| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Line | Chicago Great Western Railway |
| Location | Jo Daviess County, 9 miles (14 km) west of Elizabeth, IL |
| Coordinates | 42°20′05″N 90°21′50″W / 42.33472°N 90.36389°W |
| Status | Abandoned and closed |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1888 |
| Closed | 1972 |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 2,493 feet (760 m) |
| Highest elevation | 797 feet (243 m) above sea level |
| Tunnel clearance | 18.5 feet (5.6 m) |
| Grade | 0.92% (rising east) |
The Winston Tunnel is a railroad tunnel located 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) west of Elizabeth, Illinois.
The tunnel was completed in 1888 for the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad, a predecessor to the Chicago Great Western Railway (CGW). The tunnel was located on the CGW main line 152 miles (245 kilometers) west of Chicago in the isolated and hilly Driftless Area of extreme north-western Illinois.
In 1972, four years after the Chicago Great Western was merged into the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW), the CGW's largely redundant trackage in the area, including the Winston Tunnel, was abandoned. It was the third longest railroad tunnel in Illinois at 2,493 feet (760 m). Two longer (still active) tunnels are located on the Canadian National (ex-Illinois Central) Edgewood Cutoff Line, the longest being Tunnel #2 near Abbot, Illinois which is 6,994 feet (2,132 m) long.[citation needed]