It’s been 77 years since a train car ran on the Fox and Illinois Union Railway south of Yorkville, but the railway has just been sued in Kendall County.
Grainco FS, Inc. filed suit against the Fox and Illinois Union Railway Company and any successors to get clear title to five small parcels of land in Lisbon and Kendall Townships.
Grainco says that when an eminent domain action was filed against them in 2014 by the Illinois Department of Transportation they learned that the Fox and Union Railway had an ownership interest in the parcels but never appeared in court.
The suit says Grainco has paid taxes on the land and operated agricultural related operations on the parcels for at least 20 years.
Contracts to build an "interurban" passenger and freight rail line between Yorkville and Morris were awarded in 1911 for the Fox and Illinois Union Railway. From Van Emmon Road in Yorkville, the line ran straight south along what would eventually be Route 47.
The line had been promoted among farmers as a way to get their crops to market and bring everything from lumber to coal back to grain elevators along the line. In an era of terrible roads, it was an attractive idea.
By September of 1912, tracks extended only eight miles south of Yorkville and by that November, the tracks still hadn't reached downtown Morris.
Then in June 1923, the owners of the rail line said they planned to cease operations. The line was saved for a few years when it was purchased by a farmers’ cooperative, which kept it going until Route 47 was paved from Yorkville to Morris.
The line was sold to a syndicate of Kendall and Grundy County farmers in 1924. They attempted to continue its operations, but on Jan. 31, 1925, the rail service between Aurora and Yorkville ended, effectively cutting off the Fox & Illinois Union from Chicago passenger access. In February of 1931, the line stopped passenger service and became a strictly freight line. On Oct. 15, 1938, the line was abandoned.