The Northern Indiana Railroad Company, not to be confused with a later company of the same name, began with a charter for The Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad Company.  The BMR Company was chartered to run from the navigable water at the west end of Lake Erie (head of Maumee Bay) to the navigable water below the rapids of the Illinois River (Ottawa, Illinois).  In 1837 the Indiana Legislature amended the original act, renaming the company Northern Indiana Railroad Company.

On July 8, 1853, the Ohio and Indiana companies merged, and on February 7, 1855, the Northern Indiana and Chicago Railroad and the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad were merged into the Northern Indiana Railroad. On April 25, 1855, that company in turn merged with the Michigan Southern Rail Road to form the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad.

St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad c.1857-1861 Alton – Joliet

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad

The Illinois Central Railroad (reporting mark IC), sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa (1870).

The first railroad built in Madison County was the Chicago & Alton – first known as the Alton & Sangamon or Alton & Springfield. The railroad was spearheaded by Captain Benjamin Godfrey and other Alton businessmen such as Cyrus Edwards, Simeon Ryder, S. Griggs, and Robert Ferguson. Planning stages began in December 1838, and the charter was issued February 27, 1847. Construction began in February 1850, and was completed from Alton to Springfield in 1852. Benjamin Godfrey lived in a railcar, and followed the work as it progressed.