The Waukesha Subdivision or Waukesha Sub is a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway. It meets the Neenah Subdivision to the north in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and runs south 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 ...

History

Construction of the line started in 1882 by the Wisconsin Central Railroad and was completed in 1886. The railroad was reorganized from bankruptcy in 1897 and became the Wisconsin Central Railway. The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (Soo Line) gained control in 1901 and leased the WC in 1902. The Soo Line operated the WC as its Chicago Division. After the 1961 Soo Line-WC- DSS&A merger that created the Soo Line Railroad, the railroad reduced the number of its operating divisions from five to three; the Schiller Park to Fond du Lac segment became the Soo Line's First Subdivision of the Eastern Division. After the Soo Line acquired the

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experience ...

(Milwaukee Road) in the bankruptcy auction, the line, among others, was placed in the Lake States Transportation Division in an attempt to cut costs. After the failure of this cost-cutting exercise, the LSTD was sold to

Wisconsin Central Ltd. Wisconsin Central Ltd. is a railroad subsidiary of Canadian National. At one time, its parent Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation owned or operated railroads in the United States, Canada (Algoma Central Railway), the United Kingdom (DB ...

in 1987, which was then sold to Canadian National in 2001.

Current operations

The

Wisconsin and Southern Railroad The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad is a Class II regional railroad in Southern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois currently operated by Watco. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) and Chicago ...

has

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 ...

over the line from Slinger to Waukesha, and freight cars are interchanged between the two railroad companies in Ackerville.

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. ...

, Chicago's commuter rail service provider, also operates on this line as its

North Central Service The North Central Service (NCS) is a Metra commuter rail line running from Union Station in downtown Chicago through northwestern and far northern suburbs to Antioch, Illinois. In June 2018, the public timetable shows 10 weekday departures from ...

route (between

Chicago Union Station Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The station is Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest. While serving long-distance passenger trains, it is also ...

and

Franklin Park, Illinois Franklin Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,467 at the 2020 census, up from 18,333 at the 2010 census. It was named for real estate broker Lesser Franklin who bought acres of the area when it was a maj ...

, NCS trains use the

Milwaukee District West Line The Milwaukee District West Line (MD-W) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois, and its western suburbs. Metra does not refer to any of its lines by a particular color, but the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District West line a ...

, but do not stop at any of its stations, with the exception of the River Grove station). In

Forest Park, Illinois Forest Park (formerly Harlem) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, United States. The population was 14,339 at the 2020 census. The Forest Park terminal on the CTA Blue Line is the line's western terminus, located on the ...

at Madison Street, the subdivision connects with the B&OCT (

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

)'s Altenheim Subdivision and continues into Chicago. Also, Soo Line passenger trains historically used this line at Forest Park to access the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's

Grand Central Station (Chicago) Grand Central Station was a Train station#Terminus, passenger railroad terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois, from 1890 to 1969. It was located at 201 West Harrison Street on a block bounded by Harrison, Wells and Polk Streets and the Chicago ...

. One of the obstacles faced by southbound trains is Byron Hill, which was a helper district when the line was operated by the Soo Line. Canadian National double-tracked that part of the line shortly after acquiring it.

References

{{Reflist Canadian National Railway lines Rail infrastructure in Wisconsin