Though the distinction of operating the first elevated railway does not belong to Chicago (New York City's, which opened in 1867, has that honor ), Chicago did try many times to create such a service. With the first attempt in 1869, over 70 companies were created for the purpose of started an elevated rail system between 1872 and 1900. The first to get off the drawing board, however, was the South Side Rapid Transit Railroad Company, which was incorporated on January 4, 1888.

The South Side Rapid Transit, or SSRT as it was often abbreviated, was originally envisioned to reach all the way from downtown Chicago to the Illinois-Indiana state line. Indeed, some counted on this happening, like Frank J. Lewis, who, when laying out his southeast side subdivision between 108th and 114th Streets and Avenue O and the state line, fully expected a rapid transit line would be built to 106th and Indianapolis to serve his area. Suffice it to say, Mr. Lewis would still be waiting for rapid transit service today...

The South Side line was backed primarily by Calvin R. Goddard and Alfred F. Walcott, eastern capitalists who were active in the development of Manhattan's elevateds. Despite the benefits that that improved transportation might have on a community, the extension of a line along a nearby street was not often greeted by enthusiasm. It is usually not that citizens of businesses didn't want improved mobility and access; they just tended to want it on "the next street over." In the contemporary planning lexicon, this attitude is often referred to as "NIMBYism" (or "Not In My Backyard"). This put the traction companies in a difficult position, made all the more troublesome because the local political environment favored the interests of individual property owners (feared that a transit line in front of their property might decrease their property values) over that of the general public in the use of public rights-of-way. This attitude was codified in the Cities and Villages Act of 1872. This Illinois state law regulated and limited the powers and authorities of municipalities. It also spelled out what was required for a city to grant the use of a public street for the private purpose of an individual or company. It said, in effect, that at least half of the property owners along a street sought for railroad purposes must give their consent to the proposal or the traction line could not be built.

This law put private transit company owners in the difficult position of finding a route for new lines serving a population who all wanted better transit service but none of whom wanted it on their street and now had the power to enforce it. Traction companies often found themselves in the position of bribing property owners to get their signatures and local aldermen commonly extracted similar monetary rewards in exchange for their vote when a franchise application came up in the city council. This practice was illegal but known and usually unchallenged if not outright accepted. Thus, a law that was intended to curb backroom deals and political payoffs and give more power to the people in fact had the opposite effect. To avoid the problem of obtaining consent signatures, the railroad decided to buy property along public alleys -- usually the back 50 feet or so of each lot -- on which to built their line. As a result of building along alleys, the South Side was sometimes referred to as the "Alley 'L'".

An ordinance for the elevated was submitted to the Chicago City Council on February 20, 1888, requesting a franchise to build the line from an unspecified location along Van Buren Street between Wabash and Dearborn avenues southward to a terminus near 67th Street and Cottage Grove. Oddly enough, about half this route was actually outside the city at the time, giving the city council no jurisdiction to grant a franchise for that section. The ordinance also specified a fare of 10 cents, which would have been too expensive for many Chicagoans, especially the working class. The franchise went through several revisions, being referred to various committees and to the city's corporation counsel. The final version lowered the fare to five cents and omitted mention of any sections south of 39th Street, the city limits at the time. After Mayor John Roche insisted on some minor revisions in wording, the city council approved the franchise on March 26, 1888 and the mayor signed it a few days later. The franchise was valid for 50 years, required the fare to remain at a nickel (which would become a serious problem in later years), and allowed uniformed police and firemen to ride for free (a practice the CTA continues today).

Construction

The contract to construct the city's first elevated line was given to Alfred F. Walcott, one of the company's chief backers. The exact alignment the line was to take was left to Walcott, who would have to purchase the property on which the line would be built. Walcott transferred the contract to the Rapid Transit and Bridge Construction Company, of which he and fellow SSRT backer Goddard were executives, on May 1, 1888. The construction company then subcontracted for the erection of the elevated steel structure to the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh.

The decision to build on private right-of-way saddled the SSRT with a heavy debt load, which made attracting investment capital for construction difficult. Ironically, the SSRT went to the Chicago City Railway for capital help, even though the CCRy operated a vast network of streetcar lines on the South Side -- the oldest of which date to 1859 and was the city's first transit line -- and would be the elevated's primary rival. The CCRy bought enough bonds and shares to gain a controlling interest in the CCRy. This move on the part of the Chicago City Railway may have been more for self-preservation than anything else, preventing any other company from gaining control and making the line any more of a threat than necessary. One might assume that the CCRy might try and coordinate streetcar and elevated operations and indeed today this type of intermodal coordination is encouraged by transit planners. In 1890, however, railroads were all profit-seeking private interests and such a move was seen as monopolistic. As such, no coordination of fares, schedules, or routes was ever implemented.

Property acquisition for the elevated right-of-way began in the summer of 1888. In some cases, the property owners sold their lots (of parts of them) quite willingly. In other cases, condemnation proceedings were instituted when property owners refused to sell or asked a far higher price than Walcott was willing to pay. North of 12th Street, due to opposition and high asking prices from commercial and industrial property owners, consent signatures were obtained to build the elevated over the alley is otherwise ran adjacent to between 12th and Congress streets. By the beginning of 1890, construction began, with the first pillars erected at 25th Street in February. A crew of over 300 men drove the project forward and by mid-June the elevated structure was built between 29th and 37th Streets.

As construction continued, plans were already hatched for the line's first extension years before the first train rolled over the tracks. In 1890, Chicago was chosen as the host of the 1892 World's Fair, which would be the World's Columbian Exposition in honor of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America. The fair site chosen for the event was Jackson Park, an area of mostly vacant swampland along Lake Michigan about seven miles south of downtown Chicago. This was also the general area the SSRT had planned to serve, to the company's directors lost little time in planning an extension to handle not only the considerable fair traffic but the new communities and development in the area that would surely follow. Because the original franchise stopped at the then-city limits at 39th Street, a new franchise for the extension into Hyde Park Township (annexed in 1889) had to be secured from the city council.

A franchise was quickly awarded that directed the line to continue south from 39th for a block, then turn east at 40th Street to a point east of Indiana Avenue, turn south to a point between 60th and 67th Streets, then turn east toward Jackson Park to a terminal at Stony Island Avenue on the edge of the park. Two branches were also approved. One was a short line to 71st Street between South Park (now King Drive) and Cottage Grove, never built. The other was to leave the line between 55th and 59th Street and head in a generally easterly direction, terminating south of 63rd Street between Wentworth and Wallace. This would become the Englewood branch (see below). In the end, the route decided upon turned east at 40th and continued to Prairie Avenue, where it turned south to 63rd Street. It was decided to build the rest of the way to Jackson Park over 63rd Street, which was still largely vacant and would provide minimal opposition to consent signatures. It also allowed the line to be constructed quicker and cheaper than if private property had been used. The race was now on to finish the extension in time for the opening of the fair.

Service Begins

By late Spring 1892, the main line between Congress Street on the south edge of downtown and 39th Street, the initial segment of the Alley "L", was ready for equipment testing. In late May and early June, several private excursions and inspection trips were operated over the line. For the first week of June, a regular schedule was operated with no passengers to break in the equipment and fine tune the schedule. To equip the railroad, the company had placed an order with the Baldwin Locomotive Works for 20 four-cylinder compound Forney locomotives in January 1892 and for 180 passenger trailers with the Gilbert Car Company and Jackson & Sharp Company in February. In spring, another 26 locomotives were ordered. It was common practice at the time to operated elevated rapid transit lines were small steam locomotives; the use of electrically-powered cars was still a few years away. In April, the locomotives began to be delivered to the South Side elevated.

Regular service on Chicago's first "L" line was inaugurated on June 6, 1892 between a terminal at Congress Street and 39th Street, a distance of 3.6 miles. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune noted one of the "L"'s most distinguishing features, its usefulness to all citizens of the city, by observing the variation of the passengers, from members of "the lunch pail crowd" to passengers "resembling gentlemen."

One of the interesting aspects of early operations and procedures on the South Side Rapid Transit was how they were quickly modified, experimented with, and honed. In many ways, the SSRT was a guinea pig whose learned lessons would be of great use to the later elevated companies. Many of the company's early procedures resembles those of main line railroads, which was quickly found to be problematic for the "L"'s more frequent schedule and operating differences. Initially, passengers purchased a ticket from an agent in the ground-level station house, to be surrendered to a gate keeper who regulated access to the track-level platforms. On the platforms, railings along the track side protected riders from falling off the platforms onto the right-of-way. Openings in the railings coincided precisely with where the cars' end platforms would line up, requiring the engineer to berth the train in a very precise manner lest the railings block access to the trains. This proved to be a headache and the track side railings were removed within a year.

Except for the north end of the line at the single-track Congress Terminal, the route was primarily a two-track arrangement. The terminals had no passing tracks, turning loops, or turntables, so a spare "relay" locomotive had to be kept on hand on the terminals to that the coach trailers were not have to pushed by the locomotive when the train changed directions to the return trip. After a train pulled into a terminal, the relay locomotive would move into place and couple onto the back of the train (making it the front of the train). The locomotive at the other end would be uncoupled and when the train pulled out, this engine would move forward and to the other track, becoming the new relay loco. This practice, which was followed until the advent of multiple unit (MU) operation, had the result of the locomotives running "tender first" half the time.

On to the Fair

The public took to the new elevated line quickly and extensions toward Jackson Park were opened incrementally as new sections were completed. On August 14, 1892, only two months after the railroad began operations, the first extension southward was opened between 39th Street and 47th Street. This was quickly followed by further expansion to 51st, then 55th streets. By the end of 1892, the structure was complete to 63rd Street, allowing 61st station to come into use on January 22, 1893. The next day, the Rapid Transit and Bridge Construction Company officially turned the title for the line it had built over to the South Side Rapid Transit Railroad Company, even though construction was still not quite complete. But in short order, by late spring, erection of the line to Jackson Park was largely finished. Service to Madison Avenue (later Dorchester Avenue), just a couple blocks from Jackson Park, was inaugurated on April 23rd. Service into the park did not begin until May 12th, almost two weeks after the exposition's May 1st opening. (The fair itself wasn't particularly on-time either: it opened a year late, making the Columbian Exposition 401 years after Columbus' "discovery"...) In the interim, passengers bound for the fair could use a specially-designed walkway on the elevated structure to get the additional couple blocks to the fair. When the final segment opened in mid-May, the Jackson Park terminal was above an annex to the Transportation Building in the fair. Here, passengers could either walk out of the station to the fair, enter Louis Sullivan's famous Transportation Building, or transfer to the fair's own elevated, electric Intramural Railway. During late night and early morning hours, the fair grounds were closed and trains terminated at the Stony Island station a mere several hundred feet west.

The Columbian Exposition proved to be both a blessing and a problem for the South Side Rapid Transit. The "L" proved to be a popular way to get to the exposition and ridership was strong. The company even added some express trains from downtown (even though there were no express tracks at the time) and built a second platform at the Congress Street terminal to separate boarding and alighting passengers. But just as the fair boosted ridership, the closure of the fair in October 1893 caused it to crash quickly. Average daily ridership fell from 116,000 in June 1893 to 40,000 in February 1894. After the fair closed, the Jackson Park terminal was abandoned and service was cut back to Stony Island. Management responded to falling revenues by trying cut costs, including lengthening intervals between trains and reducing wages. Still, it was not enough. Stock values fell and in August 1893, the Chicago City Railway has dispersed its controlling shares in the Alley "L" among its stockholders in an attempt to avoid violation of a state antimonopoly law. With many stockholders now frantically selling their shares, Chicago City Railway control disappeared from the company at this time. By 1895, revenues were not covering operating costs and on October 5th, the Northern Trust Company and the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank, acting as trustees for the bondholders, forced the SSRT into receivership. It would be the first in a long history of bankruptcies for Chicago's elevated companies.

Reorganization: New Company and New Traction

A reorganization plan was developed in which the assets of the bankrupt SSRT would be sold to a new company and the profits from the transaction would go to pay the bondholders, allowing the original company to be dissolved. The South Side Elevated Railroad was incorporated on January 14, 1897. On January 28th, the SSRT's franchises were transferred to the new company, allowing it to assume operations under its name two days later. The title for the physical plant was transferred on July 28th.

The South Side Elevated's operations would be greatly altered in very short order, bringing about one of the Alley "L"'s earliest goals. Even before the first South Side train operated, the need for a downtown terminal for serve all of the city's proposed elevateds was recognized. Building such a terminal would not be easy, however, as property acquisition costs were prohibitively high and business owners were not keen on having their streets thrown into shadows by a massive elevated stricture. But one man, Charles Tyson Yerkes, was able to overcome these obstacles and by Fall 1897 the Union Elevated Railroad -- commonly known as 'the Loop' -- was ready for operations. (See Loop history for more on the Loop's development.) To connect the South Side Elevated with the Loop, the company built a short spur off their line, leaving the main line at Harrison, where a short eastward S-curve took the line northward over Wabash Avenue to the southeast corner of the Loop at Wabash and Van Buren. This section included a new station at Congress/Wabash, a half block east of the old Congress Terminal. On October 18, 1897, service was diverted from the old stub terminal onto the Loop via the new connector. The Congress stub terminal was closed effective this date. Customers immediately took to the convenient new service. The South Side Elevated had the distinction of being the only "L" company to run steam locomotives on the Loop elevated, although the practice would be short-lived.

By the end of 1897, the decision was reached to convert the South Side's motive power from steam engines to electric traction. The only other "L" to operate steam, the Lake Street Elevated, had already converted in 1896. The inauguration of Loop service had boosted the company's profits, but they would be far higher without the costly steam engines to operate and maintain. The SSRT had already started a plan for electrification, so the South Side Elevated picked up where they had left off. The engineering firm of Sargent & Lundy was retained to oversee the electrification project. A generating station was built at 39th Street, where the company's coal house and engine facility was, and it was decided to maintain compatibility with the city's other elevateds and power the trains with 600 volts DC delivered through an uncovered third rail on either side of the running rails. All of the companies that bid on supplying the electric equipment and rolling stock came back with the same concept -- "locomotive"-style motor cars hauling trailers -- which was common practice on the city's other two electric elevateds, the Lake Street and Metropolitan. This system had the same disadvantage as the steam locomotives of requiring a "relay" motor car at the terminals.

Inventor and electrical engineer Frank J. Sprague had another idea, however. Sprague, who had been retained as a consulting engineer to oversee the electrification, had been shopping around his idea for "multiple-unit operation" to several railroads, to no avail. Sprague's concept, commonly abbreviated as "MU", would allow one motorman to control the motors of an entire train of the cars from a single operating position at the front of the train. This would allow the companies to do away with different motor and trailer cars, allow any car to be operated independently or as part of a train from either end, simplify operations, and do away with locomotive relays at terminals. Sargent & Lundy agreed to adopt the untested technology based on the strength of Sprague's plans and work was begun immediately to equip six test cars. On July 16, 1897, Sprague successfully demonstrated his MU technology with a two-car train of South Side cars at the General Electric Company plant in Schenectady, New York. Ten days later, he bested himself with the successful operation of a 6-car train. The first successful demonstration on the "L" took place on November 12, 1897 for officials of the South Side Elevated and Union Elevated companies. The train ran on the 63rd Street center track (which was not used in regular service) with power supplied by the Chicago City Railways streetcar company. The test was declared a success. The South Side's power station was still not complete, so to test the MU cars under actual traffic conditions, a test was arranged on the Metropolitan Elevated beginning on November 17, 1897.

By Spring 1898, electrification work was largely completed. The conversion of the South Side's wooden trailers to motor cars was completed at the Wells & French Car Company on Blue Island Avenue in Chicago, the same outfit that had converted the Lake Street "L"'s cars. On April 15, 1898, the first trail run over the entire line with an electrically-powered MU train was conducted. Five days later, the first 20 electric cars entered revenue service. On July 27th, the conversion was complete and steam service was withdrawn from the South Side Elevated. The retirement of the steam locomotive fleet immediately improved the company's financial performance, as net earnings for the last half of 1898 were nearly twice that of the previous six months. Not only was the company's conversion to electric traction a success, but Frank Sprague's multiple-unit operation became an industry standard. All Chicago elevated's converted to the system within a decade and it was adopted by the entire electric rail industry. Today, all electric rail cars are designed for multiple-unit operation.

As service improved and ridership grew, the South Side Elevated found itself with severe capacity problems. The Loop quickly reached the saturation point and no additional trains could be run onto it. Luckily, the South Side Elevated had left the closed Congress Street stub terminal dormant and intact. On March 10, 1902, the company reactivated the terminal and began to route some additional rush hour trains into the stub. The terminal was renamed "Old Congress" to distinguish it from the Congress & Wabash station on the Loop connector track a half block east and an interlocking was put in service at the junction between the stub and the Loop branch at Harrison Street. The company also decided that it needed to increase capacity on its main line and run faster trains to meet demand. Thus, plans were formulated at add a third express track between 12th Street and 43rd Street on the South Side main line. The narrow right-of-way would make this difficult, so it was decided to use the alley that ran adjacent to the elevated for extra space. The city agreed to permit the company to do this in 1903, but with one stipulation: the company had to demolish its ground-level stations and replace them with mezzanine-level facilities high enough to allow traffic to pass underneath.This meant that the height of the structure would have to be raised at the station locations to provide sufficient clearance for vehicular traffic passing underneath in the alley. This task was achieved by setting jackscrews underneath the structure to support it while extra sections of steel were added to the bottoms of its girder posts. For the most part, the existing northbound track became the express track and a new northbound local track was constructed to the east of the existing structure. New northbound platforms were built between 18th and 39th streets and new southbound ones were added at 12th and Indiana stations. All but 12th Street station had their elevations raised with grades of up to 1.44%, creating a rise-and-fall "roller coaster"-type profile in the elevated structure. By spring 1907, the work was largely completed and express service began on Match 26, 1907. Because there was only one express track, express trains operated northbound in the morning and southbound in the afternoon. Express trains were able to make the trip from Congress to 43rd Street in just ten minutes.

Out to Englewood and Normal Park

When the South Side Rapid Transit was awarded their franchise for an extension to Jackson Park in the early 1890s, two branches were also approved. One was to leave the line between 55th and 59th Street and head in a generally easterly direction, terminating south of 63rd Street between Wentworth and Wallace. With the South Side Elevated's successful outlook in the early 1900s, they decided to exercise this clause and construct their first branch.

The Englewood Elevated Railroad Company was incorporated in early 1903 to construct the branch and on March 16th, they were granted a franchise to build a main line (the Englewood branch) and a short branch (the Normal Park branch). The ordinance outlined a route basically the same as the original clause in the 1890s franchise, but extended the main line from a between Wallace and Wentworth westward between 60th and 67th streets to a terminal between Center (Racine) and Ashland avenues. The Normal Park branch was to leave the main line near Wentworth and continue south to between 68th and 72nd streets.

The company lost no time in exercising its franchise and construction began immediately. By 1905 the first half mile of the branch was completed and a shuttle was instituted between the first station at State Street and 58th Street on the main line, where passengers changed for Loop or Jackson Park trains. Segments of the branch opened as they were completed and service on the shuttle was extended west to Wentworth station on December 10, 1895 and to Princeton station on January 11, 1906. At this point, a 226-day steel workers' strike crippled work on the line and little progress was made. The next extension did not open until November 3rd, when service reached Harvard Avenue at 63rd Street. At this point, express trains through to the Loop were adding during rush hours, although the 58th Street shuttles still prevailed in the off-peak. Workers continued to complete the branch and just a few months later service was extended to Halsted Street, the location of an important South Side shopping district, for some Christmas Eve shoppers on December 24th, bringing with it the activation of Parnell station as well. Center (later Racine) opened on February 4, 1907, followed by the terminal at Loomis on July 13th. The Loomis terminal included an elevated car storage yard and small maintenance shop. The shuttle trains continued to operate from Loomis to 58th Street in the off-peak until 1911, after which all trains continued to the Loop.

The short Normal Park branch, less than a mile long, opened on May 25, 1907. The branch departs from the Englewood branch west of Harvard station and proceeds southward to 69th Street, with a small westward S-curve south of 67th Street. There were lightly-used intermediate stations at 65th and 67th Streets, with a stub-end terminal at 69th Street. Apart from a small commercial district on 69th Street and a moderate density residential neighborhood, the only major traffic generator for the line was the Chicago Normal School teacher's college located near the terminal. Normal Park cars were coupled to and from Englewood trains at Harvard station for the trip north and to return to the branch.

Branching to Kenwood and the Stock Yards

On March 16, 1903, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance requiring the elevation and grade separation of the 40th Street line of the Chicago Junction Railway, a freight line connecting the Stock Yards complex between Halsted Avenue and Ashland Avenue, south of 39th Street, to the Illinois Central Railroad along Lake Michigan. Although this was largely intended as a freight line for interchange traffic between the yards and various connecting railroads, as early as 1882 passenger service was also being run there. The elevation order was part of a larger effort by the city to eliminate grade crossings to increase safety and improve traffic flow all over the city. To protect themselves against possible financial hardship (the cost of the elevation was seen as very high, if not potentially ruinous). a subsidiary company, the Chicago Junction Railroad, was incorporated in 1902. Passenger service was discontinued in 1904.

It was decided that the Chicago Junction Railway would not operate passenger service on the 40th Street line anymore. That responsibility was passed to the South Side Elevated, who would integrate the line into the "L" system. The Chicago Junction Railroad would construct the elevated right-of-way for both the "L" and freight lines, provide stations, and acquire whatever other real estate would be needed for "L" service (except that for yards and terminals). The South Side Elevated was responsible for providing rolling stock, yards, a terminal, and an electrical distribution system (i.e. the third rail and associated power infrastructure).

The Kenwood branch extended eastward from the Indiana station -- which was already located on an east-west zigzag along 40th Street in the largely north-south South Side "L" route -- to a terminal at 42nd Place and Oakenwald Avenue. Except for the 42nd Place terminal and yard and a short connection to the existing "L" structure at Indiana, the entire branch is on a solid-fill concrete-walled embankment shared with the Chicago Junction Railway.

The Stock Yards branch extended westward from the Indiana station and headed westward toward the Stockyards. Originally, it was planned to have the branch leave the main line at 40th and Wabash, turning west toward the yards as the main line turned east toward Indiana station. This would have allowed direct service from downtown, but would have completely avoided Indiana station. The stub alignment into Indiana was preferable because the branch was intended to transport workers from their South Side homes to the plants, and the laborers were more likely to live east or south of the Stockyards than north toward downtown. As the branch headed west, it made several small zig-zags inching south, eventually amounting to a little more than a block, putting it along an alignment at approximately 4100S when it reached the yards. At the west end in the Stockyards, the branch ended in a single track loop around the "Packingtown" section of the yard, where most of the companies had their meat packing plants. Although there were very few actual streets in the Stockyards (and what streets existed were covered with railroad tracks, loading docks, and roaming cattle),the loop generally followed Exchange Avenue, Packers Avenue, 44th Street, and Racine Avenue. Unlike the branch's Kenwood counterpart, the Stock Yards branch was constructed as a conventional steel elevated structure. This allowed the right-of-way to snake around the Stockyards easier and to be more easily carried above the Chicago Junction's tracks.

On September 30, 1903, the Chicago Junction Railroad and the South Side Elevated signed a 50-year lease, with options for two 50-year renewals and an option to buy. One clause said that if the elevated failed to make lease payments to the Chicago Junction for a period of six months, it could seize the property and operate it on its own. This clause would become a major issue in later years, both for the Chicago Rapid Transit and for the CTA when the 50-year period (after operations began) was up in 1957.

Due to some construction delays, the Kenwood branch didn't open until September 20, 1907. The branch, which leaves the South Side main line at Indiana Avenue and 40th Street, is built on solid-fill embankment, except for short sections of steel elevated structure at the west end (where the line connects to the South Side Elevated) and 42nd Place terminal and yard east of Lake Park Avenue. The embankment contained three tracks: the north track had no third rail and was for the Chicago Junction Railroad's freight trains, while the middle and south tracks had third rail and were for Kenwood branch trains.

Of the five stations on the branch, all but the 42nd Place terminal were of a similar, simple concrete-and-steel design. The station houses were built into the concrete embankment. The two westernmost of these -- South Park and Vincennes -- had one entrance at their namesake street, while the other two -- Cottage Grove-Drexel and Lake Park-Ellis -- had two entrances at each of the station's namesake streets. The 42nd Place station at the far east end of the line was of a completely different design, both being the terminal and not in a solid embankment. Initially, base service consisted of 42nd Place-Indiana shuttles, alternated with 42nd Place-Loop locals. In rush, 42nd Place-Loop expresses were operated that skipped all stops between Indiana and 12th Street in the direction of peak travel, but made all stops in the opposite direction. In later years, some Kenwood-Stock Yards through trips were also run.

The Stock Yards branch opened on April 8, 1908. On the first day of operation, 25,000 people rode the line, though most of them were curiosity seekers. The idea of having people ride the branch not only for transport to and from work but also for tourism to see the impression and infamous Union Stockyards was capitalized on by the South Side Elevated, which placed newspaper ads to that effect. The branch had seven stations: three along to trunk line -- Wallace and Halsted outside the Stockyards and Exchange Avenue inside the yards -- and four stations on the terminal loop: Morris (later called Racine), Swift, Packers, and Armour. The stations on the truck line had dual side platforms with peaked canopies similar to what is found on the old Englewood branch stations, with mezzanine station houses. The Packingtown loop stations were similar, except that they only had a single side platform serving the single loop track. The branch actually had a small yard and one-track inspection shop at Union Avenue, near Wallace station, but records show that it was seldom, if ever used. Although an abandonment date is not known, a 1919 report compiled by the Illinois Public Utilities Commission stated that the yard tracks had already been torn up. The structure remained in place for an unspecified number of years after. Base service consisted of Stock Yards-Indiana shuttles. A few Stock Yards-61st Street and Stock Yards-Kenwood through-trips were also run, and by 1919 a few trips between the Stock Yards and 18th Street, for workers living north of 40th Street, were operated.