RR ID needed

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

>Do have one question: How does the Hocking Valley get into the mix, I
>thought this was a C&O line that connected near 
>Athens/Nelsonville/Chauncey.

 Back in the late 1800s, Toledo & Ohio Central and Kanawha & Michigan
were operated as sister roads under the "Ohio Central Lines" banner. 
Hocking Valley acquired control of OCL around 1900 and began operating the
four roads (by this time the T&OC-owned Zanesville & Western was a part
of OCL) as a unified system with common locomotive and freight car 
purchases (this is why all four roads had Ralston high-floor wood-side 
GS gondolas). At the same time, a half-dozen roads owned a majority of HV
stock and the end result was that about 1910 C&O and LS&MS (one of the
primary components of the NYC system) bought out the other owners and
split up the HV-OCL empire between themselves. LS&MS took T&OC and Z&W,
C&O took HV, and they shared K&M. In 1914, the antitrust court came along
and said "nuh-uh" and forced C&O to unload its share of K&M to LS&MS.
This cut C&O off from the HV and forced the construction of the C&O
Northern in stages up the Scioto Valley to Columbus.

David Thompson