As we have noted, Northern Ohio Railway Museum owns and is laying track on the former right of way of the Cleveland, Southwestern & Columbus interurban. We also have noted that the he CS&C only got as far as Bucyrus OH and that the connection on to Columbus, OH, was via another interurban, the Columbus, Delaware and Marion (CD&M).

What became the CD&M began in 1893 as a suburban line, the Worthington, Clintonville and Columbus Ry (WC&C). In 1901, The CD&M was organized and followed a trajectory that was often seen among US interurban railways. It purchased the WC&C to gain entry into Columbus. At the same time, a rival company gained control of the city lines in Delaware, OH, through which the CD&M would have to pass. the CD&M bought out the rival and began operation in 1903.

Plans for a line to continue northward were delayed by the panic of 1903 but, in 1908, a subsidiary company, the Columbus, Marion & Bucyrus was completed to the latter city, where it made a connection to our CS&C. Unfortunately, the cost of this construction put the CH&D into receivership from 1909 until 1917. In 1923, the line completed a private right of way into Columbus, in it 1926 purchased some fine new steel cars, and it developed freight operations in conjunction with the CS&C which helped it to remain solvent. However, the abandonment of the CS&C in 1932 ended the freight connection and the CD&M, itself, was abandoned the following year.

However, just as the CS&C is memorialized by Northern Ohio Railway Museum, the CD&M found a new life through our fellow trolley museum, the Ohio Railway Museum, in Worthington. They are well worth a visit.

Pictures, both Columbus Metropolitan Library: 1) CD&M #301 of 1923. 2) Dual gauge tracks in Clintonville that carried both CD&M cars and Columbus city cars.