Today, there are tens of thousands of miles scattered throughout the country. The city was originally a well-positioned western outpost for Great Lakes No other state, past or present, Kansas City Southern, and Union Pacific. INDOT's Rail Office is dedicated to preserving and developing freight and passenger corridors throughout Indiana. Old maps of the county and the line: Old Signal box of a mine spur off a … trains. Indiana Abandoned Railroads. To help alleviate this congestion the CREATE program (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program), at a cost of $1.5 billion, has been ongoing with the intent of it becoming a bypass for through freight trains to more easily navigate in and out of the city. was once home to the most Class I Due received his A.B. home Rock Island E8A #649 and an E7A have the "Peoria Rocket," at Joliet Union Station (Illinois) in May, 1963. Today, Illinois includes all major Class Is. than 12,000 miles. Others museums include the Amboy Depot Museum, Chatham Railroad While at one time Illinois railroads topped out at an astounding 12,000+ miles of trackage today about half of that is still in operation (being part of granger country, most of this loss was agricultural branch lines). It has a comprehensive rail network consisting of approximately 9,982 miles of railroad tracks, 7,792 of which are operated by Class I railroads – primarily BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad (UP). Roger Puta photo. Glad to hear that our data was able to help with your project! Here we see Rock Island DL-109 #621 (built by Alco in November, 1941 and rebuilt with two Electro-Motive 567-B's in the 1950's), nicknamed "Christine," which has been relegated to freight service as she works a local west of Minooka, Illinois on January 18, 1967. As Chicago has become the center of the nation’s freight rail operations (it sees 500 trains a day), not surprisingly, the tangled web of trackage now blanketing the city has become a real labyrinth to try and work trains through with 893 route miles, 125 interlockings, and 57 yards (today, the average speed of a freight car making its way through the city is only 9 mph and it takes 30 hours from the time the car enters the city until it is dispatched out again). These original (prior to the mega-merger movement which has granted some railroads direct access to Chicago such as Union Pacific and Canadian National) classic carriers include the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (1888) Railway; Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (1874); Chicago & North Western Railway (which has its beginnings in Chicago in 1848); Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (which has its origins from the little Galena & Chicago Union Railroad in 1849); Milwaukee Road (1874); Rock Island (1852); Illinois Central Railroad (1856); New York Central (reached Chicago in 1877 after gaining control of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway); Pennsylvania Railroad (reached Chicago in 1869 via the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad); Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (reached Chicago in the early 20th century via trackage rights and the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad); Chicago Great Western (has its origins in Chicago as early as 1835 but was not built until 1884); Erie Railroad (1880); Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad (via ownership of the Alton Railroad in 1947); Nickel Plate Road (has its origins in Chicago in 1881); Wabash (1880); Monon Route (1883); and Soo Line (1908). (Source: Google Maps). Chicago to several large facilities and rail yards. To the left appears to be an A-B-A set of F7's. It is most accurate in North America, and least accurate everywhere else. Other than a small Canadian National Railway operation near DuPage Airport, a few industrial customers for Union Pacific between Tyler Rd and Kautz Rd in St. Charles, and a small operation serving the power plant in Byron, the entirety of the 147 mile former Chicago Great Western Railway line between Forest Park and Galena Jct is abandoned, making it the longest abandonment from Chicago by far. My first traces were only those that I could see, although many abandoned railroads have no trace of their existence left. CGW Westbound at Elmhurst, IL. I am trying to identify abandoned railway lines that would work for Railbiking, that is, riding specially modified bicycles with outriggers on the rails. (Meaning a yard with a large rise at its entrance, or “hump,” which then The commuter agency operates 11 routes over roughly 455 miles, Railway Museum, Silver Creek & Stephenson Railroad, and Union Depot BACKGROUND: Before this project began, I would hardly be described as a railfan. Even in forested areas, the nature of the line is different from the surrounding woods and remains obvious. •1856 & 1864 –Land grants for several states, including three routes in Wisconsin. Freight and passenger operations aside, Illinois is home to numerous railroad museums and tourist railroads such as the Illinois Railway Museum, which over the past 40 years has been able to amass a very impressive collection of rolling stock including several historic steam locomotives, classic diesel locomotives and even interurban street/trolley cars. Addison, Illinois IL | ARR, CM&N, ICG, IC, ICRR Amboy to Lee Center, IL IL | CB&Q The Aurora Branch Normantown to Aurora, IL IL | EJ&E Aurora to Geneva, IL IL | C&NW Beloit, WI to Freeport, IL IL, WI | CMStP&P, M&StP, R&M Bement to Altamont, IL IL | B&O, WAB Bloomington to Colfax, IL IL | CB&NE, ICG, … Abandoned Illinois Terminal street running tracks in Bloomington, Illinois. But there are also many which still stand today which serve as reminders of bygone days, the folly of man, or the power of Mother Nature, or some combination thereof. Read on for a preview of this fascinating site, and be sure to check out the footage down below. Roger Puta photo. horses it was not until the Northern Cross Railroad opened its 59-mile The Prairie State is also also home ABANDONED RAILROADS ILLINOIS CENTRAL Mattoon District FORMERLY Illinois Central Railroad CONSTRUCTED 1878 by Chicago & Illinois Southern Railway (Mattoon-Grayville) [from Chicago, into the frontier territory], to connect and interchange