Englewood Union Station

Englewood Union Station

Company type	Railway station
Industry	Rail transport
Founded	1898
Defunct	1978
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois , United States
Products	Passenger rail services

Englewood Union Station functioned as a significant railway hub and passenger terminal within Chicago's Englewood district. Four principal railroads serviced this station: the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (operating through New York Central's trackage rights). The station closed in 1978 after the Rock Island discontinued its intercity routes and intermediate stops between LaSalle Street and Gresham. Presently, there are no intentions to reactivate the facility.

History

Englewood Union Station stood as a vital junction where multiple major rail lines converged:

• The New York Central (NYC) and Rock Island railroads shared tracks heading north toward LaSalle Street Station, then diverged at Englewood—Rock Island proceeded southwest, while NYC turned eastward into Indiana.
• The Pennsylvania Railroad’s (PRR) Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway intersected with Rock Island at this point, traveling northbound to Union Station and running parallel to NYC tracks into Indiana.

Approximately three-quarters of a mile westward, near 63rd Street and Wallace Street, was "Little Englewood," another union station serving different rail lines.

Situated close to 63rd and State Streets, Englewood Union Station commenced operations in 1898. Between 1904 and 1913, it was also served by the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad while under the control of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway.

Englewood served as the first stop eastbound and the second-to-last stop westbound for PRR’s Broadway Limited and NYC’s 20th Century Limited. Both trains departed from their respective Chicago terminals, paused at Englewood to board passengers, then proceeded side-by-side before separating.

At its height, this station connected to 52 of the 100 largest cities in the United States.

Westbound Rocket trains operated by Rock Island also called here, offering transfers among all intersecting railroads. Rock Island maintained intercity service through Englewood until as late as 1978.

Public transit links included Chicago "L" service at the Harvard station on the Englewood branch (currently part of the Green Line) and, from 1969 to 1978, at the 63rd station on the Dan Ryan branch (now incorporated into the Red Line).

With reductions in intercity passenger demand and following the merger of PRR and NYC into Penn Central, which subsequently declared bankruptcy and reorganized as Conrail, much of the rail infrastructure was dismantled. Metra’s Rock Island District commuter trains ceased servicing Englewood before its closure in the late 1970s. The former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks are presently owned by Norfolk Southern Railway, facilitating freight operations alongside Amtrak services traveling to Union Station.

The station building was demolished during the late 1970s; however, some traces remain near the railroad overpass at 63rd Street and State Street. Today, Norfolk Southern operates its 63rd Street intermodal transfer terminal on this location.

External links

• News Stand (Fred Harvey Exhibit)