For about 5 years, I rode the Rock Island commuter train back and forth daily between my home and downtown Chicago to my job. I always read the newspaper while on the train and never even bothered to look out the window at the passing sights.
When we moved to a new home, I started to ride the Illinois Central commuter train downtown. One morning, I was walking from the train to work and crossed Dearborn Street. I looked south down Dearborn Street and saw a large building with a tall clock tower facing the street 4 blocks away. When I got to the office, I asked if anyone knew what that building was. I was told that it was a commuter train station.
Source: Google Images
So, I began to research what turned out to be Dearborn Station. I discovered that long ago the Santa Fe used the station and that its tracks had crossed the Rock Island tracks. I never knew that, but then I never looked out the window when I rode on the Rock Island commuter train. Later again, we moved once more and this time I began to ride the Rock Island (now Metra) commuter train once again. This time, I looked out the window, hoping to get a glance at the old Santa Fe tracks, but I saw nothing of the sort. Supposedly, the Santa Fe crossed under the Rock Island but, again, I saw no underpass at the spot where the crossing once took place. As luck would have it, the âtrenchâ had been filled in when Dearborn Station ceased operations. It was that realization that made me determined to learn more about this now long-gone railroad operation.
Dearborn Station was part of the vision of a real estate promoter named John B. Brown who recognized a need for a single rail system to offer services into the growing city of Chicago at the south end of its downtown location. He enlisted the cooperation of five different railroads - the Chicago & Eastern Illinois (C&EI), Wabash, Chicago & Atlantic (Erie), Grand Trunk Western and the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville (Monon) â to help fund the project. The C&EI, in particular, was interested in Brownâs project as it would ensure a direct entry into Chicago instead of relying on trackage rights over a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary.
Out of this project came a new railroad named the Chicago & Western Indiana. It was a short line railroad running 17 miles from downtown Chicago to Dolton, Illinois, the first suburb south of Chicago where it connected with the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad (C&EI).
Source: Wikipedia
The two primary purposes of the C&WI were (1) to provide access to Chicago and (2) to provide switching service for the passenger cars and freight cars of its owner railroad companies. Of note were the C&WIâs own commuter services, hosted between Dearborn Station and Dolton until these operations ceased in July, 1963.
As the endeavor got underway, Brown realized that to be successful an eastern extension would be needed to reach the railroads along the Indiana border. To do this he chartered what was then known as the Belt Division, Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad in 1881.
Source: Chicago Area Shortline Railroads - Belt Railway of Chicago
Subsequently, the rest of the C&WI became known as the Terminal Division. Eventually, the Belt Division was renamed as the Belt Railway of Chicago (BRC) in 1882. The line eventually terminated at a location known as State Line near Hammond, Indiana which opened interchange possibilities with multiple carriers.
By 1882 the C&WI was largely complete and a year later work began on a terminal at the south side of Polk Street. Dearborn Stationâs headhouse. Dearborn opened on May 8, 1885. While the Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF) never became an owner, it did become the primary lessee, signing a 99-year lease to use both the station and trackage rights. As the volume of rail traffic increased, in 1914, tenement houses on the east side of the station were razed and a 1-story Annex Station was constructed across the street from the main Dearborn Station.
Source: Source: Source: Monon Railroad Historical Technical Society
The new line from Dolton to Chicago was dubbed The Dolton Line, the mainline track portion of the Terminal Division. The C&WI ran a 4-track mainline that ran fairly straight north, running parallel to the PRR mainline beginning at 63rd Street until it approached the South Branch of the Chicago River at 21st Street and then turned east across the PRR tracks at Alton Junction, forming a 21-diamond crossing. From there, the 4-track mainline ran northeast to Dearborn Station.
It had intersecting routes with the other four owner railroads along the 17-mile route. Since the Dolton Line ran through the city of Chicago, these connections were identified by street numbers and names rather than by villages and towns.
The Terminal Division grew to include a freight yard at 83rd Street, a coach yard a 51st Street. At 26th and Canal was a team track with concrete driveways and 26 unloading tracks.
Along the Terminal Division route was a series of yards, the C&EI between 31st and 38th, Wabash between 43rd and 47th and Erie between 49th and 55th. Initially, there were 7 freight houses at Dearborn. One was an REA building. The other six were inbound and outbound freight houses owned by C&EI, Wabash and Erie. Eventually, Grand Trunk Western, Monon and Santa Fe built their own freight houses around Dearborn Station.
From Dolton running south, the Terminal Division mainline was known as the Hammond Line. The Hammond line began at 81st and and ran in a southeasterly direction to 87th, then on to Pullman Junction at 95th and Stony Island Avenue where the Hammond Line continued to the Illinois state line with Indiana.
Source: Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad Co. map. Connections. Dearborn Station c1925 Stock Photo - Alamy
The C&WI thrived until passenger rail travel begin to decline in the 1950s. The Dearborn Annex closed in the 1950s. In mid-1963, C&WI discontinued its own suburban service but continued to switch cars. In 1971, Amtrak took over and moved all operations to Union Station.
The Wabash Railroad used to run a once daily commuter train from Orland Park into Dearborn Station. Following a 1964 merger with Norfolk & Western Railway, daily commuter service to and from Orland Park continued until 1976, 5 years after Dearborn Station closed, when the train was transferred to Union Station.
From 1985 to 1994, C&WI merely maintained tracks and yards. In 1994 C&WI was no more. The so-called âtrenchâ under the Rock Island tracks got filled in. The diamonds at Alton Junction mostly got taken out.
Following the creation of Amtrak in 1971, the C&WIâs role shrunk significantly. After that point the company mostly functioned on paper only as its entire property was taken over by the Belt Railway for freight services only. C&WI carried on as a separate, corporate entity until 1994 when the company was formally dissolved.
The land occupied by the train shed and the various freight houses became Dearborn Park, a mixed residential housing neighborhood.
