The former Monon Railroad's route into Chicago has changed in recent years, making it perhaps Amtrak's most interesting routing serving Chicago. Between Union Station and 74th Street, Amtrak uses the same route as Metra's Southwest Service. And between 74th Street and 81st Street, the Cardinal uses trackage variously controlled by the Belt Railway of Chicago and Norfolk Southern. Between 81st Street and Dolton is the former Chicago and Western Indiana's Dolton Branch, now owned by Union Pacific. This line originally mostly handled trains of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, which later became part of Missouri Pacific, and finally now Union Pacific. The route operates at street level through the Roseland neighborhood on Chicago's south side, before climbing high over the Illinois Central and Metra Electric lines near the Kensington Junction. South of there is a bridge over the Calumet River, where the route crosses into Dolton, where Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad ownership originally began. Dolton is the location of the main UP yard in the area, and south of there is Thornton Jct., where the route turns southeast over the CN/Grand Trunk Western line. And at Munster, Indiana, the route turns south to finally enter the former Monon line, now part of CSX.
Because of the many different railroads involved, many different railroad frequencies must be programmed in a scanner.
160.305 - AAR Channel 13 Chicago Union Station (Amtrak)
160.440 - AAR Channel 22 21st St.-81st St. (Metra)
160.500 - AAR Channel 26 81st St. (Belt Railway of Chicago)
160.410 - AAR Channel 20 81st St.-Thornton Jct. (UP-C&EI)
160.590 - AAR Channel 32 Thornton Jct.-Munster IN (GTW)
160.530 - AAR Channel 28 (GTW dispatcher)
161.370 - AAR Channel 84 south of Munster (CSX-Monon)
160.320 - AAR Channel 14 (CSX dispatcher)
VIA METRA
Union Station to 74th Street - same trackage as used by Metra's Southwest Service.
VIA NS
74th Street to 81st Street - 1 track, yard rules, part of Norfolk Southern Chicago District.
VIA UP
81st Street to Thornton Jct. - part of Union Pacific Villa Grove Subdivision.
VIA CN/GTW
Thornton Jct. to Munster - part of CN/IC Elsdon Subdivision.
VIA CSX
25.4 Maynard (junction-CN/GTW)
27.6 Dyer (Amtrak station)
29.0 Dyer Siding (EJ&E crossing)
33.2 St. John (NS crossing)
44.8 Lowell
52.6 Shelby (NS crossing)
54.1 Thayer
56.5 Rose Lawn
65.8 Parr
68.1 Surrey
73.1 Rensselaer
77.0 Pleasant Ridge
88.4 Monon (junction)
95.8 Reynolds (TP&W crossing)
98.2 Smithson
102.1 Chalmers
106.2 Brookston
110.2 Ash Grove
112.9 Battle Ground
118.1 Lafayette
120.1 Lafayette Passenger Station
1 track, Direct Traffic Control in use with automatic block signals, controlled by CSX "SA" Dispatcher in Jacksonville, Florida. Automatic interlockings at all crossings with other railroads.
Mileposts are distances from Dearborn Station over original Monon route via Hammond.
Information is subject to change, and is based on observations, along with information from employee timetables, and Google satellite imagery.
The following colors are used to indicate types of operation:
BLUE - manual interlocking
RED - centralized traffic control (CTC) or bidirectional signals
GREEN - automatic block signals
BLACK - unsignaled
Thin lines across tracks indicate signals. In CTC or bidirectional signal territory, signals usually exist for both directions at all locations, except at interlockings where the signals usually are only in the direction entering the interlocking.