page_title: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Gold Bond of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company, issued 15. May 1893 Deutsch: Gold Bond über 1000 $ der Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company vom 15. Mai 1893
context_page_description: 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 2,391 route-miles and 4,608 track-miles; that year it carried 8180 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 488 million passenger-miles.
context_section_description: The railroad was formed on June 30, 1889, by the merger of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway, the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway and the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railway.  The following year, the company gained control of the former Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway (through the foreclosed Ohio, Indiana and Western Railway and through an operating agreement with the Peoria and Eastern Railway).
  In 1906, the Big Four was acquired by the New York Central Railroad, which operated it as a separate entity until around 1930. The Big Four's lines were later incorporated into Penn Central in 1968 with the merger of New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad.  Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970, and in 1976 many of Big Four's lines were included in the government-sponsored Conrail.  Conrail was privatized in 1987 and in 1997 was jointly acquired by CSX and Norfolk Southern.
caption: Gold Bond of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company, issued 15. May 1893
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