Alton
Railroad - (en)
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to
Alton, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri, and Kansas City, Missouri. Its
predecessor, The Chicago & Alton Railroad, was purchased by the
Baltimore & Ohio in 1931 and was controlled until 1942 when the Alton
was released to the courts. On May 31, 1947, the Alton Railroad was merged
into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
The line to Alton and St. Louis is now mostly part of the Union Pacific
Railroad system; the line to Kansas City is part of the Kansas City
Southern Railway system. Metra's Heritage Corridor provides commuter rail
service on the old main line, now owned by the Canadian National Railway
through its Illinois Central Railroad, between Chicago and Joliet,
Illinois.
History
The earliest ancestor to the Alton Railroad is the Alton and Sangamon
Railroad, chartered February 27, 1847, in Illinois to connect the
Mississippi River town of Alton to the state capital at Springfield in
Sangamon County. The line was finished in 1852, and as the Chicago &
Mississippi Railroad extended to Bloomington in 1854 and Joliet in 1855.
Initially, trains ran over the completed Chicago and Rock Island Railroad
to Chicago.
The Joliet and Chicago Railroad was chartered February 15, 1855, and
opened in 1856, continuing north and northeast from Joliet to downtown
Chicago. It was leased by the Chicago & Mississippi providing a
continuous railroad from Alton to Chicago. In 1857 the C&M was
reorganized as the St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad, and another
reorganization on October 10, 1862, produced the Chicago and Alton
Railroad. The C&A chartered the Alton and St. Louis Railroad to extend
the line to East St. Louis, opened in 1864 giving it a line from Chicago
to East St. Louis.
