This abandoned railway was built in 1869 by the Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad (later the Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad by 1880) in order to connect Fort Wayne, IN, with Jackson, MI, to the north. The line came under the control of the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad in 1882 and then the New York Central shortly after, who continued operations thereover.

This line was abandoned in two segments. The first was between Waterloo and Steubenville. The NYC removed the diamond at Waterloo in mid-1960s just before the Penn Central merger. The remainder of the line was abandoned by Penn Central, with the tracks being removed in the early 1970s. Only small parts of the line in downtown Fort Wayne were used for local traffic until the end of Conrail. Finally, Norfolk Southern abandoned the rest and pulled the tracks right after the split of Conrail property between NS and CSX.

The diamond with the Wabash Railroad at Steubenville is gone; today a wye remains, operated by the Indiana Northeastern Railroad. A portion of the right-of-way (between Fort Wayne and Auburn) is destined to become the Pufferbelly rail-trail. Despite the absence of rails and ties, a number of bridges exist along the abandoned right-of-way, as noted on the map.

See also Bankers to Jackson, in Michigan.