Someone driving along Harlem Avenue on Berwyn’s western border may very likely have to stop to wait for trains crossing in front of them on either the BNSF at 33rd Street, or the Canadian National Railroad at 26th Street. No motorists have to wait at a railroad crossing at 16th Street, because there is no railroad there – anymore. There was, but that was in the 1870s.
Railroads came to Chicago’s Western Suburbs in the mid-19th century. The Galena & Chicago Union – today’s Union Pacific - opened its route in 1848, and the CB&Q – today’s BNSF – opened in 1864. In 1872, investors seeking to take advantage of rural citizens' dissatisfaction with high shipping rates, organized the Chicago, Millington & Western Railway. The new railroad was to be “narrow gauge,” namely that the rails would be only 3’0” apart instead of the standard 4’8 ½” gauge of G&CU and CB&Q. The reasoning was that narrow-gauge construction and operating costs would be lower than those of their competitors and therefore charge lower shipping rates. The nation was in fact in the grips of “narrow-gauge railroad fever,” with such endeavors proposed throughout the country.
Chicago, Millington & Western Railway was incorporated in late 1872, by prominent individuals in Chicago, Aurora, Millington, and Princeton, Illinois, to construct a line between Chicago and Muscatine, Iowa, where connections would be made with other narrow-gauge railroads to extend farther west, across the great plains. The main purpose of the railroad would be to haul coal from central and western Illinois mines to industries on Chicago’s west side. Additional business was expected from shipments of glass, using abundant local sand deposits.
Furthermore, the company expected to operate frequent passenger service to and from projected town sites along the line, similar what was happening along the CB&Q and other railroads radiating from Chicago. Among the incorporators were former Chicago mayor, co-founder of the Chicago Board of Trade, and president of the Corn Exchange National Bank, Julian Sydney Rumsey, and Illinois State Senator James W. Eddy of Batavia.
Surveying of the proposed route began in 1873. Through the Town of Cicero, the company took over the graded right-of-way of the even more obscure Hamilton, Lacon & Eastern Railroad, that had planned to construct a standard-gauge railroad between Chicago and Keokuk, Iowa. A preliminary survey of the entire CM&W route to the Mississippi River was completed, but it wasn’t until 1875 that meaningful construction progress began. Likely the financial panic of 1873 impaired financing and delayed the letting of construction contracts.
In 1875 the board of directors authorized issuance of $,1,500,000 in construction bonds, and actual grading and laying of rails began. By September, 1875, tracks had been laid between the city limit at Crawford Ave. (now Pulaski Road) and the Des Plaines River at present day North Riverside, and by January the tracks were extended to a rock quarry along the Cook-DuPage county line near Fullersburg in present day Oak Brook.
Attempts in 1875 and early 1876 to extend the line eastward from Crawford Avenue were initially frustrated by demands of Chicago City Council members for bribes to pass an ordinance approving CM&W’s track extension. That track along 26th Street and Blue Island Avenues to Ashland Avenue was eventually opened, later in 1876. The company projected a further eastward extension to Canal Street, just west of the Chicago River, then northward on an elevated structure to Canal and Lake Streets, on the edge of downtown Chicago, where the Chicago passenger terminal was planned to be located. Though tracks were opened along 22nd Street (Cermak Road), the elevated structure over Canal Street was never built. In September, 1876, construction was begun on a brick station at the 22nd Street, Blue Island Avenue, Ashland Avenue intersection for the expected inauguration of passenger train service to Proviso Township and eventually beyond.
Late in 1876, CM&W appears to have begun hauling gravel from the quarries, most notably Covell’s gravel pit in present day La Grange Park, to Chicago, for use in providing macadamized (finely crushed gravel) city street surfacing.
In early 1877, the company optimistically issued a prospectus for future investors, describing in most glowing terms the construction plans and expectation of a robust traffic base. In fact, clouds darkened the Millington’s future. Expected investment from western Illinois communities failed to materialize. Attempts to entice investment by altering the proposed route through North Central Illinois were unsuccessful.
The company failed to pay interest on the few construction bonds that were actually issued. Construction contractors demanded to be paid. In mid-summer 1877, creditors filed a foreclosure suit and seized the company’s freight and passenger cars and two locomotives, necessitating cessation of gravel haulage from the quarries. Further, the company owed $409.44 in unpaid 1876 taxes.
On August 15, 1879, the property was sold at public auction for $70,000. The purchaser promptly resold the right-of-way to the nearby CB&Q railroad. Though CB&Q initially announced its intention to convert the whole thirteen miles to standard gauge and restore gravel haulage from the quarries, the “Q” soon reconsidered and removed nearly all the narrow-gauge track. An exception was the portion along Blue Island Avenue, that the “Q” retained and converted to standard-gauge to provide access to local industries. CB&Q’s overarching purpose in acquiring the CM&W right-of-way was to permanently preclude a potentially low-cost carrier from offering competing service to various western Illinois communities and driving the freight rates down.
It had taken less than six years for the Chicago, Millington & Western Railway to go from inception to oblivion. It operated trains for only a few months in 1876 and 1877. A century and a half later virtually no trace exists. The railroad is gone – the quarries are gone. It is said that concrete pilings in Salt Creek remain from the bridge over that stream. The re-gauged Blue Island Avenue track is still very much in use. A portion of the surveyed route near Warrenville was used for several decades by the now defunct Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban railroad. That grading is now part of the Illinois Prairie Path hiking and biking rail. No photos of the CM&W are known to exist. The railroad has vanished into the ever-changing landscape.
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