RAILROAD OPERATING INFORMATION

MIDWEST RAILROADS

This section generally covers railroads serving Chicago and most of the four states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan (Lower Peninsula), and Wisconsin.

For the larger railroads, separate pages are provided for the former railroads. And for the larger former railroads, pages are organized by historic operating divisions. As passenger service declined during the 1950's, many divisions were consolidated.

The New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad became Penn Central in 1968 and Conrail in 1976, and was finally divided in 1999 between CSX and Norfolk Southern. Those former operating divisions are generally grouped with the present railroad acquiring most of the routes in each area. Typically Norfolk Southern for lines east of Chicago into northern Indiana, and beyond to Michigan and Ohio. And CSX for lines in southern Illinois and Indiana, generally between Indianapolis and St. Louis.

For most railroads, divisions are divided into subdivisions, or districts on some railroads. On a main line, a subdivision or district typically was around 100-150 miles, a traditional work day for a train crew. Or a branch line could be one subdivision or district. The New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad generally identified its lines as main lines or branches.

Most railroads identified their subdivisions or districts by name, some railroads by number. As railroads merged, or agreed to adopt common rulebooks, most railroads now use named subdivisions. Norfolk Southern continues to use named districts, or main lines and branches for lines which evolved from New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad.

Also included here are abandoned lines and segments, with stations indicated in italics. Some larger railroads sold segments of trackage to newer short line railroads, but not all segments were sold. Some abandoned trackage is shown with the short line railroads, as the most concise way for completeness.

References are occasionally made to obscure branch lines and industrial lines. But these lines are not always fully explained, sometimes due to early abandonments or lack of adequate descriptions in employee timetables or other resources.

LARGE FREIGHT RAILROADS

The seven largest railroads in the United States and Canada, all formed through mergers of numerous smaller railroads. Mostly freight traffic, with some Metra and Amtrak trains. Included are abandoned lines, including lines abandoned by former railroads later evolving to these railroads.

PASSENGER AND COMMUTER RAILROADS

Railroads directly operated by passenger or commuter rail systems. Freight traffic usually was limited enough, that it became practical for the publicly owned passenger train operators to assume ownership of this trackage.

Metra (Northeast Illinois Commuter Rail Corporation)

Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District

Amtrak (National Railroad Passenger Corporation)

BELT AND TERMINAL RAILROADS

Jointly owned railroads, handling freight traffic of multiple railroads in larger metropolitan areas.

Belt Railway Of Chicago

Indiana Harbor Belt

Terminal Railroad Association Of St. Louis

Alton & Southern

MEDIUM SIZE FREIGHT RAILROADS

Established railroads which remained independent, without merging into the larger railroads.

Ann Arbor Railroad

Illinois & Midland Railroad

Toledo Peoria & Western

ABANDONED RAILROADS

Railroads basically abandoned as redundant to acquiring railroads.

Erie Railroad/Erie Lackawanna

Chicago Great Western

Minneapolis & St. Louis

ADDITIONAL DEFUNCT RAILROADS

Railroads liquidated, with lines sold to other railroads.

Rock Island

Chicago & Western Indiana

Detroit & Mackinac

Peoria & Pekin Union

SHORT LINE RAILROADS

Smaller companies operating former main line trackage, no longer wanted by the large railroads. In 1976, the bankruptcy of Penn Central and other northeast railroads led to the formation of Conrail, which was free to abandon routes with limited traffic potential. Thus began a new trend of forming short line railroads, which could operate certain routes more successfully than the large railroads.

METHODS OF TRAIN OPERATION

Descriptions of the various methods of train dispatching and signal systems, including explanations of CTC and other methods of authorizing train movements.

TRACK DIAGRAMS EXPLAINED

Explanations of the track diagrams on this Web site, which are color coded according to methods of train operation.

CREATE

Official Web site for CREATE, which is an acronym for "Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program". This is a plan created by nearly all railroads and relevant government agencies in the Chicago area, consisting of numerous improvements which will reduce railroad congestion in the Chicago area.

MIDWEST RAILROADS

LARGE FREIGHT RAILROADS

BNSF RAILWAY

CSX TRANSPORTATION

NORFOLK SOUTHERN

UNION PACIFIC

CANADIAN NATIONAL

CANADIAN PACIFIC

KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN