The Chicago and Aurora Railroad was an early predecessor of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad that built a line from West Chicago to Mendota via Aurora, Illinois.
The Illinois General Assembly chartered the Aurora Branch Railroad on February 12, 1849 to build a branch of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to Aurora,[1] which it opened on September 2, 1850.[2] The company was renamed Chicago and Aurora Railroad on June 22, 1852, and given expanded powers to extend from Aurora to a point north of LaSalle;[3] this extension, to Mendota, was completed on October 20, 1853.[2] Another amendment, passed February 28, 1854, authorized the company to build east from Aurora to Chicago via Naperville, and changed its name to Chicago and Southwestern Railroad.[4] The latter provision was never acted upon,[5] and was repealed by an act of February 14, 1855, which instead changed the name to Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q).[6] The Aurora-Chicago line was opened on May 20, 1864, by which time the CB&Q had, through acquisitions, acquired a main line from Chicago to Galesburg, where it split into branches for Burlington and Quincy.[2]
The portion of the Chicago and Aurora between Aurora and Mendota remains a main line of CB&Q successor BNSF Railway, which calls it the Mendota Subdivision. The original West Chicago-Aurora branch line is now an industrial track of the Chicago Subdivision.[7]