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The original LS&MS route across Ohio was the one that traveled through Oberlin, Norwalk, Bellevue and Elmore. Their later line passed closer to Lake Erie through Sandusky and Port Clinton. When did they shift most of their through trains from the southern route to the northern one? I have an 1893 Official Guide and it shows most of their passengers trains crossing Ohio on the northern route. I was surprised to find that the distance from Toledo to Elyria was virtually the same on the two routes. Thanks.

I will look up the dates you requested as I don't remember off-hand. If you want to really go back, back before the line was in from Berea to Elyria, trains went southwest to Grafton on the Big Four and then peeled west to Oberlin. You can follow this right-of-way today.

Here are the dates I came up with.

Cleveland-Grafton-Oberlin-Toledo in service in 1851.
Cleveland-Sandusky-Toledo in service in 1853.

The two originally were not related. They became merged into the same RR company in late 1853.

In 1866 the line from Elyria to Oberlin was built, eliminating the Grafton-Oberlin stretch and incorporating the Berea-Elyria-Oberlin-Norwalk-Milbury routing we knew to become the "Southern Division."

Hope this helps.

Thank you very much for the information about the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern routes across northern Ohio.
I appreciate the information.