St. Charles Air Line Railroad

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St. Charles Air Line Railroad

Locale	Chicago
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters

The St. Charles Air Line Railroad is a short connecting line in Chicago. It is currently used by the Canadian National Railway through its Illinois Central Railroad and by Amtrak passenger trains. The line runs east from south of Union Station to the shore of Lake Michigan just north of 16th Street, where it turns south under McCormick Place and becomes one of the main lines of the Illinois Central, quickly passing over and then paralleling the Metra Electric Line.

[edit] History

The line was first chartered in 1852 as the Chicago, St. Charles and Mississippi Air Line Railroad, planned to run from Chicago west to the Mississippi River at Savanna via St. Charles. The Chicago depot would be at the northeast corner of Stewart Avenue and 16th Street. This line would compete with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which thus opposed the project, and chartered the Dixon Air Line Railroad from St. Charles west to Dixon, Illinois.

Eventually the St. Charles Air Line Railroad was formed as a reorganization of the project. It only built from the Illinois Central Railroad (also used by the Michigan Central Railroad) on Lake Michigan, near 14th Street, west along the original alignment to Western Avenue. From there a connection was built north to the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, finished January 1, 1856. On March 30 the G&CU and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad began using it to access the Illinois Central's Central Station.[1] The planned alignment west of Western Avenue was later used by the Chicago and Northern Pacific Railroad, and piers in the Fox River at St. Charles had influenced predecessors of the Chicago Great Western Railway to build their line through that town.

The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad also built a line into Chicago, intersecting the Air Line at Western Avenue. Eventually the company came under equal control of the four companies that used it - the Illinois Central Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and Chicago and North Western Railway (successor to the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad).

At some point the junction at the east end was realigned to point to the south, so trains coming from the south could go directly onto the Air Line. The CB&Q has since become part of the BNSF Railway, and the C&NW is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad, each of which still owns a 1/4 share. The MCRR has sold its share to the ICRR, now owned by the Canadian National Railway. The line now only exists east of the west end of the bridge over the Chicago River; the rest has been sold to Union Pacific Railroad.

Amtrak's City of New Orleans and Illini use the line, backing into Union Station from its west end. CN also uses it as a freight connection. A planned connection at Grand Crossing will allow the line to be abandoned.