CLEVELAND, CINCINNATI, CHI CAGO AND SAINT LOUIS RAILWAY COMPANY, The. This road, better laiown as the °Big Four Route,)) was chartered in Ohio in 1889 as a consolidation of the Cincinnati, In dianapolis, Saint Louis and Chicago Railway, the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and In dianapolis Railway and the Indianapolis and Saint Louis Railway companies. In 1890 the Ohio, Indiana and Western Railway was pur chased. In 1912 the Columbus, Spnngfield and Cincinnati Railroad, the Harrison Branch Rail road and the Cincinnati and Springfield Rail way were added by merger. In 1913 the Cairo, Vincennes and Chicago Railway and the Chi cago, Indianapolis and Saint Louis Short Line Railway were added to the system in the same way, and in 1915 another merger brought in the White Water Railroad, the Cincinnati, Wa bash and Michigan Railway, the Cincinnati and Southern Ohio River Railway and the Fair land, Fratilclin and Martinsville Railroad.
On 30 June 1916 the company operated 2,383 miles of road, of which 1,688 miles were owned by the company, the remainder being held un der leases, contract, proprietary rights or trackage rights. On 31 Dec. 1915 the capital stock outstanding totaled $57,056,300, of which $10,000,000 was preferred, and $47,056,300 was common. Of the latter the New York Cen tral Railroad owned $30,207,700. On the same date the °Big Four/. owned $21,933,868 of the stock of other railroads and $M,082,230 of their bonds. In 1912 the company purchased coal
lands in Illinois aggregating 76,000 acres.
For the year ended 30 June 1916 the oper ating revenue amounted to $43,478,002 and the operating expenses to $29,195,230— the net op eratmg revenue being $14,2E2,772. The inter est on the funded debt amounted to $4,851,981 and the tax accruals to $1,556,131. Rents paid for leased roads, equipment and other expenses reduced the net income to $7,103,089, of which $6,866,275 was passed to profit and loss account, wiping out a deficiency and leaving a credit balance of $1,763,933.
The year's transportation service totaled 16,851,148 train miles, an average of 7,072 train miles per mile of road. The number of pas sengers transported was 8,735,964 and the amount of freight moved was 31,443,141 tons, about 15,000,000 tons being bituminous coal. The revenue per passenger carried averaged $1.04, and per passenger mile, two cents. The revenue per ton of freight averaged $0.97, and per ton mile, a little more than one-half cent. The equipment consisted of 804 locomotives, 365 passenger cars, 76 baggage and express cars, 40 postal cars, 400 refrigerator cars, 16,376 box cars, 11,024 coal cars, 1,106 flat cars and 636 stock cars. The road forms a part of the New York Central Railroad system.