Pennsylvania Lines West of Pittsburgh. Central System. Predecessor and subsidiary companies.

The Central System of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Lines West Organization was formed on January 1, 1912, to assume the operation of the lines of the Cleveland, Akron and Cincinnati Railway Company and the Toledo, Columbus and Ohio River Railroad Company. The corporations were retained as shell companies. These lines were primarily north-south routes from the coal fields of Southeastern Ohio to the Lake Erie ports.

The Cleveland, Akron & Cincinnati Railway was formed in 1911 by the merger of the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railway and the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railroad. The Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railway had its beginning as The Akron Branch of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad Company which was built from Hudson to Akron in 1852. The name of the company was changed in 1853 to The Cleveland, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad Company and continued construction to Millersburg, 48.6 miles from Akron, in 1854. This last named company was succeeded in ownership by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway Company in 1865, which company built 3.5 miles south of Millersburg in 1868. The property was sold in 1869 to The Pittsburgh, Mt. Vernon, Columbus and London Railroad Company whose name was changed to Cleveland, Mt. Vernon and Delaware Railroad Company the same year. This latter company completed the line into Columbus in 1873, it went into receivership in 1880 and was reorganized as The Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railway Company in 1885.

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