Once upon a time in Illinois, along the Mighty River…was a small community who rode The Dinky…lest they forget…my favorite road.
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/living/16933792.htm
Wally,
Thanks for posting this interesting article. I’ve ridden the big orange cars of the ITC mostly between Decatur and Danville and even rode the last train when the line was abandoned from Ogden to Danville (1950 give or take a year). The last train into Danville was made up of a motor car and a trailer packed to the gills with railfans and regular riders wishing to say goodby. The motorman laid on the horn most of the way east of Urbana into Danville to acknowledge the many folks who stood at trackside waving farwell to the “Traction”.
Of course the ITC continued passenger and freight service over the rest of the system for about three or four more years. As a student at the UofI I’d sometimes catch cab rides in a Class C freight motor from Urbana to the eastern end of the line at Ogden and back. This train made a late night round trip from Decatur six, or maybe it was only five, nights a week.
Mark
I was in Danville for a meeting of The Illinois Traction Society and decided to go for a self guided tour and wound up in Fifthian…The substation\station with it’s quasi-oriental tile roof stood out in this small farming community. Of course, I parked the car and began to snap photos…There was a young couple across the street who noticed my activity with some trepidation…and approached me and asked what exactly it was I was doing…they were the owners. They gave me a wonderful tour and I gave them the station’s history. They had no concept of this building’s former use…nor of the IT…I asked Dale Jenkins if he could send them a copy of our newslatter…he did…last I heard they were turning it into a residence…someday…I hope to make it down there again and see how it turned out…There was another fellow who owned a substation, and was trying single-handedly to turn his into a museum…was trying to talk to the NS into donating some trackage they were going to abandon…He was a piano teach
Hi Wally,
Yes the ITC cars could easily do 70 mph and more. The normal top speed on the Danville-Decatur line which I rode, and on the Bloomington line as well, was probably closer to 60 mph. I have heard stories of the ITC racing and beating Alton passenger trains at points between Lincoln and Springfield where the two roads ran side by side. Of course this was only for short stretches since the ITC left its private ROW and ran down the city streets of just about every town along the way.
I caught my first sight of an ITC train at dusk around Hamel on the Peoria-St. Louis main line during a family car trip to Springfield, MO in 1942. Dad was driving 60 mph down US 66 when we were overtaken and passed by a 6 car southbound ITC train. I didn’t get a close up look since the ITC at that point ran about 1/2 mile west of the highway but I disticntly remember the brightly lighted car windows as the train sped by enroute to St. Louis. Based on our speed I’d estimate it was hitting about 75 mph.
My first ride on the ITC was the one I mentioned in my prior reply. A fellow railfan and student at Purdue took the Wabash overnight Detroit-St. Louis train around 2-3 am from Lafayette to Danville. We walked to where the ITC car was parked on a city street waiting its morning run (the first of 3 daily schedules) to Decatur. The car was open so we climbed aboard and stretched out on the seats to catch a couple of hours sleep. Around 6:30 we were awakened by a car cleaner who swept the car out and filled the cooler with fresh water. About an hour later the motorman and conductor showed up and moved the car a few blocks to the Danville station. About 10 more passengers boarded and around 8 o’clock we were off on our westbound run. The conductor gave me his copy of a hand written train order which I have to this day somewhere in my piles of railroad memorabilia. I remember the order read something like, "To C&M train No. 123, Car No. 456 meet train No. 789 east Car No. 234 at
[quote user=“KCSfan”]
Hi Wally,
Yes the ITC cars could easily do 70 mph and more. The normal top speed on the Danville-Decatur line which I rode, and on the Bloomington line as well, was probably closer to 60 mph. I have heard stories of the ITC racing and beating Alton passenger trains at points between Lincoln and Springfield where the two roads ran side by side. Of course this was only for short stretches since the ITC left its private ROW and ran down the city streets of just about every town along the way.
I caught my first sight of an ITC train at dusk around Hamel on the Peoria-St. Louis main line during a family car trip to Springfield, MO in 1942. Dad was driving 60 mph down US 66 when we were overtaken and passed by a 6 car southbound ITC train. I didn’t get a close up look since the ITC at that point ran about 1/2 mile west of the highway but I disticntly remember the brightly lighted car windows as the train sped by enroute to St. Louis. Based on our speed I’d estimate it was hitting about 75 mph.
My first ride on the ITC was the one I mentioned in my prior reply. A fellow railfan and student at Purdue took the Wabash overnight Detroit-St. Louis train around 2-3 am from Lafayette to Danville. We walked to where the ITC car was parked on a city street waiting its morning run (the first of 3 daily schedules) to Decatur. The car was open so we climbed aboard and stretched out on the seats to catch a couple of hours sleep. Around 6:30 we were awakened by a car cleaner who swept the car out and filled the cooler with fresh water. About an hour later the motorman and conductor showed up and moved the car a few blocks to the Danville station. About 10 more passengers boarded and around 8 o’clock we were off on our westbound run. The conductor gave me his copy of a hand written train order which I have to this day somewhere in my piles of railroad memorabilia. I remember the order read something like, "To C&M train No. 123, Car No. 456 meet train No. 78
Regarding the Illinois Terminal, I have a somewhat sadder story to tell. My very first visit to St.Louis was at the tail end of a multi-project business trip that had me sleeping five seccessive nights in railroad sleeping cars. I had work in both the New York and Cambridge, MA offices of Bolt Beranek and Newman, and the first night saw me on Owl from Boston to NY,with my traditional breakfast at Stouffers across the street (or ajacent to?) Grand Central Terminal. That evening I boarded a Seabord streamliner, I suppose the Silver Star or the Silver Comet, but not the premier Meteor, in a roomette to SDouthern Pines NC or Hamlet, S.C., where I was met by a client with car and driven to Hickory, spending they analyzing their problems, then driven to Charlotte, where the wire for the Piedmont and Northern interurban (by then freight only) ws still up at the Southern RR station. I boarded a coach on the Piedmont, switching to a double bedroom in Atlanta, and arriving in New Orleans, where I took care of business for the new Convention Center and rode both St. Charles and Canal, and got to run the old 4-wheel Ford Bacon and Davis work car at Carolton shops a short distance so I could photograph it in front of the Barn. Then a roomette on either the Flying Crow or the Southern Bell on the KCS to Sheverport, where I had businss at St. Marks Episcopal and still count Bill Teague the organist as a good friend to this day (just listened to a CD he sent me last night). Also rode one trolleybus line, which was still running. Then a roomette in an MP sleeper on the KCS connection to Little Rock, where the car was switched to the MP, arriving the next morning in St. Louis. After business there, I went to the IT station hoping to ride the remaining service, double-end PCC’s across the river to Grafton, only to find that the last passenger service had quit the week before. One of the VP’s of the railroad was about
[quote user=“daveklepper”]
Regarding the Illinois Terminal, I have a somewhat sadder story to tell. My very first visit to St.Louis was at the tail end of a multi-project business trip that had me sleeping five seccessive nights in railroad sleeping cars. I had work in both the New York and Cambridge, MA offices of Bolt Beranek and Newman, and the first night saw me on Owl from Boston to NY,with my traditional breakfast at Stouffers across the street (or ajacent to?) Grand Central Terminal. That evening I boarded a Seabord streamliner, I suppose the Silver Star or the Silver Comet, but not the premier Meteor, in a roomette to SDouthern Pines NC or Hamlet, S.C., where I was met by a client with car and driven to Hickory, spending they analyzing their problems, then driven to Charlotte, where the wire for the Piedmont and Northern interurban (by then freight only) ws still up at the Southern RR station. I boarded a coach on the Piedmont, switching to a double bedroom in Atlanta, and arriving in New Orleans, where I took care of business for the new Convention Center and rode both St. Charles and Canal, and got to run the old 4-wheel Ford Bacon and Davis work car at Carolton shops a short distance so I could photograph it in front of the Barn. Then a roomette on either the Flying Crow or the Southern Bell on the KCS to Sheverport, where I had businss at St. Marks Episcopal and still count Bill Teague the organist as a good friend to this day (just listened to a CD he sent me last night). Also rode one trolleybus line, which was still running. Then a roomette in an MP sleeper on the KCS connection to Little Rock, where the car was switched to the MP, arriving the next morning in St. Louis. After business there, I went to the IT station hoping to ride the remaining service, double-end PCC’s across the river to Grafton, only to find that the last passenger service had quit the week before. One of the VP’s
Hi Wally and Dave,
You guys are bringing back a flood of memories that unfortunately exist only in my mind as I was never much into photograpy. I really regret not getting pictures of the CNS&M trains switching from 3rd rail to overhead wire on the “fly” around Skokie. I have always been partial to interurbans and mixed trains. I guess because they were rapidly vanishing breeds when I was a kid and teenager in the 30’s and 40’s.
I have ridden the ITC, the South Shore and the North Shore but never in an Electroliner. In 1959 I married a girl from Waukegan who lived about 4 blocks from the North Shore line and it was routine to see their trains when we were dating and for the few years they continued to operate after we were married. As a teenager I rode the old IC MU cars to and from Flossmoor and Harvey where I attended Thornton Twp. HS. I Later went to the Uof I on Navy Pier for two semesters and commuted to Randolph St. on the IC, walked a few blocks north across the river and rode the Chicago Surface Lines streetcar which terminated at the foot of Navy Pier. For the life of me I can’t remember the street they ran on but recall the cars were smaller than the big red two man cars that operated on the CSL’s major routes. I’m not sure but IIRC they were one man cars. I especially enjoyed an occasional ride on a CSL “Green Hornet” on the Clark St. line. I often saw CA&E cars on the loop but never rode on one. While attending Purdue in the late 40’s I’d occasionally spend a weekend in Indianapolis. I remember the big arch roofed, open ended Traction Terminal on Illinois Ave. but by that time the interurbans were long gone and it was then an intercity bus terminal. The multi tracks were still visibible in the concrete floor and I could imagine what a bee hive of activity it was when the interurbans of the Indiana Railway and the Interstate were tenants there.
Prior to my marriage I usually drove to work at the