The company was incorporated on March 5, 1883, and completed the line on September 16, 1895.

On February 5, 1901, the Calumet River Railway was merged into the South Chicago and Southern Railroad.

In 1954 the South Chicago and Southern Railroad was merged into the Penndel Company,[3] and in 1976 ownership and operation of the line was acquired by the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail).

In 1999, with the split on Conrail, the line was transferred to the Norfolk Southern Railway, which calls it the Calumet River Industrial Track.

[4] The South Chicago and Indiana Harbor Railway has trackage rights over the north half of the line,[5] which predecessor Chicago Short Line Railway acquired to reach the old Republic Steel coke works near 110th Street.