No, not under the tollway. The ROW is still visible in places. It is relatively visible in Troxel, and a few years ago someone had the station sign board on their outbuilding in Troxel. Where's Troxel, you ask? Well, it's not shown on the linked map, but if you follow County Line Rd. south of the interstate, it makes a strange diagonal jog just north of Main Street Rd; the jog is at Troxel and the jog is either on or adjacent to the location of the track.

Further southeast, the line crossed Dauberman Rd. just south of Kaneville, almost where Lasher Rd. crosses Dauberman. The former roadbed is completely plowed under, but in the spring is visible as a strip of lighter colored soil (from the gravel in the roadbed) running diagonally across the fields. There is a power line ROW here that seems to follow the old track.

The grade is actually intact on the campus of Waubonsee Junior Colledge on the east side of IL 47. Going north on 47, it can be seen running side-hill along the north bank of a small pond. It's easiest to see in winter when the leaves are down and there is snow on the ground.

About two miles further SE the grade becomes a bike path through the Bliss Woods Forest Preserve, the bike path veers off where it crosses Bliss Rd. and May Rd. is on the grade, which runs through a very identifiable cut.

East of the end of May road the land has been mined for gravel since the RR abandoned, but at IL 56 the bike path goes back onto the RR grade, and runs all the way into Aurora as the Virgil Gilman Nature Trail. It's shown on the linked map, but not labeled. The RR grade picks up again right where the "56" marker is on the map just NE of the cloverleaf with Galena Blvd. This paved trail runs eastward until it becomes parallel with the CB&Q, then leaves you on the surface streets. However, east of there the trail begins again and runs through the former subway under the CB&Q and the over a bridge over the Fox River. From the map, it appears to continue east, but I've never followed it.

It used to be visible again where it crossed US 34 south of Aurora, just east of where 34 and 30 intersect, but rebuilding this junction a few years ago obliterated the grade. The track then ran along the north side of US 30 on it's way to join the J.

Now, if you want a REALLY hard ROW to find, try the Chicago Aurora & Dekalb electric line. There is a picture of an identifiable location where the line was in Harter Rd. in Kaneville, but that's all I've ever found.

I recall seeing a CA&D map in a special collections cabinet at the NIU library. They also had a copy of Bion J. Arnold's plan for building extensive streetcar subways in the Chicago loop, circa 1915. Interesting graphics showing subway station designs that rival New York's elegant entrances.

The Central Pacific simultaneously laid rails on both sides of the Sierra Nevada mountains, with both heading east. This was done so the CP could continue making progress toward a connection with the UP even when winter weather and difficult terrain slowed construction in Donner Pass to a crawl. Rail, supplies, and even a small locomotive were ferried east over the mountains with horse and mule power.

Staten Island (N.Y.) Rapid Transit was a creature of the Baltimore & Ohio RR for many years, but the connection to the owning system was via parts of both the Reading Railroad and the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey.
There were many railroads with isolated branches connected only with car ferries.

I think the Peach Bottom Railway may qualify. Eastern Division, Oxford to the east bank of the Susquehanna River. Middle Division constructed from York southward to Delta, and only latter extended to Peach Bottom itself. Western Division never started. Both operational divisions sold individually upon receivership.

What comes into my mind is the Burma-Siam railway built by the single "company" of Japan with slave labor during WW2.
Technically built from both ends but I believe the grade, cut, and bridge work was started almost simultaneously along the entire 258 mile line.
Built through some of the worst jungle on the planet and finished without the help of machinery in 16 months.
It’s estimated that a third of the 240,000 forced laborers died making it.

An example of a railroad that was once one part but later became two is the old Valley RR of Virginia. Prior to the Civil War, the Manassas Gap RR was completed from a connection with the Orange and Alexandria RR at Manassas Va. to Mt. Jackson, in the Shenandoah Valley just north of New Market. After the war, the O&A and MG merged, later becoming the Virginia Midland. The Virginia Midland was controlled by th B&O. Beginning in the late 1860's, the Valley RR of Va, (whose second President was a retired military officer and college President named R. E. Lee) constructed an extension with B&O/VM financial backing of the Manassas Gap RR south as far as Lexington Va. The line was projected all the way to a junction with the AM&O (later N&W) at Salem. Some grading took place and several stone arch bridges were built, but no track was ever laid south of Lexington. The line became a branch of the B&O, connecting with the main line at Harpers Ferry WV. It is very likely that some of the older locomotives in the B&O Museum saw service on this line. In some of the financial wranglings common to the "Gilded Age", B&O lost control of the former Virginia Midland to J. P. Morgan's interests in 1896 with the result that the section of the line between Strasburg Junction Va. and Harrisonburg became part of a Southern Ry. Branch. This left the B&O with a disconnected branch line 40+ miles away from "home" trackage. This orphan branch of the B&O struggled along until the early 1940's. Upon it's abandonment local shortline Chesapeake Western purchased the property, scrapping the portion from Staunton south, and retaining the northern part to Harrisisonburg. The CW adopted the slogan of "Robert E. Lee's Railroad", and painted it's 3 new Baldwin Diesels (2 of which I am very familiar with) in a very attractive blue and gray paint scheme. Much of the old CW as well as the Southern branch still exists as part of NS. The stretch from Pleasant Valley, on the south side of Harrisonburg, to Staunton is now the Shenandoah Valley RR shortline.

Gary
Topic Thief, Va......

You triggered a memory there -
As some of you may know I attended Princeton University as an undergraduate and later returned to cause misery to a new generation of students. One of the fixtures during both of my sojourns there was the Dean of the Chapel, Ernest Gordon, Captain of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Dean Gordon had been captured by the Japanese after escaping the fall of Singapore and sailing nearly 2,000 miles in a junk and was one of the Prisoners of War involved in the River Kwai Bridge. There are two books he wrote on the experience;THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE KWAI; and, TO END ALL WARS, which are worth the read if you are up to it. Even though he would not take credit for it, Captain Gordon's conduct at the River Kwai was credited with preserving the lives of many of his fellow POWs. If you know where to look in the University Chapel there is a window which was placed as a memorial to those who did not return.

GME

Apropos the summary of Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary archaeological remains by Dennis Storzek, above, the former ROW is visible to the east of Annie Glidden Road for about a mile south of Illinois Route 64, north of De Kalb. South of Kirkland at the intersection of Pearl Street Road and Base Line Road, you can see the line of the ROW (now marked by tree growth) which cuts diagonally across the northeast quadrant of the intersection behind a farmhouse. Also, as you drive south of Kirkland on Malta Road there is a hump where the railroad used to cross (the fields on either side having been leveled). The former "Gary" depot in Kirkland, on 6th Street at South Street, is a private home. The alignment of Illinois Route 72 where it crosses over the CP (former IC&E, former IMRL, former SOO, former MILW) west of Kirkland is the alignment of the CM&G coming from Rockford (the first part to be abandoned, from Rockford to Kirkland Junction). Other visible alignments remain in a few places, including along Peace Road on the east side of De Kalb. I lived in Kirkland 2004-2009 and made a practice of trying to spot the remains of the "Gary." My son-in-law, who was brought up in Kirkland, used to ride a motorcycle over the ROW just after the MILW abandoned it. I own a CM&G stock certificate I bought several years ago from a place in St. Louis.

Dr. Richard Leonard

The never completed interurban, Vallejo and Northern, was built from the Vallejo wharves northward a couple miles, while also being built separately in the flatlands near Suisun City. It was supposed to shoot arrow straight to West Sacramento, bypassing the centers of towns on the way. It never reached proposed destinations of West Sacramento, Woodland, or Redding, nor was track placed in the canyon between the two completed sections. The first part became the southern terminus of the Napa Valley interurban. The isolated stretch of track in Suisun became part of the Sacramento Northern, and was later connected to the rest of the system.