toledo, delphos and burlington railroad itself originally came about from a merger of several other railroads, including the iron railroad founded on february 2, 1848, based in ironton, ohio. in 1881, the td&b reached an agreement with the iron railroad to dual-gauge a segment of its line by laying its own narrow-gauge track in-between the iron railroad's track. both railroads merged later that same year, retaining the td&b name.