Peru's joint terminal agreement

Between 1933 and 1952, the C&O and its

erstwhile corporate relative, the Nickel Plate Road (officially the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, and just as often referred to as "NKP") shared use of the C&O yard, freight house, and engine facilities at Peru, Indiana, under the terms of a detailed "Joint Terminal Facilities" agreement.

Peru marked the intersection of C&O's Cincinnati-Chicago main line and NKP's ex-Lake Erie & Western Indianapolis-Michigan City (IMC) line. The two crossed at grade just north of NKP's Wabash River bridge. C&O maintained a yard and engine facility on the north bank of the river, where NKP played the role of tenant. Prior to its participation in the agreement, Nickel Plate maintained its own small engine facility north of the C&O yard, adjacent to the main line of Peru's other major railroad, the Wabash.

Joint terminal operations aren't all that unusual, as railroads cooperate to their mutual benefit and avoid redundant facilities. Peru's arrangement was noteworthy for taking place in a relatively small outlying location, rather than the more common agreements covering congested urban areas where parcels of land large enough for railroad terminal use - even in the 1920s and 1930s - were scarce and expensive. The origins of the Peru agreement lay in Depression-era expediency and the common ownership of the two roads by Cleveland's Van Sweringen brothers, Oris and Mantis. The financial and managerial relationship between C&O and NKP survived the "Vans" and lasted until 1947, and the roads shared facilities in Peru until NKP dieselized its IMC line in 1951 and opened its own small yard and engine facility in January 1952.

The agreement itself makes interesting reading, spelling out as it does the apportionment of costs incurred in virtually every aspect of the terminal's operation. Dated April 10, 1933, the complete text of the document is presented on the following pages, along with a sampling of photos taken in Peru during the term of the agreement.

Copyright Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, Inc. May 1999
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