The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (CP&A), also known informally as the Cleveland and Erie Railroad, the Cleveland and Buffalo Railroad, and the Lake Shore Railroad, was a railway which ran from Cleveland, Ohio, to the Ohio–Pennsylvania border. Founded in 1848, the line opened in 1852. The railroad completed the rail link between Buffalo, New York, and Chicago, Illinois.
The CP&A connected at the state line with the Franklin Canal Company (FCC), a Pennsylvania company. The FCC and CP&A shared the same track gauge, and the CP&A operated both rail lines. At Erie, Pennsylvania, the FCC connected with the Erie and North East Railroad. The Erie Gauge War of late 1853 to early 1854 occurred when the Erie & North East, a broad-gauge railway, changed its gauge to match that of the CP&A. The resolution to the conflict led to the CP&A purchasing the FCC outright.
One of the most profitable railroad lines in the United States in the 1860s, the CP&A was renamed the Lake Shore Railway in 1868. It merged with the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad in 1869 to form the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad.
Building railroads along the Great Lakes shoreline The Erie Canal, linking New York City with Buffalo, New York, (via Albany and the Hudson River) opened in 1825 and proved to be a financial boon to merchants in New York City. The canal also gave cities on the Great Lakes a transportation cost advantage equal to that of cities on the Ohio River (then the major east–west transportation route for both goods and people west of the Appalachians). Encouraged by the canal's success, railroads began rapid construction in interior regions to link isolated markets to the canals and to other railroads.
The first important step in the development of rail transportation along the Great Lakes came in 1832 when the Michigan Territory chartered the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad to run from Port Lawrence (now the city of Toledo, Ohio) to Adrian, Michigan, with the goal of giving agricultural and timber producers in the Michigan interior access to Lake Erie ports. Horse-drawn trains first ran on the line in November 1836, with steam locomotives taking over the following year. Citizens of Sandusky and Elyria in Ohio now determined to link their cities with Toledo and Cleveland. The Junction Railroad, chartered in 1846, proposed an inland route through Millbury, Fremont, Norwalk, and Grafton, with trackage rights over an existing railroad between Grafton and Cleveland.
A second important step came in 1842. The Erie and North East Railroad (E&NE) was chartered by the state of Pennsylvania to build a line from Erie, Pennsylvania, northeast to the Pennsylvania–New York border, where it would connect with rail lines being built from Buffalo. It was not until 1846, however, that the Dunkirk and State Line Railroad agreed to connect with the Pennsylvania road. Only then was stock in the Erie & North East sold.
To complete the line between Buffalo and western Michigan, only two short rail links remained to be completed: Between Erie and the Pennsylvania–Ohio border, and between the Pennsylvania–Ohio border and Cleveland.;
Obtaining a charter
Cleveland had emerged as one of the largest and fastest-growing cities in Ohio due to its transportation links (the Ohio and Erie Canal and its Lake Erie steamship port). Railroads were seen by Cleveland business and civic leaders as critical to the city's future. They could reach deep into agricultural and mining country far more easily than canals, and move much greater quantities of goods than wagons. Railroads would not only allow these goods to reach Erie and Buffalo (the traditional transshipment ports for Ohio products) faster and more easily, but also give Ohio producers direct access to large, rich seaboard cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. With Ohio underdeveloped and starved for capital, Clevelanders and other Ohioans saw railroads as the means to opening new markets and bringing capital into the state.
Alfred Kelley, a Cleveland lawyer, had been elected the first mayor of the newly incorporated Village of Cleveland in 1815. As a member of the Ohio General Assembly, he championed the construction of canals, and as the first Canal Commissioner oversaw the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal. Known as the "father of the Ohio and Erie Canal", Kelley was one of the most dominant commercial, financial, and political people in the state of Ohio in the first half of the 1800s. In August 1847, the officers of the nascent Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CCC) asked Kelley to oversee construction of their new road. Kelley agreed, and the line from Cleveland to Columbus and Cincinnati was completed in February 1851.
With completion of the CCC, rail lines extended west and south of Cleveland—but not east to the all-important seaboard markets. Since 1831, different coalitions of Cleveland businessmen had tried to organize a railroad to connect Cleveland with points east, but none of these efforts got off the ground. In 1847, a group of businessmen from Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, and Lake counties undertook a successful effort to build Cleveland's railroad link to the east. The group included John W. Allen, Sergeant Currier, Charles Hickox, and John B. Waring of Cuyahoga County; William W. Branch, O.A. Crary, David R. Paige, Peleg Phelps Sanford, Lord Sterling, Aaron Wilcox, and Eli T. Wilder of Lake County; and Frederick Carlisle, George G. Gillett, Edwin Harmon, Zaphna Lake, Robert Lyon, and Asaph Turner of Ashtabula County. The Cuyahoga County representatives took the lead, and on February 18, 1848, they received a state charter for the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (CP&A) to build a rail line from Cleveland to some point on the Ohio–Pennsylvania border.
The CP&A had a number of nicknames, and was also known informally as the "Cleveland and Erie Railroad", the "Cleveland and Buffalo Railroad", and the "Lake Shore Railroad".
Ohio construction By the end of July 1849, $50,000 ($ in dollars) in stock had been sold by the CP&A's incorporators. The stockholders met for the first time on August 1, 1849, and elected Herman B. Ely, George G. Gillett, Alfred Kelley, Tappan Lake, David R. Paige, Peleg P. Sanford, and Samuel L. Selden to the initial board of directors. Kelley was elected president, but due to pressing business had to temporarily step aside. Herman Ely was named acting president until such time as Kelley could take up his duties.
Ohio route Frederick Harbach, a surveyor and engineer for several Ohio railroads, surveyed the route for the CP&A in late 1849 and early 1850. In his report, issued at end of March 1850, Harbach proposed two routes. The "South Route" began at the City Station of the CCC on Station Street (an area south of what is now the intersection of Superior Avenue and W. 9th Street). It followed the towpath of the Ohio & Erie Canal south to Kingsbury Run, then moved inland along the stream, following it northeast and east to Euclid Creek. The route then turned north-northeast to Willoughby, where it crossed the Chagrin River. Past the river, the proposed route followed a fairly straight line along the lakeshore to the Ohio–Pennsylvania state border. The "North Route" began at the "Outer Station" of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad (on E. 33rd Street between Lakeside and Hamilton Avenues) and followed a relatively straight route along the lake to Euclid Creek and Willoughby. Staying close to the shoreline, it passed north of Painesville. The proposed route ran parallel to and north of the South Route at a distance of about until reaching the Ohio–Pennsylvania state border.
Alfred Kelley reviewed both proposed routes, and chose the North Route. In part, this route was chosen because, east of Cleveland, it ran atop an ancient beach ridge (formed when Lake Erie was much larger) that required little ballasting, was naturally well-drained, and required almost no blasting or earth moving. It was also essentially a level grade for almost its entire length, with a ruling gradient of just 0.3 percent.
Building the Ohio road Harbach's 1850 report estimated that building the road would cost $488,963 ($ in dollars), of which $341,295 ($ in dollars) would be needed for earthwork, grading, and the construction of masonry bridges. Another $6,600 ($ in dollars) per mile would be needed for ties and rails. Initial rolling stock, which included four locomotives, was estimated to cost $145,425 ($ in dollars). Harbach suggested the construction of 13 passenger and freight stations in Ohio at a total cost of $39,700 ($ in dollars): Doan's Corners (located roughly at the modern intersection of Euclid Avenue and E. 105th Street), East Cleveland, Willoughby, Mentor, Painesville, Perry, Centerville, Unionville, Geneva, Ashtabula, Kingsville, West Conneaut, and Conneaut.
To construct the road, the CP&A turned to the firm of Harbach, Stone & Witt. Frederick Harbach, Amasa Stone, and Stillman Witt were all personally well known to Alfred Kelley, and the firm was engaged in the construction of Kelley's Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad. With the CCC nearing completion (it opened in February 1851) the CP&A awarded a contract to Harbach, Stone & Witt on July 26, 1850, to build its line.
Construction on the CP&A began in January 1851. Due to the almost flat and obstacle-free route, grading proceeded very swiftly. By the end of the month, grading had reached Willoughby and a construction team was already at work in Painesville building a bridge over the Grand River. The bridge at Willoughby was completed in August, piers for the bridge in Ashtabula were under construction, and grading had proceeded past that city. The bridge at Painesville, begun May 26, was completed on October 6.
Ten months after construction began, the entire right of way to the Ohio–Pennsylvania border had been purchased, two-thirds () of the road had been graded (to Ashtabula and slightly beyond), and all bridges completed except for the bridge over Conneaut Creek. For the track, the company purchased T rails manufactured in the United Kingdom. Each rail was in length, and joined by a cast iron chair joint. Ballast was not initially laid, although the unstable nature of the clay beneath the track bed later required it. White oak ties were used to anchor the track.
Route grading to Conneaut was completed on November 15, and a wooden Howe truss bridge built over Conneaut Creek to give access to the state border. Regular trains began running on a 30-mile stretch between Cleveland and Painesville on November 20, 1851. The first trains from Cleveland to Ashtabula ran on June 16, 1852, and the first train between Ashtabula and Erie ran on November 23, 1852.
Pennsylvania construction The CP&A did not have the legal authority to build a railroad in Pennsylvania. Until the late 1800s, states strictly controlled railroad development by requiring the issuance of charters by their legislatures, and they generally refused to give "foreign" (out-of-state) railroads permission to own or construct railroads within their borders. Moreover, the Pennsylvania state legislature prohibited the construction of railroads across the Erie Triangle, effectively blocking both New York and Ohio railroads from crossing the state there.