The St. Charles Branch Railroad The St. Charles Air Line began as the
St. Charles Branch Railroad, a four-mile link between the town of
St. Charles, Illinois, and the
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad (G&CU). This origin is the source of the phrase "St. Charles" in the Air Line's name. The G&CU was chartered on January 16, 1836, to ship lead from mines around
Galena, Illinois; to carry agricultural or manufactured products; and to provide passenger service. Like several other towns along the G&CU’s proposed route, St. Charles desired to connect with the railroad to help ship local farm and business products. When the G&CU began laying track westward from Chicago in late 1848, leaders in St. Charles obtained a charter for their own railroad company. Established on January 31, 1849, the St. Charles Branch Railroad built its short line in less than a year, connecting to the G&CU at a point 33 miles from Chicago. Operations began on December 11, 1849, celebrated with a banquet at the Howard House in St. Charles. Hasty construction initially limited the track to horse-drawn cars, but by March 1852, the G&CU regularly scheduled freight and passenger service connecting with the St. Charles Branch.
The Chicago, St. Charles and Mississippi Air Line On February 3, 1853, the St. Charles Branch Railroad changed its name to the
Chicago, St. Charles and Mississippi Air Line Railroad. ("
Air Line" was a phrase commonly used by railroads at the time to indicate the shortest, most direct route between destinations.) The
Illinois legislature gave the reorganized company permission to build tracks between Chicago and St. Charles, either independently or in partnership with the G&CU. More importantly, the Air Line was authorized to build west to the
Mississippi River, to a point somewhere between
Savanna and
Albany, Illinois. They were further given permission to build north from Savanna to Galena, and authorized to link with railroads in
Iowa. The Air Line’s plan represented a serious threat to the Galena & Chicago Union’s business. The G&CU’s 1836 charter had given them priority rights to build “lateral routes,” so they ordered their Chief Engineer to survey a second line due west from
West Chicago, but on a more southerly route than the original line to Galena. The G&CU planned to cooperate first with the proposed
Rockford and Rock Island Railroad, incorporated in 1851 to build from
Rockford southwest to
Rock Island, and then the
Mississippi and Rock River Junction Railroad, also chartered in 1851 to build from the
Illinois Central Railroad near
Sterling to the Mississippi River at
Fulton, Illinois. The Illinois legislature formally approved their plan on February 25, 1854, granting them the right to build west as far as
Dixon, Illinois, and then to contract with another company or build their own line to the Mississippi. The Chicago, St. Charles, and Mississippi had been capitalized up to $5 million, and they had done well in selling their stock. However, they made the mistake of promising that subscribers would only have to pay 25 per cent of the cost of each of their shares per year. This strangled the flow of funds for construction, so they could only afford to build ten miles of track, from the
Chicago River west to the
Des Plaines River. The G&CU’s maneuvering also blocked any westward construction, putting an end to the Chicago, St. Charles and Mississippi’s plans. However, the G&CU saw the property purchased by the St. Charles company for a depot in Chicago, at the northeast corner of Stewart Avenue and 16th Street, as a convenient location for the G&CU to connect to the Illinois Central and
Michigan Central Railroads. They offered to pay $540,000 to the Chicago, St. Charles, and Mississippi for the depot grounds and the ten miles of track that had been constructed. Chas. E. Fisher reports that the St. Charles directors “were glad to sell”; the G&CU was relieved to dispose of “a formidable rival.”
The St. Charles Air Line The G&CU completed its purchase of the Chicago, St. Charles and Mississippi in early 1856. By June of that year, they had built a 1.25-mile link from their own line at “Harlem Junction” (now
Oak Park) to the western terminus of the Air Line’s ten-mile stretch, allowing their trains access to the Air Line’s depot. On March 30, the G&CU and, by previous agreement, the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) began using the new line to reach the Illinois Central's
Central Station. Eventually the
St. Charles Air Line, an unincorporated jointly owned line, was formed as a reorganization of the project. The planned alignment west of Western Avenue was later used by the
Chicago and Northern Pacific Railroad, and piers in the
Fox River at St. Charles had influenced predecessors of the
Chicago Great Western Railway to build their line through that town. The CB&Q also built a line into Chicago, intersecting the Air Line at Western Avenue. Eventually, the line came under equal control of the four companies that used it: the CB&Q, Illinois Central, Michigan Central, and G&CU successor
Chicago and North Western Railway. The Air Line's track was originally on ground level with numerous street crossings. In the late 1890s, work was begun to raise the line onto fill and replace the grade crossings with overpasses. Initially, the east end of the Air Line connected with the IC with tracks that curved to the north to serve Central Station and the yards and warehouses through downtown up to the Chicago River. Passenger trains descended a relatively short and steep ramp into Central Station; freight trains used a longer, less severe incline.
20th century In 1968, a southward-facing connection was built to enable trains using the Air Line to travel directly to and from the south. It became known as the South Leg because it formed a
wye with the original lines that was occasionally used to turn passenger trains around. After the coming of Amtrak in May 1971, the remaining passenger trains were gradually shifted from Central Station to Union Station. Meanwhile, the yards to the north were gradually eliminated, leaving an area that would be redeveloped as the
Illinois Center office, hotel, and retail complex. Central Station closed in 1972 and was razed in 1974. The northern connections were eventually removed; today, the South Leg is the only connection from the IC mainline to the Air Line. In the 1980s and 1990s, Chicago city planners wanted to tear down the St. Charles Air Line as part of initiatives to redevelop Chicago's
Near South Side neighborhood. Chicago has since reversed its position, adopting plans to run more transit and intercity passenger trains on the St. Charles Air Line. == Current status ==