About five hundred miles of brand new railroad between Buffalo and Chicago, and the rails hadn't been down two years before the first scheduled train rolled out on them. 1882. They built it quick, and the name wasn't theirs at all — a newspaper over in Ohio called it the nickel plated road, half teasing, and it stuck so hard it outlived the company.
Then, within weeks of opening, the whole thing was bought out by the Vanderbilt side. Imagine being a conductor on that line. You learn the stations, you learn which operator runs ahead of the card and which one runs behind, you get your watch set and your orders straight — and the name on the letterhead changes before the ballast has settled. The crews kept the trains moving anyway. They generally do.
Harold, the actual name was the New York, Chicago and St. Louis — nobody's ever called it that out loud. A Norwalk paper tossed off "nickel plated" as a dig at the expense and the railroad eventually put it on the letterhead themselves. Best free branding in Ohio.
Harold, the gauge helps explain the speed — standard from the start, so no regauging later, and they laid light rail, something like sixty pounds to the yard, on ballast that hadn't really settled. Fine for a 1882 train, less fine once the tonnage grew; the section crews spent years quietly putting heavier steel under those same miles.