23. The railroad supply industry
The railroads did far more than just deliver supplies and people to Chicago, or carry them away to other markets. Before the Civil War, supplying the railroads dominated Chicago’s industrial base. Following the war and well into the 20th century the industry grew. Chicago was a major manufacturing center of rolling stock for both freight and passenger rail. Both the Illinois Central Railroad and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy established major repair and maintenance facilities, the former on the South Side and the latter in nearby Aurora. Chicago steel mills manufactured rails. In the 1880s nearly one-third of all rails manufactured in the United States came from Chicago.
The railroads and supporting industries paid well according to the standards of the day. The leading employers in the railroad industry were the rolling stock manufacturers. By 1900, the Pullman Company employed 6,000 workers in the facilities manufacturing their rail cars of all types. The American Car and Foundry, another manufacturer of rolling stock, employed about 1,500 in its Chicago shops. In the 1890s the first all-steel railcars emerged, with several Chicago companies producing cars. Other Chicago area companies produced lamps for locomotives and track signage, furnishings for passenger cars, wheels at the Griffin Wheel Company, and other items necessary for the successful operation of the railroads.