Finding aid for the New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Co. Records


Title:
New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Co. Records
Repository:
Western Reserve Historical Society
Phone: 216-721-5722
http://www.wrhs.org
Creator:
New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Company
Dates:
1846-1961
Quantity:
8.90 linear feet (13 containers and 22 oversize volumes)
Abstract:
The New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Company was founded in 1881 to connect Buffalo and Chicago via Cleveland, Ohio. It was nicknamed the Nickel Plate Road. After it failed, it was taken over by the newly organized New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad in 1887. It merged into the Norfolk and Western Railroad in 1964. The collection consists of articles of incorporation, reminiscences, financial records, memoranda, notebooks, ticket stubs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and oversize volumes containing documents and clippings.
Identification:
MS 3575
Location:
closed stacks
Language:
The records are in English

History of the New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Company

The New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Company, better known as the Nickel Plate Railroad, was founded in 1881. It connected Buffalo and Chicago by way of Cleveland, Ohio. When the line was completed, the company was christened the "Nickel Plated Road" by the editor of the Norwalk Chronicle. This nickname was formally adopted by the railroad for its trade name and subsequently utilized by each company that emerged from its consolidations with other railroads in 1887, 1916, and 1923.

The first consolidation occurred in 1885 when the original line failed and went into receivership. In 1887, the property of the Nickel Plate Railroad was purchased at foreclosure by a newly organized New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad. This line, also called the Nickel Plate, prospered and expanded.

In 1916, O. P. and M. J. Van Sweringen of Cleveland purchased the controlling shares of the Nickel Plate. Though the brothers had no experience in operating railroads, their investment paid off handsomely as the Nickel Plate continued to expand in size, worth, and prestige.

Following their first successful railroad investment, the Van Sweringen brothers augmented their holdings with the acquisition of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad and the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad (usually referred to as the Cloverleaf) in 1922. Initially, the three Van Sweringen lines were operated as distinct companies. Later, the Nickel Plate and the Cloverleaf operated jointly although they were still separate entities.

In 1922, the Van Sweringens began construction of the Cleveland Union Terminal, a facility designed to accommodate the trains of the Nickel Plate, the New York Central and its subsidiaries, and the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit.

In 1923, a plan to consolidate the Nickel Plate, the Cloverleaf, and the Lake Erie and Western was submitted to the respective stockholders and to the Interstate Commerce Commission. These parties agreed to the consolidation and the resulting company continued the name of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company and the Nickel Plate. A proposal, first made in 1924, to unify the new Nickel Plate with the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Hocking Valley, and Erie and the Pere Marquette railroads, however, was rejected by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1926.

The Nickel Plate prospered for many years. In terms of size, profit, and prospects, it ranked with the other great eastern railroads of the day, such as the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads. While it was a strong and growing railroad, the Nickel Plate purchased stock in its competitors. By gaining control of the competition, the Nickel Plate hoped to insure cooperation among the various railroads. However, the Nickel Plate was not strong enough to carry out this plan and in 1938, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad gained control over a majority of Nickel Plate stock, and therefore received permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to operate the Nickel Plate. Although controlled by the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Nickel Plate continued to operate as a solvent railroad until 1964 when it merged into the Norfolk and Western Railroad and assumed that company's name.


click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for the Nickel Plate Railroad

Scope and Content

The New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Co. Records, 1846-1961 and undated, consist of articles of incorporation, reminiscences, financial records, memoranda, notebooks, ticket stubs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and oversize volumes containing documents and clippings. Most of the material was accumulated by Mr. H. H. Hampton, a vice president of the Nickel Plate, who hoped to use it as part of a railroad museum.

This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of the railroad industry in the United States and in Cleveland, Ohio. Those studying the business history of the Nickel Plate Railroad will find this collection useful. Since the materials in this collection were randomly accumulated, they do not present a continuous record of the railroad's operation. Rather, they provide information about various day-to-day activities, including employee pay schedules and various operational procedures. The newspaper clippings present an overall view of railroading in the Midwest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Statement of Arrangement

The collection is arranged in three series.
Series I: Administrative Records is arranged by document type and then chronologically.
Series II: Newspaper Clippings is arranged alphabetically by newspaper name and then chronologically.
Series III: Oversize Material has been retained in original order.

Restrictions on Access

None.

Related Material: Related Material

The researcher should also consult PG 96 Nickel Plate Railroad Photographs; MS 3468 New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Company, McComb, Ohio, Station Records; and MS 3114 Material on the Nickel Plate Road.


Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Co.
Nickel Plate Road.
Railroads -- United States.

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3575 New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad Co. Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mr. H. H. Hampton in 1966.

Processing Information

Processed by Steven W. Gelston and Francis J. Wardega in 1975.


Detailed Description of The Collection



Series I: Administrative Records, 1846-1961; undated

Box 1 / Folder 1
Railroad histories and articles of incorporation, 1846-1943




Box 1 / Folder 2
Personal reminiscences and a bound volume listing special events, 1881-1940




Box 1 / Folder 3
Miscellaneous financial records and stock certificates, 1852-1928




Box 1 / Folder 4
Revenue reports and freight and passenger mileage reports, 1916-1917




Box 1 / Folder 5
Memoranda, circulars, and announcements from offices of the railroad to its divisions and departments, 1875-1883




Box 1 / Folder 6
Memoranda, circulars and announcements, 1883-1936




Box 2 / Volume 1
Passenger department, inter-office memoranda and circulars, 1898-1917




Box 2 / Volume 2
Track division, inter-office memoranda and circulars, 1898-1917




Box 3 / Folder 1
Material concerning claims and repairs, 1883-1902




Box 3 / Folder 2
Waybills, memorandum waybills, and other freight records, 1882-1911




Box 3 / Folder 3
Record of telegrams, 1888-1889




Box 3 / Folder 4
Car equipment and supply requests and reports, 1879-1897




Box 3 / Folder 5
Auditor's notebook listing railroad cars and engine companies, and a record of the employees of the Chicago Freight Office, 1881-1904




Box 3 / Folder 6
Notebooks containing copies of orders issued by the 1st and 2nd eastern divisions, 1883-1884




Box 3 / Folder 7
Handwritten requisition books of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, 1901-1924




Box 4 / Folder 1
Journal of T. J. Madigan, paymaster, undated




Box 4 / Folder 2
Comparison book consisting of data on payrolls and mileage of engines and rolling stock, 1894-1897




Box 4 / Folder 3
Notebooks showing time worked by employees, 1877-1878




Box 4 / Folder 4
Time book with hours worked by employees of the Lafayette, Muncie and Bloomington Railroad, 1878




Box 5 / Folder 1
Logbooks showing hours worked by employees of the Nickel Plate and other identified railroads, 1880-1905




Box 5 / Folder 2
Requests for ticket refunds, 1894-1902




Box 5 / Volume 1
Tickets returned by agents, 1906




Box 6 / Folder 1
Ticket sales statistics sheets, 1882




Box 6 / Folder 2
Ticket stubs of the Nickel Plate Railroad, undated




Box 6 / Folder 3
Ticket stubs of other railroads, undated




Box 6 / Volume 1
Ticket invoices showing tickets received by station agents, 1882




Box 6 / Volume 2
Ticket commutation invoices showing tickets receipted by agents, 1882-1883




Box 7 / Folder 1
Scrapbook of ticket stubs of the Nickel Plate and other railroads, undated




Box 7 / Folder 2
Computing tables and special passenger rate notices, 1884-1903




Box 7 / Folder 3
Analysis of the freight traffic of the Nickel Plate, 1923-1925




Box 7 / Folder 4
Freight classifications and percentage sheets consisting of data used in figuring freight rates, 1883-1905




Box 7 / Folder 5
Time tables for the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad, 1901-1922




Box 7 / Folder 6
Railroad slips consisting of Nickel Plate forms reporting the status of individual trains at different points along the line, 1884-1910




Box 7 / Folder 7
Geographical material consisting of distance tables, a list of stations and agents, maps, and a district profile of the Cloverleaf Railroad, dates vary




Box 8 / Folder 1
Locomotive specifications for the Nickel Plate and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, 1898-1913




Box 8 / Folder 2
Blueprints of rail equipment, undated




Box 8 / Folder 3
Train order ledger and stock reports, including train orders issued by an unidentified station, scrap metal on hand at the station at Lima, Ohio, and a general stock report for the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad, 1882-1905




Box 8 / Folder 4
Material relating to Terminal Tower in Cleveland, Ohio, including brochures and correspondence, 1930-1950




Box 8 / Folder 5
Correspondence relating to railroad museum donations, 1939-1961




Box 12 / Folder 5
Handbills and posters, undated




Box 12 / Folder 6
Certificates, programs, and invitations, 1889-1932




Box 12 / Folder 7
Scrapbook, dates vary




Box 13 / Volume 1
Scrapbook of Nickel Plate material, undated




Box 13 / Volume 2
Scrapbook of general railroad material, undated




Box 13 / Folder 1
Minute book of the Veterans Association of the Nickel Plate, 1907-1911




Box 13 / Folder 2
Miscellaneous documents of the Veterans Association of the Nickel Plate, 1909-1951




Box 13 / Folder 3
Roll of Honor listing the names of employees of the Nickel Plate who served in the armed forces during World War I, undated




Box 13 / Folder 4
Miscellaneous documents, dates vary





Series II: Newspaper Clippings, 1879-1951; undated

Box 8 / Folder 6
Ashtabula Telegraph and Bellevue Gazette, 1880-1937




Box 8 / Folder 7
Bellevue Local News, 1881-1883




Box 9 / Folder 1
Buffalo Courier, 1881-1883




Box 9 / Folder 2
Chicago Times, 1881-1887




Box 9 / Folder 3
Cincinnati Enquirer, 1881-1883




Box 9 / Folder 4
Cleveland Herald, 1882




Box 9 / Folder 5-7
Cleveland Leader, 1881-1882




Box 9 / Folder 7
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1882-1926




Box 10 / Folder 1
Cleveland Press, 1925




Box 10 / Folder 1
Cleveland Recorder, 1898




Box 10 / Folder 1
Cleveland West Side Sun, 1926




Box 10 / Folder 1
Conneaut News Herald, 1951




Box 10 / Folder 1
Conneaut Reporter, undated




Box 10 / Folder 2
Daily Stockholder, 1881-1883




Box 10 / Folder 2
Erie Gazette, 1881-1882




Box 10 / Folder 3
Erie Morning Dispatch, 1881-1882




Box 10 / Folder 4-6
Fort Wayne Daily News, 1881-1882




Box 10 / Folder 7
Fostoria Review, 1880-1883




Box 11 / Folder 1
Muncie Daily News, 1879-1881




Box 11 / Folder 1
Frankfort, Indianapolis, and Lafayette newspapers (Indiana), 1879-1943




Box 11 / Folder 1
New York Times and New York Tribune, 1881-1882




Box 11 / Folder 2
Norwalk Chronicle, 1881-1882




Box 11 / Folder 3
Seneca Advertiser, 1881-1882




Box 11 / Folder 4
Tiffin Tribune, 1881-1882




Box 11 / Folder 5
Toledo Daily Blade, 1881-1947




Box 11 / Folder 6-7
Miscellaneous, 1882-1922




Box 12 / Folder 1
Miscellaneous, 1894-1927




Box 12 / Folder 2
Financial Chronicle, 1880-1916




Box 12 / Folder 3
Railway Age, 1879-1882




Box 12 / Folder 4
Magazines, 1937-1945





Series III: Oversize Material, 1879-1931; undated

Volume 1
Waybill carbons for Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis at Edwardsville, Illinois, 1884-1885




Volume 2
Register of freight received at Edwardsville, Illinois for Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis, 1883-1885




Volume 3
Train register for the Nickel Plate, 1894-1895




Volume 4
Train register for the Nickel Plate at Conneaut, Ohio, 1882-1883




Volume 5
Index to railroad data, 1928




Volume 6-7
Record of coal received, Nickel Plate, 1893-1895




Volume 8
Mileages and expenses for engine no. 1-213 of the Nickel Plate, 1882-1885




Volume 9
Mileage of rolling stock for the Nickel Plate, 1883-1886




Volume 10
Stock book number 6 for the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, Lima, Ohio store house, undated




Volume 11
Compendium of passenger rates and excursions, 1902




Volume 12
Newspaper clippings, Bellevue Gazette, 1881-1907




Volume 12
Newspaper clippings, Ashtabula Telegraph, 1880-1882




Volume 12
Newspaper clippings, Norwalk Daily Reflector, 1898-1906




Volume 13
Newspaper clippings, Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, 1881-1882




Volume 13
Newspaper clippings, Chicago Times, 1881-1882




Volume 13
Newspaper clippings, Chicago Daily Tribune, 1897




Volume 13
Newspaper clippings, Buffalo Daily Courier, 1881-1883




Volume 13
Newspaper clippings, Bellevue Local News, 1881-1883




Volume 14
Newspaper clippings, Cleveland Leader, 1881-1882




Volume 15
Newspaper clippings, Conneaut Reporter, 1881-1883




Volume 15
Newspaper clippings, Cleveland Herald, 1882




Volume 16
Newspaper clippings, Erie Gazette, 1881-1882




Volume 16
Newspaper clippings, Erie Morning Dispatch, 1881-1882




Volume 17
Newspaper clippings, Fort Wayne Daily News, 1881-1882




Volume 18
Newspaper clippings, Fostoria Review, 1880-1883




Volume 18
Newspaper clippings, Lafayette Daily Journal, 1879-1880




Volume 19
Newspaper clippings, New York Daily Tribune, 1882




Volume 19
Newspaper clippings, New York Times, 1881-1931




Volume 19
Newspaper clippings, Seneca Advertiser, 1881-1882




Volume 19
Newspaper clippings, Toledo Blade, 1881-1900




Volume 20
Newspaper clippings, Norwalk Chronicle, 1881-1882




Volume 20
Newspaper clippings, Daily Stockholder, 1881-1883




Volume 20
Newspaper clippings, Muncie Daily News, 1879-1881




Volume 21
Newspaper clippings, miscellaneous, undated




Volume 22
Scrapbook of the Nickel Plate, undated