The first line of the WTRM extended from a CSX connection at Deforest Junction, near Deforest Road, through Warren to the
Warren Steel plant. The
Interstate Commerce Commission approved abandonment by CSX in 1993, after which the
Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corporation formed EDR-II to buy the ex-
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line, which had been built by the
Painesville and Youngstown Railroad in the 1870s; the WTRM began operations in March 1994. EDR-II subsequently acquired two lines from Conrail in 1996, with operation by the WTRM under
trackage rights. One line, extending north from a Conrail (now
Youngstown Belt Railroad, with
Norfolk Southern Railway trackage rights) connection in Warren, was opened in 1873 by the
Ashtabula, Youngstown and Pittsburgh Railroad, a
Pennsylvania Railroad predecessor, and the other, extending west from the same junction, and crossing the original line in Warren, was opened by the
Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, an
Erie Railroad predecessor, as part of a main line to
Dayton in 1863. The original line (ex-B&O) south of the crossing with the new east–west line (ex-Erie) was abandoned the next year, since all traffic was overhead, and had moved to the new lines. and later that year leased a connecting ex-B&O line near Youngstown from CSX. Effective January 1, 1997, the
Youngstown Belt Railroad began operating this trackage under lease. ==References==