Chicago had six intercity stations that were owned by either individual railroads or by shared ownership with and without a "Terminal" railroad. Rather than wait for a question to post on one of our more than 50 years ago forums I'd like to see folks list the tenants of each terminal, covering periods from the 1847 Galena and Chicago Union to 1971. For no particular reason other than that I'm the poster, here are the six entries, from Northwest(ern) to Northeast. In listing the owners, we want the Terminal Railroad (if any), and the ownership percentages (if known). Have fun!
1. North Western Station (includes C&NW stations on Kinzie on both sides of the Chicago River)
Owner:
Tenant/year:
2. Union Station includes predecessors on same site.
Owner
Tenant/years:
3. Grand Central
Owners:
Tenants/years:
4. LaSalle Street
Tenants:/years
5. Dearborn Street
Tenant:
6 Central Station
Tenants:
North Western Station was part of C&NW, not a separate subsidiary, only tenants of which I am aware were B&O and C&O for 1969-1971.
Chicago Union Station Co. was jointly owned by PRR (50%), CB&Q (25%) and MILW (25%). Alton/GM&O was a tenant.
Dearborn Station was part of Chicago & Western Indiana RR, a joint terminal subsidiary of Erie, Monon, Wabash, GTW and C&EI (equal shares). CWI operated suburban trains into Dearborn under its own name until 1964. ATSF was a tenant.
CSSHEGEWISCH Chicago Union Station Co. was jointly owned by PRR (50%), CB&Q (25%) and MILW (25%). Alton/GM&O was a tenant.
PRR's 50% ownership comes from PFW&C (25%) And PCC&St.L (50%). PRR was joint owner (with MILW) of the North Approach, and (with CB&Q) of the South Approach.
CB&Q (and its predecessor) had two homes prior to Union Station, both as a tenant.
Grand Central, LaSalle and Central had tenants as well.
Central Station was wholly owned by the IC. The Big Four and Michigan Central were tenants as was the C&O of Indiana at one time.
Mark
Grand Central was owned by the B&O. It had the Pere Marquette (C&O) & Soo as tennants
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Grand Central was owned by the B&O. It had the Pere Marquette (C&O) & Soo as tennants
And one other...
rcdrye BaltACD Grand Central was owned by the B&O. It had the Pere Marquette (C&O) & Soo as tennants And one other...
The Chicago Great Western
Something worthy of note in this discussion is Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago.
Part of this plan dealt specifically with the six downtown passenger stations.
The Burnham Transportation Plan of Chicago
http://www.trforum.org/forum/downloads/2009_32_BurnhamTransportation_paper.pdf
At the time the Plan was written, there were six passenger stations in Chicago handling approximately 1,300 daily commuter and intercity trains carrying 180,000 daily passengers. The goal of the Plan was to consolidate and simplify the passenger terminals into two locations -- one between Canal and Clinton Streets from Lake Street to 12th Street, and a terminal along 12th Street between State Street and the South Branch of the Chicago River.
Interesting stuff.
Rich
Edit Note: Sorry, having a hard time making that link clickable.
Alton Junction
KCSfan rcdrye BaltACD Grand Central was owned by the B&O. It had the Pere Marquette (C&O) & Soo as tennants And one other... The Chicago Great Western
CGW was out of the passenger business by the time I was frequenting Grand Central.
Grand Central was started by the Chicago and Great Western (roughly today's CSX line that connects with CN in Forest Park) but was Finished by Wisconsin Central's Northern Pacific Terminal, just in time for NPT to go bankrupt and emerge as the Chicago Terminal Transfer, which in turn went to Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal in 1910. The later CGW (no corporate relation to the C&GW) used the B&OCT from Forest Park, along with the Soo Line's Wisconsin Central, from the 1890s until C&NW absorbed it and abandoned the line in the early 1980s. CGW's last passenger train to Chicago ran in 1955. Soo used Grand Central until 1963, with its trains going to Central Station until discontinued.
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern (New York Central) and Rock Island were tenants while LaSalle Street Station was under construction from 1900 to 1903, so the first Twentieth Century Limited used it as its Chicago terminus.
Who owned LaSalle Street?
Johnny
LaSalle was joint LS&MS (New York Central) and Rock Island. The line south to Englewood had some NYC and some RI track, and some joint racks. Nickel Plate was a tenant from the teens to the sixties. A couple of sources put Chicago and Eastern Illinois there from about 1903 to 1914, even though C&EI was part owner (through Chicago and Western Indiana) of Dearborn.
I'm surprised that this was overlooked. Randolph Street Station was IC's suburban terminal, owned by IC. South Shore was a tenant by way of trackage rights on the suburban line from 115th Street (Kensington) to Randolph Street. Randolph Street (Millenium Station) is currently owned by Metra, with NICTD as tenant.
IC's Central station was surprisingly well-tenanted. New York Central's Michigan Central and Big Four were both tenants, MC until 1958 and Big Four until Amtrak moved service (by then Penn Central) to Union in 1972.
Prior to joining PRR at Union, CB&Q used Central's predecessor (via the St. Charles Air Line) after building its own line from Aurora. Before that CB&Q trains operated via C&NW's line from West Chicago.
C&O (of Indiana) terminated a couple of trains over the pre-WW I years at Central, following the Nickel Plate's route to its lakefront freight house.
Last to arrive was the Soo Line in 1963, using IC's Iowa Division to Broadview, and the IHB to Franklin Park. The Laker only lasted until 1965.
Then of course there was 12St/Roosevelt Av. (Rd.?) of Chicago Rapid Transit, then the CTA, with the North Shore as its tenant. Sure the CNS&M had its own departure station on Wabash, but for many years, and for many trains before that Roosevelt was the terminal. But then the Chicago Aurora and Elgin's Wells Street Terminal had the CRT as its tenant for some Garfield Park and Douglas Park rush hour trains that did not enter the Loop.
daveklepper Then of course there was 12St/Roosevelt Av. (Rd.?)
Then of course there was 12St/Roosevelt Av. (Rd.?)
rcdrye A couple of sources put Chicago and Eastern Illinois there from about 1903 to 1914,
A couple of sources put Chicago and Eastern Illinois there from about 1903 to 1914,
https://archive.org/stream/preliminaryhisto00samp#page/18/mode/1up
Especially interesting in the chart "Location of Railway Passenger Stations" is the Wisconsin Central showing up at Central Station in 1911. WC would have had to traverse the CTT and the St. Charles Air Line to get there, passing up CTT's Grand Central which WC had previously owned through its NP Terminal. After 1909 the WC was leased by (and in 1960 merged with) the Soo Line, and sometime after 1911 it did move back to Grand Central, where it stayed until the 1963 move back to IC's Central Station.
Also interesting is the location of North Western Station at Wells & Kinzie, which is currently the location of the Merchandise Mart.
Nifty contribution, wanswheel.
The Rock Island, Frisco, and C &EI were affiliated for a time in the early 1900s when the Reid-Moore syndicate controlled the RI.
Jeff
https://archive.org/stream/americanrailway00snyd#page/610/mode/2up
So the C&EI had to traverse the C&WI as far as the RI/B&O joint line from South Chicago to near Gresham (138th St Dolton to 91st/Eggleston Chicago). You can still see where the SW quadrant connection track was between the C&EI and the B&O/RI line.. The NE quadrant track at Gresham was there in the early 1900s, gone in the 1960s, and is back today, courtesy of Chicago RailLink.
Did anybody else catch the reference to service that the Frisco had into New Orleans? It did not surprise me, for I remembered seeing in the Traveler's Railway Guide Western Section for February, 1911, the listing of the NOT&M, BSL&W, H&TC, and FW&RG as being parts of the Frisco at that time--along with the C&EI. There is no direct corporate connection of the Rock Island and the Frisco given.
CSSHEGEWISCH Also interesting is the location of North Western Station at Wells & Kinzie, which is currently the location of the Merchandise Mart.
The C&NW bridge the led to the line under Merchandise Mart was active until at least the mid 1990s. Old maps show the line extending all the way to the lakefront and making a connection to the IC's Congress Yard area. The need for that connection was removed withthe completion of the St Charles Air Line.
Not to forget traction... CA&E was Chicago Rapid Transit's tenant at Wells St. Terminal. CNS&M had its own office at 226 S. Wabash, with a bridge to the Adams/Wabash L station for Northbound passengers. Southbound passengers got off at ordinary L stations. CNS&M trains laid over at CRT/CTA's Roosevelt Road station, espectially after the end of South Side service in 1938. CNS&M used the Congress Stub terminal over Holden Court for baggage service. CNS&M combines would load interline baggage there and back down to Roosevelt before heading for Milwaukee (which is why the baggage compartment was always on the Milwaukee end). On arriving trains the baggage car would back down from Roosevelt to Congress.
The Navy Pier line lasted in service until about the mid-1990's, maybe a little later. The Sun-Times was the last customer on the line, receiving newsprint at its facility at Wabash and the river. The Tribune had moved its printing plant out of Tribune Tower in the mid 1980's. The newspapers were the last customers on the line.
The map I saw that included a C&NW connection crossing the Chicago River to the IC on the lakefront dated from 1897 or 1898, published by the Metropolitan West Side Elevated. Best guess is that the reversal of the Chicago River completed in 1900 required the removal of the bridge, on the site of today's river lock.
Some of the tenant railroads did not use the host's coach yards or engine facilities. GM&O had their own diesel engine terminal until the 1950s near their freight house, but trains were serviced at Brighton Park (Amtrak used the facility there to service Turboliners in the 1970s). AT&SF had their own coach yard along Archer Avenue, while Dearborn's owners' trains were handled by C&WI's 47th st yard.
Soo and CGW trains were serviced at B&OCT's Robey St yard, Soo's later at IC's 18th St. In a twist, B&O/C&O trains were serviced at C&NW's California Street yard after 1969.
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