Historic Railroad Map of the Midwest - 1873

"The directors of this Trunk Line, between Toledo and St. Louis, comprising with its branches over 600 miles of completed road, have decided, in order to accommodate the great increase of traffic, to relay the entire line with steel rails. The steady increase of business over this line will be rapidly and greatly augmented by its connection with the Canada Southern Railroad, rendering the substitution of steel rails a necessity. The net earnings for the year 1871 and 1872, after paying interest on the mortgage debt of the company, were largely in excess of the amount necessary to pay the interest on the mortgage. The road has no floating debt. All the proceeds of these bonds go to the permanent improvement of the property, experience having proved that by substituting steel for iron rails on roads doing so heavy a traffic, the saving alone, without any allowance for increase of business, is sufficient to pay off at least four times the amount of this mortgage before maturity. The advantage of employing steel rails is so great that all our Trunk Lines are adopting them to the exclusion of iron ones. The large earnings of this railroad, with its future prospects, make this bond an undoubted security."