BO History of the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad and connections

OK, I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but since I'm as curious about the current operations as I am about former operations, I figure this is a good place to start.


I grew up in River Forest Illinois, a Western sub of Chicago right next to Oakpark and Forest park. very close to the city. River Forest has two railroads running through it, the Former C&NW line to proviso yard and west to Council Bluffs and a line that when I was a youth was the Soo line and in my teens was Wisconsin Central Limited and is now, I assume CN.

It is that line that I'm curious about.


When I was in my teens, I railfanned this line fairly often. IT was only 3 blocks from my house and unlike the Soo, WC had daylight ops. I remember once walking the line all the way from augusta and Keystone up to the Eisenhower Exp. in Forest Park a couple of miles. Now the bridge over the Ike is what confused me. I noticed a newish logo sign proudly declaring it the property of CSX. Then, on the other side was a much smaller, much older sign declaring it to be the property of the B&O. This confused me, because the 4 bridges in River Forest all say (or said at one time before the vandals got them) SOO LINE. Including the tall bridge over the elvated C&NW line.

To further complicate things, in the early 90s, I saw solid consists of WC SD45s over the line, but as the decade progressed I saw a lot of CSX GEs mixed in with the 45s. Confusing.

To make matters worse, a couple years ago, Trains had a back page photo of the old Forest PArk Station on the line long since removed. It proclaimed it to be a Soo line station and talked about proposed plans to run metra on the line (This hasn't happened yet).


So I've been confused about the lineage of this line until today when a google search turned up the Wikipedia article on the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad Which apparently connected to the original Wisconsin Central Railway at Forest Park as a gateway for access to grand central Station.

the old WC eventually fell into the hands of Soo and then the new WC and now CN.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_and_Ohio_Chicago_Terminal_Railroad


So my question is, can anyone provide more info on ops here?

I know that the line runs to the bensenvill yard, but how do CSX and CN handle this line. I've seen 4 axle CSX locos sitting at the Tool and Die plant between Central and Austin on the line, but I've also seen WC engines idling there. How is this switched?

Any and all info would be appreciated.

The strangest thing to me is that there is no obvious indication in the switch in ownership. Also, it explains why the line has (or had in th emid 90s) those circular B&O style signals.

 

I can't help with that at all... but sounds interesting.

Harold