The railroad track heading south on its way to Ottawa.

CB&Q passenger car and caboose

The railroad depot in Dayton, between the store on the left and the elevator on the right.

In 1869 the Ottawa, Oswego and Fox River Valley Railroad began purchasing the right of way through Dayton for their planned route from Aurora to Streator. The portion of the route that went through Dayton was not completed until about 1876.

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy schedule in the Free Trader shown above lists a stop in Dayton. A passenger could board the train at 7:42 in the morning and be in Chicago at 10:35. After a day’s business or shopping, the 4:30 pm train would get one back to Dayton at 7:37. It made spending the day in Chicago an easy trip as nowhere in Dayton was far from the depot.

The CB&Q leased their route from Aurora to Streator, which passed though Dayton, from the O. O. & F.R.V. RR and in 1899 the O. O. & F.R.V. RR was bought by the CB&Q. The CB&Q assets were sold in 1999 to Illinois RailNet, which became Illinois Railway (IR) on May 1, 2005.