CHICAGO AND ALTON RAILROAD, a system operated in Illinois and Missouri by a company of the same name, a consolidation of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company (old) and the Chicago and Alton Railway Com pany, effective 14 March 1906. The company purchased the property of the Saint Louis, Peoria and Northern Railway Company and also acquired over 98 per cent of the capital stock of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Com pany, whence its title. The Chicago and Alton Railroad Company, operating under a charter of the State of Illinois, dated 18 Feb. 1861, was originally the Alton and Sangamon Railroad Company, afterward known as the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad Company. The new com pany on 3 April 1900 leased for a term of 99 years the Chicago and Alton Railroad with its leased lines and agreed to pay as rental the in terest on the bonds of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company, the rentals payable by the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company under the leases of the Joliet and Chicago Railroad, Kansas City, Saint Louis and Chicago Railroad, and Louisiana and Missouri River Railroad, taxes and the surplus net earnings of the leased properties. It owns one-third of the stock of the Joliet Union Depot Company and one-twelfth that of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company. On 16 Dec. 1902 the com pany was admitted as a member of the Ter minal Railroad Association of Saint Louis, and became the owner of one-fourteenth of the cap ital stock of the terminal company. For the fiscal year ending 30 June 1915, the company operated 1,052.49 miles of track; of this it
owned 687.68 miles and operated 327.79 miles of leased lines, and in addition operated jointly with the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and Saint Louis Railway Company the line be tween Wann and East Saint Louis, 17.85 miles. The system also comprised 253.08 miles of second track, 1.72 of third track and 1.63 miles of fourth track, 449.07 miles of sidings, giving a total length of all tracks, 1,757.99 miles. The operating divisions of the system exclusive of trackage rights are: Sherman, Ill., to Grove, Ill., 50.66 miles; Chicago, Ill., to East Saint Louis, Ill., 279.95 miles; Coal City Line, Joliet, Ill., to Mazonia, III., 26.92 miles; Dwight, Ill., to Washington and Lacon, 80.77 miles; Roodhouse, Ill., to Kansas City, Mo., 251.17 miles; Bloomington, Ill., to Godfrey, Ill., 150.83 Mexico, Mo., to Cedar Citv Mo., 50.10 miles.
miles; Godfrey, Ill., to Wann, Ill.. 7.36 miles; The number of passengers carried in 1915 was 3,677,113, an increase of 5.94 per cent over 1914; 7,864,283 tons of revenue freight were carried, a decrease of 7.31 per cent; but, on account of an increase in the average rate obtained, there was a gain of 3.47 per cent, the total freight revenue amounting to $9,200,546.54. The total earnings for year to 30 June 1915 were $14, 245,623.76; operating expenses, $11,072,706.81, yielding net earnings, $2,660,583.78. Other in come of $97,236.96 gave a total of $2,757,820.75.