Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

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Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

The C&O system map in 1950
Overview
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Reporting mark	C&O, CO
Locale	Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.
Dates of operation	1868–1987
Predecessor	Louisa Railroad
Successor	CSX
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (reporting marks C&O, CO) was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond to the Ohio River by 1873, where the railroad town (and later city) of Huntington, West Virginia, was named for him.