The Hocking Valley Railway (reporting mark HV)[1] was a railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio, with a main line from Toledo to Athens and Pomeroy via Columbus.

[8][9] The Columbus and Toledo Railroad was incorporated in May 1872 to connect its namesake cities on an eastern route through Delaware, Marion, Upper Sandusky, and Fostoria.

[10] Construction, delayed by the Panic of 1873, began in August 1875,[11] and the line was opened from Columbus to Marion on November 1, 1876, and the rest of the way to Walbridge, outside Toledo, on January 11, 1877.

It acquired part of an incomplete roadbed graded in the 1850s by the Scioto and Hocking Valley Railroad between Hamden and Logan, but was unable to survive the Panic of 1873.

A short extension near Toledo was built in 1890, connecting to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (a New York Central Railroad subsidiary) at Rockwell Junction.