Winston Tunnel

The Winston Tunnel, completed in 1888, was built by the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad (predecessor to the Chicago Great Western Railway, or CGW). The tunnel was located on the CGW main line 152 miles (245 kilometers) west of Chicago and nine miles (14.5 kilometers) west of Elizabeth in the isolated and hilly Coulee Region of extreme north-western Illinois. In 1972, four years after the 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. When it was completed and until the time of its abandonment, it was the longest tunnel in the state of Illinois at 2493 feet (760 meters).