Chicago and Canada Southern Railway

The Chicago and Canada Southern Railway was a planned extension of the Canada Southern Railway west from Grosse Ile, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois. The line was only built to Fayette, Ohio, and was later split between the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.

History
The Canada Southern Railway was founded in 1868 to build a new direct railway route from Niagara Falls to the Detroit River, across Southern Ontario, and then on to Chicago. The completed line, running between Fort Erie, Ontario, and Amherstburg, Ontario, opened in February 1873. Connection with lines in Michigan was made via a train ferry and the Canada Southern Bridge Company across Grosse Ile.

The Canada Southern Railway established the Chicago and Canada Southern Railway to extend west toward Chicago. Between 1871 and 1888 four companies bore the name Chicago and Canada Southern Railway. The first was incorporated on May 19, 1871, in Indiana. The company constructed no track, and was consolidated on July 3 of that year with the Michigan Air Line Railroad, an Illinois company. This new company existed only three days before being consolidated with the North Western Ohio Railroad to form the third Chicago and Canada Southern Railway. Finally, on October 25, 1871, this company was consolidated with the South Eastern Michigan Railway to form the fourth Chicago and Canada Southern Railway.

The line had only reached Fayette, Ohio (though grading was done further west) in September 1873 when the Panic of 1873 had its full effect and construction was halted. Building the road to Chicago was suspended for the winter of 1873–74. The next spring, the railroad's management hired General John S. "Jack" Casement, who had built part of the Union Pacific, as the railroad contractor for construction from Fayette to Chicago. However, the company's financial situation never did improve and Casement did no work on the track.

Some time after the Canada Southern was reorganized, the Chicago and Canada Southern was sold on November 22, 1888, to the Detroit and Chicago Railroad, owned by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.

The track between Grosvenor and Corbus, Michigan in the middle of the line, was abandoned in 1893. In 1897 it was abandoned from Corbus east to Dundee, and in March 1898 the line east of Dundee was sold to the Detroit and Lima Northern Railroad, which became part of the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway. The remaining piece west of Grosvenor was operated as a branch of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern's Old Road from the Grosvenor end.

West from Montpelier, Ohio to beyond North Liberty, Indiana, the unfinished C&CS alignment was later used by the Wabash Railroad, which completed its line between Montpelier and Gary, Indiana in 1893.