Cleveland Short Line Railway $10,000 gold bond 1941 (Ohio)

Short-lived short line RR.  Beautiful vignette of a steam train travelling past telegraph poles. Vertical fold from storage. Issued and cancelled. Dated 1941. Measures approximately 13 by 9.5 inches.

The Cleveland Short Line Railway is a freight bypass around southern Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. A quasi-independent railroad organized by major shareholders of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, the short line was intended to allow the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern to bypass the congested railroads in downtown Cleveland. The Cleveland Short Line has had a succession of owners, and is currently part of CSX Transportation.

The Cleveland Short Line Railway was chartered November 24, 1902. The incorporators, who were major shareholders in the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (LS&MS), intended to construct a circumferential railroad from the LS&MS main line on the border between the Riverside and Bellaire-Puritas neighborhoods of Cleveland (an area known to railroads as "Rockport") to the LS&MS rail yard in Collinwood, Ohio.

On April 1, 1911, the LS&MS entered a 99-year lease of the Cleveland Short Line. The lease required the LS&MS to pay to the Cleveland Short Line each year an amount equal to 5 percent of its outstanding capital stock plus an amount equal to the interest on the Short Line's outstanding debt.

The LS&MS merged with the New York Central Railroad (NYC) in December 1914, and the NYC absorbed the Cleveland Short Line in 1915.

The New York Central Railroad merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968, to create the Penn Central Transportation Company. The Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970. The Penn Central continued to operate into 1974, until President Richard Nixon signed the Regional Rail Reorganization Act on January 2. Most of the Penn Central's tracks were turned over to a new corporation, Conrail. The Penn Central continued to operate as a freight-only railroad, but reorganization efforts failed. In 1976, the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act folded the remainder of the Penn Central into Conrail as well.

In 1997, Conrail was jointly purchased by CSX and the Norfolk Southern Railway. CSX obtained the Cleveland Short Line. As of 2010, CSX maintained 21 miles of double track, and 1 mile of single track. The Cleveland Short Line east of Short Line Junction is now CSX's Short Line Subdivision.

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