The Alphabet Route was a coalition of railroads connecting the Midwest United States with the Northeast, as a freight alternate to the four major systems: the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central Railroad, Erie Railroad and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The route was formed on February 11, 1931, with the completion of the P&WV to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, on the WM. It was an outgrowth of George J. Gould's attempts to create a transcontinental railroad and later proposals made to the Interstate Commerce Commission for a "Fifth System" to supplement the four major systems; the consolidations planned to form those systems were stopped by the Great Depression. Named for the many-lettered initials of the participating railroads, it used the following systems from west to east: New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (NYC&StL/NKP) from Chicago, Illinois, and East St. Louis, Illinois, to Bellevue, Ohio Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway (W&LE) from Toledo, Ohio, via Bellevue to Pittsburgh Junction, Ohio Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway (P&WV) from Pittsburgh Junction to Connellsville, Pennsylvania Western Maryland Railway (WM) from Connellsville via Hagerstown, Maryland, to Baltimore, Maryland, and Shippensburg, Pennsylvania Reading Company (RDG) from Shippensburg via Reading, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Allentown, Pennsylvania Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) from Allentown via Easton, Pennsylvania, to Jersey City, New Jersey Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) from Allentown via Easton (trackage rights on the CNJ) to Maybrook, New York New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H) from Maybrook via New Haven, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island, to Boston, Massachusetts Major yards on the line included: The NYC&StL's Bellevue Yard was just east of the junction with the W&LE at Bellevue, Ohio. Freight cars were transferred here between the two lines, leaving the same way they came; a direct connection avoiding the yard was impossible due to the lack of a suitable connecting track. The CNJ's Allentown Yard was just east of Allentown, Pennsylvania; the RDG and L&HR had trackage rights along the CNJ to the yard. The RDG's Rutherford Yard just east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; the RDG here combined traffic from Allentown (including L&HR traffic from New England via the NYNH&H through Maybrook), Jersey City and the New York / New Jersey metro area (via the CNJ to Allentown), and Philadelphia. The WM's Jamison Yard in Hagerstown, MD, where traffic from the RDG via Rutherford Yard was combined with traffic from Baltimore on the WM.