wheeling via the subsidiary Wheeling Bridge and Terminal Company .
In 1910, WLE began building locomotives in Brewster, Ohio . There she built steam boilers and over 50 of her own locomotives.
In 1949 the WLE was leased from the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad . This merged in 1964 with the Norfolk and Western Railway , which later merged with the Southern Railway , which resulted in the Norfolk Southern Railway .
Rebirth as a regional train (1990)
On June 1, 1990, the Norfolk Southern Railway sold parts of its lines in Pennsylvania and Ohio, including most of the lines of the former WLE, to a new regional railroad company that took up the old name again, called the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway and the Routes today operates.
The only parts of the old WLE that are not part of the WE today are the Norfolk Southern line to Bellevue (Ohio) (but has the WE route rights for this route up to Toledo that after the decline of Conrail acquired 1999), former Cleveland Division, sold by Norfolk Southern to the Ohio Central Railway in 1986 , and the routes to and around the docks in Huron.
The first line of the WLE between Norwalk and Huron, the Huron Branch , was acquired by WE but was never reactivated north of Norwalk, so the line was completely dismantled. The WE, however, still serves the docks in Huron via the Norfolk Southern route from Bellevue (formerly a stretch of the Nickel Plate Road) and a connecting route to the docks, which was built in 1952 by the NKP. In addition, some smaller parts of the WLE have already been shut down by the WE and partially replaced by route usage rights on parallel lines of other railway companies.
WE also has route usage rights for routes operated by CSX Transportation and Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern to Lima (Ohio) . These rights are also a result of the Conrail break-up.
The WE has connections to three of the major Class I railroad companies in the United States, namely the Canadian National Railway , the CSX and the Norfolk Southern Railway . Much of the goods transported are the same as in the early years of the WLE: coal from southeast Ohio, iron ore from the Great Lakes area , steel from five different plants, and raw materials from four quarries . In addition, chemicals , wood and iron transported.
Branch lines now extend to Benwood, West Virginia and Connellsville, Pennsylvania. WE currently operates a rail network of around 1400 kilometers.
