The first railroad constructed out of Chicago, the Galena and Chicago Union, was chartered on January 16, 1836, to connect Chicago with the lead mines at Galena, a year before the city of Chicago was incorporated. "The Pioneer," the first locomotive on the road, arrived at Chicago on October 10, 1848, nearly thirteen years after the charter was granted. In 1850, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was completed as far as Elgin.

The Illinois General Assembly chartered the Aurora Branch Railroad on February 12, 1849, to build a branch of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to Aurora,[1] which it opened on September 2, 1850.[2] The company was r

The Aurora Branch, the earliest predecessor of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, changed its name to the Chicago and Aurora Railroad in June 1852,[8] and to Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad in 1856, and shortly reached its two other namesake cities, Burlington, Iowa, and Quincy, Illinois.

See Northern Cross RR