The Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad is a

terminal railroad A switching and terminal railroad is a freight railroad company whose primary purpose is to perform local switching services or to own and operate a terminal facility. Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard. It genera ...

in the Chicago area, formerly giving various other companies access to (Chicago's)

Grand Central Station Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

. It also served to connect those railroads for freight transfers, and is now controlled by

CSX Corporation CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merger ...

, the successor to the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

History

By 1886, the Wisconsin Central Railroad had formed a new railway company, called the Chicago and Great Western Railroad (C&GW, not to be confused with the

Chicago Great Western Railway The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesot ...

) to build a new line from a connection with the WC at

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Forest ...

into the city, and to construct the Grand Central Station, which opened in December 1890. In June 1887, a subsidiary of the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whi ...

called the Chicago & Calumet Terminal Railway (C&CT) consolidated several terminal railroads in the Chicago area with lines running between the

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

McCook, Illinois McCook is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and is an industrial suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 249, which is the lowest population of all municipalities in the county. History McCook was ...

to the south and south-east to

Hammond, Indiana Hammond ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, and the only city in Indiana to border Chicago. First settled in the mid-19th century, it is one of the oldest cities of northern Lake County. As of the ...

and a connection with the

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O). In March 1890, another subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad bought the C&GW along with several other WC lines in the Chicago area, consolidated them all as the Chicago & Northern Pacific Railroad (C&NP). The next month, the WC had itself leased to the Northern Pacific. As they were both controlled by the same railroad, the C&NP and the C&CT were linked together with new construction and trackage rights. The lease arrangement between the Wisconsin Central and the Northern Pacific worked until the

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...

, when the WC was freed from the lease, and the C&NP was again placed under the control of the WC. Weakened by the prolonged economic downturn, the C&NP was bankrupt by October 1893. In July 1897, a new company called the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad (CTT) bought the C&NP from the Wisconsin Central. While the WC (and successor

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , one of seven U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sa ...

) no longer had its own direct connection to the city, it continued to use the line to access Grand Central Station until 1899, and between 1912 and 1965. In May 1897, the Chicago Terminal Transfer merged the Chicago & Calumet Terminal. The B&O began using Grand Central Station in 1892, when a connection was made between the CTT and the B&O at

South Chicago South Chicago, formerly known as Ainsworth, is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois. This chevron-shaped community is one of Chicago's 16 lakefront neighborhoods near the southern rim of Lake Michigan 10 miles south of downtown. ...

. When the

Pere Marquette Railroad The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections i ...

was completed to

Porter, Indiana Porter is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 4,858 at the 2010 census. Porter is in the Indiana Dunes ecosystem, which played a role in the creation of The Nature Conservancy, and ins ...

in 1903, it also used the CTT into Grand Central Station. On January 6, 1910 the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad was created to purchase the CTT at foreclosure, giving B&O control of both the terminal railway system, as well as Grand Central Station. The railroad reached a peak size in the 1920s of 78 route-miles and 365 track-miles.

Operations

The railroad was strategically located in Chicago; connections made at

and

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...

allowed the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway ("Soo Line") (which had leased the Wisconsin Central in 1909) and the

access to Grand Central Station.

Satellite stations

The Baltimore and Ohio had two long distance train stations on the line, on the periphery of Chicago, as passing into the city border en route to Grand Central Station. The B&O's grand ''

Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981 and was named after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'' which ended in 197 ...

'' and its other Chicago-bound trains stopped at the stations. The B&O's South Chicago was located approximately at 94th Street and Commercial Avenue, slightly to the southwest of the

Calumet River The Calumet River is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, ...

's opening to

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. Additionally, the

Pere Marquette Railway The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...

's ''Night Express'' to Muskegon and Grand Rapids, Michigan and its ''

Resort Special The ''Resort Special'' was a seasonal night train from Chicago, renowned for serving resort towns such as Traverse City, Charlevoix, Petoskey on the northwestern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Begun by the Pere Marquette Railway, it ...

'' to Bay View, Michigan, also used the B&OCT lines through the city, as well as the two stations on the approach to Grand Central Station. The B&O's 63rd Street Station, in the South Lynne section of the city was the company's other station within Chicago en route to Grand Central Station. The

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

absorbed the Pere Marquette in 1947 and continued its trains to southwest Michigan. These were the last trains to run through the two stations when passenger service passed over to Amtrak in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

. The B&O trains stopped serving the South Chicago station between 1968 and 1970.

References

External links

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HABS) No. IL-1016,
Grand Central Station
*

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HAER) No. IL-67,
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Chicago Terminal Railroad, South Branch of the Chicago River Bridge

Railroad History Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baltimore Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad Switching and terminal railroads Illinois railroads Indiana railroads Railroads in the Chicago metropolitan area Companies based in Chicago CSX Transportation Predecessors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Railway companies established in 1910 American companies established in 1910