The Chicago and Canada Southern Railway was a planned extension of the

Canada Southern Railway The Canada Southern Railway , also known as CSR, was a railway in southwestern Ontario, Canada, founded on February 28, 1868 as the Erie and Niagara Extension Railway. Its name was changed to Canada Southern Railway on December 24, 1869. The 1868 ...

west from Grosse Ile, Michigan to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The line was only built to

Fayette, Ohio Fayette is a village in Fulton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,283 at the 2010 census. History Fayette was incorporated as a village in 1872 when the railroad was extended to that point. A post office called Fayette has been i ...

, and was later split between the

Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway The Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad operated from 1905 to 1983 between its namesake cities of Detroit, Michigan, and Ironton, Ohio, via Toledo. At the end of 1970, it operated 478 miles of road on 762 miles of track; that year it carried 1, ...

and

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the ...

History

In 1873 the

reached

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

from

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

via a

train ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ...

and the Canada Southern Bridge Company across Grosse Ile. To continue west to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the Chicago and Canada Southern Railway was chartered July 11, 1871. The line had only reached

(though grading was done further west) in September 1873 when the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...

had its full effect and construction was halted. Meints, Graydon M. "The Railroads Come of Age, 1855–1875." Railroads for Michigan, Michigan State University Press, 2013, pp. 47–130. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt7zt9gp.4. Building the road to Chicago was suspended for the winter of 1873–74. The next spring, the railroad's management hired General John S. "Jack" Casement, who had built part of the Union Pacific, as the railroad contractor for construction from Fayette to Chicago. However, the company's financial situation never did improve and Casement did no work on the track. Some time after the Canada Southern was reorganized, the Chicago and Canada Southern was sold on November 22, 1888, to the Detroit and Chicago Railroad, owned by the

. The track between Grosvenor and Corbus, Michigan in the middle of the line, was abandoned in 1893. In 1897 it was abandoned from Corbus east to Dundee, and in March 1898 the line east of Dundee was sold to the Detroit and Lima Northern Railroad, which became part of the

. The remaining piece west of Grosvenor was operated as a branch of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern's Old Road from the Grosvenor end. West from

Montpelier, Ohio Montpelier is a village in Williams County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,072 at the 2010 census. History Montpelier was platted in 1845. The village was named after Montpelier, Vermont. A post office has been in operation at Montp ...

to beyond North Liberty, Indiana, the unfinished C&CS alignment was later usedHistoric maps showing the planned route where the Wabash later built: Andres & Baskin
Atlas of Williams County, Ohio
1874; Baskin, Forster & Co.

1876 by the

Wabash Railroad The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary co ...

, which completed its line between Montpelier and

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...

in 1893.

References

Railroad History Database
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20050922213322/http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Stories/DT%26I-TheRailroadThatWentNoPlacePart1.htm DT&I - The Railroad That Went No Place {{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Canada Southern Railway Defunct Michigan railroads Defunct Ohio railroads Defunct Indiana railroads Defunct Illinois railroads Companies affiliated with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Companies affiliated with the Michigan Central Railroad Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad Railway companies established in 1871 Railway companies disestablished in 1888

History

See also

References