New
York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad - (en)
The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (AAR reporting marks NKP),
abbreviated NYC&St.L, was a railroad that operated in the
mid-central United States. Commonly referred to as the Nickel Plate
Road, the railroad served a large area, including trackage in the
states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Its
primary connections included Buffalo, New York, Chicago, Cleveland,
Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana, St. Louis, Missouri and Toledo, Ohio.
The Nickel Plate Railroad was constructed in 1881 along the South
Shore of the Great Lakes connecting Buffalo, New York and Chicago to
compete with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. In 1964,
the Nickel Plate Road and several other mid-western carriers were
merged into Norfolk and Western Railway and the Nickel Plate Road was
no more. The N&W was formed to be a more competitive and
successful system serving 14 states and the Canadian province of
Ontario on more than 7,000 miles (11,000 km) of railroad. The
profitable N&W was itself combined with the Southern Railway,
another profitable carrier, to form Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS)
in 1982.
History
Background
The 25 years after the American Civil War more than doubled the
existing American railroad track miles, changing the face of America
forever. American railroads allowed products made in the East to be
shipped to the expanding West less expensively than previously. This
allowed for an economy of scale - larger, more efficient factories.
The agricultural heartland of America was no longer confined to a
market of single day's trip by wagon. Railroad and railroad
construction became one of the largest industries during that era. By
1881, one out of 32 people in the United States was either employed by
a railroad or engaged in railroad construction.
Starting about 1877, two great railroad developers, William H.
Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, began competing for the railroad traffic
along the south shore of the Great Lakes. By 1878 William Vanderbilt
had a monopoly on rail traffic between Buffalo, New York; Cleveland,
Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Chicago, because he owned the only
railroad between those cities - the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
Railway. In addition, he was the richest man in America at that time.
By 1881 Jay Gould controlled about 15% of all U.S. railroad mileage,
most of it west of the Mississippi River and he was considered the
most ruthless financial operator in America. Gould's major railroad
east of the Mississippi River was the 3350 mile (5400 km) Wabash, St.
Louis and Pacific Railway (Wabash). The Wabash mainline ran from St.
Louis, Missouri to Toledo, Ohio where it was forced to deliver its
railroad traffic to William H. Vanderbilt's Lake Shore Railroad for
deliver to the eastern United States.
Jay Gould and William Vanderbilt together oversaw all east-west rail
traffic in the mid-west. The owners (the Seney Syndicate) of a
350-mile (560 km) railroad, the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, were
interested in tapping new sources of revenue. The stage was set for
the creation of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad.
Early years
The Seney Syndicate met at Seney's New York bank and organized the New
York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company on 3 February 1881. The
original proposal for the NYC&St.L was a 340-mile (550 km)
railroad west from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois with a
325-mile (525 km) branch to St. Louis, Missouri.
On 13 April 1881 the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company
bought the Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago Railway, a railroad that
been surveyed from the west side of Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New
York running parallel to Vanderbilt's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
Railway.
The idea of an east-west railroad across northern Ohio was very
popular with the people of Ohio. They wanted to break the high freight
rates charged by Jay Gould and William Henry Vanderbilt. No one was
less popular in Ohio than William Vanderbilt since the 29 December
1876 collapse of Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway's Ashtabula
River trestle, where 64 people had been injured and 92 were killed or
died later from injuries.
Another reason for the popularity of the New York, Chicago and St.
Louis Railway was the positive economic impact on cities that any new
railroad went through at that time. During a newspaper war to attract
the New York, Chicago and St. Louis the Norwalk, Ohio Chronicle
Newspaper referred to the New York, Chicago and St. Louis as "...
double-track nickel-plated railroad." The New York, Chicago and
St. Louis adopted the nickname and it became better known as the
Nickel Plate Road.
It was decided to start building along the surveyed route between
Cleveland, Ohio and Buffalo, New York rather than build the branch to
St. Louis, Missouri. Five hundred days later the Nickel Plate's
513-mile (825 km) single-track mainline from Buffalo, New York to
Chicago was complete. The railroad was estimated to require 90,000
long tons (80,000 metric tons) of steel rails, each weighing sixty
pounds per yard (30 kg/m) and 1.5 million oak crossties. Additionally,
the railroad required forty-nine major bridges. It was characterized
by long sections of straight track, mild grades and impressive bridges.
The Nickel Plate ran its first trains over the entire system on 16
October 1882.
During construction, Vanderbilt and Gould had watched with great
interest. If either of them could acquire the Nickel Plate, they could
end the threat to their railroads. If the Nickel Plate remained
independent it would be able to create a substantial dent in both
entrepreneurs' railroad earnings.
Vanderbilt tried to lower the value of the Nickel Plate by organizing
a campaign to smear its reputation before a train ever ran on its
tracks. If Vanderbilt was successful he could scare the Seney
Syndicate into selling to him or drive the railroad company into
bankruptcy. However, Vanderbilt's plan came with two important risks.
If he slandered the line he risked chasing the Seney Syndicate into an
alliance with Gould. The other risk was that his plan to smear the
Nickel Plate's reputation might fail and it could quickly grow.
Vanderbilt claimed the road was being built with substandard materials
and it would use unsafe practices once completed. He succeeded in
creating long-standing rumors about the line, but failed to devalue
the company or scare the investors.
The cost of construction was higher than expected and the Seney
Syndicate began to negotiate with Gould to purchase the railroad, but
unlike Vanderbilt, Gould lacked the capital. Frustrated at the failing
talks, Gould broke off negotiations and gave up on his attempt to
break Vanderbilt.
The Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern era
In early 1881, Vanderbilt could have had the New York, Chicago and St.
Louis Railway (or Nickel Plate) for one million dollars. He realized
if he allowed Jay Gould to gain control of the Nickel Plate his
monopoly on rail traffic from Toledo, Ohio - east would be broken. He
decided he would do anything to keep the Nickel Plate out of Gould's
hands.
On 25 October 1882 (a few days after the first trains ran) the Seney
Syndicate sold the Nickel Plate to Vanderbilt for 7.2 million dollars.
Vanderbilt transferred it to his Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
Railway. However, Vanderbilt had a problem: he could not run the
business into the ground or it would fall into receivership and
someone else would buy it. He could not close the Nickel Plate either
because it cost a fortune to buy. So, the Nickel Plate Road did
business, but just enough to keep it solvent. By the advent of the
1920s the Nickel Plate was an obscure line that earned its keep
through the transfer of freight from other rail connections. During
the same period Vanderbilt's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
prospered and expanded.
Vanderbilt kept most of the rail traffic on his Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern. Fewer trains on the Nickel Plate meant that they
could move faster, so that is the railroad traffic they went after. By
1888 the Nickel Plate had been dubbed "The Meat Express
Line." Observers at Fort Wayne, Indiana reported six long meat
trains every night and a couple of fruit trains during the day.
Vanderbilt consolidated many of his railroads into the New York
Central Railroad. In 1915 Vanderbilt was found to be in violation of
the federal antitrust laws because the New York Central had a
controlling interest in the Nickel Plate. Over time the Nickel Plate
had been reduced as a serious threat to competing lines and in return
for operating concessions and access to certain stations, the New York
Central sold the Nickel Plate to the Van Sweringen brothers of
Cleveland, Ohio.
The Van Sweringen era
Oris Paxton Van Sweringen and his younger brother Mantis James Van
Sweringen were real estate developers who constructed a rapid transit
from their development at Shaker Heights, Ohio to downtown Cleveland.
As early as 1909 the Van Sweringen brothers proposed a stub-end
terminal on Public Square in downtown Cleveland. The Cleveland
interurbans and traction companies were in favor of the new terminal
and right-of-ways leading to it.
The Nickel Plate was the key. It transversed Cleveland from east to
west, had a high level crossing of the Cuyahoga River Valley, and it
was adjacent to the proposed terminal. The Nickel Plate also provided
natural route to the proposed terminal for the Van Sweringen's rapid
transit and the other traction lines.
Between 1890 and 1913 Cleveland had a four fold increase in population.
Cleveland wanted to clean up the city and started many civic projects.
Cleveland wanted to consolidate all of its railroad stations. The Lake
Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, Pennsylvania Railroad, and
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad shared a crowded
lakefront Union Station. The Erie Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, Nickel Plate Road, and Lake Erie and Western Railroad all
occupied separate stations on the north bluff of the Cuyahoga River,
just south of downtown. The city also encouraged the railroads to
build grade separation throughout the city. The Nickel Plate started a
grade separation project on the East Side of Cleveland in 1909 and
finished in 1913. Cleveland approved a bond issue in 1910 to "depress"
the Nickel Plate through the most congested part of the West Side.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway was controlled by the New
York Central Railroad's Alfred H. Smith, a close friend of the Van
Sweringens. He had guided the Van Sweringens and even financed their
rapid transit to Shaker Heights. The Attorney General of the United
States advised the New York Central that its control of the Lake Shore
and Michigan Southern and the Nickel Plate was in violation of the
Federal antitrust laws in late 1915. Alfred Smith called his friends,
the Van Sweringens on 1 February 1916 and offered them the Nickel
Plate. They bought it for 8.5 million dollars on 13 April 1916. They
only put up a little over half a million dollars but they controlled
75% of Nickel Plate's voting stock.
The Van Sweringens had no intention of running the Nickel Plate.
Alfred Smith was happy to give the Van Sweringens a vice-president of
the New York Central, John Bernet, and some of his top men. Smith
wanted to show that the Van Sweringens were not New York Central
puppets, and the Nickel Plate needed to earn money to retire the $6.5
million in notes owed to the New York Central.
NKP president John Bernet era
This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.
The end of an era: merger
with N&W, Norfolk Southern
As the financial situation of American railroading continued to
decline after World War II, the Nickel Plate Road together with the
Wabash and several smaller carriers merged with the profitable Norfolk
and Western on October 16, 1964.
N&W had merged with long-time rival Virginian Railway in the
Pocahontas coal region in 1959, and grew through the mergers with
other rail carriers including the Nickel Plate and Wabash railroads
with operations in adjacent areas of the eastern United States to form
a more competitive and successful system serving 14 states and a
province of Canada on more than 7,000 miles of road.
The profitable N&W was itself combined with the Southern Railway,
another profitable carrier, to form Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS)
in 1982.
