Last revised: October 12, 2026
By: Adam Burns
The Marietta and Cincinnati was the southern Ohio railroad that brought the Baltimore & Ohio from the Ohio River at Belpre and Marietta to Cincinnati. The legislature chartered it on March 8, 1845, as the Belpre & Cincinnati, to build from Harmar, or from a point on the Ohio opposite Parkersburg, by way of Athens and Chillicothe, to the Little Miami Railroad near Cincinnati. An act of March 20, 1851, changed the name. A train from Athens reached Marietta on April 9, 1857. Through service, using the Little Miami from Loveland into Cincinnati, was in operation on April 20.
At the receivership of 1858 the company had built 157 miles from Loveland to Marietta. It was reorganized on July 31, 1860, added the Hillsboro and Portsmouth branches, and on June 30, 1875, operated 311.86 miles. John King, Jr., of Baltimore, was president that year, and Robert Garrett sat on the board. The road was sold under foreclosure on December 9, 1882. The buyers adopted the name Cincinnati, Washington & Baltimore on February 7, 1883. The Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad Company was incorporated on December 20, 1889. The map below is the Official Guide sheet from the October, 1881 edition featuring the Marietta and Cincinnati Railway and its connections.
Map of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railway and Connections, National Railway Publication Company, Philadelphia, the companion sheet to the Official Guide card dated to June 12, 1881. The heavy line runs from the seaboard through Baltimore and Parkersburg to Cincinnati and on toward St. Louis. The cartouche advertises Cincinnati to Parkersburg 205 miles, Baltimore 588, Philadelphia 686, New York 772, Boston 1,003, Washington 610 by the Washington Branch and 561 by the Metropolitan Branch.
On this page: At a glance · Belpre & Cincinnati · Opening the line · The reorganization of 1860 · Hillsboro and Portsmouth · Union Branch and the bridge · Cincinnati · The Short Line · The railroad in 1875 · Timetable of June 12, 1881 · Sale and the Southwestern · What is left
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Railroad | Belpre & Cincinnati, 1845. Marietta and Cincinnati from 1851. Reorganized July 31, 1860 |
| Charter | March 8, 1845. Harmar, or opposite Parkersburg, via Athens and Chillicothe, to the Little Miami near Cincinnati |
| Name | March 20, 1851, once the subscriptions named in the act had been taken |
| Opened | April 9, 1857, Athens to Marietta. April 20, 1857, through service by the Little Miami from Loveland |
| Built by 1858 | 157 miles, Loveland to Marietta |
| Eastern connection | Northwestern Virginia, the Baltimore & Ohio's Parkersburg Branch, May 1, 1857. Parkersburg Bridge, January 7, 1871, 7,140 feet |
| Operated, June 30, 1875 | 311.86 miles. Cincinnati to Belpre 192.55. Gauge 4 feet 8½ inches. 74 locomotives |
| Branches | Hillsboro, 21 miles, from Blanchester. Portsmouth to Hamden, 56 miles |
| Cincinnati entrance | Cincinnati & Baltimore, 5.60 miles, double track, leased June 1, 1872 |
| Officers | 1875: John King, Jr., of Baltimore, president. Robert Garrett, a director. June 12, 1881: King, receiver. John Waddle, president |
| Sale | December 9, 1882. Cincinnati, Washington & Baltimore, February 7, 1883 |
| Southwestern | Incorporated December 20, 1889. Operation from January 1, 1890 |
| Today | Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad on the CSX Marietta Subdivision, including the Parkersburg Bridge. Moonville Rail-Trail on the old grade from Zaleski to Mineral |
On March 8, 1845, the Ohio legislature chartered the Belpre and Cincinnati Railroad Company, 43 Ohio Laws 280. The charter authorized a double-track railroad from a point on the Ohio opposite Parkersburg, then still in Virginia, or from Harmar, up the Hocking valley by way of Athens and Chillicothe, to a connection with the Little Miami Railroad between Plainville, in Hamilton County, and the mouth of O'Bannon Creek, in Clermont County.
The company organized at Chillicothe on August 18, 1847. William P. Cutler of Washington County sat on the first board. He was a grandson of Manasseh Cutler and had been speaker of the Ohio House, and he was president through most of the years before the foreclosure of 1858. William Prescott Smith, writing up the railroad celebrations of 1857, is the source for that August meeting. John E. Pixton, Jr., using the Cutler papers at Marietta College, gives the charter capital as $1,000,000 and is the source for the presidency.
The name changed under section 14 of an act of March 20, 1851, 49 Ohio Laws 480, an amendment to the charter of the Franklin and Ohio River Railroad. If specified subscriptions to the Belpre & Cincinnati were made and accepted, the name would become the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad Company. The subscriptions were made, and the name changed. Legislation of that same year authorized a line up the Ohio toward Wheeling, to meet a proposed connection out of western Virginia. Grade, stone culverts, and abutments were standing unfinished when the suit of 1858 was filed. That river line remained a grade.
Three dates belong to the opening, and they are different days. On April 9, 1857, a train from Athens reached Marietta: a locomotive, a baggage car, and one passenger car. Poor's Manual dates the main line in operation at April 20, 1857, with the Little Miami used from Loveland into Cincinnati. Smith records the public celebration at Chillicothe for Tuesday, June 2. At the receivership the next year, Pixton counts 157 miles built, from the Little Miami junction at Loveland to Marietta. Smith's projected "Ohio belt" of what he called the American Central Railway was a longer line, about 200 miles, from Loveland to Belpre or Harmar.
The eastern neighbor opened the same spring. The Northwestern Virginia Railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio's Parkersburg Branch, opened on May 1, 1857. Until a bridge existed, freight and passengers crossed the Ohio by ferry. Smith, describing the 1857 excursion, puts the ferry point at Scott's Landing, four miles from the Marietta station. The three roads celebrated together that year, the Marietta and Cincinnati, the Northwestern Virginia, and the Ohio & Mississippi, were the American Central of Smith's book. West of Cincinnati the Ohio & Mississippi was a six-foot railroad, opened in 1857. A car from Baltimore changed gauge at Cincinnati until that road was narrowed in 1871.
On November 27, 1858, mortgage creditors filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Ross County. The court appointed a receiver and, on January 7, 1860, ordered the road sold, finished and unfinished, with the right of way. The General Assembly passed a relief act on February 24, 1860, 57 Ohio Laws 128, so that a reorganized company could hold the charter after the sale. The sale was confirmed on May 2, 1860. The deed to the purchasers is June 5. On July 31, 1860, the buyers reorganized as The Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad Company as reorganized, converted the old stock and debts into first-preferred, second-preferred, and common shares, and took a deed from the purchasing trustees.
The Ohio Supreme Court reopened the question. In Atkinson v. The Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad Company as reorganized, December term 1864, 15 Ohio Reports 36, the court held that a mortgage sale carried the franchise to maintain and operate the road, and left the franchise to be a corporation with the old company. The relief act of 1860 was a special act, and the state constitution forbade conferring corporate powers that way. The reorganized company closed the gap under an act of April 4, 1863. On February 23, 1865, the directors of the original company deeded it the corporate franchise.
Two foreclosed neighbors became the branches. The Hillsboro and Cincinnati Railroad Company was chartered on March 2, 1846, 44 Ohio Laws 276, to build from Hillsboro to Cincinnati or to the Little Miami. Thirty-seven miles passed to the reorganized Marietta and Cincinnati in 1860, under the general corporation act of May 1, 1852. The company's own report of February 1, 1862, put the price at about $40,000 a mile, paid in the three classes of Marietta and Cincinnati stock at par. Sixteen miles of that railroad became main line. The other 21 miles are the Hillsboro Branch, from Blanchester to Hillsboro.
The Scioto and Hocking Valley Railroad Company was chartered on February 20, 1849, to build from Portsmouth, on the east side of the Scioto, through Piketon, Chillicothe, Circleville, Lancaster, and Amanda, to Newark. A foreclosure bill was filed in Perry County on December 4, 1857. The road sold on May 19, 1863, for $411,100, subject to a first mortgage of $300,000. The deed is January 26, 1864. The same day the purchasers agreed to sell the Marietta and Cincinnati the portion from the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville, later the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley, in Perry County, through to Portsmouth. The price was $500,000 in first-preferred stock, and the $300,000 mortgage stayed on the property. That piece is the Portsmouth Branch. On June 30, 1875, the branch in operation ran from Portsmouth to Hamden, 56 miles, where it met the main line. The northern remainder, from the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville to Newark, was sold on September 2, 1869, to the Newark, Somerset and Straitsville Railroad.
The Union Railroad Company filed its certificate on September 13, 1858, Ohio Record of Incorporations No. 1, page 474. The line ran nine miles, from half a mile west of Scott's Landing to the west bank of the Ohio in Belpre Township, opposite Parkersburg. The Cutler family account has it organized by John Mills, Douglas Putnam, and William P. Cutler, finished in the fall of 1859, and helped along by a $20,000 loan from the city of Baltimore. The reorganized Marietta and Cincinnati took the deed on August 6, 1863: about $40,000 in cash, $25,000 in stock, and a mortgage of $60,000, which the buyer assumed. The state commissioner's history calls it the Union Branch. With that branch in service, the ferry ran the short distance from Belpre to Parkersburg.
The bridge was a Baltimore & Ohio work. Construction ran from May 18, 1869, to January 7, 1871, and the bridge opened on that January day. Jacob Linville designed it. The Keystone Bridge Company, Andrew Carnegie's firm, fabricated and erected the iron. W. E. Porter is the name on the National Register entry. The Historic American Engineering Record, HAER WV-12, gives the length as 7,140 feet: 4,397 feet of open ironwork, plus the approaches, including 2,676 feet of embankment on the Ohio side. There were 46 spans. The two channel spans, about 348 feet, were wrought-iron Linville-Piper trusses, and HAER calls them second in length only to Albert Fink's Louisville bridge of 1870. The other spans were largely Bollman trusses. The approaches were replaced in 1898–1900 and the river spans in 1904–1905, on the original piers. The National Register lists it as the Sixth Street Railroad Bridge, added December 10, 1982, reference 82001785. From that January day in 1871, the Parkersburg Branch and the Marietta and Cincinnati met on dry land at Belpre.
The western entrance was someone else's railroad for the first fifteen years. Trains of April 1857 reached Cincinnati on the Little Miami from Loveland. In 1869 the Pennsylvania took control of the Little Miami, which is the reason an entrance of the company's own mattered. By June 30, 1875, the Marietta and Cincinnati owned its main line from the Mill Creek Bridge to Short Line Junction, 156.95 miles.
The last miles into the city were a lease. On June 1, 1872, the Cincinnati & Baltimore Railway opened from Cincinnati to Ludlow Grove, 5.60 miles of double track, and transferred possession the same day under a perpetual lease. The Marietta and Cincinnati assumed maintenance, the principal and interest of the funded debt, and an annual dividend of 8 percent on the Cincinnati & Baltimore stock. Those 5.60 miles, and the 30 miles of the Baltimore Short Line at the other end, sit inside the 192.55 miles the company operated from Cincinnati to Belpre. At Cincinnati the trains crossed the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton at grade. A flagman stood there, and every train stopped.
On November 15, 1874, Marietta and Cincinnati trains began regular service over the Baltimore Short Line Railway, from Warren's, in Athens County, to the west end of the Parkersburg bridge at Belpre, 30 miles. The state commissioner describes it as a road built in the company's interest, with easier grades and a shorter line toward Baltimore. The rental was 8 percent on the stock, 7 percent on the bonds, and $3,000 a year to keep the Short Line company alive. That alignment became the main line to the river.
The original line was still in the operated account on June 30, 1875: Scott's Landing to Main Line Junction, 31.20 miles. Service from Warren's over that old line to the Union Railroad at Scott's Landing ended in December 1876. The Athens Messenger of December 7 and December 14 carried the notice. The old alignment turned inland south of the river road. West of Vincent it crossed the West Branch of the Little Hocking on dry-laid sandstone piers, the stones cut on the site and set without mortar by German and Irish stonecutters, with a wooden trestle on top. The Marietta Times gives the piers at about 84 feet. Three piers and the abutments still stand. A later Marietta Mineral Railway put trains back on part of the grade. The commissioner's report for 1885 records service from Fleming Station to Marietta in October 1884, and on to Big Run in June 1885. Local accounts date the last train across the Dunbar trestle to 1916.
The return for the year ending June 30, 1875, is the full portrait of the company while it was still the Marietta and Cincinnati. Operated miles were:
| Line | Miles |
|---|---|
| Cincinnati to Belpre | 192.55 |
| Belpre to Marietta | 11.11 |
| Scott's Landing to Main Line Junction | 31.20 |
| Blanchester to Hillsboro | 21 |
| Portsmouth to Hamden | 56 |
| Operated | 311.86 |
Inside the 192.55 miles from Cincinnati to Belpre were the two leases, the Cincinnati & Baltimore at 5.60 miles and the Baltimore Short Line at 30 miles, and the company-owned main from the Mill Creek Bridge to Short Line Junction at 156.95. Owned single main track of every kind came to 276.26 miles. Double main track in operation was 9.06 miles, of which the Cincinnati & Baltimore supplied 5.60. Sidings and other tracks came to 61.10 miles, and track of all kinds to 382.02. The gauge was 56½ inches, which is 4 feet 8½ inches. Rail on the main track weighed 56, 60, and 64 pounds to the yard. Ballast, of rock, gravel, and cinder, covered 276 miles. The operated railroad lay in Hamilton, Clermont, Warren, Clinton, Highland, Ross, Jackson, Vinton, Lawrence, Scioto, Athens, and Washington counties.
Eight tunnels totaled 4,914½ feet, six of them stone. Bridges were 51 of wood, 10 of iron, and 22 of stone, with 264 trestles. In that year the company put an iron bridge of three spans, 367½ feet, across the Little Miami at Loveland, where the Little Miami itself was still a grade crossing, flagged, with every train required to stop. The company owned its telegraph, 294 miles, and counted 28 stations that handled both passengers and freight. It employed 1,811 people.
Rolling stock on that date was 74 locomotives, average weight in working order 64,000 pounds; 10 express and baggage cars; 34 passenger cars; 8 drawing-room and sleeping cars; and 1,506 freight cars. Four of the eight drawing-room and sleeping cars belonged to the Pullman Palace Car Company, and four coaches belonged to the Baltimore & Ohio. Passenger cars rode on Loughridge brakes, with wooden bridges between them, Baker heaters and wood stoves, and candles for light. E. M. Bosley was master mechanic at Chillicothe, where he still was on the 1881 card. W. W. Peabody was general superintendent. Charles F. Low was auditor and secretary. R. M. Fraser was general freight agent. John Waddle, at Cincinnati, was chief engineer.
John King, Jr., of Baltimore, was president, and he swore the return in Hamilton County. Robert Garrett of Baltimore was a director, with J. N. Camden of Parkersburg and directors from Cincinnati, Chillicothe, and Marietta. The stock authorized and issued was $14,000,000, par $50. Preferred accounted for $12,591,087.67 of it, and common for $1,408,912.33. Funded debt was $11,307,876.56. Road and equipment stood at $23,589,790.42. Three hundred ninety stockholders living in Ohio held $1,261,150 of the stock. The transfer office outside the state was the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company in New York. In the year ending that June 30 the road earned $1,953,109.53 and spent $1,542,854.96, which was 77.99 percent of earnings. Freight was $1,210,909.20 of the total. Grain was the largest class, 138,011 tons out of 744,678.
Pixton dates a second receivership to 1878. It was still in force on the public card of June 12, 1881, page 153 of the Official Guide. John King, Jr., is printed as receiver, at Cincinnati. John Waddle, the chief engineer of 1875, is president, also at Cincinnati. James H. Stewart was superintendent. J. E. Rose was master of transportation. S. W. Stone was master of road. Charles F. Low was still auditor. R. M. Fraser was still general freight agent. T. P. Barry was general passenger and ticket agent. E. M. Bosley was still master mechanic at Chillicothe.
Official Guide, June 12, 1881, page 153. John King, Jr., receiver, Cincinnati. John Waddle, president. The named trains are the Baltimore Express, the New York Express, the Fast Line, and the Cincinnati Express. A note at the right sends Marietta trains to Belpre, 12 miles, and Parkersburg, 14 miles.
Eastward, the Baltimore Express left Cincinnati daily at 9:15 a.m. The New York Express left Cincinnati daily at 7:30 p.m. and reached Parkersburg at 2:00 a.m. The other eastward trains ran daily except Sunday. Westward, the Fast Line left Parkersburg daily at 10:30 a.m. and reached Cincinnati at 6:10 p.m. The New York Express left Parkersburg daily at 1:55 p.m. and reached Cincinnati at 8:30 p.m. The Cincinnati Express left Parkersburg daily at 11:25 p.m. and reached Cincinnati at 6:30 a.m. The other westward trains ran daily except Sunday. On Sundays the 9:15 a.m. express from Cincinnati and the 10:30 a.m. express from Parkersburg stopped at every station between Cincinnati and Loveland. Extra accommodation trains ran between Cincinnati and Loveland on days other than Sunday.
The card's own note puts Belpre 12 miles from Marietta and Parkersburg 14. The connections, numbered in the margin, are the Parkersburg Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio, for Baltimore, Washington, and the eastern cities; the Cleveland & Marietta; the Columbus & Hocking Valley; the Portsmouth branch; the Scioto Valley; the line from Blanchester to Hillsboro; the crossing of the Little Miami; the railroads for the West, the Northwest, and the Southwest; and the Cincinnati and Louisville U.S. Mail Line steamers.
Poor's Manual gives the end of the company under its own name. The road was sold under foreclosure on December 9, 1882, to a committee of purchasing trustees. The court confirmed the sale on December 20. The deed is December 30. The trustees took possession on December 31 and operated the property until April 1, 1883. At a meeting on February 7, 1883, they adopted the name Cincinnati, Washington & Baltimore and set the capital at $21,000,000, of which $13,750,000 was preferred and $7,250,000 was common. Common was limited to 6 percent until the preferred had received 6 percent, and after that the two classes shared alike.
At the end of 1884 that successor counted 280.80 miles: Cincinnati to Belpre 192.90, the Marietta branch 11.10, Portsmouth to Hamden 55.40, and the Hillsboro branch 21.40. The gauge was 4 feet 8½ inches. Steel of 60 pounds to the yard covered the 192.9 miles of the Cincinnati–Belpre main. The old line through Vincent was off that account.
The Cincinnati, Washington & Baltimore defaulted in November 1888. Receivers were appointed on December 31, 1888. The property was sold in foreclosure on October 7, 1889. The Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad Company was incorporated in Ohio on December 20, 1889, and its own organization operated the line from January 1, 1890. The Interstate Commerce Commission's valuation counts 286.75 miles acquired from the purchasing trustees and 2.15 miles built, 288.90 miles at the consolidation date of November 1, 1893: the Cincinnati–Belpre main, and the branches from Belpre to Marietta, Hamden to Portsmouth, and Blanchester to Hillsboro. The Baltimore & Ohio controlled the company through the capital stock. On November 1, 1893, the Southwestern consolidated with the Ohio & Mississippi, whose road west of Cincinnati is the Ohio & Mississippi page. The Southwestern itself passed into the Baltimore & Ohio in 1900. The later company history is the Baltimore & Ohio.
The line across southern Ohio became the Baltimore & Ohio's road to St. Louis by way of Parkersburg. In 1985 CSX moved to take up the Parkersburg Branch, from Clarksburg to Parkersburg, and much of the Ohio Division. The grade through Vinton and Athens counties is the Moonville Rail-Trail, from Zaleski to Mineral, through Zaleski State Forest and the Moonville Tunnel. The rails on that section came up in the late 1980s. East of Mineral the old main toward Athens and Belpre is gone as a through railroad.
The railroad still in service is the bridge, the stub through Belpre and Marietta, and the later line north from Harmar to Relief, near Beverly. CSX owns it. The Belpre Industrial Parkersburg Railroad, a Cathcart Rail company, has operated it under lease since May 2, 2020. A Surface Transportation Board notice of April 24, 2026, filed to amend that lease, describes about 38 miles from Belpre, milepost BUS 0.0, to Relief, milepost BUS 38.0, and about 5.29 miles of the Parkersburg Running Track from Parkersburg, milepost BB 194.59, to Belpre, milepost BB 189.3, the piece that includes the bridge. High Yard in Parkersburg is in the same lease. West of Vincent, the Marietta and Cincinnati main line is the grade, the trail, and the sandstone piers.
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