The Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railway was incorporated in 1907 and completed a line from Mogadore to Akron, Ohio, 8 miles, in 1913. In 1920 the AC&Y obtained control Northern Ohio Railway from the Lake Erie & Western. The Northern Ohio had a 161-mile route from Akron west to Delphos, Ohio. AC&Y also purchased outright a 9-mile portion of the Northern Ohio from Akron to Copley Junction.
Akron was noted for the manufacture of tires, and over the years tires and inner tubes moving from Akron to Detroit via the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton interchange at Columbus Grove constituted a significant part of AC&Y's freight traffic.
On Jan. 14th, 1944, the AC&Y and the Northern Ohio were consolidated as the Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad. In 1947 AC&Y considered extending its like east to Youngstown for access to the steel industry there and also to serve as a route around the congestion of Cleveland, but nothing came of it.
In 1949 AC&Y's president proposed a 130-mile Ohio River-to-Lake Erie two-way conveyor belt. AC&Y was, understandably, the only railroad to support the proposal or to advocate passage of bills by the Ohio legislature gaining the right of eminent domain to the conveyor belt company.
Norfolk & Western purchased the AC&Y in 1964 at the time it merged with the Nickel Plate and leased the Wabash. The N&W dissolved the AC&Y on Jan. 1st, 1982. The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway (the 1990 company) purchased the remaining portion of the AC&Y in 1990.
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