Hmmmm, in route miles I would guess it was the AT&SF even though Santa Fe was not on the main and eventually Atchison got bypassed as well.
Second is Chicago Burlington & Quincy - Definitely served all those towns and while its main line was not as long as others with Pacific in the name.
Last place would be the Louisville & Wadley? 10 miles between the two. These days Louisville is no longer connected and they only have 2 miles of track.
Sorry about the Milwaukee Road guys but the Pacific in its name, Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific, rules it out.
The third longest road was the Soo, Minneapolis St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie. Since Carl was the first to correctly name all three roads he gets the cigar and is up to ask the next question.
Mark
OK; I’ll stick to Chicago, since everybody knows a lot about it [;)].
On the City’s northwest side (east and a little bit south of O’Hare), there’s a street, Forest Preserve Drive, that runs from southwest to northeast, cutting across the otherwise orderly grid of Chicago streets. Most people don’t know it, but this was once a railroad–and one of the big guys! I’ve seen maps showing this line, yet can’t confirm that it was actually built. My first knowledge of this line was from a map in a large study proposing electrification of main lines in Chicago, back in the early part of the Twentieth Century. Assuming that it existed:
Whose line was it?
From where to where did it run? (The street itself doesn’t extend to either end-point, and both end-points are still well-known rail junctions.)
Hint: The northern half of Chicago was dominated, historically, by three railroads: C&NW, MILW, and Soo Line. The railroad owning this line was not one of those three.
WAG time! It was a branch of the Chicago Great Western that ran from Rondout to Aurora. Wrong on all counts?? - a.s.
Wasn’t the & Pacific added around 1906? Before that, wouldn’t it have been the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rairoad?
Nice try, Al! Think local affiliate of a major eastern railroad.
Too many hints, but I still have to guess C&EI? Wasn’t that a NYC affiliate.
Well I know locally it linked Mayfair to Evanstan, and that it was built between 1876 and 1895.
Ok finally found a map dated 1879 that calls it the “Indiana Bxxxx Line”. xxx being unreadable. Belt? maybe
Ok here we go. EJ&E. Elgin, Joliet and Eastern. On the bigger scheme of things appears to still be in business linking Waukegan, Illinois, to Gary, Indiana.
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
With this hint two possibilites come to mind. Either an extension of the IHB from Manheim to Bensenville or the B&OCTRR from Franklin Park to Bensenville.
Mark
You’re right Murphy it was formerly the Chicago MIlwaukee & St. Paul. Like you I thought the Pacific was added when the Pacific Coast Extension was completed in 1906-7. I searched Google trying to confirm this. The only reference I could find stated that it was “reorganized in 1927 into the Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company” but that source didn’t say if it CM&StP up to that time.
Mark
Right railroad (B&OCT), one right end-point (Franklin Park), but you’re going in the wrong direction. Forest Preserve Drive goes northeast from the Franklin Park area. Zeph has also given you a fantastic hint.
I’m torn between Morton Grove, Park Ridge, Skokie, Evanston and maybe even DesPlaines. Since I have to pick one, I’ll say Evanston.
Mark
The “Pacific” was added after the 1927 reorganization. Before that, CM&StP was the name, the nickname was “The St. Paul Road.” The western portions I believe were constructed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound. IIRC, one (or more) of the tunnel portals out west had CM&PS initials.
Jeff
Did he get it right?
No to all of those, Mark. In the original question, it was pointed out that this end-point was still a well-known junction. It’s in the city of Chicago. Since I can’t remember the precise details myself (that electrification study is kept in the rare-book room at the Chicago Public Library, and you have to go through security of sorts to look at it), I’ll settle for either of two junctions that are pretty close to each other.
Another hint–there may be a tie-in to another thread recently showing up on the Forum.
Is the junction Deval, which until recently had a tower? One line is the triple-track exx CNW northwest line, which is one of Metra’s biggest routes. Just to the west and north of Des Plaines, there’s some sort of Xing with CP that CN also has access too.
Nobody’s guessed Deval yet, and that’s all there is. But the Canadian line runs generally south and north more than southwest - northwest, so I’m not at all sure. - a. s.
No, Al, Deval isn’t in Chicago.
Quite right. Sorry!
Carl,
Having grown up in far south Chicagoland and later living in Naperville I was never very familiar with the details of the rail routes runinng north and northwest of the city. I believe there was, and maybe still is, a major junction in or at Mayfair which I am pretty sure is within the Chicago city limits and is northeast of Franklin Park. So I’ll make Mayfair my final answer.
Mark
Mayfair is an acceptable answer, Mark. The other one would be Grayland, where the CNW Skokie line (now the Cragin Industrial lead) crosses Metra’s Milwaukee North Line (MILW). Hard to imagine the B&O up that way. Guess the line was redundant with the way CNW and MILW did business by the late 1920s (Proviso and Bensenville).