The Belt Railway Company of Chicago (BRC), headquartered in Bedford Park, Illinois, is the largest switching terminal railroad in the United States. It is co-owned by the six Class I railroads of the United States — BNSF, Canadian National, CPKC, CSX, NS and Union Pacific — each of which uses the switching and interchange facilities of the BRC. Owner lines and other railroads bring their trains to the Belt Railway to be separated, classified, and re-blocked into new trains for departure. The BRC also provides rail terminal services to approximately 100 local manufacturing industries.
The BRC has 28 miles of mainline route with interchanges to each of its owner railroads, and over 300 miles of switching tracks. The vast majority of the latter are located in the Clearing Yard.
The Clearing Yard, located on the boundary between Chicago and Bedford Park, Illinois. It is just south of Chicago Midway International Airport, directly adjacent to CSX Intermodal’s Bedford Park terminal. It is one of the largest hump classification facilities in the United States. Some 5.5 miles in length and covering 786 acres, the yard supports more than 250 miles of track. It has six main subdivisions; one arrival, classification, and departure yard in the eastbound and westbound directions.
Using computer controls, the hump tower dispatches more than 8,400 rail cars per day. Operating around the clock, employees are able to classify between 40 and 50 miles of consists daily. As is popular in large hump yards, slugs are used in Clearing Yard to shove the hump.
Rich
Edit Note: I initially and inadvertently left off CPKC as one of the six owner railroads, but I have now edited this post to include CPKC.
While the ownership and operating history of the Belt Railway is far too complicated to compress into a single post, here’s a list of the owners at the time the Belt Division was acquired from the C&WI, with the modern descendants. Due to bankruptcies and other events, not all of the original owners retained their shares over the years.
Chicago & North Western (UP)
Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul (CPKC)
New York Central (NS)
B&O (CSX)
Burlington (BNSF)
Pennsylvania (NS)
Alton (CN)*
AT&SF (BNSF)
Wabash (NS)
C&EI (UP/CSX)*
Grand Trunk (CN)
Monon (CSX)
Rock Island (CSX)*
Erie (NS)
C&O (CSX)
Pere Marquette (CSX) joined in 1924
Soo Line/Wisconsin Central (CN)*
Chicago Madison & Northern (CN)
Illinois Central (CN)
Even though most of the Alton ended up under UP control, CN still owns the Chicago-Joliet segment. C&EI’s ownership share was split between L&N and Missouri Pacific, eventually CSX and UP. The Rock Island’s main line is operated by Iowa Interstate, but CSX still owns it from Chicago to Bureau, presumably with the RI’s share of BRC. Soo Line ownership originally came through Wisconsin Central, but did not follow the original WC’s path through independence to CN control. The presence of all of the owners of the Chicago & Western Indiana was no accident, as C&WI was the original operator of the BRC.
B&O’s sole ownership of the B&OCT (Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal (BOCT) still around and owned by CSX) was roughly concurrent with BRCs startup.
The RI from Joliet to (IIRC) a point south of Bureau is leased by CSX. The western end has been subleased to IAIS. Over the years, more has been subleased by them.
The original lease was for 50 years by the B&OCT. The lease was just renewed a few years ago. One stipulation of the original lease was that any railroad that bought the former RI mainline west of Bureau would receive trackage rights into Chicago.
That stipulation didn’t extend to the Iowa Railroad, the predecessor operator before IAIS, because they only leased the trackage they operated. Heartland and IAIS bought the tracks west of Bureau and received access to Chicago.
Getting back to BRC owners by 1948 original owners B&O, NYC, C&NW and CM&StP (CMStP&P) were no longer owners, nor was the Alton. All of the C&WI owners (MON, GTW, Erie, Wabash and C&EI), plus PRR, AT&SF, IC, Soo Line and Rock Island were the remaining owners. BRC had trackage rights on C&WI lines to Dolton and State Line, and to Franklin Park on the IHB (shown on the map as B&OCT).
UP’s eventual purchase of most of the C&WI’s assets probably included BRC ownership.
I grew up at 73rd and Avers, which is about halfway between Hayford Jct and the east end of Clearing. There was quite an interesting parade of railroads going in and out during the middle to late 50’s.
