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With investment by railroad financier Jay Gould in 1880 and financial reorganization, the line was converted to Standard Gauge and construction began again. Service from Huron to Massillion, Ohio was opened on January 9 , 1882 and new lines were constructed that eventually reached the Ohio River and Toledo . The WLE also developed new docks on Lake Erie at Huron that opened May 21 , 1884 when the first cargo of Iron Ore was received. In 1880 another 3-foot narrow gauge line, the Connotton Valley Railway , was formed; building north from Canton, Ohio to Cleveland and then south to Coshocton, Ohio and Zanesville . The Connotton Valley became the Cleveland, Canton & Southern Railroad and was converted to standard gauge in one day on November 18 , 1888 . The Cleveland, Canton & Southern Railroad joined the WLE in 1899 after its purchase at forclosure sale, becoming WLE's Cleveland Division. At its height, the WLE ran from the Pittsburgh region (through a connection with the Wabash-Pittsburgh Terminal, later the Pittsburgh And West Virginia Railway ) to Lake Erie at Huron and Toledo. However, the mainlines of the WLE never reached outside Ohio's borders. It also ran from Cleveland to Zanesville, with the lines crossing at Harmon, just east of Brewster, Ohio , which became the location of WLE's corporate headquarters and locomotive shops. With two busy main stems crossing on the map of Ohio; the road's nickname for many years was "The Iron Cross." Ironically, the mainline of the WLE never actually reached Wheeling, West Virginia . However, a branch to Steubenville, Ohio was completed in 1891 , which led to an indirect connection to Wheeling . The WLE began producing locomotives at its Brewster, Ohio shops in 1910 , and boasted one of the finest locomotive producing facilities in the country. Over the years, the WLE built and rolled boilers and erected fifty of their own steam engines, a feat never tried by many larger and more famous railroads. The Wheeling & Lake Erie was jokingly called the “Wailing and Leg Weary” but, after several early financial embarrassments, finally found prosperity in its later life. The WLE was leased by the Nickel Plate Road (NKP) in 1949. The Nickel Plate Road merged with Norfolk And Western Railway in 1964. Norfolk and Western merged with the Southern Railway in 1982, forming the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). RE-BIRTH AS A REGIONAL RAILWAY In 1990, Norfolk Southern Railway sold portions of their lines in Ohio and Pennsylvania , including most of the original lines of the former WLE, the Akron, Canton And Youngstown Railroad and the Pittsburgh And West Virginia Railway to a new regional railroad, the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway ( Reporting Mark WE) that operates today. The only portions of the original WLE not owned by the current WE is the NS line west of Bellevue, Ohio (though WE still has Trackage Rights to Toledo on this line) and the former Cleveland Division line south of Harmon (Brewster) that was sold to Ohio Central Railway (OHCR) in 1986. The historic first line built by the WLE, the Huron Branch between Norwalk and Huron, was acquired by WE but was never activated and was later removed. WE still serves the Huron Docks using trackage rights on NS' former Nickel Plate Road line from Bellevue and a connecting line to remaining Huron Branch trackage to the dock. A few small portions of the original WLE have been abandoned and/or replaced with trackage rights on parallel lines by WE. Branch lines reach as far south as Wheeling and as far west as Connellsville, Pennsylvania . The WE joins the Southwestern Pennsylvania Railroad at Owensdale, Pennsylvania . The WE shares trackage rights with CSX from Connellsville to Hagerstown, Maryland . The WE currently operates about 850 miles of track. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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