Old Plank Road Trail
A 22-mile recreation and nature trail in northeastern Illinois
History • Interurban
Railway
The Joliet & Southern Traction Company (J&ST)
line ran parallel to the Michigan Central Rail Road
from Chicago Heights to Joliet. The trolley or
interurban shared the right of way with the railroad
for much of the length of the Old Plank Road Trail.
The J&ST was a sister company to the Aurora,
Plainfield & Joliet Railroad Company (AP&JRR).
The AP&JRR entered Joliet from the west and
connected to the J&ST in Joliet. J&ST tracks
crossed the Michigan Central R.R. (now the
OPRT) tracks in two locations. In downtown
Matteson, the interurban built a bridge that crossed
the Michigan Central and Illinois Central tracks at
the same time.
The map below shows the station stops along the
lines of the two interurban lines.
Black and white photographs on this page are from
the collection of the Matteson Historical Society
Here's another picture of the bridge in Matteson over the IC and MC railroad
tracks.
J&ST Traction
The J&ST trolley tracks ran parallel
to the Michigan Central R.R.
(OPRT) tracks from Chicago Heights
to Summit, west of Frankfort. At
Summit the interurban used a "fly-
over" bridge to go to the north side
of the trail. The concrete abutments
for that "fly-over" bridge are about
the only thing left from the
interurban era. These abutments
probably supported a light weight
steel truss bridge similar to the one
in the picture above.
Matteson Station
FRONT ST.