Illinois Parallel Railroad

The Illinois Parallel Railroad was an early predecessor to the Chicago and North Western Railway, and was incorporated in Illinois on February 12, 1851 (another source lists the date as February 17th) to construct a 44.6 mile rail line northward from Chicago through Waukegan to Wisconsin paralleling Lake Michigan at a distance of no less than ten miles from the lake's west shore. The IPRR's board first met on September 9, 1851.

By February 5, 1853, the line's name became the Milwaukee and Chicago Railway Company, and construction reached Waukegan on December 19, 1854.

In a major ceremony in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Saturday May 19, 1855, the line was connected with the Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago Railway Company, also exactly 44.6 miles in length. The first through Illinois-Wisconsin passenger train on the line operated on May 28th, 1866.