The was the owner of
Dearborn Station in
Chicago, Illinois and the trackage leading to it. It was owned equally by five of the railroads using it to reach the terminal, and kept those companies from needing their own lines into the city.
The C&WI was chartered
June 5 ,
1879 , and soon opened a line in May
1880 from
Dolton , where the
Chicago And Eastern Illinois Railroad merged with the
Columbus, Chicago And Indiana Central Railway (
PRR Panhandle Line ), north to its new station at
Polk and
Dearborn Street s on the south side of the
Chicago Loop . The alignment ran north from Dolton to the crossing of the
Illinois Central Railroad just south of its junction with the
Michigan Central Railroad at
Kensington , then continued northwest and north, eventually coming along the west side of the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne And Chicago Railway (PRR) at
47th Street . Then it continued north to cross the PFW&C and head northeast at
Alton Junction , crossing the
St. Charles Air Line Railroad and
Chicago, Rock Island And Pacific Railway before turning back north the rest of the way to Dearborn Station.
Connections were immediately provided with the newly-built
Wabash, St. Louis And Pacific Railway at
74th Street and
Chicago And Grand Trunk Railway (
GTW ) at
49th Street , which, along with the
Chicago And Eastern Illinois Railroad connection at the south end at Dolton, were the three initial lessees of the line.
Soon after, the and '''South Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad''' were merged into the C&WI on
January 26 ,
1882 . Several more lines were built using their charters - a branch from the main line at
74th Street , west and north to the
Chicago, Milwaukee And St. Paul Railway at
Craigin , a branch from
87th Street east to various connections at
South Chicago , and a branch of that line from
Pullman Junction south and southeast, parallel to and east of the
New York, Chicago And St. Louis Railway , to just shy of
State Line Junction in
Hammond, Indiana . At Hammond two more connections were made - the
Chicago, Indianapolis And Louisville Railway (Monon) and the
Chicago And Atlantic Railway (
Erie ). Those two companies also acquired shares in the C&WI, bringing the total to five. The
State Line And Indiana City Railroad later gave the
Wabash, St. Louis And Pacific Railway a second access point to the C&WI at Hammond, and a sixth railroad - the
Atchison, Topeka And Santa Fe Railway - used Dearborn Station, but used its own line on the east side of the C&EI from
Alton Junction to the station.
The branches to Craigin and South Chicago (the latter east of Hammond Junction only) were leased in
1883 to the newly-formed
Belt Railway Of Chicago , which was also given
Trackage Rights over the C&WI's main line and branch to Hammond Junction. The C&WI continued to operate its main line from Dearborn Station south to 87th Street, where it split into two lines to Dolton and Hammond.
Dearborn Station closed in
1971 . The old C&WI from
Alton Junction to
74th Street is now owned by
Metra and used by their
SouthWest Service , switching to the line to
Union Station at Alton Junction and to the old
Wabash Railway line at 74th Street. From
87th Street to
Dolton , the line is now owned by the
Union Pacific Railroad , which also has the former
Chicago And Eastern Illinois Railroad south from Dolton. The rest has been abandoned, except for a short piece north of
Hegewisch , now used by the
Chicago Rail Link , and the part used by the
Belt Railway Of Chicago , now owned by the BRC.
