Desiring to extend its system to Chicago, the B&O incorporated the Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Chicago Railway as separate companies in Ohio and Indiana on March 13 and March 14, 1872, respectively; a third company with the same name was incorporated in Illinois on February 27, 1873.
Surveying began immediately, and a line was soon located and constructed from a point on the SM&N named Chicago Junction (later renamed Willard after B&O president Daniel Willard) to Chicago.
Operations began on November 23, 1874 under lease to the B&O, which initially obtained trackage rights over the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) north of the new line's terminus in Brookdale, Chicago (now located at the start of the Metra Electric District's South Chicago branch).
[2] On August 1, 1891, the Akron and Chicago Junction Railroad was opened, under lease to the B&O&C, which subleased it to the B&O.
[4] The line between Brookdale and a point southeast of the Calumet River in South Chicago has since been abandoned, and operation near the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is via trackage rights over the Norfolk Southern Railway's Chicago Line, but the line east of Pine Junction in Gary remains a main line of B&O successor CSX Transportation, which calls the old B&O&C the Willard Subdivision (Willard-Deshler), Garrett Subdivision (Deshler-Willow Creek), Barr Subdivision (Willow Creek-Pine Junction), and Lake Subdivision (Pine Junction-South Chicago).