 The larger road to be leased was the Niles and New Lisbon Railroad, which the C&M obtained access to for 90 years.This railroad traced its origins to an 1827 charter permitting construction of a line linking Ashtabula (on the shore of Lake Erie) with the village of New Lisbon in Columbiana County, Ohio.The Ashtabula and New Lisbon Railroad Company began construction on the line in 1853.