View source for Michigan and Ohio Railroad

{{Short description|Defunct 19th century American railroad}}
{{maplink-road|from=Mansfield,_Coldwater_and_Lake_Michigan_Railroad_(Michigan).map|from2=Michigan and Ohio Railroad (East).map|frame-align=right|plain=no|from3=Michigan and Ohio Railroad (West).map}}
{{Michigan and Ohio Railroad route diagram}}
The '''Michigan and Ohio Railroad''' is a defunct railroad which operated in [[southern Michigan]] in the mid-1880s. Originally intended to forge a new line from [[Lake Erie]] to [[Lake Michigan]], it came close to its goal, completing a line between [[Allegan, Michigan|Allegan]] and [[Dundee, Michigan|Dundee]] before financial embarrassment landed it in receivership.

== Corporate history ==
The company incorporated on June 25, 1883, to consolidate the Toledo & Michigan, an [[Ohio]] company, and the Toledo & Milwaukee. The company filed articles on October 9, 1883 and began operations November 29.<ref name="mrc1884" />{{rp|417}} Beset by financial difficulties, the company went into receivership almost immediately; the [[Cincinnati, Jackson and Mackinaw Railroad|Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw]] (CJ&MK) bought the company on March 25, 1887.<ref name="meints1992" />{{rp|108}}

Discussing the [[liability (financial accounting)|liabilities]] assumed by the CJ&MK in acquiring the M&O and other companies, Michigan's railroad commissioner wrote that:
<blockquote>"...a sum so largely in excess of the [[real versus nominal value|real value]] of the property as to suggest unfavorable comment upon the policy of loading down a new enterprise with liabilities that cannot fail to seriously impair the financial standing of the corporation."<ref name="mrc1888" />{{rp|iv}}</blockquote>

== Michigan operations ==
From the Toledo & Milwaukee the M&O inherited {{convert|11.5|mi|km}} of track in revenue service between [[Allegan, Michigan|Allegan]] and Montieth, where the tracks crossed those of the [[Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad|Grand Rapids & Indiana]], and a completed-but-not-operational stretch {{convert|121.7|mi|km}} in length east from Montieth through [[Battle Creek, Michigan|Battle Creek]] and [[Marshall, Michigan|Marshall]] to [[Dundee, Michigan|Dundee]], in [[Monroe County, Michigan|Monroe County]].<ref name="wing" />{{rp|241}} The M&O promptly opened this new section opened on November 29, 1883. The Toledo & Milwaukee had also leased the tracks of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Grand Trunk, which ran south from Dundee to [[Toledo, Ohio]], the company no longer having the funds to complete its own line.<ref name="mrc1884" />{{rp|422–423}}<ref name="wing" />{{rp|241}}<ref name="meints2005" />{{rp|170–171}}

The M&O continued this leasing arrangement; in 1884, when the TAA&GT merged into the [[Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan Railway|Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan]], the M&O continued to lease the Dundee&ndash;Toledo line from the new company, although the last two miles from Manhattan Junction to Toledo proper were leased from a new concern, the [[Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad (1871-1886)|Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad]].<ref name="meints1992" />{{rp|145–146}}<ref name="mrc1887" />{{rp|372–373}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="meints1992">{{Meints-Companies}}</ref>
<ref name="meints2005">{{Meints-Lines}}</ref>
<ref name="mrc1884">{{Michigan Railroad Commission|year=1884}}</ref>
<ref name="mrc1887">{{Michigan Railroad Commission|year=1887}}</ref>
<ref name="mrc1888">{{Michigan Railroad Commission|year=1888}}</ref>
<ref name="wing">{{cite book| title=History of Monroe County, Michigan | first=Talcott Enoch | last=Wing |author2=Helen Weightman Gay | year=1890 | publisher=Munsell & Company | location=New York | url=https://archive.org/details/historymonroeco00gaygoog | oclc=81710795}}</ref>
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michigan Ohio  Railroad}}
[[Category:Railway companies established in 1883]]
[[Category:Railway companies disestablished in 1887]]
[[Category:Defunct Michigan railroads]]
[[Category:Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad]]
[[Category:Defunct Ohio railroads]]