Chicago Junction Railway

The Chicago Junction Railway operated a switching and terminal railroad in Chicago, connecting the with most other railroads in the city. It also briefly operated an outer belt, which became the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad in 1907. The New York Central Railroad acquired control of the company in 1922 and leased it to subsidiary Chicago River and Indiana Railroad. The line is now owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway.

When the was incorporated in 1865 to consolidate the Chicago stock yards, its powers included the construction of a railroad outside the city limits (then Pershing Road and Western Avenue) to link the stock yards with the railroads entering Chicago south of Roosevelt Road. All nine of these railroads - the Chicago and Alton Railroad, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Chicago and Great Eastern Railway, Chicago and North Western Railway, Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, Illinois Central Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad, and Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway - had previously come to an agreement to finance the new property as a replacement for their individual yards. In December 1865, the new Union Stock Yards and railroad opened, the latter beginning at the Illinois Central near 43rd Street and heading west, largely along 40th Street, to the Chicago and Great Eastern, and then turning north to parallel the latter company's line in Campbell Avenue until it reached the Chicago and North Western Railway at Ogden Avenue. Prior to 1897, the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company (USY&T) operated its own property, except between 1887 and 1893, when a number of connecting carriers organized a transfer association to operate the railroad.