HISTORY

William B. Ogden and the railroad that pioneered Chicago’s place as a transportation hub

By Ron Grossman
Chicago Tribune • Published: Oct 29, 2023 at 5:00 am



The Pioneer, a small locomotive, was the first railroad engine to operate in Chicago in the fall of 1848. It provided the inspiration for the Railroad Fair of 1948, commemorating 100 years of the railroad in Chicago. (Chicago and North Western Railway Company)

On Oct. 25, 1848, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad dispatched a train from a station on Kinzie Street just north of the Chicago River. It was the first railroad in a city that in future decades would become a rail hub for the entire nation.

As the system grew, tracks and rail yards fanned out around the city center, making through passage difficult. So for years, until air travel took over in the late 1950s, Chicago became a required stop on cross-country trips. One railroad moved travelers to and from Manhattan and the East Coast and Chicago. Another did the same between Chicago and Los Angeles and other points west.

“A pig can go coast to coast, but passengers have to change trains in Chicago,” Chicagoans would boast, while others complained about that same fact.

Such issues were far in the future when the Chicago and Galena Union Railroad chugged into being. That first train consisted of an improvised passenger car and an empty freight car, and ran to and from Oak Park. That was as far as the Galena and Chicago went at the time.

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