Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad to the CL&N at Hageman. The CJ&M also acquired the long-dormant Deer Creek Tunnel project in an attempt to construct its own route into the city, tired of dealing with Hafer and the CL&N. The Pennsylvania Railroad, owner of the Little Miami Railroad that had been constructed east of Lebanon in the 1840s, entered the negotiations in 1896 to protect its Cincinnati-area interests, and in March it (through the Pennsylvania Company) acquired a majority of the CL&N's stock. Pennsylvania officials took over management in May, and in 1902 the CL&N acquired the tunnel property and some terminal property near Court Street from the Cincinnati Northern Railroad, successor to the CJ&M, which had become part of the Big Four and terminated its use of the CL&N in 1901. As a part of the Pennsylvania system, the CL&N continued to operate its own property (which included the line north of Dodds after 1914) until January 1, 1921, when it was leased to the Pennsylvania. Starting at the end of 1918, the Interstate Commerce Commission classified the CL&N as a Class I railroad, meaning that it made at least $1 million per year in operating revenue. (This designation was dropped in 1921 when the CL&N was leased.) However, net operating income, revenue minus costs, which had steadily climbed from the 1890s, began falling in 1916, becoming a deficit in 1920. Subsequently, effective January 1, 1926, the Pennsylvania merged the CL&N with several other small companies—the Cleveland, Akron and Cincinnati Railway, Manufacturers Railway, Pennsylvania-Detroit Railroad, and Toledo, Columbus and Ohio River Railroad—to create the Pennsylvania, Ohio and Detroit Railroad, a non-operating subsidiary. That company was merged into the Connecting Railway, previously a short link in Philadelphia, PA, in 1956, and its lessee merged with the New York Central Railroad in 1968 to form Penn Central Transportation. Other lines, 1889–1915 The line north of Dodds, built by the TD&B to connect the Cincinnati Northern to the D&SE at Lebanon Junction, was sold separately at the June 1884 foreclosure sale, to its first-mortgage bondholders for $20,000. Initially operated under lease by the CL&N, service was discontinued in April 1887 when the ex-D&SE was converted from narrow gauge to . With its northern connection gone, and no on-line sources of revenue, there was no profit in operating the line. However, one such source would soon be created, when local businessman Henry Lewis decided