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Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad: Map, Rosters, History

Last revised: October 20, 2026

By: Adam Burns

The Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Company was a Chicago terminal railroad. Reporting mark CWI. It was organized in 1879 to build from the Indiana state line, and from Dolton, into the city, and to give the Chicago & Eastern Illinois and any other railroad that took a lease a passenger terminal of their own. The first stage of construction was completed in 1880. From then on the company owned the terminal and two main lines, one to Dolton and one to State Line, near Hammond, Indiana.

Five railroads held the stock in equal shares from 1882, under 999-year leases written between October 1879 and December 1881. Their passenger trains used Dearborn Station, which opened on May 8, 1885. The company also ran its own suburban trains from that station to Dolton, 16.6 miles on the August 1929 public sheet. It owned fifteen diesel locomotives. Railroad service ended in 1994. The Belt Railway of Chicago, which took its line under a lease in 1883, is a separate railroad and is still operating.

Chicago & Western Indiana RS-1 No. 261 backs Chicago & Eastern Illinois E7A No. 1100 through the Dearborn Station leads on May 13, 1964. The red flags on the E7 were a Chicago & Western Indiana protocol when locomotives were moved from the engine terminal to the station. Marty Bernard photo.

On this page: Five owners · Two main lines · Dearborn Station · The Belt · Suburban trains · At a glance · After Dearborn · Diesels · Steam

Five owners

John B. Brown, a real-estate promoter, and his associates organized the company to put a new entrance into downtown Chicago. The first charter is June 5, 1879. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois backed the project and took the first lease. It wanted its own entrance into the city. North of Dolton it had been using Pennsylvania trackage rights. Cynthia Ogorek and Bill Molony date two companion companies to the building years: the South Chicago & Western Indiana, April 20, 1880, and the Chicago & Western Indiana Belt Railway, April 22, 1881. Those companies were consolidated into the Chicago & Western Indiana on January 26, 1882.

On September 15, 1879, the City of Chicago licensed the railroad to come in from the city’s southern boundary and lay track as far north as Van Buren Street. The Illinois Supreme Court, in a crossing dispute decided in 1882, recorded that before September 15, 1880, the company had a continuous line in operation as far north as 16th Street. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in 1943, put the same fact in one sentence: the first stage of construction was completed in 1880, and the company was the owner of a Chicago terminal and of two main lines, one to State Line near Hammond and the other at Dolton.

Between October 1879 and December 1881 the company granted five generally similar leases, each for 999 years, to five railroads or their predecessors. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois held the exclusive right to the entire local business between Chicago and Dolton. The Chicago & Atlantic, later the Erie, held the same kind of right to the local business between the Calumet River and Hammond. The other three were the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago, later the Monon; the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, later the Wabash; and the Chicago & Grand Trunk, later the Grand Trunk Western. Each lessee paid $5 a year, the interest on the company’s mortgage, and a sinking fund whose principal fell due 35 years from January 1, 1885, and each paid its share of taxes and of the cost of maintenance, management, and operation.

The five lessees soon owned the stock, one-fifth each. That ratio held from 1882. On November 1, 1882, they signed an inter-tenant agreement. The Chicago & Western Indiana would manage the property they used in common and would furnish the facilities at cost. Some charges were divided by the equal shares. Others followed wheelage, the ratio of each tenant’s engines and cars to the use of all five. On July 1, 1902, the five signed a joint supplemental lease, and the company negotiated a consolidated mortgage of $50,000,000, covering additions and betterments, further work at the passenger station, and additional track. A 1962 tax case still names the same five companies, under the titles they then used, as equal holders of the voting common stock.

Two main lines

The 1943 opinion describes three holdings. There was a terminal in Chicago. There was a main line to Dolton. There was a main line to State Line, near Hammond, Indiana. Around those lines the company owned what the leases called the common property: tracks, switches, side tracks, yards, stations, and the terminal facilities the five tenants used together. It also raised its tracks. The Belt Division, and some yards and tracks kept outside that common property, were a separate holding. The map on this page is page 51 of a Franklin Co. sheet titled for the Chicago & Western Indiana and the Belt Railway of Chicago. The sheet is undated. It shows Dearborn south through Englewood, Belt Junction, 83rd Street, Oakdale, Kensington, and Dolton, and east through Pullman Junction, South Deering, State Line, and Hammond, with the Belt drawn in from Cragin.

Chicago & Western Indiana and the Belt Railway of Chicago, page 51. Dearborn south to Dolton, and east through Pullman Junction and South Deering to State Line and Hammond, with the Belt from Cragin. The sheet is undated. Author’s collection.

Dearborn Station

The station stands at Polk and Dearborn. It opened on May 8, 1885. The 1943 opinion describes the company as holding legal title to the old part of the Dearborn Street passenger station, with the land and the facilities that went with it. The trains that used the building, and the building itself, are on the Dearborn Station page.

The company’s own public sheet for August 1929 says Dearborn Station furnished passenger terminal facilities for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville, the Monon; the Chicago & Eastern Illinois; the Chicago & Western Indiana; the Erie; the Grand Trunk Railway System; and the Wabash. Arrival and departure times were left to each road’s own timetable. Santa Fe’s right was its own lease. On May 21, 1887, it took a 999-year lease for the use, in common with the other railroads, of described Chicago & Western Indiana tracks and of Dearborn Station. Santa Fe was a tenant. The five stockholders remained the five railroads of 1882. In 1943 the court named three other users of the property: the Belt Railway, the Santa Fe, and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern. The Pere Marquette, and later the Chesapeake & Ohio, also used Dearborn. Those trains moved to Grand Central Station.

The Belt

The Belt Railway of Chicago began as this company’s belt line. John Moses dates the Belt railroad company to November 22, 1882, a connecting transfer railroad in Cook County. A lease from the Chicago & Western Indiana turned that line over at $100,000 a year, and the Belt commenced operating on May 1, 1883. Jerry Pinkepank, writing in Trains in October 1966, put the completion of what he called the Belt Division in August 1883. The 1943 opinion treats the Belt Division as property acquired outside the common terminal the five tenants shared. Operation of that division was the Belt Railway’s. Clearing Yard, the later owners, and the Belt’s own locomotives are on the Belt Railway page.

Suburban trains

The August 1929 sheet is the company’s own page in the Official Guide. General offices were at Dearborn Station, Chicago. E. H. Lee was president. Under the list of tenant roads, the sheet says the Chicago & Western Indiana operated suburban service between Dearborn Station and Dolton. The station miles on that page run from Dearborn at 0 to Dolton at 16.6.

The Chicago & Western Indiana’s public sheet for August 1929. General offices at Dearborn Station, Chicago. E. H. Lee, president. Suburban service from Dearborn Station to Dolton, 16.6 miles. Author’s collection.

The Indiana Historical Society holds the company’s public Chicago–Dolton timetables for April 28, 1963, and July 27, 1963. Robert P. Olmsted and Joe McMillan, in The 5:10 to Suburbia, date the cutback in two steps. Weekday midday trains and Saturday service were discontinued on July 27, 1963. The last rush-hour round trip ran on August 28, 1964. In those last years the suburban trains were in the hands of the company’s Alco RS-1s.

At a glance

After Dearborn

The five 1882 shares moved with the owning railroads. Erie Lackawanna operations began on October 17, 1960, and the Erie share passed with that company. The Wabash was leased to the Norfolk & Western at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964. Missouri Pacific control of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois dates from May 12, 1967. On June 6, 1969, the Louisville & Nashville took the Evansville line, joint ownership from Chicago to Woodland, and half of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois interest in the Chicago & Western Indiana and in the Belt, together with 48 diesel locomotives and 1,495 freight cars and cabooses. The remainder of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, with the Texas & Pacific, merged into the Missouri Pacific on October 15, 1976. The Monon interest later stood with the Louisville & Nashville. The Grand Trunk Western kept its fifth. Santa Fe’s place remained the 1887 tenant lease.

May 1, 1971, was Dearborn Station’s last day as a long-distance terminal. The company’s own Dolton suburban trains had already ended in 1964. The former Wabash suburban trains kept running. In November 1977 the Norfolk & Western leased F40PHs 115 and 116 from the Chicago Regional Transportation Authority for those trains. Metra Southwest Service is the successor of that Orland Park service, from Alton Junction to 74th Street. North from Dolton, the old Chicago & Eastern Illinois entrance is Union Pacific track.

Railroad service ended in 1994. The Illinois corporation chartered on June 5, 1879, file 02242711, was still carried in good standing on a compilation of the Secretary of State roll dated April 29, 2026.

Diesels

The diesel fleet is fifteen locomotives, each frame once. Alco built the first, HH600 No. 1, in April 1934, serial 68643. It later became Belt Railway 300. Electro-Motive built NW2s 250 and 251 in November 1947, serials 5395 and 5396, order E901. No. 250 went to Acme-Newport Steel as No. 2. No. 251 went to the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific as No. 300. The other twelve are RS-1s, 1,000 horsepower, delivered from July 1949 through February 1950. They switched the station leads, and they handled the Dolton suburban trains. No. 261, in the photograph at the top of the page, is black with yellow stripes, lettered C.&W.I.R.R.

Chicago & Western Indiana RS-1 No. 260 switches an ex-Erie railway post office car near Dearborn Station, circa 1963. Rick Burn photo.

Steam

Switchers worked the station leads and the yards. The two engines in the photographs are 0-8-0 No. 221, at work in Chicago about 1949, and 2-6-0 No. 214, class J-2, built by Lima in 1914 and photographed at Dearborn Station. Ten 2-10-2s of 1918, numbered 1–5 and 20–24, are on the Belt Railway steam list, where those numbers were used a second time.

Chicago & Western Indiana 0-8-0 No. 221 switches in Chicago, circa 1949. Robert Graham photo.

Chicago & Western Indiana 2-6-0 No. 214, class J-2, a 1914 Lima, at Dearborn Station. Robert Graham photo.

Related reading

• Dearborn Station
• Belt Railway of Chicago
• Chicago & Eastern Illinois
• Monon Railroad
• Erie Railroad
• Erie Lackawanna
• Wabash Railroad
• Norfolk & Western
• Grand Trunk Western
• Louisville & Nashville
• Pennsylvania Railroad
• Pere Marquette
• Grand Central Station
• Elgin, Joliet & Eastern
• Union Pacific
• Metra
• Alco RS-1
• EMD NW2
• Fallen Flags

Sources

• Chicago & Western Indiana R. Co. v. Chicago & Erie R. Co., 140 F.2d 120 (7th Cir. 1943). Organized in 1879 to build from the Indiana state line and from Dolton into Chicago. First stage of construction completed in 1880. Owner of a Chicago terminal and two main lines, to State Line near Hammond and to Dolton, plus the common property of tracks, yards, stations, and terminal facilities. Tracks raised. Belt Division acquired outside the common property. Five generally similar 999-year leases, October 1879 through December 1881, the first to the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. That lease gave the exclusive local business between Chicago and Dolton. The Erie lease gave the exclusive local business between the Calumet River and Hammond. Each lessee paid $5 a year, mortgage interest, and a sinking fund, the principal due 35 years from January 1, 1885. Each of the five owned 20 percent of the stock from 1882. Inter-tenant agreement of 1882: the company managed the common property and furnished facilities at cost. Some charges equal, some by wheelage. Joint supplemental lease of July 1, 1902, and a consolidated mortgage of $50,000,000. In 1943 the property was also used by the Belt Railway, the Santa Fe, and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern. The company held legal title to the old part of Dearborn Street passenger station.
• City of Chicago v. Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad, 105 Ill. 73 (1882). Ordinance of September 15, 1879, licensing the company to enter from the city’s southern boundary and lay track as far north as Van Buren Street. Before September 15, 1880, a continuous line was in operation as far north as 16th Street.
• Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad Co. v. Commissioner, 303 F.2d 796 (7th Cir. 1962). Fifty thousand shares of voting common stock held equally by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville, the Erie, the Grand Trunk Western, and the Wabash. Operation of the Belt Division was the Belt Railway’s. Inter-tenant agreement of November 1, 1882.
• Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad Co. v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co., 419 F.2d 936 (7th Cir. 1969). Santa Fe’s 999-year lease of May 21, 1887, for the use, in common with other railroads, of described tracks and facilities in the operation of its trains in and out of Dearborn Station.
• Cynthia L. Ogorek and Bill Molony, Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad, Images of Rail (Arcadia Publishing, 2016). Charter June 5, 1879. South Chicago & Western Indiana, April 20, 1880. Chicago & Western Indiana Belt Railway, April 22, 1881. Consolidation January 26, 1882. Dearborn Station opened May 8, 1885. The publisher’s description of the book: one line from downtown Chicago to Dolton, another from 81st Street to the Indiana state line, and railroad service ended in 1994.
• Compilation of the Illinois Secretary of State business-corporation roll, current as of April 29, 2026. Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Company, file 02242711, incorporated June 5, 1879, good standing.
• John Moses, History of Chicago, Illinois. The Belt railroad company was organized on November 22, 1882, as a connecting transfer railroad in Cook County. Lease from the Chicago & Western Indiana at an annual rental of $100,000. Operation commenced May 1, 1883.
• Jerry Pinkepank, “How the Belt Came To Be,” Trains, October 1966. His date of August 1883 for completion of the Belt Division.
• The Chicago & Western Indiana’s page in the Official Guide for August 1929, the sheet reproduced here. E. H. Lee, president. General offices, Dearborn Station, Chicago. Passenger terminal facilities for the Santa Fe, the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Chicago & Western Indiana, the Erie, the Grand Trunk Railway System, and the Wabash. Suburban service between Dearborn Station and Dolton, with the station miles in the table above. The system map reproduced here, page 51, Franklin Co., Chicago. The sheet is undated.
• Indiana Historical Society, public timetables of the Chicago & Western Indiana, Chicago to Dolton, including April 28, 1963, and July 27, 1963.
• Robert P. Olmsted and Joe McMillan, The 5:10 to Suburbia: Chicago’s Suburban Railroads, 1960–1975 (Worzalla Publishing, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, 1975). Weekday midday and Saturday suburban service discontinued July 27, 1963. Last rush-hour round trip August 28, 1964.
• This site’s Chicago & Eastern Illinois history. Missouri Pacific control May 12, 1967. On June 6, 1969, the Louisville & Nashville took half of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois interest in the Chicago & Western Indiana and the Belt Railway, with the Evansville line and the other property named in that account. The remainder, with the Texas & Pacific, merged into the Missouri Pacific on October 15, 1976.
• This site’s Norfolk & Western history. Wabash leased at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964. F40PHs 115 and 116 leased in November 1977 from the Chicago Regional Transportation Authority for former Wabash commuter trains.
• This site’s Erie Lackawanna history. Operations began October 17, 1960.
• This site’s EMD NW2 production roster. Chicago & Western Indiana 250–251, serials 5395–5396, order E901, November 1947. The same order, serials, and date are on the Electro-Motive NW2 order list.
• The Diesel Shop, Chicago & Western Indiana diesel roster, revised October 6, 2015, http://www.thedieselshop.us/C&WI.HTML. HH600 No. 1, serial 68643, April 1934, later Belt Railway 300. NW2s 250 and 251, serials 5395 and 5396, November 1947, to Acme-Newport Steel 2 and Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific 300. RS-1s 252–253, serials 76799 and 76800, July 1949. 254–257, serials 77172–77175, October–November 1949. 258–259, serials 77836 and 77837, December 1949. 260–263, serials 77849–77852, February 1950. The Alco HH600 production roster and the Alco RS-1 production roster on the same site carry the same serials and dates.

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    Nov 03, 26 10:02 AM

    
    Chesterfield County deputies, CSX police, and state agents searched Cheraw Iron and Metal on October 27 and closed the yard after finding CSX rail and telephone wire.

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50. Union Pacific Urges the Board to Keep a Speech Video Confidential

    Nov 03, 26 09:53 AM

    
    Union Pacific on October 30 asked the Surface Transportation Board to keep a recording of Jim Vena’s shipper speech confidential while it appeals. BNSF on November 2 asked the board to deny that…

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