The Chicago and North Western Railway was chartered on June 7, 1859, five days after it purchased the assets of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad. On February 15, 1865, it merged with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which had been chartered on January 16, 1836. Since the Galena & Chicago Union started operating in December 1848, and the Fond du Lac railroad started in March 1855, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad is considered to be the origin of the North Western railroad system.

The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad at its height provided passenger and freight railroad services between Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, USA. The company was formed on January 18, 1854.

The DGH&M was formed from the ruin of Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, a successor road to the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad, one of the first roads organized in the state of Michigan. The Great Western Railway, a Canadian company, had taken financial control of the D&M in 1860 after it defaulted on debt payments. The D&M entered receivership in 1875; in 1878 Great Western purchased it outright and refinanced the debts.

The Pere Marquette Railroad was incorporated on November 1, 1899, in anticipation of a merger of three Michigan-based railroad companies[1] that had been agreed upon by all parties. It began operations on January 1, 1900, absorbing the following companies:

The Syracuse, Binghamton and New York is a corporation of the State of New York, having its principal office at New York, N. Y. While the present name of this company is that given above it was incorporated originally as the Syracuse and Southern Railroad Company, which was later changed to the present name of Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad Company.

It is controlled by the Lackawanna through ownership of a majority of its outstanding capital stock. On the other hand, the records do not indicate that this company controls any common-carrier corporation.

The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) (reporting mark DH) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP).

The Shamokin Valley and Pottsville had been commenced in 1835 to transport coal from the mines to the Susquehanna Canal at Sunbury and was extended to Mt. Carmel in 1854. Its entire length of 27 miles lay through anthracite deposits, and it owned substantial holdings itself, which went with the lease.

The Camden & Atlantic Railroad began regular service between Camden and Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1855. The railroad was taken over by the West Jersey & Seashore Railroad in 1883.

The Library Company of Philadelphia

The Nashua and Lowell Railroad (N&L) was a 14-mile-long (23 km) railroad built to connect Nashua, New Hampshire with the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Chartered in June 1835, construction began in 1837 and the first train ran the next year. The Nashua and Lowell was the first railroad built in the state of New Hampshire.