PO1.93A

PO1.93

1882 Birdseye map of Niles with rail lines marked in color. See index for railroad names.

Niles-Alliance Railroad Covered Bridge.

Niles-Alliance railroad covered bridge over the Mahoning River. It was built in the late 1880's. Later the bridge became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

In 1853 a railroad through Niles was projected from Ashtabula to New Lisbon. The portion north of Niles was not at the time completed, but the branch from Niles to New Lisbon was completed in 1869 and in 1872 consolidated with the Cleveland and Mahoning into the Atlantic and Great Western Railway. It is now the Niles-Lisbon branch of the Erie Railroad.

Some of the earliest proposed railroads in eastern Ohio, first referenced in 1827, involved schemes stretching from Lake Erie at Ashtabula Harbor to coal and iron ore mines near New Lisbon (now Lisbon). 1 2 A plan to build an 80-mile railroad between those points by the Ashtabula, Warren & East Liverpool Railroad in 1838 failed as it was not able to raise the necessary capital for the venture.

In 1853, another railroad from Lake Erie southward was proposed on the same route that had been earlier proposed in 1827. 1 It was partially built by the Ashtabula & New Lisbon Railroad (A&NL). 2 In 1864, the uncompleted portion, from Niles south to New Lisbon, a total of 35 miles was leased to the New Lisbon Railway which later became bankrupt in April 1869. 3

The newly formed Niles & New Lisbon Railroad (N&NL) acquired the right-of-way from Niles to New Lisbon while a new company, the Ashtabula, Youngstown & Pittsburgh Rail Road (AY&P), chartered on February 11, 1870, acquired the remaining right-of-way to Ashtabula. 2 The entire route from New Lisbon north to Ashtabula Harbor opened by May 1873.

The N&NL consolidated with the Liberty & Vienna Railroad in August 1872 to form the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railway. 3 By 1900, it had become part of Erie Railroad’s Niles & Lison Branch until 1960. The Erie then merged with the Lackawanna Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna in 1968, falling under Conrail in 1976. The route from Niles south to Lisbon was soon abandoned.