  the cleveland, cincinnati, chicago and st. louis railway, also known as the big four railroad and commonly abbreviated ccc&stl, was a railroad company in the midwestern united states. it operated in affiliation with the new york central system. its primary routes were in illinois, indiana, michigan, and ohio. at the end of 1925 it reported 2391 route-miles and 4608 track-miles; that year it carried 8180 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 488 million passenger-miles. ==history== the oldest predecessor of the big four (and a comparatively late addition to it) was the mad river & lake erie. ground was broken in 1835, and the line was opened from sandusky to dayton, ohio, in 1851. it went through several renamings and became part of what later was the peoria & eastern before it was merged into the big four in 1890. the cleveland, columbus & cincinnati (cc&c) was chartered in 1836, broke ground in 1847, and opened in 1851 between cleveland and columbus. in 1852, it teamed up with the little miami and columbus & xenia railroads to form a clevelandâcincinnati route. in 1848, the indianapolis & bellefontaine (i&b) and the bellefontaine & indiana (b&i) railroads were incorporated to build a line between galion, ohio, on the cc&c, and indianapolis. the i&b and the b&i amalgamated and became known as "the b. line". they were absorbed by the cc&c when it reorganized as the cleveland, columbus, cincinnati & indianapolis in 1868. the nickname of the new railroad was "the bee line." the cleveland, columbus, cincinnati & indianapolis reached cincinnati with its own rails in 1872; that same year it opened a line from springfield to columbus. by then the vanderbilts owned 
1889_establishments_in_the_United_States Defunct_Illinois_railroads Defunct_Indiana_railroads Defunct_Michigan_railroads Defunct_Missouri_railroads Defunct_Ohio_railroads Defunct_companies_based_in_Indianapolis,_Indiana Former_Class_I_railroads_in_the_United_States Predecessors_of_the_New_York_Central_Railroad Railroads_in_the_Chicago_Switching_District Railway_companies_disestablished_in_1976 Railway_companies_established_in_1889 Transportation_in_Cincinnati,_Ohio