to build a line to Columbus diverging from the Little Miami mainline at Xenia, and its management worked to organize the Columbus and Xenia Railroad. From Xenia, a connection was built to link to the Columbus and Xenia Railroad, its partner. The two companies combined their operations, but did not formally merge, on November 30, 1853. By 1856, the Little Miami had of track, and the C&X had . The two lines formed the only rail link between Cincinnati and the state capital at the time. 1850s upgrades and shift in transportation patterns Revenues from local agricultural shipments were promising enough to enable the line to upgrade to heavier rails and make other improvements during the 1850s. By this time, the line gained the reputation for being one of the best-run lines in the nation. But by 1853, the first of the three railway systems from the Eastern Seaboard that would be built across the Alleghenies and reach Ohio had linked up with the growing railway network in place in Ohio. It became possible to travel from western Ohio to points in the East. Ultimately the New York Central Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad all reached Ohio from the East. The Hillsboro and Cincinnati Railroad was chartered in 1846 to run a line between Hillsboro and O'Bannon Creek in Loveland on the Little Miami's route. By 1850, the H&C had completed the to Hillsboro. The H&C would lease its line in perpetuity to the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad; this ultimately became the mainline of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the area. The new construction upended the established trade routes in Ohio, which had been along a north–south axis to get goods or passengers either to Lake Erie or the Ohio River. The Lake Erie and Mad River Railroad had reached Springfield in 1849, but within a few years, as trans-Allegheny railroads reached into Ohio, they supplanted that line in importance. The most important traffic pattern shifted irrevocably to an east–west-oriented axis. The mainline of the Little Miami Railroad beyond Xenia to Springfield declined in importance to a branch. The Little Miami maintained its Columbus route, but looked to the West when projecting for the future. Growth through mergers The Little Miami Railroad leased in perpetuity all assets of the C&X on March 18, 1869, while the C&X continued to exist as a separate corporation.