The Chillicothe Subdivision or "Chillicothe Sub" (slang "Chilli Sub") is a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

line running about from

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Fort Madison, Iowa Fort Madison is a city and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located along the ...

in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

. It is operated by BNSF Railway as part of their

Southern Transcon The Southern Transcon is a main line of BNSF Railway comprising 11 subdivisions between Southern California and Chicago, Illinois. Completed in its current alignment in 1908 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, when it opened the Belen ...

route from Chicago to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. The Chillicothe Subdivision is a high volume route connecting three principal yards in Chicago ( Corwith, Willow Springs, and Logistics Park Chicago) in the east and the

Marceline Subdivision Marceline or Marcelline may refer to: People with the given name *Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786–1859), French poet * Marceline Orbes (1874–1927), Spanish clown * Marceline Day (1908–2000), American actress whose career began as a child ...

in the west which continues to

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Construction and physical structure

The Chillicothe Subdivision was constructed in segments beginning in 1873 by railroads that fell under the influence of and later merged into the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

; with the first tracks laid between

Streator, Illinois Streator is a city in LaSalle and Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River approximately southwest of Chicago in the prairie and farm land of north-central Illinois. As of the 2020 cens ...

and

Ancona, Illinois Ancona is an unincorporated community in Livingston County, Illinois, United States. Ancona is located along a railroad line south-southwest of Streator. Ancona has a post office with ZIP code 61311. It formerly served the Santa Fe Railway at ...

by the

Chicago, Pekin and Southwestern Railroad The Chicago and St. Louis Railway was a predecessor of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that owned a line between Chicago and Pekin, Illinois. More than half of the line is now part of the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon. History The I ...

. The line opened to traffic between Kansas City and Chicago in 1888. This line is double tracked for its entire length and crosses the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

between Fort Madison, Iowa and Niota, Illinois on a double track swing bridge (

Fort Madison Toll Bridge The Fort Madison Toll Bridge (also known as the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge for the old Santa Fe Railway) is a tolled, double-decked swinging truss bridge over the Mississippi River that connects Fort Madison, Iowa, and unincorporated Niota, Il ...

). The Chillicothe Subdivision makes numerous connections with other BNSF mainlines including the Ottumwa, Mendota, Barstow, Brookfield and Peoria Subdivisions within the Galesburg terminal complex. The route runs parallel to the Hannibal Subdivision for a short distance within the city of Fort Madison but there is not an active connection between them as traffic from Galesburg to

St Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

is routed over the Brookfield Subdivision. Principal connections with other carriers include the

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

at Streator and the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Blue Island Subdivision in Chicago near Corwith. As a former AT&SF route, mileposts are counted from the former

Dearborn Station Dearborn Station (also referred to as Polk Street Depot) was, beginning in the late 1800s, one of six intercity train stations serving downtown Chicago, Illinois. It remained in operation until May 1, 1971. Built in 1883, it is located at ...

in Chicago although track was abandoned east of the CSX connection in 1996. In 2019, a direct connection was completed between the Chillicothe Subdivision and the Chicago Subdivision which will allow the former BN and AT&SF lines to exchange traffic between Corwith and Cicero Yards without hazardous and time consuming backup movements. This project was completed as part of the

Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program is a $4.6 billion program to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of freight, commuter and intercity passenger rail and to reduce highway delay in the Chicago regio ...

(CREATE) Western Avenue corridor designed to align rail movements through the city along Western Avenue

Freight operations

Traffic on the line is dominated by intermodal traffic flowing to and from the three yards in Chicago in a mixture of high priority "Z-Trains" with freight from UPS, FedEx Ground and LTL trucking firms; "Q-Trains" guaranteed intermodal with primarily domestic shippers like JB Hunt and Schneider frequently seen; and lower priority "S-Trains" with ocean containers. The names reflect BNSF current train symbol methodology although in radio communications trains are usually referred to by their lead locomotive's number. There are also frequent run through trains in partnership with eastern railroads. Intermodal trains can frequently be quite long with consists up to 16,000 feet being run on the Southern Transcon route since it is predominantly doubletracked across its entire length. In 2021 increasing numbers of unit trains carrying wind turbine parts have been seen as well. The

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

has trackage rights over BNSF lines from Chicago to Kansas City and uses the Chillicothe Subdivision to reach its Global 4 intermodal facility near

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will and Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East sect ...

Passenger operations

This line was home to AT&SF passenger traffic in the pre

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

era, but passenger trains have been routed over the ex-Burlington Northern (CB&Q)

Mendota Subdivision Mendota can refer to any of the following places in the United States: * Mendota, California * Mendota, Illinois, a city in LaSalle County * Mendota Township, LaSalle County, Illinois * Mendota, Minnesota * Mendota Heights, Minnesota * Mendota, Virg ...

from Chicago to Galesburg since 1996. The ''

Southwest Chief The ''Southwest Chief'' (formerly the ''Southwest Limited'' and ''Super Chief'') is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and Southwest via Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaf ...

'' currently joins the Chillicothe Subdivision at the Cameron Connection west of Galesburg, before making a stop in Ft. Madison and continuing west on the

. On December 15, 2021, Amtrak moved the Fort Madison passenger station from the historic division and crew change point, known as Shopton, within the Fort Madison yard to the prior AT&SF Fort Madison station on the Chillicothe Subdivision.Amtrak is back in Ft Madison assessed December 31, 2021
/ref>

References

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External links

BNSF SubdivisionsIllinois Rail Map
BNSF Railway lines