A BASTIAT MOMENT ON THE WATER LEVEL ROUTE.

George Drury's brief Classic Trains history of the New York Central system includes this nugget.

The railroad situation along the south shore of Lake Erie was complicated by Ohio’s insistence on a track gauge of 4 feet 10 inches, Pennsylvania’s reluctance to let a railroad from another state cross its borders, and the desire of the city of Erie, Pa., to have the change of gauge within its limits in the hope that passengers would spend money while changing trains there.

It is probably better that Erie offers travellers an amusement park should they wish to break their journey there, and that the Buffalo and Erie; Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula; Cleveland & Toledo; and Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana all become one, Stephenson gauge, Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, rather than each of Erie, Ashtabula, Painesville, Cleveland, Toledo, Elkhart, and for all I know, Sandusky and Waterloo each seeking to provide middlemen.